Fire flags

See How the ancient Spaniards hunted bulls on horseback in the countryside

A dark scene in which a pair of dots stand out in the centre of the composition and in which we see how the young men try to provoke the tame bull by means of a pair of banderillas de fuego. It is thematically related to two other prints of bullfighting and its extensions: They throw dogs at the bull and Dogs at the bull (Tauromaquia C), as both, the banderillas de fuego and the dogs, were methods used with bulls that were tame and therefore very difficult to fight. This was an uncommon practice and seems to have been very popular with the public, who thought that it was a punishment.

We see the bull in a foreshortened position on his back. A pair of smoking banderillas hang from its neck. The smoke is effectively recreated with burnished aquatint and gouache. In front of the bull we see a banderillero preparing to stick a new pair of banderillas into the bull while another companion urges him on with the cape. The rest of the cuadrilla and two picadors, who have finished their work but have remained in the ring as usual, wander around the arena in front of an audience that fills the stands but of which we can only see their silhouettes. The scene is somewhat chaotic, as bullfighting was in those days.

Beruete considers that an accident in the bite around the banderillas on the bull caused the existing stains, which Goya was able to conceal in a very skilful way, with drypoint and burnisher, giving them that smoky effect.

Lafuente Ferrari includes this print among those depicting lances without historical accuracy and points out the differences with respect to his preparatory drawing, also entitled Fire flags, centred above all on the number of figures depicted, which is smaller in the engraving.