Question

Discuss both Picasso's Guernica and Goya's Executions of May 3, 1808 as anti-war artworks. What are the historical circumstances for each? In what ways are they different? How are they the same?

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. Also, I recommend that you look at both the paintings and add your personal views if necessary.

(Answer) Picasso's Guernica: In the year 1937, the Nazi’s bombed a town called Guernica in Spain. Spanish artist Pablo Picasso severely criticised this attack through his work. He painted the Guernica in order to condemn these Nazi actions.

Goya's Executions: Francisco Goya, in the year 1814, painted the “1808.” It is called so because it commemorated the peninsula wars where Napoleon’s armies were resisted by the Spanish around the year 1808.

Similarities: Both paintings depict the suffering of people. Furthermore, the perpetrators are depicted as brutish forces. These paintings are both mirrors of war and have a certain “ugly” tone to it. Both paintings have the elements strewn across the canvas in a chaotic manner, just like the scene of a war might be. They are both revolutionary paintings.

Differences: Goya’s is oil on canvas in a baroque style with certain religious inferences. For instance, a victim in the painting even has the stigmata on his palm like Christ.

Picasso’s is surrealism. The brutishness of the perpetrators is depicted as them being animals. The painting is monochromatic and dark. Perhaps, it was a way to bring out the lamenting of the artist.