The Third of May 1808: Goya Records History - Term Paper Example

The Third of May 1808: Goya Records History!! The existence of the painting The Third of May 1808 suggests that renowned artist Francois Goya may have been a witness to a massacre that happened that morning following the May 2 insurrection of Spanish resistance to the French occupation was unsuccessful and retribution was delivered through the taking of the lives of the resistance fighters. The emotional content of the painting suggests that Goya was a witness to the brutality of the French military as they executed the fighters through a firing squad, cutting down the lives of those who were fighting for freedom. The massacre was a violent act that must have left a strong impression on the artist as there are two paintings in existence about the events, one for the fight on May 2nd and the other depicting the events of May 3rd. Whenever an action of war usurps the freedom of a region, resistance becomes the only way in which to fight the occupying armies. As most under armed and poorly manned military resistance goes when attempted by civilians, the rebellion was put down within a day even though French blood was spilled. In order to reassert power and order, the French occupying army arrested and quickly executed those who were most prominent in the uprising. The power of that event and the consequences that followed appeared to have inspire this painter to commemorate the event through the artist medium that was his skill. Client Last Name 2 Fig. 1 The Third of May 1808, 1814. According to the evidence that the painting presents, the idea that Goya witnessed the events is highly probable. The emotions on the canvas not only provide a tale of the heroism of the rebels, but it shows the despair and the fear that would beyond the romanticism that might be found in a piece that is only documenting what might have happened, rather than the details of what did happen on that sorrowful day. The French army is clearly considered the enemy as they stand in a row that is rigid and without individuality, while the Spanish rebels are shown having individual responses and movement, thus giving them a more human appearance. The French are shown as a unit, a single tide of destruction, where the Spanish are men, vulnerable and Client Last Name 3 emotional. The piece is one of two works of art created to commemorate the infamous date and actions of that heroic rebellion. The companion piece, The Second of May 1808, shows a fury of movement with no central action taking the focus of the work. This suggests that a point of view was found by the artist that expressed the confusion and excess of activity that was difficult to process into one focal moment. The emotional work of the Third of May 1808 is balanced by the action of The Second of May 1808. The work suggests a personal connection to the events that might have been due to Goya’s presence. Fig. 2 The Second of May 1808, 1814. Client Last Name 4 What is known about the movements of Goya in 1808 is that he left Madrid in October to travel back to his home town of Saragossa where he was commissioned to paint a work commemorating their resistance and success against the French, however that work didn’t happen and he traveled back to Madrid in December. Despite his portrait of Napoleon in 1810, his work during that period was defined by a series of sketches that would show the horrors of war. The work was a departure from anything that had been done before that time because the sketches showed not only the heroics of the victors, but the pain and horrors suffered by both sides of the conflict (Hagen and Hagen 55). The collection that was narrowed to a final 82 plates, titled Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War), was used to inspire work by Manet and Van Gogh (Hollingsworth 404). What we know of the skirmish between the French and the Spanish begins with the initial invasion that occurred in 1807 when Napoleon convinced the Spanish King, Charles IV, that they would together take Portugal and divide the spoils between them providing Spain allowed the French to come into their country to reinforce the army meant or Portugal. The true intent of the occupation was to put into power the co-sovereign, Ferdinand VII of Spain, son of the former King and the newest ally to Napoleon. By the time the government understood the intent of the ruse, it was too late. The populace reacted to the news that the royal family would be moved out of the country to France (Nicholls 234). The actions on May 2 were instigated when the crowd pulled an officer from his horse with the intent of hanging him. The skirmish itself was brief, but according to some written histories, General Murat proclaimed that “French blood has flowed. It demands vengeance!” and then made it immediately illegal for any Spaniard to carry a knife which almost all Spanish men Client Last Name 5 did carry (Hagen and Hagen 55). This resulted in a multitude of arrests that led to the massacre the following morning. The number of men who were executed that day number somewhere near 400. The intensity of such a mass execution would have had an impact on anyone near enough to see the episode in history. The fact is that Goya’s work had begun to change before the events of the occupation of Spain by Napoleon’s army. His work turned from the classic forms of portraiture and religious scenes to pictorial creations of the macabre and the grotesque around the year 1794. The work that he did for the Academy in that year showed scenes from an asylum and from wounded soldiers (Hollingsworth 404). Therefore, the change in style was not precipitated by his experiences during the occupation. However, a great deal of his work after this time was devoted to showing the horrors of war. In seeing these works, it is reasonable to assume that he saw a great many of the atrocities that