The Shootings of May 3rd
- Created by: Shortsammi
- Created on: 14-11-17 15:54
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- Goya 'The Shootings of May 3rd, 1808'
- Introduction/ description
- Multifigure- there is a disproportion and a confusion in perspective
- Shows soldiers executing civilians
- The scene seems to be at night
- Main figure is the victim of the shooting who is lit by the lamp, he wears yellow and white and throws his arms up in the air
- Dramatical spotlighting
- How is it political?
- Shows true events of what occured on May 3rd, 1808, the painting is one of two, the other being 'The 2nd of May'
- Shows the shootings of Spanish civilians who had been rounded up after the riot and brawl the occured on May 2nd. After Napoleon influenced the abdication of King Charles IV and Queen Maria Luisa
- When the queen returned to get her children, the brawl broke out in the Puerto Del Sol in the centre of Madrid between the Spanish citizens including some of the Spanish and French soldiers
- After the brawl on May 2nd, on May 3rd a high-ranking French soldier rounded up anyone who was carrying a weapon which was the majority of the Spanish citizens and the to execute them
- The painting criticises the French for persecuting any Spanish citizen who was holding weapons on the 2nd, most of Spanish citizens were artisans = carrying knives. Many innocent people murdered
- The piece was commissioned by the government to show the martyrdom of the Spanish people
- Goya himself wasn't necessarily anti-French, he witnessed the chaos of Spain whilst the unholy trinity was around, however the danger of being pro-French meant that he paints 'The shootings of May 3rd,1808' which is sympathetic to the Spanish
- 'The 2nd of May' which is critical to both the French and the Spanish
- The scene however is unrealistic because the soldiers shooting are too close
- How is it beyond political (religious/ romantic?
- The painting is romantic through its spiritual and religious undertones
- Central figure is a martyr, the scene shows a martyrdom. He wears heraldic colours of the pope
- The scaling of the martyr makes him a giant compared to the others, refers to the martyr becoming larger than life at the moment of death
- There is a priest kneeling in prayer
- Martyr resembles Christ, the stigmata is shown, the martyr holds his arms up as though he was being crucified
- There is a hooded woman who represents the Virgin Mary, as though she was attending the crucifixion scene
- There whole scene shares parallels to the scene of when Christ was arrested by the Romans
- The Lamp in the middle is debated to be either being a reference to the eye of God or the light of death
- Emotive- shows blood and gore, the darkened nature and tragedy of humanity, the anti-englightenment
- Introduction/ description
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