Goya

The Third of May

1808

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes was born in a village on March 30, 1746 in Northern Spain. When he turned 14 years old of age the family moved to Saragosa where his father started working as a gilder. It was there he began his education as a painter. Under the teaching of Jose Luzan, a local painter, he began to work toward his future as a famous Romanticism idealistic painter. He was 62 years old when he painted “The Third of May” and he did see this war take place as at the time France was taking Spain.

The painting is very vivid and dramatic. It portrays death and war without a doubt in all its glory. At the time this took play Napoleon was taking France over. He had removed Charles IV and Ferdinand from the throne and put his brother in their place. At the time the Spaniards were weary of their King and his failing efforts to keep his word to restore order and peace. The French came with new enlightenment, however that turned dark on the Spanish residents quickly after French soldiers were killed in an attempt to keep a mob of angry Spanish citizens from preventing the last two members of the royal family from fleeing the country.

The French soldiers were killed in the effort to stop the angered Spanish citizens and that was what got the ball of disaster rolling downhill. When Joseph, Napoleons brother heard of the dead French soldiers he was so angry and ordered all the Spaniards killed. He not only went after the guilty but any innocent by standing citizen they could get their hands on. For 2 days the French lined up innocent men and shot them dead just because they were Spaniards. But that is the chaos of war, and that is what Goya put into this painting. He puts a little light on the man with his arms in the air making him the center of attention. Why? Because he is the subject. He is the face of war and victims that it consumes.

His lines are soft and centered, the coloring of dark blacks, browns, greens and grays on the clothes and surroundings of the soldier’s attire, the man waiting in line to be executed, all dark and grim. Those waiting for sure death covering their faces trying to lose their sight to not see death or look into the eyes of death. The soldiers with no faces because they are the essence of death itself. They are the executioners. Goya painted war and death and death has no face yet war has many. They are the victims, and these people were victims of the circumstances of war that is the point he is making, that is the subject of the painting. That is why he didn’t paint the soldiers with faces. He only gave the victims faces because their faces tell the story.

However the man in the center, yes, he is in the only light that glowed that horrific night. He is looking death in the face. Pleading that they stop this madness. Not fearing for himself but all humanity. His hands are straight up in the air not so much in surrender but saying “look at me, I am another yourself, I am a human who only wanted to be treated with equal rights. Please give my country back to me that I might have a home.” Then with his hands in the air knowing he is going to die for the fault of another, his hands show stigmata, martyrizing him, sanctifying him, like HIS GOD he will die but not without a good cause. His face tells you he is praying perhaps his soul is not pleading so much with the French soldier as with his Creator. Perhaps if he is going to die innocent at the hands of his enemy he is preparing himself in front of the other men to give them courage as well.

He prays…The glass container on which HE was worn was cracked by the candles heat.

And even though HIS face was torn HIS sacred Heart still beats….

Help me to have a sacred heart a heart that is filled with good…

Through this heart YOU will lead and guide me to live the life I should.

And if in any battle my enemy takes hold.

Then and there I will forgive him for not letting me grow old.

For when I reach my homeland…and I am perfectly complete…

I ask you then did I lose or did I defeat.

By Ana Fraijo 1997

This is a good example of spiritual context. The beautiful colors of yellow and white that create a heavenly hue making him glow like a beacon in the night. He is kneeling straight up with his head up, looking straight at his executioners, and yet, his face, full of disappointment and fear, full of compassion for the people around him he is pleading for them, he is pleading for himself. He realizes he cannot do anything to change this situation, but yet he glows with courage and peace to meet his maker.

He isn’t cowering from death, he isn’t volunteering either, but he is ready to face it. It is a good day to die. He will die a good death pleading for his people not like a coward but like a man. That is how this painting makes me feel and that is what I see. It is very expressive and to the point. He made the event clear and alive. He put me right in there.

The context in this painting is strong. There is a situation happening here and it is clear that war and genocide, and war crimes are taking place. This event went on for days before the French decided they killed enough. It was just that it was May 3^rd, 1808 when the death toll started. This was ugly, unnecessary, and brutal. There is your context. War it was all around them and death was inevitable. The French soldiers with no faces, the people standing in line like sheep to the slaughter. What a horrible sight to have to witness. Watching you friends, neighbors and even family members stand in front of the firing squad. What a display of brutal war. Suffering and sorrow also good examples of expressions of war and context.

Then you have political context. The French were fighting for power over Spain. They were there to tell their story as well. Napoleon was going to make Spain his and that was his only purpose. He didn’t care what he had to do he was a general and soldier and a conqueror. He was going to do his job and that was all he had in mind. The plan there was nothing but political context. You can see this in the French soldiers with no faces. They were given orders to kill without a conscience and they did. It meant nothing to them it was just following orders. More political context, business as usual.

I love the way Goya put the emphasis of light on him. It is written in a book by Goya’s gardener that he had a telescope and he did not live far from where the massacres took place. Isidoro the gardener said he was present with Goya when he looked through his telescope and described what he was witnessing. Later the next day Isidoro accompanied him to the site and found the pile of corpses. No wonder he painted with such feeling. This painting reflects that he did see this happen. He put all the right emotion into every color, for every character. He so romantically put oil to canvas and created the experience of the moment all over again. The style Romanticism and expressionism. The subject, war, chaos and death.

This painting has a subject, style, it is perfectly centered, color in motion, creating action and drama. A scene is happening here. The dark hues the represent death and chaos, the lighter hues on the man with stigmata in his hands screaming for hope and healing created by brighter colors that emphasize him. Everyone is perfectly proportioned and shaped evenly. Lines are soft. The brush strokes create texture and form on this 2-D oil on canvas 104 1/2 Inch x 135 ¼ inches painting.

Goya’s purpose for this painting was to make people look at war see that it is only death. War doesn’t solve anything. Sometimes when we are choosing to take another path of resistance we just wind up with another evil to contend with. Just like war today, there is no difference, we have not changed. We still go to war for pretty much the same reasons. This execution didn’t look any different than some of the footage that we have seen on television.

So I believe that Goya was making a very universal political as well as humanitarian message or point with this painting. He didn’t take sides, no, Goya didn’t chose evils. He just painted the news and the message of his day. Hoping to reach the hearts of men that they might see that war is not an answer or a solution to anything. War only bring death to the just and the unjust. Just like the rain, it falls on the just and the unjust. Execution in 1808, execution in 2012 war brings unnecessary death to innocent people. Be they people in a village in Spain that had nothing to do with a mobbing that killed French soldiers or Shiites being persecuted for their religious beliefs it is all just evil in the hearts of men. As the famous Jerry Garcia put it, “constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.” Jerry Garcia (1942 -1995).

Francisco de Goya, The Third of May, 1808, The Shootings at Mt. Principio outside Madrid, oil on canvas,

1814(Museo del Prado, Madrid)