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Print: Philippine Copyright © March
2023 San Beda University
Keywords: Philosophy of Art, Aesthetics, Spoliarium, Politics, Culture, Levinson, Artistic
Value
ARNEL A. MORTE
Central Mindanao University
de la salle University
f.arnel.morte@cmu.edu.ph
JOSEPH P. PAÑA
PhiliPPine College of CriMinology
de la salle University
joseph.pana@pccr.edu.ph
BENITO VILLAREAL
PaMantasan ng lUngsod ng Pasig
de la salle University
villareal_benito@plpasig.edu.ph
How to cite this article:
Villareal, Benito | Morte, Arnel A. | Paña,
Joseph P., “e Artistic Value of Juan
Luna’s Spoliarium”, Scientia Vol 12 no. 1.
(2023), p. 62-69.
Dates:
Received: August 28, 2022
Accepted: March 3, 2023
Published(Online): March 31, 2023
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the artistiC valUe of JUan lUna’s sPoliariUM
is paper discussed the art appreciation technique using Jerrold Levinson’s artistic value in arriving at the
importance of aesthetic experience in artwork. Levinson claimed that artistic value covers aesthetic value
and achievement value, specifically in analyzing Juan Luna’s Spoliarium, which is considered the largest
painting in the Philippines and is proclaimed as a national heritage. is paper argued that art should have
aesthetic engagement from the viewer’s point of view which would lead them to discover its artistic value.
us, this paper used the contextualizing technique since it augments and strengthens artistic engagement.
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introdUCtion
is article analyzed what particular approaches
in the study of arts can help clarify art
appreciation or the experience of art. e
question of, can art overlap the meaning as
intended by the creator? Does the true sense
only within the appreciator? What kind of value
necessitates art appreciation? Art that has its
roots in unknown beginnings attests to human
ingenuity. It sustains the traditions of human
creativity, closely formed in human expressions,
and historical precedents that adjust to the
taste of time. e ideas that comprise cultures
may not be absurd but understand the messages
they produce. e meanings that resemble time
resemble the reality of what is known in human
understanding. Unknown to some, arts have
made reality expressive in forms that would
help preserve the message for generations. e
word “art” derives from the Latin “ars,” which
means ability and skills. In other words, it is the
ability to achieve craftsmanship with excellent
skills in action. It covers a wide area of subject
matter, including visual arts or fine arts like
painting, sculpture, photography, architecture
and installation art, or even performing arts or
literature. Since it requires both imagination and
skills in accomplishing art, it produces aesthetic
feelings or experiences which delight our desire
for art appreciation. Since art is everywhere, it
wishes the appreciator to appreciate more the
relevance and importance of art in the present.
e message that it wants to convey may not be
easy to understand by the ordinary viewer.
e first part of this paper traced the historical
background of Juan Luna’s Spoliarium. It
discussed briefly the social reality of his time in
order to uncover the phenomenon of art that
exceeds the grasp of ordinary viewers. In short, it
explored the relationship between art and history.
us, it tried to answer the provoking question
of what makes the Spoliarium different from
other artworks. e second part of this paper
explored Levinson’s idea of art. is particular
section discussed the difference between artistic
and achievement value, which prioritizes the
economic value of the art. In this section, the
paper mainly argued that the artistic value
makes the work of art successful. Of course, the
role of the viewers must be addressed. e last
part of this paper is a critique of the relationship
between art and politics, specifically between
art and authority. us, it discussed the socio-
political significance of Juan Luna’s Spoliarium
in contemporary secular society.
JUan lUna’s sPoliariUM
e art itself may seem easy to understand
and satisfy its aesthetic purpose or pleasure, as
Leo Tolstoy once said, “e notions of beauty
come down to a certain sort of pleasure that
we receive, meaning that we recognize as the
beauty that which pleases us without awakening
our lust” (1995, 48). e idea of feeling that has
evoked artistic forms is necessary for the human
experience of art. It is the same experience,
however, that art differs in practical ways, just like
words are present in the verbal arts like poetry,
prose, and drama, while musical compositions
use notes. In the visual arts, such as painting,
sculpture, and architecture, they use lines, colors,
and tones or canvas. Operas and novels, on the
other hand, tell stories, and so do music and
dances. Nevertheless, it is faster and easier to
understand and appreciate a song or dance than
a painting or symphony. Since artworks express
ideas or feelings of the people under a specific
time, it calls for contextualism of art (2016: 20).
ere is a historical-embedded object of identity
about the relation between the image and what
it represents.
