In 1814 Francesco Goya completed his painting Third of May 1808. Today it is housed in the Prado Museum in Madrid. It has come to be regarded as perhaps the first modernist work and was used by Picasso as inspiration for Guernica. It depicts a Spanish dissident at the moment of his execution by Napoleon’s army. Bodies lie at his feet and others await their fate nearby. His face depicts the emotion of his final moment and kneeling, he holds his hands up to the night sky. The soldiers point their guns at him as one, doing their ‘duty’ without reflection.

Francisco Goya, The Third of May, 1808, painted 1814-15, oil on canvas, 268 x 347 cm (Museo del Prado, Madrid)