Juan Luna, the first Filipino painter to win recognition abroad was born on October 23,1857 in Badoc, Ilocos Norte..He was the third of the seven children of Don Joaquin Luna de San Pedro y Posadas and Dona Laureana Novicio y Ancheta. He studied at the Ateneo de Manila, then enrolled at the naval school.. He earned his license as a pilot for the high seas at the age of 17 years old. Later, he enrolled at the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura in Manila under Agustin Saez . He transferred to the Academy of the Indies where Prof. Lorenzo Guerrero thought, he had exceptional artistic talent, and convinced Luna's parents to send their son to Madrid. He left for Spain in 1877 and specialized in painting in Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. He learned to paint in the academic style. It was in the Academic Tradition that he composed his first paintings in Europe under the tutelage of Alejo Vera. who became a friend, mentor and second father to him. When Vera moved to Rome, in 1878, he took Luna with him as an apprentice. Three years later, his painting, the "Death of Cleopatra" , won a gold medal in an international competition in Madrid. The contestants were famous painters from Spain,France and other European countries.
Luna placed the Philippines in the map of the world when his masterpiece, the "Spoliarium",won first prize in the Exposicion National de Bellas Artes held in Madrid in May 1884. He was known in Europe as "the greatest painter the Philippines ever had". He was lionized in the solons of Spain and France. Filipino expatriates led by Rizal hailed him as "the first Filipino propagandist". Because of the fame he brought to his country, the Philippine government sent him a monthly pension of six hundred pesos for four years..In return, he was asked to paint one picture a year to be hung in the government buildings in the Philippines One of these pictures was the "Blood Compact".
Juan Luna returned to the Philippines in 1894,but in 1896, he was imprisoned by the Spaniards together with his brother , Antonio, because he was suspected as a member of the Katipunan. In 1897, he was freed by the Spaniards. He returned to work for the release of his brother Antonio. While in Spain, he joined the propagandists led by Rizal to secure reforms for the Philippine government. He learned of the death of Antonio,on June 5,1899 and wanted to come home to investigate the cause of his brother's death, but on the way , he was overtaken by illness and died in Hongkong on Dec. 7, 1899 at the age of 42 years.
The painting, the "Blood Compact" won posthumously for Juan Luna a silver medal at the Universal Exposition in St. Louis Missouri, U.S.A. in 1904. While his masterpiece, the "Spoliarium",the original of which was in the possession of the Spanish government, since 1884, was finally brought home to the Philippines as a donation of the Spanish government sometime in 1980. It is estimated that Juan Luna painted about two thousand pictures. He was gone but his fame lives in the many paintings he left behind him.
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