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Spoliarium
Juan Luna, who is an illustrious painter of
Badoc, Ilocos Norte, produced one of the most
important works of art in Philippine history. e
artwork which expresses his nationality as his
award-winning Obra Maestra is the Spoliarium
that arouses our sympathy and inspires hope for
our country. Understanding his artwork requires
skills to complete the aesthetic experience. ese
skills are usually introduced by the school and
even from informal learning in arts. Hence,
developing the fundamentals in art-making,
which have created its distinct style while others
continue the traditional style. e artists who
are not schooled may lack the fundamentals,
however, they come out as the most creative of
all. On the other hand, the aesthetic experience
of “artistic value” is a strong way to illustrate art
values. ere is one common element among the
works of art, and that is basically concerned with
the audience’s or reader’s experience. It produces
different experiences among the viewers of the
art, but all have the same delight. e work of
art represents or reflects the individual character
belonging to the period of history and the place
where it has been produced. Goodman (1968:
241) gives us a clear and impressive view of how
the experience of arts requires and creates better
encounters that satisfy aesthetic experience. He
says
…that we had to read the painting as well
as the poem, and that aesthetic experience is
dynamic rather than static. It involves making
delicate discriminations and discerning subtle
relationships, identifying symbol systems and
characters within these systems and what these
characters denote and exemplify, interpreting
works, and reorganizing the world in terms of
works and works in terms of the world. Much
of our experience and many of our skills are
brought to bear and may be transformed by
the encounter. e aesthetic ‘attitude’ is restless,
searching, and testing—is less attitude than
action: creation and recreation.
e aesthetic experience involves more than just
associating a work of art with personal experience
if one has enough, or at least one has the
necessary knowledge not only to see, view, and
hear but also to interpret artworks. According
to Wright (2003: 131), it includes “how to
respond to it appropriately and sensitively; how
to make discerning judgments about it; how to
understand the history, techniques and many
styles of painting and its major practitioners; and
where to go to see good examples of paintings”.
e aesthetic experience is arguably a personal
experience, and with proper tooling, it will give
the right amount of appreciation since it is made
by our human creativity and imagination. As
such, we inquire, “is it not art itself that we want
to appreciate?” For every artist, the answer to the
question refers to many things because every art
form conveys meanings, insights, and wisdom
that are pleasurable to the human experience.
But what is the content of that pleasure whose
meaning does not accomplish? Does knowing
art require more knowledge, experience, and
articulation, even if art appreciation may not
attract interest from the appreciator? Or is
there a kind of value that draws us to know the
message of art?
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levinson and artistiC valUe
Jerrold Levinson, in his book titled Aesthetic
Pursuits, fairly examines the component of
artistic value. He writes (2016: 48):
I will understand artistic value as the value an artwork
possesses by virtue of its proper functioning as art or
its fulfillment of proper artistic aims. So understood,
the artistic value will cover aesthetic value and
achievement value, will most likely cover some sorts
of cognitive and ethical value, and may perhaps cover
some sorts of social value and religious value, to
mention no others.
Based on this statement, Levinson claims
that artistic value is far greater than aesthetic
value, or other than achievement value, which
is about the idea of the possession of arts in
value. With this claim, this paper shall discuss
Levinson’s thought of artistic value in relation
to aesthetic value, and achievement value. For
him, aesthetic value and achievement value are
“inaccessible” to someone who engages in a work
of art. Understanding is of prime interest in this
mode of engagement if one is to experience the
work of art. It is “inaccessible” since artworks are
extraordinarily created similar to the installation
art of Jose Tence Ruiz’s Pabitin. e aesthetic
value may produce an imaginative experience
because the physical qualities of the image are
strongly recognizable. e idea is to experience
aesthetic worth, even from the novice’s point
of view. Here, art must be seen objectively
whether it is pleasurable or not with all the
experience of beauty. is is a radical point of
view that leads to subjectivism in accordance
with Immanuel Kant’s intuition, which is rooted
in representations and experiences of the subject
(1929, 87). However, he has made the emphasis
that universality goes in the judgment of the
activity of the self.
aesthetiC valUe and aChieveMent valUe
e very idea of aesthetic value is always
congruent with any form of aesthetic experience.
e appreciators are always the center of
assessing the arts. It is more on understanding
and clarifying the thoughts in the arts and then
finding the best of all forms that manifests its
qualities as valuable in experiential experience.
