Guernica vs. Liberty Leading the People: War in Art

Introduction: War, Ideology, and Art

When discussing war as an abstract concept, most individuals would agree that it is a deplorable, tragic phenomenon, even if it accomplishes a desired end. However, when considering specific, real-world wars, this unity breaks down, because ideology and nationalism frequently overpower individuals' otherwise rational opposition to conflict. This is true in art as anywhere else. By comparing Pablo Picasso's condemnation of violence, brutality, and inhumanity in his 1937 painting Guernica with Eugène Delacroix's triumphant Liberty Leading the People, one is able to better understand how the forces of ideology and nationalism can overpower human beings' common opposition to violence — to the point that war and death become a source of national pride and individual honor, so long as they are perpetrated in the name of popular demand.

Historical Context of Both Paintings

To begin, it is useful to provide some brief historical context for each painting. Picasso's Guernica was painted in response to the 1937 aerial bombing of a small Basque village of the same name, during which over a thousand civilians died. The village was a major center of resistance during the Spanish Civil War, and the attack represented one of the first deliberate bombings of a civilian population — a tactic that would become devastatingly common just a few years later as World War II enveloped the globe.

Similar to Guernica, which was painted the same year as the event it referenced, Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People was painted in 1830 to commemorate the July Revolution of that same year, which put an end to the Bourbon Restoration that had occurred following the first French Revolution. Although both paintings were relatively immediate responses to their respective military conflicts, they could not be more different in style, tone, or argument.

Compositional Similarities: A Floor of Corpses

Before discussing how the paintings differ, it is productive to highlight one further similarity, if only because doing so sharpens the contrast between the two works. Put simply, the foregrounds of both paintings are littered with corpses. Although Picasso and Delacroix have obvious stylistic differences, in terms of visual content and composition the two paintings are strikingly similar — to the point that the bottom left of both images consists of a corpse splayed out on its back, mouth open, staring upward with lifeless eyes. The bodies and limbs in Guernica become more entangled and less distinct as the eye moves to the right, but in both paintings the artists make a point of littering the ground — the literal and metaphorical foundation of the entire image — with dead bodies.

In both images, the eye is almost immediately drawn to these bodies on the ground, even though each artist uses a different method to achieve this effect. In Guernica, the eye is drawn to the splayed corpse because the pained expression on its face is the most easily recognizable object in the entire composition, requiring less cognitive effort to process than the surrounding abstract forms. In Liberty Leading the People, Delacroix draws the viewer's eye to the corpses through his use of light: although the illumination is focused on the figure of Liberty, it nevertheless lights the torso and naked groin of the corpse in the lower left, such that one must examine it even if Liberty is the first figure the eye seeks out.