After visiting the Prado in Madrid I returned home and still being awestruck by the mastery of Goya’s imaging I painted a commentary on his “El tres de mayo”. Aside from mimicking the original brushwork and incorporating the classical earth toned pallete into my imagery, I decided to play with the given composition as well.
Consequently I’ve wrapped the monumental original, stripping it of much of its context but concentrated on the most important aspect of pacifism. The depicted soldier’s gun is cut on the left and enters the composition back from the right. Hence the soldier is pointing it at himself which brilliantly underlines the principle of war and violence – whoever starts the violence ends up as the very victim of it because the cycle has thus begun.
Violence doesn’t suppress dissent – it provokes more of it.