Hence, art is, in a special way, appreciation.
Another aspect of aesthetic value is the
achievement value which is comparable and
interesting in terms of being representational
in some artistic objectivity that may be fulfilled.
For example, the experience of an appreciator
visiting a museum, talking to an artist in his
studio, or looking at the bust sculpture is valuable
because of the experience produced. Levinson
(2016, 50) has proposed artistic value that is
consistently essential in the achievement value
where it does not depend on the experiential
value, namely, originality (novelty); influentially
(fecundity); skillfully (craftsmanship);
inventiveness (creativity); solving a problem in
a medium (ingenuity); expressing something
in a novel way (imaginativeness). Among the
essentials, originality is the primary image in the
expression of skills and creativity. Moreover, it
is solely experience-based fulfillment in its own
discovery as Levinson (2016, 52) states, “the
viewing experience aimed at is crucial to the value
of the achievement admired, to why the work
is ultimately valuable artistically.” e personal
experience of arts makes great importance in
achievement value. is achievement from
personal experience is greatly an art that is
valuable in judgment. It is because it allows the
uniqueness of innovation that brings a whole
new range of subject matter, the appreciative
experience expresses a total value. Artists should
not stop innovating and introducing new
conceptualized art. ey must look at art as a
creative endeavor that results from experience
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both in the level of understanding and level of
feeling.
e imagination of artists is crucial to any
creative work since it all depends on their
thinking. is also resonates as well with the
experience of art appreciators which may greatly
affect, deepen and broaden their enjoyment. Let
us consider this painting with an abstract idea
with lines common to its elegance and style.
Artists need design because beauty follows a
specific pattern, which makes art beautifully
crafted. Any new design, such as those lines, is
an expression of beauty and originality. With the
expression of beauty and originality, what makes
art appreciated? is is an aesthetic concept that
is needed in art expression. e originality of art
that has never been copied proposes engagement
and aesthetic achievement. If there is originality
in art, then skillfulness plays a major role. e
artist’s great skills are improved with years
of tenacity. Such artistic skills are necessary
to create new art forms. It is inventiveness or
creativity that has made art exemplary, that is,
seeing and understanding the reasons may give
the appreciator revealing concepts of life and
beauty which indicate the creative consciousness
contained in the artist’s work.
e artwork’s subject matter is very much
affected by the artistic style. It resides in the
subject matter and style before doing the
formal analysis of artwork. As Sporre (2006, 14)
observes, “[t]he manners in which artists express
themselves constitute their style. e style gives
us that body of characteristics that identifies an
artwork with an individual, a historical period, a
school of artists, or a nation, for example, realism,
expressionism, abstract, and so on.” It means that
art may change through time, which gives birth
to a new one. is change in art forms reflects
what the experience is. Moreover, it also reflects
in the experience of the concepts and judgments.
e depth of judgment or how the artworks
will afford us depends on how the problems
are solved. In the same manner, the artist can
choose the right paraphernalia for painting, such
as using oil, watercolor, or acrylic. In sculpture,
there are other paraphernalia, too, including clay,
wood, metal, and bronze. And in visual arts, any
sort of paraphernalia can do.
In general, aesthetics is debated on which
properties may entail subjective perceptual or
observable properties, which are important
to any aesthetic value. ese objects are
possessed by subjective experiences. Although
evaluative in nature may also create a dispute
in the aesthetic property as follows: the gestalt
character, standardizing its taste, pleasure or
displeasure, and the lower-level perceptual
properties may require aesthetic experience
brought by imagination (2006: 321). Likewise,
art scholars suggest that there is considerable
convergence happening on what has perceived
properties which have an open-ended list—
taste, beauty, ugliness, sublimity, grace, elegance,
delicacy, harmony, balance, unity, power, drive,
and so on. However, aesthetic experience is not
just or plainly a state of mind. It requires an
analysis of knowing the disinterestedness, desire
free, and pleasure concerns. What Immanuel
Kant observed on Adler by “disinterested” is
that the object “falls outside the sphere of our
practical concerns. It is an object we may not
desire to acquire, possess, do use, consume or in
some other ways incorporate into our lives or
ourselves” (Adler 1981: 105). e perceptions,
emotions, or distinctive experiences mark those
practical concerns. Since it has mental activity as
an aesthetic, just like the “disinterested.”
