Francisco Goya, The Third of May 1808, 1814
This dramatic and well known painting documenting the horrors of war and violence is really an affecting composition. Goya sought to commemorate the Spanish resistance to Napoleon’s armies during the occupation of 1808. It was commissioned by the provisional government of Spain, at Goya’s request.
The dramatic lighting, the the emotional content and the presentation of the two sides really have cemented this image as an archetypal painting of the horrors of war. The firing squad faces the victims, a regulated mass full of straight lines against a crumbling, desperate irregularity. The victims are full of emotion, while we cannot see the shooter’s faces.
Kenneth Clark spoke on the painting’s departure from traditional history painting, and the intensity of the work.
With Goya we do not think of the studio or even of the artist at work. We think only of the event. Does this imply that The Third of May is a kind of superior journalism, the record of an incident in which depth of focus is sacrificed to an immediate effect? I am ashamed to say that I once thought so; but the longer I look at this extraordinary picture and at Goya’s other works, the more clearly I recognise that I was mistaken.
