Juan Luna’s portrait of an aristocratic lady resurfaces and now up for auction at the León Gallery

The fame of Luna’s Spoliarium quickly spread all over Rome after the artist received the silver medal for Death of Cleopatra. The León Gallery catalogue continues: “This achievement significantly elevated Luna}s status, placing him on a new level of recognition within the artistic community. Interest in his work continued to grow, culminating in 1883-1884, when crowds flocked to his studio as he began working on Spoliarium.”

In the American newspaper The Sun, a student and roommate of Luna reminisced about the artist’s encounter with King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Italy in 1883 while he was applying the last touches on Spoliarium: 

“Luna was too absorbed in his work to have heard. He was dressed in his worst rags, for he had a habit of wiping his brushes on his clothes... The King and Queen paused behind Luna and gazed in admiration at the painting of heroic size before them. The King held up his hand, demanding silence. Thus all of us stood petrified, while Luna pranced up and down before his canvas, unconscious of the august presence... Suddenly he turned and saw the King. For a second he was dazed, then instinctively glanced down at his paint-besmeared clothes... ‘Your Majesties,’ he said, ‘I would offer my hand, but it is full of paint.’”

Read more: Juan Luna: The tragic life and legacy of the renowned Filipino master

King Umberto I was widely known for his affinity with the artistic community to foster cultural unity and national pride. Indeed, the monarch’s visit to Luna’s studio in Via Margutta, his attendance at other art exhibitions in Rome, and his construction of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni that eventually became a prominent venue for exhibitions all attest to the monarch’s commitment to the arts.

Weeks later, Luna won the highest gold medal for the Spoliarium in Madrid.

The connection to King Umberto in this portrait by Luna in León Gallery continues with his senior aide-de-camp, General Enrico della Rocca, a descendant of a marquis.

“It is, therefore, very likely that he was accompanying his master on that occasion [visit],” the catalogue reads. With his daughters Adele and Irene already at a marriageable age, della Rocca must have immortalised their beauty through the masterful strokes of Luna, the León Gallery believes.

“Luna needed money more than ever, as the monthly allowance from his family was usually exhausted before the end of each month, and also because he had not been able to accept any work during the whole year, busy as he was with the monumental task of his Spoliarium,” based on the catalogue.

The historical accounts regarding Luna’s arrival in Rome, his intensive period of working in the Spoliarium, his encounters with King Umberto I and Queen Margherita, who is connected to the della Rocca family, and Luna’s eventual participation in the Madrid Exposition help us determine that the portrait of Adele must have been made sometime in April of that year.

“An interesting comparison with these portraits is to be made with another work of Luna, representing two young and elegant girls at the balcony of an opera house, which we believe was executed in the same period,” the catalogue adds.

“Doing this painting must have been a pleasant moment for Luna, who had been busy since a year depicting the extreme violence of gladiators’ life in the Colosseum. For this portrait, recreational as it was, he dropped the dark palette of the Spoliarium for a paler one, powder blue dress, white flowers in order to enhance the virtue of this aristocratic girl in ceremonial attire, somewhat hieratic and official, a maiden in Majesty. But the need for colours takes over in details, like the intervention of red and purple in the white bouquet, and the movement of the beige background, treated in an almost impressionistic manner, a way Luna has often adopted in order to let the light animate his paintings and play behind its characters,” says León Gallery.

Contextually, Luna’s fame and reputation over Europe’s crème de la crème was at its peak in this period. This extends to his contemporaries, Mariano Benlliure and Félix Resurrección Hidalgo, to name a few, whose masterful works can also be found on the continent to this day.

León Gallery’s Magnificent September Auction 2024 is happening on September 14, 2pm

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