SPOLIARIUM

Title: Spoliarium (1884)

Artist: Juan Luna

Material or Medium: oil on canvas

Subjective Context:

 "Luna's Spoliarium with its bloody carcasses of slave gladiators being dragged away from the arena where they had entertained their Roman oppressors with their lives...stripped to satisfy the lewd contempt of their Roman persecutors with their honor..." Rizal was footnoted in his speech that the Spoliarium, "embodied the essense [sic] of our social, moral and political life: humanity in severe ordeal, humanity unredeemed, reason and idealism in open struggle with prejudice, fanaticism and justice..." (Leon Ma. Guerrero, "The First Filipino" 2007)

And for me, this painting shows the tormenting and oppression of the Filipino people in its Homeland.