Allegorie der Stadt Madrid

In 1810 Madrid's city council asked Goya to honour its new king, Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, installed on the Spanish throne while French armies held the country. Goya painted this allegory of the city with the king's portrait in the oval held aloft by two figures. Then the war turned. When Joseph fled in 1812, the portrait was painted over with the word Constitution. He came back, and a pupil restored his face. He left again, and it was covered once more. The oval was repainted at least four times as power changed hands, and what fills it today, added decades later, are the words Dos de Mayo, the Second of May, the day in 1808 Madrid rose against the French.