The quest for ‘Hymen, oh Hymenee’ by Juan Luna

“The master of the house emerged after a few minutes. He was distinctly polite and, after a few pleasantries, motioned to the butler to draw these heavy velvet curtains that shrouded one very large painting,” Ponce de Leon recalls.

“I had first heard of the Holy Grail of Philippine Art from none other than Dr Eleuterio ‘Teyet’ Pascual [the famous collector] several years before. He had always counselled equanimity on such occasions. Teyet once chanced on a spectacular work of art in one Spanish palace and forced himself to focus on the Chinese biombo or folding screen not to give the game away. But in the case of the Hymen, oh Hymenee, there were no two ways. The owners knew how important it was, and it was useless to pretend I was only half-interested. All the time, I kept repeating to myself silently, ‘Oh my goodness!’ I decided not to leave that room without ensuring it was mine.”

After Teyet sang its praises, Ponce de Leon would become so enamoured by the Hymen, oh Hymenee. “At the time, I was just starting in the art world and didn’t even think of pressing him for where he had seen the masterpiece and who owned it,” he admits. Years later, he would take two approaches—the first was to retrace Luna’s footsteps, and the other was to shadow Teyet’s.

In case you missed it: Juan Luna: The Tragic Life and Legacy of The Renowned Filipino Master

“I systematically worked my way through the Libro de Nobleza of the kings and aristocrats of France and Spain, knocking on their doors, paying close attention to anyone who had come to the Philippines or had any roots here.

“Teyet would often say, ‘It’s not about owning the mountains but having the peak’—and I might add, it is very much about scaling those heights in an unending search!” Ponce de Leon exclaimed.

“I would haunt not just galleries, famous and infamous—in Madrid, Rome, Paris, anywhere that Juan Luna and, much later, Teyet Pascual would roam. I befriended dukes and countesses and, what’s more, their nannies walking the well-fed bichons and poodles near the Avenue Foch and, at one point, even tracking down the groom of the horses of the Duchess of Alba to gain entrance to the fabulous but unattainable Palacio de Liria. This was before they agreed to open it to the public occasionally.”

He is now convinced that the missing link was none other than the grand dame of the international jet set, Esperanza “Pitita” Ridruejo. Pitita, said Ponce de Leon, had all the necessary connections to be the primary source of the Hymen, oh Hymenee’s regal origins. And Teyet always knew the right woman to be friends with. Juan Luna, after all, points out Ponce de Leon, was familiar to the King of Spain, Alfonso XIII. The royal was a devoted patron of the man who would become the most famous Filipino artist in the world—a title which Luna still holds to this day.

Alfonso XIII’s son was the Infante or Crown Prince Juan, the count of Barcelona, and the conde would be one of Pitita’s groomsmen when she married the handsome Greek-Spanish creole from the Philippines, Jose Manuel Stilianopoulos. Pitita was descended from an extremely wealthy family with holdings in Spain’s largest banks. She and her husband would settle into a remarkable 17th-century Palacio in Madrid.

Pitita’s striking looks made her a dead-ringer for Onassis’ paramour Maria Callas. (Fellini had even asked to cast her in a cameo as Callas for his film Roma.) She
was pursued by aristocrats and artists, Dali among them, who reportedly besieged her to allow him to immortalise her—except she had to leave for her honeymoon in Manila. (She would also charm Andy Warhol and be painted by him.)

Stilianopoulos would be named by President Ferdinand Marcos as Philippine ambassador to Spain in 1972 when Pitita’s good friend Juan Carlos I would become the King of Spain. She was called the Spanish court’s “most fascinating woman” and always sat beside the royals at intimate dinners. Pitita socialised with the Hohenlohes, the Bismarcks, the Thyssens and the Rothschilds, who frequented her achingly chic home in Marbella. That list of guests naturally included Imelda Marcos.

Pitita, like Juan Luna, was no stranger to royalty. She was a classmate of Queen Fabiola of Belgium, had Princess Margaret to her summer home for months, and
been invited to spend weekends with Queen Elizabeth in Windsor Palace. She was also friendly with the American royals, the Kennedys.

Time and distance were never an obstacle for the ancient regime of the past and the present. Hymen, oh Hymenee was painted in Venice while Luna was on his honeymoon from December 1886 to the beginning of 1887. It would be completed in Paris, the world’s capital of art, soon after and then be sent to compete at the
Universelle Exposition of 1889. This expo would mark the first 100 years of the French Revolution and give the City of Lights the Eiffel Tower. Hymen, oh Hymenee would receive a bronze medal—which would complete the requirements for Luna to be catapulted to the status of master painter or hors concours, which is no longer to be considered in the competition.

Luna would be the first Filipino to receive such an accolade in the Olympics of art—and indeed the first to receive back-to-back recognitions.

Hymen, oh Hymenee is on a long-term loan from Ponce de Leon’s private collection to the Ayala Museum, where it is the centrepiece of an ongoing immersive exhibition and installation, with the cooperation of León Gallery titled Splendor: Juan Luna as Hero that will run till the end of December 2023. Incidentally, all proceeds from the exhibit—from ticket sales, sponsorships and vertical merchandising—have been earmarked for the many worthy projects of the Ayala Foundation for education, livelihood, and to promote the love of the country.

“I was once in a hotel in New York where Queen Sofia was also checked in. There were rumours that she would come for breakfast at their famous salon, and I waited
for hours—but it was not meant to be! If I had met her or Pitita sooner, the search for the Grail would have been over years ago!”

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