Francisco Goya completed The Third of May 1808 in 1814 to commemorate Spanish resistance to Napoleon's army during the occupation of Madrid at the start of the Peninsular War. Rather than showing heroic battle, it depicts French soldiers executing Madrid civilians at night, with a kneeling man in a white shirt facing a firing squad lit by a lantern. Its emotional force and refusal of heroic conventions make it one of the first paintings of the modern era. Art historian Kenneth Clark called it the first great revolutionary picture in style, subject and intention. Goya broke with Christian art and traditional war painting, which had celebrated victory and glory. The painting now hangs in the Prado in Madrid.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.