Guernic Symbolism, Significance, And The Spanish Civil War

“Guernica”: Symbolism, Significance, and the Spanish Civil War “Guernica,” painted by the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso in 1937, is a memorial of the bombing of the town of Guernica in Northern Spain by the Nazi’s during the Spanish Civil War (Petersen). The Spanish Civil War was an amalgamation of many different political factions into two opponents: The Republicans and the Nationalists. The Spanish Civil War, however, was not based solely on combative political ideologies. It was correspondingly due to many different political, economic, and militaristic struggles during the early twentieth century and the resulting frustration, anger, and class-antipathy corroded Spanish society. The masterpiece, “Guernica” has many symbols and objects
Horses are and have been companions to man for ages; nevertheless, it is the horse in “Guernica” which is being hunted and destroyed. Picasso’s loyalties lied with the victims of the war and it is known he was not in favor of Franco as he created an etching with an accompanying poem in 1937 called “The Dream and Lie of Franco” (Gottlieb, 110). Understanding Picasso’s devotions is imperative to evaluate the significance of the horse. Gottlieb also describes the horse symbolizing “…the agony of Nationalist Spain” (106). This interpretation differs by focusing the ‘true victims’ of the bombardment being the very people who promote the violence and asked the Nazis to come and bomb Guernica, Spain (Anderson). It is not feasible for Picasso to have been so against the Nationalist government yet make them the victims of his art. Moreover, Petersen describes Picasso’s motivation to create the work, “In a show of hatred for what had transpired, Picasso painted a [huge] mural eleven and a half feet high and twenty-five feet eight inches wide which was meant to protest the war. Though the work was highly controversial, he received tremendous praise for the