Reading the Image

by Alice Guillermo
Basic Information
 Title of the Work
– may be significant or insignificant
 Artist’s Name
– biographical data
 Medium and Technique
– documentation, material and technique
 Dimension or measurement
– format of work (rectangular, etc)
 Date of work
– date, year, period
 Provenance
– present owner, collector of work
The Third of May 1808 by FRANCISCO DE GOYA
Oil on Canvas, 266 x 345 cm
(1814) Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain
The Four Planes
 Basic Semiotic Plane
– study of signs, elements, technical
and physical aspects of work.
 Visual Elements
 Choice of medium and technique
– material and style
 Format of work
– symbolic elements, figurative representations
- shape of work
 Physical Properties and marks of the work
– significations of the work (importance/relevance)
 Description
When: The Third of May 1808
What time: Early hours of the morning
What: uprising.

Description: two masses of men: (1) one a rigidly poised firing

squad, (2) disorganized group of captives held at gun point.

How: Executioners and victims face each other across a

narrow space

Analysis: Contrast of the soldiers' attitudes and the steely line

of their rifles, with the crumbling irregularity of their target.
 Symbol: A square lantern situated on the
ground between the two groups

 Meaning: dramatic
The brightest illumination falls on the huddled victims to the
left, whose numbers include a monk or friar in prayer.
Physical Description
 Position: right and center
 condemned figures stand next in line to be shot.
 central figure is the brilliantly lit man kneeling
▪ his arms flung wide in either appeal or defiance.
(surrender)
▪ yellow and white clothing repeats the colors of the
lantern.
▪ plain white shirt and sun-burnt face show he is a
simple laborer.
 Background:
 between the hillside and the shakos
▪ crowd with torches
▪ Onlookers
▪ more soldiers
▪ Or victims.
Iconic plane or image
 Signifier-signified relationship
 Particular features, aspects, and qualities of the image
 Includes the choice of subject
▪ (socio-political implications)
 Position of figures
 Presentation of the image
▪ (frontal, three-fourths, etc.)
 Style of figuration
 Proportion of the body
 deals with the image itself
Position
 the man with raised arms
 compared to a crucified Christ.
 similar pose in Juan Luna’s Spoliarium, and Picasso’s
Guernica.

 figure displays stigmata-like marks on his right

hand

 center of the canvas

 traditional attribute of the Roman soldiers who arrested
Christ in the garden.
Contextual plane

 Full meaning of the work (human and social

implications)
 Relationship of art and society
 Complex such as – concepts, values, emotions,
attitude, atmosphere, sensory experience
 Personal and social circumstance of its
production.
 It contains allusions to personal or public
events, conditions, stages, as well as influences
Full meaning

 it shows the progress of time

 death presents a conclusive episode,

imbued with the virtue of heroism.

 It presents a mechanical formalization of

murder.
 the corpse of a man, splayed on the ground in
the lower left portion of the work.
 disfigured head and body render resurrection
impossible.

 The painting can not be described as pleasing

 colors are restricted to earth tones and black,
punctuated by bright flashes of white and the red
blood of the victims.
 quality of the pigment foreshadows Goya's later works:
a rough solution producing a matte, sandy finish
 Finally, there is no attempt by the artist to soften the
subject's brutality through technical skill.
Evaluative plane

 Form and content

 Evaluation of the material
 Full meaning of the work
 Real life and the real world
 Analysis and examination
 It depicts an execution, an early event in
the so-called Peninsular War between
France and Spain.
 no attempt to find transcendence, and
 no sense that the sacrifice of life will lead to
salvation.
 he wears yellow and white: the heraldic colors
of the papacy.
 The victim
 is as anonymous as his killers
 (beneath) a bloody and disfigured corpse
 (behind and around) others share the fate

 nobility is replaced by futility and irrelevance,

the victimization of mass murder, and
anonymity as a hallmark of the modern
condition.
Deeper Meaning
 is an indiscriminate killing of civilians by French
soldiers
 is a painting of the massacre,
 shows terrified civilians facing a firing squad
 Intends to arouse anger and hatred
 is a highly romantic picture of a deeply emotional
episode.
 is cited as an influence on Pablo Picasso's 1937
Guernica, which shows the aftermath of the Nazi
German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil
War.
By pair,
Analyze the painting
THE PARISIAN LIFE by Juan Luna
using the planes by Alice Guillermo

½ crosswise
Parisian Life by Juan Luna.
Oil on Canvas. 22 x 31 in. (57 x 79 cm.)
1892. Philippine Museum