Juan Luna’s Hymen, oh Hyménée!
Touted by many art collectors as the “holy grail” of Philippine art, Hymen, oh Hyménée! by Juan Luna was “lost” for 132 years and then “found’ by private art collector and Leon Gallery owner Jaime Ponce de Leon in 2014.
“It was, I thought, the greatest painting that didn’t exist,” Ponce de Leon said after another art collector, the late Dr. Eleuterio “Teyet” Pascual, described it to him several years ago.
Ponce de Leon, who said the prized (literally and figuratively) painting was kept in storage since it was “too big” (it measures 1.25 m × 2.505 m (4.1 ft × 8.22 ft) to display in his home, finally unboxed it at the Ayala Museum on June 9, to widespread, palpable awe from the cognoscenti and the glitterati that came to see it.
The avid “treasure hunter” says he is not selling the painting, which is on long-term loan to the Ayala Museum. But! “Everyone wants it,” he admitted when asked if offers have been made to him for his treasured find.
Instead, Hymen, oh Hyménée! be the centerpiece of Ayala Museum’s new exhibition, Splendor: Juan Luna, Painter as Hero until Dec. 31, and perhaps even beyond.
“Through his brush and his palette, Luna spoke to the world best of what it means to be a Filipino. And because of that, he was able to move mountains and help create a nation,” Ponce de Leon said in tribute to Luna, who died in Hong Kong in 1899.
To quote historian Ambeth R. Ocampo, Ph.D., Luna “produced a groundswell of pride in (his) countrymen that resonates to our times with Lea Salonga’s triumph on the West End and Broadway, Manny Pacquiao’s conquest of world boxing and last but not the least, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz bringing home the first Olympic Gold to a proud and grateful nation.”
Hymen, oh Hyménée!, which recreates a scene of a Roman wedding ritual, specifically the bride’s entrance into the groom’s chamber, was last seen in public 132 years ago in Paris after winning bronze in the groundbreaking 1889 Paris world’s fair of the Eiffel Tower fame. Its bronze finish confirmed Luna’s position as among the best painters of the western world in the late 19th century, “earning — not only for himself but for many Filipinos — a sense of dignity and pride at a turning point in our own history — our quest and struggle for independence,” said Ayala Museum director Mariles Gustilo. Hymen is the Greek god for marriage rituals.
A total of 4,022 viewed the painting last June 12, during which the Ayala Museum waived entrance fees. This turnout is extraordinary, post-COVID, according to Ayala Museum staffer Monica Araneta Tiosejo.
National Museum director Jeremy Barnes, for his part, gushed, “It’s tremendous for someone whose career is built on preserving, promoting and telling people about these great works of art. To see one that I, myself, have only read about and seen black and white photos of — it’s an amazing feeling.”
Art connoisseur Tonico Manahan said, it was with “disbelief” that he finally viewed the painting. “Because this also has been a legendary painting that’s been hidden all the time and what, (only) two or three people have seen it before?”
Ponce de Leon’s odyssey
According to Ponce de Leon, “The story truly began some 134 years ago in a salon in Paris. Celebrated for a prize in the Paris Exposition Universelle de 1889. And then its whereabouts would become unknown for about a hundred years. A document mentioned it was in the collection of the Louvre. Some speculated it had been burned by the Pardo de Taveras out of their spite for Luna. The mystery of its existence only grew through the engravings and mentions of its splendor in 19th-century publications. But where was it? Nobody knew.”
His quest for the “holy grail” of Philippine art began some 15 years ago when he first heard of this treasure.
But he was left with no leads. People who knew were selfish with their clues. “And so it was a race to find it, but a race where no one would share the map to the ‘Grail’.”
Searching for that particular Luna, which reportedly received the highest international accolade ever for a painting by a Filipino in an international tilt, became a “tireless obsession” for him. He never gave up looking for it, “courting old maids and befriending aristocrats, and anybody and everybody in between who had some connection to Juan Luna as well as to the Philippines.”
“And then one fine day in 2014, I got a call and was told to be at the doorstep of a certain aristocratic, lordly home in a European city by 10 am sharp. And there I was. I could not believe what was revealed and finally lay before me. It was the ‘Grail’.”
And so, before the curtains rose on the long-lost treasure at the Ayala Museum, Ponce de Leon simply said, “The time has come to unbox the ‘Grail.’ The mystery has been solved. It has been found.”
And yes, everyone wants it. *