Newly restored Goyas on show at Prado exhibition

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

MADRID (AFP) — Two newly restored paintings by Francisco Goya are the highlight of a new exhibition entitled "Goya in Times of War" that opens next week at Madrid's Prado Museum.

The show is one of several events planned in Spain to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the start of the 1808-1814 War of Independence against France and a popular uprising in Madrid against Napoleon's troops on May 2, 1808.

Two of Goya's most emblematic canvases depicting the revolt, "The Second of May, 1808: The Charge of the Mamelukes" and "The Third of May, 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid", were damaged when they were taken from Madrid to protect them from bombings during the 1936-39 civil war.

The restored and cleaned paintings, both completed in 1814, were...