Comparing Two Great Pieces by Pablo Picasso and by Francisco Goya

Today I will be comparing and contrasting two great pieces called “GUERNICA” by Pablo Picasso and “THE THIRD OF MAY” by Francisco Goya.The “GUERNICA” by Pablo Picasso was hard to understand at first but the longer you look at it you understand it is a really great piece of artwork, it has a lot of underlying meaning behind it, it is really hard to tell what is what in this piece but again that is what makes this piece great.Some events that took place during this is the memorial day massacre where the Chicago Police Department killed ten unarmed men during the Little Steel strike.

Another event that took place was that Hitler’s air force bombed a village,which was history’s first aerial saturation bombing of a civilian population, named “Guernica” hence the name of the artwork. Pablo Picasso was outraged with the war which is why he made this piece, this artwork represents anti-war.Even though Picasso gave his reasoning about the painting people are still finding other meanings behind the piece other than what Picasso has portrayed.Picasso was specifically painting how he felt about that event but people in the future might see it as something else and say there was another reasoning behind the piece.

The piece named “GUERNICA” went on tour for nineteen years to raise funds for spanish refugees.Picasso did not want the painting to return the painting to spain until they “enjoyed public liberties and democratic institutions,”.The reason Picasso used dark colors was to give the illusion that it was in the newspapers, because that is where he first heard the news from so it only makes sense to pick the colors relating to how the incident made you feel.The village was bombed to rubble and for no reason , just because the germans felt like testing their bombs out, this is truly a sad event that took place , I can see why Picasso was so outraged if someone bombed my homeland I would not be the same, but what Picasso was a symbol of anti war, he did not have to do anything except paint to catch people’s attention. 

Picasso , just like the rest of us , has a limit on what we can do to make people see what is going on with the war and how inhumane these acts were, innocent people running for their lives,children , livestock , houses blown up, without a second thought or any sense of remorse, war is a cruel thing and we should not have them.On first glance, Guernica’s composition appears confusing and chaotic; the viewer is thrown into the midst of intensely violent action. Everything seems to be in flux. The space is compressed and ambiguous with the shifting perspectives and multiple viewpoints characteristic of Picasso’s early Cubist style. Images overlap and intersect, obscuring forms and making it hard to distinguish their boundaries. Bodies are distorted and semi-abstracted, the forms discontinuous and fragmentary. Everything seems jumbled together, while sharp angular lines seem to pierce and splinter the dismembered bodies. 

However, there is in fact an overriding visual order. Picasso balances the composition by organizing the figures into three vertical groupings moving left to right, while the center figures are stabilized within a large triangle of light.Guernica is a town in the province of Biscay in Basque Country. During the Spanish Civil War, it was regarded as the northern bastion of the Republican resistance movement and the epicenter of Basque culture, adding to its significance as a target.Guernica is a town in the province of Biscay in Basque Country. 

During the Spanish Civil War, it was regarded as the northern bastion of the Republican resistance movement and the epicenter of Basque culture, adding to its significance as a target.The Republican forces were made up of assorted factions with wildly differing approaches to government and eventual aims, but a common opposition to the Nationalists. The Nationalists, led by General Francisco Franco, were also factionalized but to a lesser extent. They sought a return to the golden days of Spain, based on law, order, and traditional Catholic family values.

“The Third of May”, this piece has a lot of history behind it, Francisco Goya was a good painter and his piece showed us a lot about things played out during this time, what this painting “The Third of May” depicts a long trail of Spanish rebels lining up to be executed by French troops. The viewer’s eye is immediately drawn to the rebel figure wearing white, his arms raised as his harrowed expression faces the French soldiers readying to gun him down.

The guy with the white shirt stands out in the painting which was a great use of color in this rather dark painting, his faces show his disbelief that they are about to be killed, I look at this picture with remorse, this is a very meaningful piece that really shows us the effects of war and what could happen to any of us.The viewer could easily tell that the story in this painting will not end well. Its message is largely hopeless, which was especially represented by the central figure of the man in white. A common interpretation is how his arms are positioned in the air to channel Jesus Christ on the cross. Here, Goya imparts that, despite the tenacity of the human spirit, acts of heroism and sacrifice can end up futile under the grander schemes of war.

They aim their rifles at the Madrilenos who are to die. The scene ́s drama and tension are emphasized by the use of light, which strongly illuminates the heroes, making it possible to distinguish their characters and attitudes in a detailed psychological character study. These two paintings by these well known artists both represent the same thing, which is war and that hardships of war although they depict different things they have somewhat of the same meaning.

These two artists are from different places and different times.While looking at both paintings, The viewer can't help but feel sorry for the figures presented in them. Picasso's Guernica shows figures reaching out in pain after the bombing, reaching out in grief, and reaching out to help. The word that comes to mind when first looking at this painting is sorrow and despair. In Third of May, however, innocent looking people are being held at gunpoint by an armed force.The armed forces is at an unfair advantage, they were caught and were to be killed.