The Third of May 1808

Revolution and Nightmare

Francisco de Goya

The Third of May 1808

1814

Oil on canvas, 268 × 347 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

At night a French firing squad shoots Madrid civilians seized after the uprising. Tomlinson (Berkeley) observes that this pair of canvases brings the brutality of the war etchings to the full size of a history picture.

  • Painted as the companion to the street-fight canvas; the Prado rejects the old story that both were made for street display.
  • Look at the man in white with raised arms, lit by a lantern and facing soldiers whose faces are hidden.
  • Broad brushwork and stark light and dark replace careful finish.
  • The scene honors anonymous townspeople as martyrs. That dignity, granted to people history would not otherwise name, made it a lasting model for later images of political violence.
  • Registered in the Prado's Large Deposit in 1834; the French writer Théophile Gautier saw it there in 1840.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (PD-Art)

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