History
The Peninsular war is the historical backdrop to the painting El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid by Francisco de Goya (1746-1828). The war was an armed conflict uniting Portugal, Britain and Spain against the invading forces of the French Empire led by Napoleon Bonaparte. To infiltrate the country the French leader took advantage of the dispute over the Spanish throne between King Charles IV and his son Ferdinand VII. Napoleon's excuse was that he needed to cross Spain to attack Portugal and stop trade with Britain. Once his troops had gained access to Spain the French Emperor turned against his Spanish allies and in 1808 put his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne. This resulted in a popular uprising against the French in guerilla warfare. Goya's painting The Second of May 1808, shows the street fighting that happened in Madrid.
The Madrid revolt was put down with ferocity by the French commander Joachim Murat who ordered the French troops to execute all prisoners who had borne arms in the uprising. Goya's The Third of May 1808 depicts the execution of the Spanish guerilla fighters by the French troops near Madrid's Príncipe Pío Hill. He also created The Disasters of War prints (1810-1820) as a protest against the violence of the uprising and the cruelties of the subsequent war.
The French occupation lasted until 1813 when Napoleon was forced out of power and exiled on Elba after a disastrous Russian campaign. Goya composed his painting in 1814 when Ferdinand was restored to the throne. It is a portrait of Spanish patriots.
Art
Goya created his paintings and prints during the Romantic period which had emerged as a reaction against the rationalism and scientific emphasis of the Enlightenment. Romantic thinkers explored the mysteries of existence in a rejection of the explanations of reason. Goya was active in between the two periods and so was a bridge between Enlightenment rationality and Romantic emotionality.
His 'Black paintings', probably created between 1819 and 1823 as murals in his Quinta del Sordo house, portray an bleak outlook on humanity, especially considering that Goya himself had turned deaf. The themes deal with the darker side of human nature such as despair and madness. They reflect the Romantic emphasis on personal emotions.
Another Romantic element in Goya's work was his artistic comments on the political and social turmoil of the contemporary Peninsular war and reflections on the human struggles they involved. His painting The Third of May 1808 criticises the horrors of war and shows individual suffering, eliciting a strong emotional response
Goya initiated his career in the neoclassical tradition, but later works include characteristics of the Romantic movement which makes him a transitional figure between the two periods.
Commentary
The Third of May 1808 depicts either a night scene, or possibly early morning. The sky is shown as a black mass above the executions below. The painting is composed of several groups of people:
The French firing squad on the right with their backs to the viewer who cannot distinguish their faces
Their rifles point us towards the next group of victims on the left, in particular the main figure about to be shot who is kneeling on the ground. He is wearing a bright white shirt and has both arms outstretched in surrender. On his right the other victims do not appear to be as brave as the main character. One covers his face with his hands, others appear to hold hands to support each other. Lying below this group are dead bodies beginning to pile on the ground on a pool of red blood.
On the right of the composition another group of figures are bunched awaiting execution. Terror of impending death is shown through the man in front who has cupped his hands over his face. To his right another man is hunched in fear with both hands in his mouth. Next right stands a friar and a long procession of people lined up to be shot. The viewer's eye is led along the soldiers' headgear to the background where sits a large apparently religious building and a church tower, possibly a cathedral or a monastery. What appears to be torchlights illuminate a distant part of the crowd and convert the soldiers into shadows.
In the foreground a hill forms the wall against which the prisoners are executed. It helps to envelop the main scene and focus attention on the principal character. In front of him a huge lantern lights up the central foreground and dramatically spotlights the main figure, throwing shadows over the executioners.
Themes
Chiaroscuro
Goya used the chiaroscuro technique to contrast light and dark in this painting. The palette also included earthy and neutral tones. The colours are all subdued with the protagonist dressed in beige trousers, the light green trousers of the person to his right and the dark red blood.
The main scenario is enclosed in dark areas which brings the eye to the stark white shirt of the character in the line of fire. The lantern beams cast streaking shadows like bullet paths between the executed and executioners. The prisoners are lit up in colour and light so that we can see the faces of the victims; the soldiers stand faceless in darkness as perpetrators.
Themes
Symbolism
The central figure kneels with his arms outstretched as if on a cross. His right hand bears the marks of a stigmata in a clear reference to Christ's crucifixion:
Anti-War
It was the Spanish government that commissioned both The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May 1808 paintings, on a petition by Goya.
The second artwork has influenced later artists working on an antibellicist theme such as Manet's The Execution of Emperor Maximilian (1868):
Picasso’s Guernica (1937) and Massacre in Korea (1951):
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