Provenance: Heirs of Don Alejo Vera Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

In 1878, Juan Luna decamped from Spain, feeling that he had learned all that he could from the Royal Academy of the Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid — and to follow his professor, Alejo Vera y Estaca (1834 - 1921) to Rome. Alejo Vera had, in fact, “obtained a position at the newly-created ‘Spanish Academy’ in Rome” and furthermore, had quite a few portrait commissions awaiting him. He recruited his star pupil Luna to join him in the Italian capital. From Vera, Luna would learn a fascination for Pompeii; (many of these paintings from this locale are now at the Philippine National Museum.) More importantly, he would be influenced by the refined historical style of his mentor, that would allow him to eventually best the European salons’ criteria for classical themes with his works “Death of Cleopatra” and “Spoliarium.” Luna would take up residence in Rome at 33 Via Margutta, in the artist’s colony in that address. His neighbors and friends were other artists and they would sketch and draw the many colorful characters in this bohemian neighborhood. This charcoal portrait of the old man is signed, “Luna, Roma” and at the top catalogued with “Juan Luna y Novicio, Pensionado”, the usual description to works submitted by Luna as part of the conditions of his scholarship from the Manila Academia. (Luna’s scholarship provided for a year at the Madrid academy and a second year anywhere in Europe; in Luna’s case, Rome.) More interestingly, on the reverse, is another unfinished portrait of a gentleman and beneath it the words “Propiedad de mi abuelo Alejo Vera” (Property of my grandfather Alejo Vera), and an unreadable signature, P —. The sketch’s features happen to have a resemblance to Vera. An equally tantalizing connection is to a photo of Luna, circa 1889 to 1890. By this time, Luna had become the toast of the European salons. Luna arrived in Paris in 1885, fresh from his triumph for ‘Spoliarium’ at the Madrid exposition the previous year. He had painted that opus while in Rome, where he had spent over 5 years soaking in the atmosphere of the Eternal City and perfecting the vivid style that would make him famous. In the photograph of his studio is ‘Aesop’, c. 1881, hanging between an elaborately-curtained door and a suit of armor. The original ‘Aesop’ (c. 1638) was commissioned by King Philip IV of Spain for his hunting lodge but by the 1800s hung in the Prado, where Luna would have gone to study these and other works by Diego Velasquez. To the left of Luna is another painting of the Roman wedding ritual, ‘Hymen o Hymenee’, created in 1889 and entered in the Universal Exposition of Paris of the same year. (It received a bronze medal.) On the easel is a portrait of a white-haired and bearded gentleman. It is a finished work, having been set into a ornate frame. One can read his signature on the bottom right, less readable is a longer dedication, which suggests this painting may be one of a friend. The work at hand is perhaps a study for this portrait; united by Luna’s verve and painstaking eye for detail. -Lisa Guerrero Nakpil