JUAN LUNA Y NOVICIO (1857 - 1899) Lot n° 243

Academy with nude male model - ca. 1881 Oil on canvas 116 x 57,6 cm Signed in the lower right corner: "LUNA"._x000D_. _x000D_. Juan Luna y Novicio (Badoc, Philippines, 1857 - Hong Kong, 1899) was one of the leading figures in 19th century Philippine painting. After an initial training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Manila where he was a disciple of Lorenzo Guerrero who encouraged him to complete his studies in Madrid, at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, and later in Rome and Paris. In the latter city he opened his own workshop, receiving numerous institutional commissions and participated in numerous exhibitions and shows. He obtained the second medal in the National of Fine Arts in 1881 and the first in 1884 for the canvases entitled "Cleopatra" and "Spoliarium", respectively. He also sent his works to the Salon de Paris in 1886, where he was awarded the third medal and two years later he got the second medal at the Universal Exhibition in Barcelona. At the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1889 he was awarded a third medal. _x000D_. In 1894 he returned to his homeland where he lived through the turbulent period that led to the independence of the Philippines from Spain and its subsequent annexation by the United States. He died in 1899, in Hong Kong, where he had gone because of the death of his brother, General Antonio Luna. _x000D_. The work we are dealing with is an Academy painted on canvas, something that was normal among the boarders of the Academy of San Fernando in Rome. In fact, the signature on the canvas has a calligraphy similar to the signatures he left on works from his Roman period, such as Cleopatra or Spoliarium. Fortunately, a large number of these Academias are currently preserved in the collections of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Complutense University of Madrid and those of the Museum of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. All of them have the same peculiarity as that of Juan Luna y Novicio: they are oil paintings on canvas and not mere drawings. _x000D_. Generally, this type of "academy" took place in the higher courses and among young talents in the final phase of their training. Our canvas is a magnificent example of the way in which a young artist like Juan Luna y Novicio was working and perfecting his skills. The male nude with his back to us in this interesting canvas is a painting done in a class of posing from life, either in Madrid or in Rome, although here we are inclined to choose Rome or Italy. _x000D_ The model is completely nude, something unusual in the academic practice of Madrid, where it was normal for the models to have some kind of garment covering them (sometimes the painter simply left the hole unpainted); on the other hand, a significant number of academic nudes executed in Rome did show a full nude, as in this case. Here the model is on her back, holding a very long stick diagonally, with her left arm raised and her right, fallen, partially covered by her leg. The gesture evokes that of a gondolieri when inserting the pole or oar to move the boat. In this way, Juan Luna has achieved one of the most emblematic postures of western art, the posture of the sculptures of Polícleto. It is a dynamic posture that breaks with the rigidity of previous statuary. The body rests mainly on one leg, in this case the left, while the other leg maintains a certain relaxation. while the other leg maintains a certain relaxation; in this way, there is a movement in the body_x000D_ defined by the "contraposto". _x000D_ The nude is of impeccable realistic precision. Moreover, the usual recourse in these cases of using a neutral background, underlines the plasticity and rotundity of the true protagonist of the painting: the beauty of the gesture of the naked body. _x000D_ Juan Luna has created a simple and at the same time vibrant scene simply showing his ability and mastery as a painter, giving a strength and forcefulness of a great artist to this male nude. The well-muscled body, the hair and the chiaroscuro that perfectly models the nude contour are very similar to Michelangelo's nudes in the Sistine Chapel as he was able to study them in Rome. This fact allows us to have a certain certain certainty that it is a work of that period, strengthened by the important resemblance of the signature, as has been written above, to that of a painting he sent to Madrid from Rome: Cleopatra (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid). _x000D_. In those years, precisely the director of the Academy of Drawing and Painting of Manila, the Spaniard Agustín Sáez y Glanadell, had established drawing and life painting classes around 1880. In fact, through the Ministry of Overseas Territories, which held a General Exhibition of the Philippines at the