The Third of May 1808

Goya petitioned the restored Spanish government in 1814 to fund two large paintings commemorating the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of 1808. The two Dos de Mayo paintings — the street fighting of 2 May 1808 and the executions of 3 May 1808 — were completed in two months. The Third of May 1808 depicts the execution of Spanish patriots on the slopes of Príncipe Pío hill by Napoleonic troops.

Unlike previous depictions of war, which showed heroic military figures in battle, Goya depicted the anonymous victims — ordinary people executed without trial. The central figure in white is not a soldier or a nobleman but an unidentified civilian, his arms spread in a posture that recalls both a gesture of supplication and the crucifixion of Christ. The soldiers have their backs to the viewer and are rendered as a faceless, mechanical killing machine.