Season of revolution: Goya's The Third of May, 1808

Spring is not just a time for trees in bloom and flowers in the meadow. It is also the season of revolution: the Prague Spring and the Arab Spring associate natural rebirth with great reawakenings of peoples. In Madrid in spring 1808, the people rose up against their occupiers, the French armies of Napoleon. A bloody insurrection on 2 May – which Goya also painted – was followed by the summary executions of rebels depicted in this harrowing work. These men who face a firing squad by the light of a cruel lantern meet death on a warm spring night Illustration: The Gallery Collection/Corbis