The story behind the painting
The Third of May 1808
A man in a white shirt raises his arms before a firing squad. Goya makes him the brightest figure in a scene of fear and impending death.
- One lantern. It lights the victims, never the killers.
- Arms up, about to be shot. Some see wounds in his palms, like Christ's.
- The soldiers have no faces. Just one long line of rifles.
- At his feet, the men already shot.
- Behind him, the next ones. Some cover their faces.
- Goya asked to paint this himself. During Spain's Civil War, it survived a truck crash.
The Third of May 1808 is an 1814 painting by Francisco de Goya of a French firing squad shooting prisoners after the Madrid uprising of May 1808, centred on a man in a white shirt who raises his arms in the light of a lantern; it belongs to the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid.
What does The Third of May 1808 show?
A man in a white shirt raises his arms before a firing squad. Goya makes him the brightest figure in a scene of fear and impending death.
The title refers to executions following the Madrid uprising of May 1808. Goya painted the work in 1814, looking back at the violence of the French occupation.
Why does Goya light only the victims?
A lantern sits on the ground between the groups. It lights the condemned men, exposing their faces while leaving the soldiers’ identities hidden.
The central man’s open arms contrast with the closed line of rifles. His gesture can recall images of martyrdom while remaining the movement of a frightened person.
The only light in the picture comes from the lantern on the ground, as the art historian Christine Zappella points out. The Fundación Goya en Aragón notes that its cube-shaped glare heightens the cruelty and the blood on the ground. It also lets each condemned man show his own response: the foundation reads rage in clenched fists, anguish in the man in white, pleading in crossed arms and regret in hands raised to a mouth. The soldiers, by contrast, have no faces. And look at the man's right hand: Zappella sees the stigmata of Christ there. (Smarthistory)
How did Goya compose the execution?
The soldiers turn their backs to us. Repeated postures and weapons make them appear to act as a single force.
Bodies lie in the foreground, and other prisoners wait behind. Goya brings the aftermath, the imminent act and the fear of what follows into one scene.
What happened to The Third of May 1808 after Goya painted it?
The dark hill and distant city offer little visual release. Light keeps drawing us back to the people who face the weapons.
Goya asked for this commission. In a letter of 24 February 1814 to the Regency Council, he offered to immortalise the uprising's most notable and heroic deeds. What he delivered was no victory scene, and the Fundación Goya en Aragón notes that the new absolutist authorities did not receive it or its companion, The Second of May 1808, well. By 1834 both were in the Prado's storerooms; they went on display in 1868, after the museum was nationalised. In 1937, on its way to Valencia during the Civil War, this canvas was damaged at its lower left. Manet and Picasso both drew on it. (Fundación Goya en Aragón)
Look again at the man’s face. The painting gives a historical event its force through a person whose fear is visible and individual.
The details at a glance
Sources and further reading
- The Third of May 1808 — Museo Nacional del Prado
- Artist biography: Francisco de Goya (Wikipedia, English)
- The Third of May 1808 (Wikipedia, English)