How does Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho elucidate its Description?
An oil on canvas painting measuring 1.15 m × 1.57 m (45 in × 62 in), Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho is a "landmark painting" depicting the persecution of Christians in Ancient Rome.  Described as a masterpiece remarkable in the aspects of quality, composition, and historical context, it portrays two scantily clothed Christian female slaves being mocked by a group of boorish Roman male onlookers.  One of the women is posed seated naked at the foreground of the painting with her "head bowed in misery".  The semi-nude women have been stripped not only of their garments but also of their dignity.  Created in the academic style of Europe, the unfortunate women in the artwork are considered by some indigenous Filipinos as virgins "being led out, stolen from, and ridiculed".  The women are young virgins cornered by a mob of "sexually hungry" Roman men.  One of the men has his hand over one semi-naked female whose eyes are "looking up to heaven" asking and begging for "help that never comes".Together with Juan Luna's Spoliarium, Hidalgo's Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho presents "human spoliage and spoils", with human spoilage more related to Luna's Spoliarium and the human spoils closer to Hidalgo's Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho. Such themes were presented to the "juries and audiences" of the Madrid exposition in order to satisfy the "erudition-quotient" essential to the conservative scholarly Neoclassicism of Hidalgo and Luna while they were spending time in Europe.
Filipino Neoclassicism Ancient Rome Christians Juan Luna oil on canvas dignity persecution Spoliarium Madrid