The Third of May 1808

Ready? Aim... Fire! In 1808, Napoleon, Emperor of France, conquers Spain. On May 2nd, Spaniards rebel against the French occupation in Madrid. The next day, May 3rd, the rebels are rounded up and executed. These events will be the subject of Francisco de Goya's grim painting, the 3rd of May 1808, along with its lesser-known sister, the 2nd of May 1808. War, which was usually depicted as something beautiful, was now shown for what it truly is, ugly and disgustingly brutal. The image of denunciation has been reused in Manet's execution of Emperor Maximilian and in Picasso's massacre in Korea. You can also see a reference to it in the ultimate anti-war painting, Guernica. Goya was born in 1746, meaning he was 68 years old when he finished the 3rd of May 1808. In 1792, Goya is struck by an unknown illness that will progressively make him deaf, but this won't stop him from painting. In 1801, as the king's painter, he paints Charles IV of Spain and his family. He seems tremendously impacted by the French invasion. This will make him produce a series of prints during the occupation called The Disasters of War, which will only be published in 1863, 35 years after his death. The series is comprised of 82 individual artworks, the most famous one being the shocking Plate 39, Great Deeds Against the Dead. Among these prints, a couple of them anticipate the 3rd of May 1808. Plate 2, With or Without Reason. Plate 38, Barbarians. And finally, Plate 15, And It Can't Be Helped, where the famous scene is shown in the background. Though this was never confirmed, it was probably inspired by Assassination of Five Valencian Monks by Miguel Gamborino, made one year before, in 1813, and we can see this by pointing out its many, many similarities. In the painting, there is a clear tension between the opposing sides, the rebels and Napoleon's troops. The soldiers are straight, organized, and stand strong. They're wearing the same clothes, are positioned similarly, but most importantly, we can't see their faces. Their backs are turned to us, they are completely anonymous. They are all blending together, losing all individuality, and their guns are all pointing at the helpless rebels, whose positioning and emotions are more chaotic. One of them is praying, one of them looks defiant, some are scared, and some are dead. One of them stands out more than the others, and seems to be the central element of the painting. The way he is framed by the light, his bright shirt, his gesture, and the direction in which the guns are pointing all bring him to attention. He's been compared to Jesus, with the hole in his right hand, called stigmata, and by his position. The light, which traditionally was a symbol of the divine, is now used to murder people. We can almost hear the man saying, referencing the fact that these soldiers are following orders without thinking, that they lose their individuality and a sense of accountability with their uniform. But that man could also be saying, since all this barbaric violence, like in many wars, seems so difficult to justify. Goya, unlike his contemporaries, didn't depict heroes. He painted the common man, and by doing so, he made this painting one of the scariest of all. He reminds us that we, or anyone, could be the victims, or even worse, the oppressors.