Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

Antonio G. Dumlao was a very accomplished artist in his own right having said to have made better watercolor works than his very good friend Vicente Manansala. He was a shy artist who shunned publicity and relied on his patron Don Andres Soriano for introductions to his friends and acquaintances. At this time, he was the art director of San Miguel Corporation of which the Sorianos owned and did numerous murals for San Miguel and Philippine Air Lines offices here and abroad. He also did murals for the Far Eastern University, as well as numerous other homes and institutions. The Spoliarium by Juan Luna that is now in the National Museum of the Philippines was a gift by the Franco Government in Spain in 1958. Unfortunately, because of its size, the painting was sliced into three pieces before it was crated and brought to the country. The painting was later restored by Antonio G. Dumlao before it was unveiled again in 1962. The painting remained at the DFA before it was transferred to the National Museum where it can be seen today. There can be no other artist who could do a better copy of the Spoliarium than one who has studied and matched the actual colors, strokes, and the anatomy of Juan Luna's most important work than Antonio G. Dumlao. Describing Dumlao’s version would be no different in visually describing Luna’s masterpiece: Its subject is drawn from classical antiquity, specifically the period of imperial Rome, when bloody gladiator combats were hailed as public entertainment. The gladiators who fought in the arena were often captive kings, nobles and warriors from the territories conquered by Rome. “Spoliarium” was the name given to the basement hall of the Roman Coliseum to which, after the bloody ordeal in the arena, the dying or dead combatants were dragged, there to be despoiled of their last worldly belongings, and where relatives and friends went to claim the bodies and those abandoned were put to the torch. At the center of the painting, two dead gladiators are seen being dragged by arrogant Romans across the space of the stone floor to be dumped in a dark corner along with other bodies. On the left, two elderly scavengers in Roman costume, hunched like vultures, greedily eye the dead men’s effects; leather boots and straps, protective metal linings, talismans, and other accessories, while beside them another Roman raises his fist in protest at the inhuman spectacle. On the right, a woman seated on the ground with her head bowed and her back to the viewer mourns a loved one, while nearby an old man with a torch searches for the body of his son amid the smoky haze. The vast hall of the Spoliarium is suggested by the massive stone walls and the dimly espied steps on the left where the crowd pours in from the arena into the hall. The composition of Spoliarium is basically triangular, with emphasis on diagonal lines for dynamic effect: Luna moved from the smooth, marmoreal style of the classical academy to a more spontaneous approach. The influence of baroque and romanticism is seen in the looser brushwork leaving flecks of color, the sense of movement and turmoil in the vociferous gestures and straining muscles of the figures, the chiaroscuro in the flickering highlights and transparent layers of darkness, and in the deep emotional tone which contrasts harsh stentorian voices with deep, elegiac mourning. The drama of the work arises from its contrasting moods, i.e. the noisy, avid crowd on the left and the grieving figures on the right. In the portrayal of the two groups is brought out the relationship between dominant and dominated, victor and victim. As such, this painting of imperial Roman cruelty has been interpreted as an allegory of Spain in the Philippines.