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The Third of May, 1808
3 years ago
General
A night scene, illuminated only by a lantern. A man in a white shirt, an imploring expression on his face, his outstretched arms in a Christ-like gesture, faces the raised rifles of a firing squad. At the man's feet is a bloody pile of bullet-riddled corpses and a monk kneeling in prayer. Behind him stretches a line of terrified men, one biting his nails nervously, two with their faces buried in their hands -- they're next. To the right of the man in the white shirt, another victim glares at his executioners, his fist raised in a final gesture of defiance. The firing squad is depicted as a faceless mass, not even human, no more than an efficient killing machine in a slaughterhouse.
Goya's painting "The Third of May, 1808" commemorates the victims of a war atrocity, the viewer helpless to stem the feelings of horror and pity stirred up by the image. That's what art can do.
(There's a companion piece to this painting: "The Second of May," depicting Napoleon's Egyptian mercenaries, who'd been sent in to break up a public demonstration, being slaughtered by the angry mob. The following day, French troops rounded up the demonstrators -- in reality, it was about a hundred random Spanish men unlucky enough to be noticed by the French that day -- and were marched outside Madrid's city walls to be shot. So why is "The Second of May" not nearly as well-known as its companion piece? Because it's not a very good painting: Goya gives us a very busy image with everything happening all over the canvas all at once. There's no focal point for the viewer; everything is given equal importance, meaning Goya failed in his duty to make some hard artistic choices.)
"The Third of May" is one of those images you don't forget once you've seen it. Philistine that I am, I'm wearing it on a t-shirt.
Goya's painting "The Third of May, 1808" commemorates the victims of a war atrocity, the viewer helpless to stem the feelings of horror and pity stirred up by the image. That's what art can do.
(There's a companion piece to this painting: "The Second of May," depicting Napoleon's Egyptian mercenaries, who'd been sent in to break up a public demonstration, being slaughtered by the angry mob. The following day, French troops rounded up the demonstrators -- in reality, it was about a hundred random Spanish men unlucky enough to be noticed by the French that day -- and were marched outside Madrid's city walls to be shot. So why is "The Second of May" not nearly as well-known as its companion piece? Because it's not a very good painting: Goya gives us a very busy image with everything happening all over the canvas all at once. There's no focal point for the viewer; everything is given equal importance, meaning Goya failed in his duty to make some hard artistic choices.)
"The Third of May" is one of those images you don't forget once you've seen it. Philistine that I am, I'm wearing it on a t-shirt.
GabrielLaVedier
~gabriellavedier
A breathtaking work to be sure. It makes all the emotion come through even for me, and on most accounts, I dislike Spaniards and like the French (but, somewhat naturally, hate Napoleon), so Goya is really on top of his game.
Aww, cut the Spaniards some slack. Sometimes we like Amontillado better'n champagne, y'know?
GabrielLaVedier
~gabriellavedier
Granted! But there have been many missteps. From 1492 (both tragedies of that year) to Franco. France is a mess too, but an artistic mess. The writers really put a fine point on how messy they are.
Flatrat
~flatrat
There are dozens of period photographs, taken by common Wehrmacht soldiers, in defiance of strict orders to the contrary during the second World War, that convey this same confluence of emotions/defiance to the horrors of the Einzatsgruppen that raged across most of eastern Europe during the spreading of the Holocaust. That we've chosen to forget these images, for the sake of our current political mental atrophies, is a reflection on our genetic inability to learn from our mistakes.
