The Third of May 1808

In the dark of night a French firing squad takes aim at a cluster of Madrid citizens, and at the center a man in a white shirt flings his arms wide in a cruciform blaze of terror and defiance, a lantern throwing harsh light on the slaughter while the dead lie bleeding and the next victims cover their eyes. Goya's Third of May 1808 reinvented history painting - no glory, no heroes, only anonymous men murdered by a faceless machine. Now in the Prado, it stands as one of the most powerful protests against the horror of war ever painted.