War is hell. Literally. In an instant, in the blink of an eye, the world as we know it is torn apart and shredded. Normality explodes into atrocity as we see the depths of depravity that man can sink to. Even though their reasons for painting the pictures are different, Goya’s Third of May, 1808, and Picasso’s Guernica are testaments to the violence of war using specific events and symbolic features as their vehicle while their representations and styles are different. Goya and Picasso both depicted actual events, though their reasons for painting the scene were greatly different.
Goya requested official permission to paint the events of the Third of May, 1808 six years after the executions in response to a challenge about his sympathies during the French occupation (Grove). In 1808, Spain had been conquered by Napoleon, which was a welcome change as the citizens thought France would bring about reforms (Stockstad 954). On May 2, it was rumored that the French planned to kill the royal family and the people rioted. Hundreds of Spaniards were executed before dawn the next morning (Stockstad 954).
Picasso, on the other hand, was commissioned to create a painting for the Spanish Pavilion of the 1937 World’s Fair (Stoner). On April 27th, 1937, the Basque village in northern Spain was chosen for bombing practice by Hitler’s burgeoning war machine, and the hamlet was pounded with high-explosive and incendiary bombs for over three hours; Guernica burned for three days. Sixteen hundred civilians were killed or wounded. When news of the massacre reached Paris, millions protested. Eyewitness reports filled the front pages of Paris papers.
Picasso, upon seeing the stark black and white photographs, quickly sketched the first images of Guernica (Stoner). Goya’s painting is not just about a specific event, but delves into the cold, faceless, horrors enacted during war itself, whereas Picasso’s work is a reaction to a specific event and wants others to think about the lunacy of this specific event and take action. Goya’s generic statement about the horrors of war is portrayed through the faceless executioners, who may not be French soldiers as the French wore hats with a flattened brim in front and back while these appeared to be more like Russian hats (Khan).
These unknown men could be from anywhere. Seeing the soldiers lined up in a row, their backs turned to us, their aggressive stance with legs spread apart and guns held high give the feeling that nothing will hold them back from their appointed task, neither the prayers of the monk nor the pleas of Spaniards who are on their knees. Death does not come quickly to all as evidenced by the number of men still standing as this group is shot one at a time by all the riflemen as evidenced by the numerous bullet holes in the dead and the blood flowing from their wounds.
There is no mercy here, but a lesson to be learned. In Picasso’s statement about the horrors of war, you feel the immediacy of the bombing, along with the confusion, and horrific stark reality of a surprise attack from the victim’s point of view which evokes a response that this should not happen again. There are no bombs depicted, yet we see the mass destruction as it is happening. A woman runs screaming while holding her dead child. A warrior with a severed arm lays dead or dying while clutching a broken sword. A horse has a spear run through it.
The woman on the right stretches to the heavens as though she is beseeching God to rescue her right now; this effect is enhanced by her hand which is at an impossible angle. We see only the victims, not the instruments of destruction, so we empathize with the victim and only see it from the point of view of the artist who was horrified by this specific event. Speculations as to the exact symbolic meanings are as numerous and varied as the viewers of both these paintings. Goya painted a church or monastery in the background. Is this to indicate the callous disregard of the suffering of the Spanish people (Machanley)?
Could this, along with the praying monk, be a statement about the inability of the church to protect its parishioners? S. A. Khan of the Presidency University in Bangladesh feels that it showed just retribution for the Spanish Inquisition. Picasso stated that the horse in Guernica was connected to the idea of the suffering of the people (Stoner). Bulls are also known to be depicted as the victims of suffering. Standing enigmatically in the background, the bull in Guernica was interpreted alternately as the brutish Fascist state and the Spanish people (Stoner). Picasso also added a single image of twentieth century technology.
In Spanish, an electric bulb is called ‘bombia,’ and ‘bombia’ is like the diminutive of ‘bomb. ‘ So, ‘bomba-bombia’ is a verbal poetic metaphor for the terrifying power of technology to destroy us (Stoner). These emotionally charged paintings used specific styles to enhance the viewer’s feelings about war. Goya used the dramatic, emotion-evoking style of Romanticism to heighten our revulsion and understanding of the horrors of war. Through the use of tenebrism, he makes the night sky almost black while our eyes focus on the white garmented individual through the use of spot-like lighting.
His arms are thrust upward reminiscent of Christ’s position on the cross, denoting his sacrifice, while others lie dead at his feet, their blood running down the hill (Kleiner and Mamiya 831). The juxtaposition of the solid line of executioners versus the chaotic stance of victims intensifies the cold heartedness of the executioners. Picasso used the fragmentation of analytic cubism to give form to the horror – dissections and contortions parallel what happened in real life. There is no single figure or area that stands out; the figures are jumbled and difficult to discern depicting the rampant confusion during the bombing.
Use of twisted perspective and, through the use of cubism, changes of shapes and angles of view gives the appearance that we see the action from several sides at once. Picasso’ reduction of the palette to black, white & shades of gray emphasizes the scene’s severity and starkness while mimicking the newspaper photos that publicized the atrocity (Kleiner and Mamiya 1022). Using differences in style and form, both Goya and Picasso made emphatic non-verbal symbolic statements about the horrors of war while using actual events in the Third of May, 1808 and Guernica, respectively. Millions have been impacted by the portrayal of war in these paintings.
Work 1: Third of May, 1808, Francisco Goya http://www. eeweems. com/goya/3rd_of_may. html Work 2: Guernica, Pablo Picasso http://images. google. com/imgres? imgurl=http://homepage. mac. com/dmhart/WarArt/Picasso/Guernica/Guernica. JPG&imgrefurl=http://homepage. mac. com/dmhart/WarArt/S tudyGuides/Picasso. html&h=465&w=1000&sz=90&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=k0rik0Udl_OgNM:&tbnh=69&tbnw=149&prev=/images%3Fq%3DPICASSO%2BGUERNICA%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den Works Cited Grove Art Online. Goya, Francisco de: The mature Goya, 1793-1819. Oxford University Press 2007. 12 May 2007. Khan, S. A. “Goya’s Third of May – Retribution and Justice. Violence in European Paintings,” 17 Sept. 2006. Bangladesh New Nation. 12 May 2007. http://nation. ittefaq. com/artman/exec/view. cgi/56/30713 Kleiner, Fred S. and Mamiya, Christin J. Gardner’s Art Through The Ages, 12th ed. , Vol. II, Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth. Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History, Revised 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall. Stoner, Barry. “Guernica: Testimony of War. ” Treasures of the World, PBS. 12 May 2007. .
