Being the legacy of one of the world’s prominent artists and the representation of Romanticism in art, Goya’s “Third of May, 1808” depicts the horrors of war and serves as a caution to the future generations. In their video, the members of the Smarthistory channel discuss the implied meanings of the painting, dissecting the author’s intent and at the same time sharing their impressions. At a rather early point of the analysis, one of the interlocutors mentions that the man in the painting may serve as a Biblical allegory for Christ as the “martyr for Spain” (“Images and Power: Goya’s Third of May, 1808 (1814)”).
Afterward, the conversation veers into the analysis of the implied artificiality of the atmosphere in the painting. The participants of the discussion infer that the lack of space helps to convey the claustrophobic feeling of the war, conveying its horrors. Thus, the painting expresses a very humanistic idea about the futility of war.
Work Cited
“Images and Power: Goya’s Third of May, 1808 (1814).” YouTube, uploaded by Smarthistory. art, history, conversation. Web.