In the early part of this paper, it discussed the
evolution of art in general. is experience
requires a great attitude of artistic appreciation
for the formulation of concepts in the arts.
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Whether the concept of art is good or bad,
sublime or not, physical or mental, abstract or
concrete, singular or multiple, then art is still art,
and so it necessitates raising questions properly.
I will consider a question on artistic value. As
Levinson argues, it is more of proper functioning
as part of fulfilling artistic aims. What artistic
value of Juan Luna’s Spoliarium can it produce?
Why is it generally important that artworks
possess artistic claims? Can we arrive at the
proper artistic claim in the Spoliarium? To create
this spectacle is to use Levinson’s instrumentality
in the artistic claim of achievements and
later recommends basic artistic adaptability.
However, this is the limitation of this study. e
observation of Levinson to Malcolm Budd is an
experientialist view that “a work of art is made
to be experienced” as it holds what the artist
wishes to experience since experience is crucial
to understanding. In contrast, what Descartes
initially claims about the experience will fail any
conceivable experience. Descartes (1984: 21)
shares that:
I remember that, when looking from a window and
saying I see men who pass in the street, I really do
not see them, but infer that what I see are men, just
as I say that I see wax. And yet what do I see from
the window but hats and coats which may cover
automatic machines?
It is not suggesting or initiating an original
style, solving a problem in choosing a medium,
or exercising a positive or negative influence
on art—this paper seeks the important piece
to consider making reference to valuable
perceptual imaginative experiences, or the
aesthetic experiences, that the work of art affords
or makes possible to experience and appreciate.
e Spoliarium shows wide perceptions of
experience from the original viewer, up to the
present Filipinos, and from the master Juan Luna
himself. Since it pictures a political situation
relative to that period of Spanish colonization.
at is, the beaming religious autocracy, the
political independence turmoil, the marginalized
Filipinos in their local languages, the religious
animosity, and so on. For experientialists like
Budd, any aspect of the artwork that entails
artistic meaning can result in an artistic claim
that of course brought by proper engagement or
aesthetic achievement. Spoliarium, if properly
engaged artistically, thus creates and may result
in an artistic claim. A total artistic value of a
kind.
Moreover, one aspect of consideration is the
historical understanding and how the artwork is
related to it. us, Spoliarium’s artistic claims in
the manners of experiential-historical thoughts:
(1) the requirements of political injunction;
prior to the Spanish presence was an organized
Balangay (Barangay) the injunction of political
leaders of the Datu’s powers of the executive,
the legislative, and the judiciary above the
communities and supreme commander of any
territorial disputes. As the Spanish colonizers
introduced a highly centralized form of
government that lasted for 300 years, it was
vulnerable to abuses, and many Filipinos were
involved in reforms. e Spoliarium gladiatorial
scenarios depict the “fate” and the “plight” of
Filipinos as it covers the entire oppressive rules
of Spain. Any viewers would see it as the result
of cultural problems, the ethnic identity has been
put to an end in favor of a more powerful race.
Why would Juan Lunas use the representation
of the gladiators? is is noticeable in the
painting where two dead gladiators in ropes
are being dragged by two men. Experts are
suggesting the colors used by Luna are expressly
Filipino: hues of yellow, yellow ochre, orange,
red, and brown. As a romanticist and reformer
himself, he strategies political motives and
expresses them indirectly upon which political
opponents will not be directly scandalized. Just
like Jose Rizal made use of literary fiction to
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describe an actual situation. His novels with
real characters substantiate a real scenario. It
would only be understood with careful analysis
until the real message has been unraveled by the
UST faculty. So, the intention of gladiatorial
representation unfolds two ideas. First, it tries
to hide the message from the Spaniards who
have vehemently castigated traitors of the crown
of Spain, and Filipino people were at all odd
victims. Second, it tries to hide the message
until Filipinos at that time learned and were
enlightened about Spanish autocracies against
Filipino mediocrity. e above-mentioned
converged the contextualization and experiential
paradigm to arrive at my artistic claims on the
Spoliarium since it created a paradigm for
artistic value as the most used medium at that
time Luna chose oil on the canvass to express
his nationalistic sentiments. e oil brought out
the brightness of the main figures and made
the less important ones recede through dark
shades. e Spoliarium was finished in March
of 1884, in time for the preview of entries to the
National Exposition of Fine Arts in Madrid.