he then depicted. The piece that he was commissioned to do in Saragossa was intended to show a heroic moment within the struggle between the French and the Spanish. The scene, as seen in a preliminary drawing, shows a story from the struggle in Saragossa where a cannon whose operators had been killed was successfully shot by a girl who climbed over the men to set the charge (Hagen and Hagen 56). This type of scene is more familiar to the earlier styles of the depiction of the events of war in that it shows a heroic moment at the hands of the victors. That Goya left his home town, never to complete the work is curious as the change in the style of war paintings would be soon be changed in his hands. One has to ask if there was another reason for the abandonment of this work or if his experiences in occupied Madrid made it to difficult for him to create this heroic work while the country was still in struggle. Client Last Name 6 Admittedly, Goya was a plagued figure whose imagination may have had a great deal to do with his creations. His visions are reported to have included bats and owls as images of terror for him (Connell 132). The end of his life was fraught with a great deal of fear and anxiety as he was deaf by this time and confounded by horrific imageries. As he went deaf after an illness in 1792, he was locked in a prison of silence during the occupation and war which may have contributed to his emoted fears in his work (Hollingsworth 404). The end of his life was also fraught with problems of a political nature. He had survived the French occupation and the rule of Napoleon’s brother over Spain, but when Ferdinand VII finally came back into power, Goya was no longer in favor with the court. Therefore, his life’s work was no longer respected and he was in his own world of fear and torment. There is speculation that were at least two more paintings about the events of that May in 1808. However, these paintings were either destroyed or never executed. The two paintings that exist are not mentioned anywhere in writings of the period so it is unknown if they were ever shown (Connell 194). It is not unlikely that the dislike that Ferdinand the VII held for Goya played a part in these issues. Ferdinand kept Goya on the payroll after he once again assumed the throne, but did not ask Goya for much in the way of work. Eventually, the Inquisition would take an interest in his work, but not for its aesthetic quality. A pair of paintings, one of a clothed woman and one of the same woman nude, were in the possession of the Inquisition. Goya and his son, Javier, were accused of collaborating with the French and moral depravity (Connell 196). Answer to these charges were created through a reasoned argument and the testimony of those who supported his patriotism. As for the depravity, there is no record as what was said other than to question whether one of the courts favorite Client Last Name 7 painters, Velazquez, was equally guilty of such moral depravity since his work also showed the naked human form (Connell 197). Fig. 3 La Maja Vestida 1800 Fig. 4 La Maja Desnuda 1803 Client Last Name 8 It is clear that the work that was done in The Third of May 1808 has a clear emotional connection to the events of that day in Madrid. The conclusion that can be drawn from the piece of work and the subsequent work done about the occupation and horrors of war leads to the assumption that Goya saw many of the events that he relayed in his artwork. There is no proof of this fact, but he was in Madrid during the executions and they were a powerful subject in his catalogue. Therefore, the question becomes whether or not the work should be viewed from the point of view that they are eye witness accounts. History has not revealed this fact to contemporary society. As well, the possible existence of two other paintings about the event and the disfavor that Goya had in the new Spanish court post the occupation suggests that there are events and stories from within that situation that could shed light on events that are not currently known. The work itself, however, reveals a shift in the way that art was to become used. Goya is considered one of the first of the Modernists as he began to reveal the emotional content of his thoughts rather than to elevate heroes, religious symbols, or strictly paint lovely portraits. His work reveals the reality of horror and the consequences of bloody and horrific acts. This accuracy in the portrayal of war suggests that the war was visually witnessed by Goya and then transferred into the work he was creating. There is no known answer to the question at hand as to whether Goya witnessed the events in question. According to literary evidence, it is the conclusion of this research that has brought this side of the story forward. However, there are many historians who state that it is unlikely that he saw these events. Unfortunately, there is no true written account to explain the work in question. Only speculation remains to determine the truth. Client Last Name 9 Illustrations Fig. 1 The Third of May 1808, 1814. Found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fr ancisco_de_Goya_y_Lucientes_023.jpg Fig. 2 The Second of May 1808, 1814. Found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File: El_dos_de_mayo_de_1808_en_Madrid.jpg Fig. 3 La Maja Vestida 1800. Found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goya_Maja_ubrana2.jpg Fig. 4. La Maja Desnuda 1803. Found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goya_Maja_naga2.jpg Client Last Name 10 Works Cited Connell, Evan S. Francisco Goya. New York: Counterpoint, 2004. Hagen, Rose-Marie, and Rainer Hagen. Francisco Goya, 1746-1828. Basic art series. Koln: Taschen, 2003. Hollingsworth, Mary. Art in World History. Firenze-Milano: Giunti, 2003. Nicholls, David. Napoleon: A Biographical Companion. Santa Barbara, Calif. [u.a.]: ABC-Clio, 1999. Read More