130. MARIÑAS’ SPOLIARIUM IN CAUAYAN

                                            MARIÑAS’ SPOLIARIUM IN CAUAYAN
                                                      Dr. Troy Alexander G. Miano, LPT
                                                                        08 February 2021

February is National Arts Month by virtue of Presidential Proclamation 683 signed by President Corazon C. Aquino in 1991 with the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA) as the lead agency for the annual celebrations. This year, National Arts Month, also called Ani ng Sining, plays with the theme “Alab-sining, Alay-sigla,” which aims to provide opportunities for artists to harness their creative energies in uplifting the nation’s spirit, especially during this time of public health crisis. Cauayan City Mayor Bernard Faustino M. Dy through the Sanggunian Committee on Tourism chaired by Councilor Garry G. Galutera, invited this representation to grace the city’s kick-off ceremony and deliver a message as Provincial Tourism Officer of Isabela. Congressman Faustino “Inno” A. Dy V of the 6th District of the province was the guest of honor. The Isabela Artists Circle (IAC), the disciples of the arts in the country’s second largest province showcased their paintings at the lobby of the city hall. The event’s highlight was the unveiling of Maestro Jessie Mariñas’ rendition of Juan Luna’s Spoliarium. The 1.17 x 2.18 meter (46 x 86 inches) oil painting was donated by the maestro to the city government of Cauayan and is permanently displayed at the landing of the main stairway leading to the second floor.

Muralist Jessie Mariñas hails from San Miguel, Bulacan and was a classmate of my maternal uncle, Victor Gozum, at the College of Fine Arts and Architecture at the University of Santo Tomas majoring in painting in 1969. A devoted Catholic, he migrated to the United States in 1973 with his family and worked in an engineering firm. He had to set aside his passion for painting to provide for his family of 11 siblings and his wife with whom he has four children until he retired at the age of 67. Ironically, it was the pain from a severe spinal injury that gave him what he called his “rebirth”. Focusing on his first love and commitment to perfect his craft, the Filipino artist earned many accolades for his works. The year 2007 was his first appearance and was the grand winner of the Biannual Public Art and Mural Symposium with his masterpiece “Harvest Continues” held in Manteca, a city in San Joaquin County, California. He was awarded the Asian Artist of the Year by the Asia Publisher in San Francisco, California and was inducted in the Hall of Fame by the Mural Society of Manteca. Like most artists, the maestro was not spared from controversy. Two of his works (Passion of Christ & Heart of America) were not exhibited at the Manteca City Hall because of their religious themes in keeping with the separation of church and state.

Dubbed as the “Miracle Man of Manteca”, Mariñas decided to donate the Spoliarium which took him 36 years to complete, to the Ideal City of the North – Cauayan City because of his reverence to the Our Lady of the Pillar, the three centuries patron of the city. A worshiper of Juan Luna, Mariñas also considered Isabela as the permanent home of his Spoliarium since most of the inhabitants of the province are Ilocanos (68.71%) connecting his idol Juan Luna as an Ilocano from Badoc, Ilocos Norte. Furthermore, Mariñas donated the painting for the Isabeleños to appreciate the value of visual arts.

The opening part of my speech stressed that “not all heroes are molded during revolutions and wars, some are National Scientists, National Artists and even common citizens who exemplified extraordinary feats and selfless contributions to humanity like our frontliners during this COVID-19 pandemic who we consider our modern-day heroes.” Giving my audience a glimpse of history, I honored two great Filipino painters during the Spanish Colonial period; Juan Luna (1857-1899) and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo (1855-1913) who both gave glory to Las islas Filipinas. Historian Ambeth Ocampo writes, "...the fact remains that when Luna and Félix Resurrección Hidalgo won the top awards in the Madrid Exposition of 1884, they proved to the world that indios could, despite their supposed barbarian race, paint better than the Spaniards who colonized them.

Juan Luna’s “Spoliarium” bested Spanish artists. “Spoliarium” was the name given to the Roman Colosseum basement where fallen gladiators were thrown in after combat, which is depicted in the life-sized piece. The 4.22 x 7.675 meter oil on canvas is considered the largest painting in the country and is permanently displayed in the National Museum of Fine Arts at P. Burgos, Ermita in Manila.

“Spoliarium” illustrates two dead gladiators being dragged by Romans at the center. On the left, scavengers eye the dead men’s possessions while a Roman beside them raises a fist in protest. A woman mourns a loved one on the right side while an old man searches for a body amid the smoky haze. The depiction of Roman cruelty in Luna’s masterpiece has been interpreted as an allegory for the state of the Philippines under Spanish rule.

The painting’s literature shows that the “Spoliarium”, in 1885, was bought (while still in Paris) by the provincial government of Barcelona (Diputación Provincial de Barcelona) for 20,000 pesetas, after being exhibited in Rome, Madrid, and Paris. In 1887, it was transferred to the Museo del Arte Moderno in Barcelona where it was in storage until the museum was burned and looted during the Spanish Civil War in 1937. Under the orders of Generalissimo Francisco Franco Bahamonde (1892-1975), the damaged painting was sent to Madrid for restoration, where it stayed for 18 years. The calls for the painting's transfer to Manila by Filipinos and sympathetic Spaniards in the 1950s led to Franco's orders to finish the painting's restoration and eventual donation to the Philippines. On January 1958, the painting was turned over to Ambassador Manuel M. Nieto (Congressman of the Lone District of Isabela, 1925-1928), who hailed from the capital town of Ilagan, Isabela, after the restoration work done in late 1957.

The “Spoliarium” was sent to the Philippines in 1958 as a gift from the government of Spain. It was broken up into three pieces, with each piece going into its own shipping crate, because of its size. The painting was mounted on a wooden frame at the then Department of Foreign Affairs building, now the Department of Justice building, at Padre Faura Street in Ermita, Manila.

Artist Antonio Dumlao was chosen by Carlos da Silva of the Juan Luna Centennial Commission (Executive Order No. 254 s.1957), to perform relining and cleaning of the painting. The mounting, framing, and architectural work was done by Carlos da Silva. On December 1962, a newly restored “Spoliarium” was then unveiled in the Hall of Flags of the Department of Foreign Affairs. In 1982, the painting was cleaned by Suzanno "Jun" Gonzalez. In 2005, another restoration was made by Art Restoration and Conservations Specialists Inc. headed by painter June Poticar Dalisay.

Maestro Jessie, the talented young Isabeleños of the IAC and striving disciples of the arts are always welcome in Isabela. Aside from the City Government of Cauayan, the Provincial Government of Isabela opens its doors through the Isabela Museum & Library (IML) to artists who wants to showcase their masterpieces. The Provincial Capitol Building was also used as an exhibit area at the back foyer of the edifice a number of times. Quoting Dr. Jose Rizal's speech at the banquet in honor of Luna and Hidalgo in Madrid, Spain on June 25, 1884: “Genius has no country; genius bursts forth everywhere; like light and air, the patrimony of all.”