e social content exposes Filipino people under
the Spanish colonizer. e artistic adaptability:
(2) the general adaptability may allow us to
explore and enable us to stretch the potential of
Spoliarium, and see through the objective part
of the artistic work. Overall, since it is dynamic
in composition, there are 17 figures on the left
side of the frame and only two on the opposite
side. Juan Luan perfected the control of lights, it
shows his artistic skills.
e light soaks the corpses, with draggers
pulling them while the two onlookers stand. e
light diminishes at the left side, while darkness
conceals one-third of the frame, with only the
back and foot of the seated woman illuminated
with some light. So, it will lead to the viewer’s
eye or viewer’s experience that he or she can
see the human dumping site (Spoliarium) and
hear the crying crowds for their dead loved ones,
and may likely smell the decaying corpses. us,
Spoliarium’s artistic claims are far more relevant
today since it calls Filipino people about the
political and historical representations of the
message of the artwork, and its functions serve
as enlightenment for any future social-politico
upheaval. Also, the importance strikes the
claim of its major achievement in its aesthetic
achievement, especially on how the figures in
the artwork were placed and the connections.
Understanding the artwork should entail artistic
vocabulary to properly interpret, understand,
and appreciate. It comes with experience and
the knowledge it produces. e illustration on
which the contextualization exhibits a manifold
valuable experience that if afford us to do; hence,
it added an experiential narrative point of view.
ConClUsion
To sum up, L evinson has discussed the experiential
approach in the artistic understanding of the
claim of any given art as it covers aesthetic
value and achievement value. In the meantime,
this artistic value above all is a communication
of establishing aesthetic accomplishment. e
famous Spoliarium may constitute a fundamental
means of access to the historical context, but
its essence, however, lies mainly in the, and
thus, it is nothing beyond perceiving, of course,
without the concern for its historical integrity.
e so-called contextualization-experiential
analysis of the Spoliarium gladly shares the
same manifest form. It may, in fact, have the
same state, content, or value if only shooting the
object from the human context. In addition, the
aesthetic qualities that an object possesses in any
artwork, in general, differ from something that
is indiscernible or discernible. Spoliarium as a
great work of art is strongly discernible—a call
for an in-depth analysis.
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Arts have been a medium of political protest
among those who call for reforms. In the case
of Luna’s Spoliarium, it opens up a reality of
society in the past and in the future. It calls for
equality, justice, freedom, and democracy. An
action only that Spain can grant; for Rizal, only
assimilation, but for some patriots, a call for total
independence. However, it can also be used as a
means of communication by those in power. e
signs and symbols of power in the Spoliarium
warn of a potential revolution. Only when those
in authority can assure equality for a totally just
society.
Art is a message of hope. A dream that can
overcome only an appreciation of the message it
revealed. Art appreciation can only be the result of
subjective appreciation of arts that is experiential
in nature. e artistic value is an appreciation of
the experience, which is a great goal for any art
viewer. e viewer led to the past as it formed
the future in art appreciation technique. e
political message is closely important as the link
of both past and present conditions of which
society share similarities of issues. Men, through
time, challenge those in authority to give a
message of hope. at’s why art is a result of
protesting the social conditions of men standing
for a legitimate cause. e social condition in
which it lies in recent history still exists today.
Society may have not learned the artistic value
of any art. e message it possessed at that time
can attest to how the arts correct the mistake of
history. In the Spoliarium, it’s a challenge how
to discover the message at the time, but for now,
it has been revealed, however, that the message
persists and is not properly addressed. e call
for the liberty of the reformist from the tyrants
is a sincere manifestation that is long overdue,
and it has spread all throughout the centuries
of oppression. Filipinos can never be treated as
slaves again when the reforms are implemented.
e reforms mark the beginning of new history.
Arts justify the forms of any political protest. It
gives a legitimation of the medium in use. is
elevates the artist’s imagination and conveys the
message to society.
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