The Third of May
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| The Third of May 1808 |
| Francisco Goya, 1814-15 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 266 × 345 cm |
| Museo del Prado, Madrid |
| 64 worlds greatest paintings |
The Third of May 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid is a 1814 oil painting by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya. It depicts a scene from the Spanish war of liberation when many innocent citizens were shot by Napoleon's troops the morning following a popular uprising in Madrid. Among several shootings, Goya chose the ones at the Príncipe Pío hill. The painting measures 3.45 by 2.66 meters, was completed in 1814 and is on display in Museo del Prado, in Madrid.
The picture was painted by order of the Spanish king together with The Second of May 1808 (also known as The Charge of the Mamelukes) to celebrate Madrid people's stand against the forces of Napoleon. They may have been made from sketches drawn by witnesses at the shootings.
Both the night and symmetrical composition of the subjects stress the drama: the faces of those about to be shot are filled with feeling, while the soldiers are shown from behind, their humanity erased and their being reduced to mere components in the implacable machinery of death. The positioning of the soldiers and the man with arms upraised is a conscious reversal of the poses of the main characters in Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii but is also a reminder of the crucifixion of Christ. The white of the victim's shirt represents the innocence and purity of the some 5,000 Spanish civilians who were executed between May 2 and May 3. The central hero's deeply suntanned appearance and clothing unmistakably indicates that he is an outdoors worker - an ordinary anonymous man at the centre of this great unfolding tragedy. He alone looks straight at the faceless enemy. Though on his knees he is a giant who towers above all at the very moment before his death. The scene makes the canvas one of the most dramatic images ever made.
Its influence on later war painters is extensive, most famously Picasso's Guernica.
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