MANILA, Philippines?Filipinos who frequent US and European flea markets in search of Amorsolos, Lunas and Hidalgos will tell you that the pickings nowadays are slim. If you do stumble upon a bit of Filipiniana these days, the prices can be quite steep.

They say there are no more bargains to be found, but a few years ago a large painting by Juan Luna turned up in an estate sale outside Paris. The large canvas (100x170 cm) depicting two Roman maidens, ?Las Damas Romanas,? painted by Luna in Rome in 1882, was put up for auction and was expected to fetch between 10,000 and 20,000 euros (between P623,000 and P1.3 million).

A group of Filipinos kept the news about the sale to themselves. They all chipped into a kitty and joined the auction by phone. Bidding was fast and spirited, but the Filipino group had to give up when the price went beyond 100,000 euros. The painting sold for over 200,000 euros (over P12.4 million) and reportedly went to a French art dealer.

That same Luna painting of Roman maidens is being put on the block again on Nov. 30 at Christie?s in Hong Kong, with a floor price of between $1 million and $1.2 million.

The painting is practically buried in a sale of modern and contemporary Southeast Asian paintings, the only old work in a sale dominated by young, modern artists.

One can only hope that ?Las Damas Romanas? will be acquired by a Filipino collector or institution and returned home. Unfortunately, with the financial crisis and the controversy that attended the acquisition of Luna?s ?Parisian Life? by the Government Service Insurance System in 2002, there is no hope for an intervention by the government.

For over a century since it was painted, ?Damas Romanas? by Juan Luna y Novicio (1857-1899) was an unlocated work. Documentation has been scant. ?Damas Romanas? was only a title on the list of Luna works drawn up in 1957 by Luna biographer Carlos E. Da Silva.

A faded black-and-white photograph of it was reproduced in Santiago Pilar?s book, ?Juan Luna: The Filipino As Painter,? published in 1980. The photograph came from the files of the pre-war art dealer and historian Alfonso T. Ongpin.

The emergence of this early work enlarges our knowledge and appreciation of Luna who is unfortunately best remembered for his largest work, the ?Spoliarium? (1884). The latter may well be Luna?s most important painting historically, but it is not necessarily his best aesthetically.

To appreciate the dark and gory ?Spoliarium? that now dominates the Hall of the Masters in the National Museum, you have to remember that aside from being an artist, Juan Luna is also considered a hero and patriot of the Philippines.

RP?s 1st int?l artists

Spoliarium won the first gold medal in the Madrid Exposition of Fine Arts in 1884, a triumph that made Luna and his contemporary, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, who won a silver medal, the first ?international artists? of the Philippines.

Luna painted a scene from ancient Roman history, the corpse of a gladiator being discarded in a room under the Coliseum. So powerful was this image that it was used by Filipino propagandists as an allegory of the abuses of the Spanish in the Philippine colony.

It takes a bit of imagination and a heavy dose of textbook history for young Filipinos to see oppression and the Philippines in a painting best understood alongside the Hollywood film, ?Gladiator.?

Unintended meanings

One can read many meanings into a painting, sometimes even meanings unintended by the artist. For example, in 1983, the ?Spoliarium? was seen to be quite prophetic. The opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. was assassinated on Aug. 21, 1983, in the tarmac of the Manila International Airport. One of the photographs in a series showing soldiers dragging the corpse into a military van is said to mirror the main element in Luna?s 1884 masterpiece.

?Damas Romanas? likewise draws from ancient Roman history, but is a whole lot more cheerful. Two ladies are seen reclining on the wide steps of a dwelling. One of them is holding the reins of two frisky dogs, appearing to restrain them from scaring away some doves that are frolicking about. In the background behind the figures is what appears to be a shelf with assorted artifacts. To their left is a small shrine with a triangular pediment with incense smoke rising from a burner in front of it.

Should ?Damas Romanas? be seen at face value? Is it but a typical domestic scene in ancient Rome or does it have deeper, hidden meanings? There are three elements here: Women, dogs and doves. Dogs were part of Roman life and were basically used for hunting, as guardians of home or property, and in this case as companions of women. These slim and elegant dogs were pets, although they had to be kept on a leash. An inscription said to have been found in the ruins of Pompeii reads, ?cave canis.? It is a warning still used today??beware of dogs.? Doves were often given erotic connotations. In the Philippines, a woman referred to as kalapating mababa ang lipad (low-flying dove) means someone of ill-repute.

Is the painting an allegory of restrained lust or merely a way for Luna to execute many details copied from museums on trips to Naples, Pompeii, Venice and Florence? It has even been suggested that the dark-haired woman on the right is Luna?s wife, Paz Pardo de Tavera, whom he shot and killed in Paris in 1892 in a jealous rage. That would have fit the theme of love and lust but unfortunately, Luna was not married yet when he painted ?Damas Romanas? in Rome in 1882. He had not even met his future wife at the time.

That multiple meanings, different interpretations can be found in one painting always adds to its interest. ?Damas Romanas? was painted while Luna was a student of the Spanish Academy in Rome. It is a work completed between his prize-winning works ?Death of Cleopatra? that won a silver medal in the Madrid Exposition of 1881 and the ?Spoliarium? that took the first gold medal in the Madrid Exposition of 1884.

6 years in Rome

What is not well-known is that Luna spent six years in Rome from 1878 to 1884. He enrolled in the school of painting in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando) in Madrid in 1877 and there took courses in color and composition and began a study of ancient art. One of his professors, Alejo Vera, went to Rome in 1878 to fulfill some commissions and he took Luna along as an apprentice.

Two years after arriving in what Luna described as ?the capital of the Caesars,? his teacher returned to Madrid and Luna stayed on for another four years to complete his studies. Many students of the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid were allowed to gain credit for their stay in Rome.

The course of study usually took three years. The first year was spent copying Greek and Roman sculpture to learn anatomy. They studied and copied classical architecture to learn ideal proportion, and finally they copied old master paintings. The second year the students did work on the human figure.

Graduation work

By the third year and final year, the students were expected to utilize all the skills learned by practice, travel and observation in producing one large historical painting drawn from either religious, classical, or historical texts.

Hence the 1881 ?Death of Cleopatra,? acquired by the Spanish government, could be seen as Luna?s graduation work. As a recognition of his talent, Luna was awarded a four-year grant by the Ayuntamiento de Manila to continue his studies in Rome. The grant was also a commission to do one painting for the Ayuntamiento but the grateful Luna gave them three. One of these, the ?Pacto de Sangre? (Blood Compact), hangs in the seat of government, the Palace of Malacañang.

?Damas Romanas? is one of a number of drawings, watercolors and oils by Luna that have surfaced in the past quarter of a century. As an important example of Luna?s early work, it helps us understand his training as an academic painter and enriches our knowledge of the life and work of this great master.