master myth?

Painter, hero, monster— filmmaker MARTIN  ARNALDO contends with the conundrum of JUAN  LUNA as his painting Hymen, Oh Hyménée  resurfaces after a century.

- AUDREY CARPIO

It's rather bold of the Ayala Museum to be calling Juan Luna a hero and stage a huge, celebratory exhibit around a painting of his that was clearly about his (soonto-be-murdered) wife. Didn't they anticipate the backlash it would receive, calls to boycott the "accursed" painting created by a "homicidal maniac?" Of course, this probably only drove more people to the museum to view Hymen, Oh Hyménée, the painting in question.

Acquired in 2014 by Leon Gallery's Jaime Ponce de Leon from an anonymous aristocratic European family for untold sums, the painting landed in Manila in 2020 after a few years of sitting in storage plus more than a decade of de Leon obsessively hunting down the work. When de Leon finally found the right moment to unbox the painting, filmmaker Martin Arnaldo was invited to document the process. Arnaldo ended up making a 21-minute documentary, which is being screened at the exhibit, partly about de Leon's quest, part Juan Luna biography, and part personal memoir.

Like the exhibit, which is beautifully executed by scenographer Gino Gonzales, and the accompanying book Splendor, with its several erudite essays written by Luna experts and art historians, Arnaldo's short film delves only into what is necessary when it comes to Luna and this particular painting: the incredible story of how a young and talented indio from Badoc, Ilocos Norte became one of the greatest painters of his time in Spain and France, the centers of the art world. Luna's is an undeniably heroic tale of the colonized subject conquering Europe on its own terms, right at the moment of Filipino nationalistic reckoning.