Presentation of captives to Lord Chan Muwan, Maya, room 2 of structure 1, Bonampak, Mexico, 790 vs. Third of May, 1808, Francisco Goya, Madrid, Spain, 1815

The important aspects of Mayan culture recorded in the Bonampak mural demonstrate warriors surrounding captives. The artists placed decorated warriors on the top and bottom terraces of the mural. In between to the two tower levels are the captives who are not in as decorated clothing and lie on the stairs. In the top center of the Bonampak mural, a central warlord is holding and staff and seems to be demanding something of the naked and knelling captive. Below the knelling captive is a dead captive sprawled out in front of the Lord. Surrounding the deal captive are numerous other naked captives awaiting their deaths by the Lord. Captives were often slaughtered for sacrifice or for the purposes of war. Because the Bonampak mural was probably not patron and approved by Lord Chan Muwan himself, the painting offers an eyewitness view to what life was like in Mayan culture at the time. The artist highlighted the power of the Lord in his clothing and stature in comparison to the captives that surrounded him. In contrast to the Mayan outlook on violence in Society is the view of the Spanish massacre during the early 19^th century through the eyes of Francisco Goya. In Goya’s, Third of May, 1808 a French firing squad attacks a group of Spanish peasants. The peasants, who have more facial expression than the Captives of Lord Chan, show empathy and horrified anguish as they are about to be murdered. Not unlike the Bonampak mural, the powerful murders and easily recognizable by their uniforms while they peasants wear rags in comparison. The violent scene in Third of May is much more dramatic than the scene on the Bonampak mural, but both artists cleverly show the empowered and the powerless on different sides of the frame (Bonampak mural in the middle, Third of May on the left side).