Collection/1800s

The Third of May 1808 by Francisco Goya

French soldiers shoot Spanish civilians who had risen up in Madrid the day before. Goya painted it in 1814, six years later, after Napoleon’s armies had been driven out.

The soldiers are a faceless row of guns. All the light falls on one man in a white shirt, arms flung wide. Look at his right palm: Goya gave him a mark like the wound of Christ.