Goya’s Executions of May 3, 1814 — Context and Analysis

Goya: The Shootings of May 3

1 — Context

GOYA: The Shootings of May 3rd. This is the most representative work of Francisco Goya (1746–1828). His life takes place between two historical periods: the old regime and the new era led by the spirit of the Enlightenment. In these years Goya began his studies in Zaragoza and later settled in Madrid, where he was introduced at court as a painter of cartoons and then became a court painter.

Early in the new period, Goya became the creator of a revolutionary, personal pictorial language and renewed landscape painting. His style shows rich and complex developments, becoming a link between Baroque and contemporary painting. Goya is the inheritor of the realist tradition of Baroque painting, while at the same time he promotes a pictorial revolution through an expressionistic language, opening new paths for art that lay the foundation of contemporary painting.

2 — Identification

In 1814 Goya painted two historical works for the Spanish monarchy to recall the national uprising against the French: May 2 and Executions of May 3. The oil on canvas called "The Shootings" depicts the repression by French forces of Spanish civil rebels on 2 May. The scene has great dramatic force: a dark setting in which soldiers are prepared to fire on Spanish patriots. (Talk about what you see in the image.)

The iconographic treatment offers a significant new purpose. Goya abandons the heroic, glorifying vision and instead represents the bloody end of the struggle to expose the irrationality and brutality of war. The protagonists in the picture are the people.

3 — Analysis

Goya adopts a formal language that seeks expressionist dramatic sensations and feelings. His analysis can be broken down into several points:

1. Treatment of forms: a synthetic approach. Figures occupy a clear space for the benefit of formal simplification and expressive deformation to heighten drama. The expressive intensity is achieved through the richness of gesture — talking about the expressiveness of the victims. The shooters appear impersonal and faceless.
2. Space: the scene is constructed in a simple framework which enhances the drama. There is little illusion of three-dimensional space; the depth is compressed to maintain theatrical tension.
3. Composition: the composition is organized from the foreground, which separates the positions and illumination of the condemned soldiers. The main characters are the victims grouped at the table or center, who show signs of expressive emotion through light and color. In the image are displayed the corpses, the person who will be shot and is sentenced.

4 — Technical Resources

Color: loose brushstrokes, thick impastos and stains form the girders of a dark and narrow palette — black, ochre and gray — which is broken and contrasted by shockingly bright whites, yellows and reds.

Light: light is projected violently and used in a highly contrasted, dramatic role. A focal light coming from a lamp projects strongly on the group of victims. Intense shadows and darkness are also displayed to increase the emotional impact.

Iconography, color and light function together to make Goya's indictment of war unmistakable: the human victims are foregrounded while the executioners remain anonymous and mechanical.