One of the "must-see's" for my 2017 trip to Spain was Picasso's Guernica. This mural-sized painting is perhaps the most moving and powerful anti-war painting in Western art. It was returned to Spain from the Museum of Modern Art in New York some years after the death of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco - Picasso having stipulated that the painting not be returned to Spain until democracy was re-established there. It now resides at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.

On July 18, 1936, right-wing Spanish military officers in Spanish Morocco revolted against the elected leftist Republican government. The rebellion, which became the Spanish Civil War, spread quickly to mainland Spain. General Francisco Franco led the revolt of what came to be known as the Nationalist faction.

The Nationalists proposed the Basque village of Guernica to the Germans as a target to test the concept of aerial bombardment of cities. "At about 16:30 on Monday, 26 April 1937, warplanes of the German Condor Legion, commanded by Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, bombed Guernica for about two hours. Germany, at this time led by Hitler, had lent material support to the Nationalists. Later, intense aerial bombardment became a crucial preliminary step in the Blitzkrieg tactic." (Wikipedia)

It was the first time that aerial bombardment had been directed against civilians in Europe. The town of Guernica was annihilated.

When the attack occurred, Picasso was struggling to create a large mural for the 1937 World's Fair in Paris. The mural had been commissioned by the Republican government hoping to gain support for their cause. Picasso read an account of the bombing of Guernica and immediately abandoned his original approach for the mural. He began work on Guernica and finished the painting, which is more than 11' tall and more than 25' wide, in 35 days.

While in Madrid, I visited the Museo Reina Sofia. Guernica is the museum's most famous painting and its greatest attraction. Set in a large room, it presents an impressive and powerful depiction of the human suffering caused by war. As was true in the bombing of the village, most of the casualties are women and children. On the left, a woman holds her dead baby and wails in agony. On the right, what might be flames from the bombardment or the jaws of some beast consume a screaming person.

The light bulb at the top unmasks war as the senseless destruction of human life that it is. A figure appears to be holding a light over the painful scene and enters the space from some outside position, becoming an empathic witness to the suffering.

The bull and the horse are animals associated with Spain. Picasso refused to say what these figures symbolize in the painting. The gored horse is thought by some to represent Spanish democracy, being destroyed by the Nationalists. By others, the horse is thought to represent the innocents (the "non-combatants", the "civilians") suffering in the midst of war - a "portrayal of the people as a helpless animal dying a senseless death, without the light of hope." The bull, on the other hand, remains unharmed - the only figure in Guernica not in distress. Is the bull a symbol of a fascist state watching impassively as the people suffer? Or is it a future Spain that survives fascism and returns to democracy?

Picasso's great work is prophetic. Although civilian casualties had occurred in past wars, the scale of the civilian suffering and death caused by bombing from the air was inconceivable. Picasso captures the utter hopelessness of innocents in the face of overwhelming destructive force raining down on them from above.

- RJC, 1/31/18