Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Juan Luna was a major force of painting tradition in the Philippines particularly in the late 19th Century. Like his colorful paintings, his life was also interestingly complicated that scholars and historians were fond of talking and studying about. His paintings are known to be packed with symbolism that a single art critic could not easily decrypt. In this study, the researcher interprets the painter’s works and the intricacies of his life as a nationalist and as a private person. By employing semiotic interpretation, an exposition of various symbols embedded in his works and what they signify is made. The major question which the study answers is: How do Luna’s works mirror his deep seated nationalism, his nationalist advocacies, and his personal life? As gleaned in the works interpreted, messages and contents were conveyed in symbolic manner and made powerful through his visual metaphors. Luna seemed to have hidden his nationalistic ideas and his innermost feelings in his works.