The Third of May 1808

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The Third of May 1808
Francisco Goya, 1814-15
Oil on canvas
266 × 345 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

The Third of May 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid is a 1814 oil painting by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya. It depicts a scene from the Spanish war of liberation when many innocent citizens were shot by Napoleon's troops. The painting measures 3.45 by 2.66 meters, was completed in 1814 and is on display in Museo del Prado, in Madrid.

The picture was painted by order of the Spanish king together with The Second of May 1808 (also known as The Charge of the Mamelukes) to enable Madrid’s people to stand against the forces of Napoleon. They may have been made from sketches drawn by witnesses at the shootings.

Both the night and symmetrical composition of the subjects stress the drama: those being shot with their faces looking ahead, filled with feeling, and the soldiers from behind, depicting evil's machinery. The positioning of the soldiers and the man with arms upraised is a concious reversal of the poses of the main characters in Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii. The white of the victim's shirt represents the innocence and purity of the some 5,000 Spanish civilians who were executed between May 2 and May 3. The scene makes this canvas one of the most dramatic and visually impressive paintings ever made.

Its influence on later war painters is extensive, most famously Picasso's Guernica.