Francise de Goya painted "Third of May 1808” in 1814 which is right after The Peninsular War. The painting is oil on canvas and the size is 266x345 centimeters. The huge size of the painting could simply imply the painter’s ambition. Also, the painting itself seems to convey some kind of story and created a overall mood. For the following paragraph, I will tentatively talk about some interesting details I found based on my observation.
The painting’s composition as a whole is dividing it into two distinct parts. The soldiers, on the one hand, is colored with grey, black and other dark colors; The guy who raises his hands up, on the other hand, is in white and only the space around him has some light and clearance. The guns holding by the soldiers are pointing to him who creates strong tension and conflict. When we look at the men in white, emotion and perception, we can see that he is very nervous and grievous.…show more content… For example, the person in white is looking directly to the soldiers, but the first soldier’s eyes seem to be drawn by the bald guy who is on the position of attacking. The bald guy shows anger with his fist and body position. The person beside the bald man was looking at the top and far. From my perspective, I believe he is frightened by the soldiers and the guns. The last person who has eye contact is the guy in the corner who is glaring at the soldiers. He hides behind most the people and observes the situation. Furthermore, the painter also uses perspective, colors and scale to represent the spaces. The painters created some kind of illusion of space when painting the soldiers. Goya used foreshortening on the dead figure pointing toward us, the observer, to create space. Lastly, the soldiers are in a receding diagonal position. He also created the space depth by having the gradual change of the brightness and