Deflating the Historical Ego

• There were only 12 students in Rizal's class in Ateneo - nine of which, including Rizal, graduated sobresaliente.
• Rizal did get good grades in Ateneo, but at the University of Santo Tomas, he wasn't as great a student as he's been made out to be.
• For some reason-perhaps lack of money, time, or interest-Rizal was not able to take the examination that would have qualified him for a doctorate.
• Rizal had a Licentiate in Medicine, and being a medical doctor, he was allowed to practice in the profession. Technically speaking, however, he could not carry the academic title "Dr."
• The Academia de Dibujo in Manila was run by a mean Spaniard, Agustin Saez, who ran against his own students in a contest for the best cover design for the book, Flora de Filipinas. Of course, Saez won, with Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo getting second place. Hidalgo could have won the top prize had his teacher not joined.
• If a friend like Rizal described Luna's early paintings as "contrary to art", Saez as director of the Academy must have thought worse.
• Perhaps Saez wanted the stubborn Luna to conform, to pain like everyone else, which is natural in any school that tended to hamper creativity. Things came to a head, and Luna was either dropped out or expelled, depending on which biography you are reading.
• After studying under the Filipino painter Lorenzo Guerrero, Luna left Manila for Madrid. At the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, he was strongly influenced by his mentor, Alejo Vera. The teacher so impressed him that when Vera left Madrid to fulfill some commissions in Rome, Luna left school, said goodbye to the diploma, and apprenticed himself to Vera.
• At the Madrid Exposition of 1884, Luna's huge Spoliarium won. Thus, a Filipino proved himself in Spain as an "international artist". Unfortunately, this is one another thing we have yet to unlearn from school. Luna's triumph was far from international because Madrid was an artistic backwater. The center of the real art scene at the time was Paris.
• Luna won the gold medal for Spoliarium and Felix Resurrecion Hidalgo the silver medal for Virgenes Cristianas Espuestas al Populacho. Luna won one gold medal out of three gold medals given out, and Hidalgo won one silver medal out of fifteen given out in the Exposition.
• Luna did not even win the grand prize in that Exposition, but as consuelo de bobo he as commissioned to pain the mural Battle of Lepanto, which now hangs in the Spanish Senate in Madrid.