Francisco de Goya

Dogs are thrown to the bull

Clasificación
Dogs are thrown to the bull
Datos Generales
Cronología
1814 - 1816
Dimensiones
245 x 353 mm
Técnica y soporte
Aguafuerte, aguatinta, punta seca y bruñidor
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Documented work
Ficha: realización/revisión
02 Oct 2021 / 22 Jun 2023
Inventario
-
Inscripciones

25 (print, upper right-hand corner)

Historia

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

A state proof has been preserved before aquatinting.

The plate is preserved in the Calcografía Nacional (no. 358).

Análisis artístico

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

This picture depicts a striking practice, now in disuse, typical of the bullfights of Goya's time, in which the bull that proved to be unfit for the fight in the ring was released with dogs to immobilise him and facilitate the performance of the puntillero, who proceeded to stick the spike between his horns to put him to death.

We see the bull wrestling with five dogs in the middle of the ring, plus another dog that seems badly wounded and is crawling on the ground. Meanwhile, a uniformed man on horseback, a bailiff, turns his back to us and rides off into the distance. We can partially see the barrier that delimits the space, but not the public, as Goya draws the viewer's attention to the main event, the confrontation between the bull and the dogs, preventing him from being distracted by other matters.

The print is thematically related to another that Goya eventually discarded, Dogs at the Bull (Bullfighting C), which reflects the same type of action.There is also a Goyaesque lithograph, entitled Bull harassed by dogs, which also shows this unique bullfighting practice, which was eventually replaced by the use of fire flags. . In turn, the work is linked to a drawing by Goya that also depicts violent harassment by a pack of dogs, although not a bull but a cat and a man on a donkey: Man on a donkey, with a cat on his head, pursued by dogs (F.39).

Glendinning emphasises the harshness of the scene, while Martínez-Novillo, for his part, points out that Dogs at the Bull (Bullfighting C) would be a discarded version of the print in question, which he places in the category of those showing impersonal suertes, linking it, in his opinion, to Fire flags 

There is a preparatory drawing of this engraving, also titled Dogs are thrown to the bull.

Exposiciones
  • Grabados y dibujos de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    Biblioteca Nacional
    Madrid
    1946
    catalogue Elena Páez Ríos
  • Boston
    1974
  • Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional. Exposición de grabados y dibujos en el sesquicentenario de su muerte
    Biblioteca Nacional
    Madrid
    1978
    May - June 1978
  •  Grabados de Goya: colección propiedad de la Biblioteca Nacional, que se conserva en su Gabinete de
    Casa de la Amistad de Moscú
    Moscow
    1979
    exhibition displayed from January 18th to 31st 1979
  • 1984
  • Madrid
    1987
  • Madrid
    1990
  • Goya grabador
    Fundación Juan March
    Madrid
    1994
    consultant editors Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Julián Gállego, from January 14th to March 20th 1994
  • Goya grabador
    Museo del Grabado Español Contemporáneo
    Marbella
    1996
    from March 8th to May 5th 1996
  • Zaragoza
    1996
  • Schlaf der Vernunft. Original radierungen von Francisco de Goya
    Munich
    2000
  • Madrid
    2002
  • Madrid
    2002
  • Bilbao
    2012
  • Zaragoza
    2017
Bibliografía
  • LAFUENTE FERRARI, Enrique
    Bibliography']['number
    1946
    pp. 177-216, espec. p. 202
  • LUJÁN, Néstor
    Bibliography']['number
    BarcelonaTartessos-F. Oliver Branchfelt
    1946 (reed. 1951)
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Bibliography']['number
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    vol. II, 1964, p. 341, cat. 228
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    p. 279, cat. 1200
  • HOLO, Selma Reuben
    Bibliography']['number
    MilwakeeMilwaukee Art Museum
    1986
    pp. 16, 19, 25 y 32
  • GASSIER, Pierre
    Goya, toros y toreros
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMinisterio de Cultura, Comunidad de Madrid
    1990
    p.108, cat. 40
  • MARTÍNEZ-NOVILLO, Álvaro
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridCaser-Turner
    1992
    p. 36
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    cat. 349
  • MATILLA, José Manuel y MEDRANO, José Miguel
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMuseo Nacional del Prado
    2001
    pp. 83-85
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    Bibliography']['number
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 186-201
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