Las Damas Romanas
| The Roman Maidens | |
|---|---|
| Spanish: Las Damas Romanas | |
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|
| Artist | Juan Luna |
| Year | 1882 |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 100 cm × 170 cm (39 in × 67 in) |
| Location | Private Collection |
Las Damas Romanas (literally, "The Roman Dames"), also known as The Roman Maidens, The Roman Women, or The Roman Ladies, is an oil on canvas painting by Juan Luna, one of the most important Filipino painters of the Spanish period in the Philippines. It was painted by Luna when he was a student of the school of painting in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando) in Madrid, Spain in 1877. Alejo Valera, a Spanish painting teacher, took Luna as an apprentice and brought him to Rome where Luna created Las Damas Romanas in 1882. Luna spent six years in Rome from 1878 to 1884.
Las Damas Romanas is one of the early works of Luna as a painter that resurfaced in the past quarter of a century after being thought lost or missing. Before its reappearance in Paris many years before 2008, it had been documented only as a title and as a listed work of Luna in the 1957 biography of Luna written by Carlos E. Da Silva. The painting had also been documented through a black and white photograph from the files of Alfonso T. Ongpin, a historian and pre-war art dealer. In 1980, the image from Ongpin was reprinted by Santiago Pilar in the book "Juan Luna: The Filipino As Painter".
The concept for the 100 cm x 170 cm size painting was based by Luna on ancient Roman history. It depicted a domestic scene in ancient Roman life, portraying two women lying on the steps of a house. The hand of one woman was holding the reins of two pet dogs or hunting dogs, in order to prevent them from scaring away some doves. The doves symbolized divinity The background of the painting presented a shelf of artifacts. To the left of the shelf was a shrine with a pediment shaped like a triangle. In front of the pediment was a burner with a smoking incense.
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