The unfortunate death of Pepe Illo in the Madrid square (preparatory drawing)

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

Preparatory drawing for the print The unfortunate death of Pepe Illo in the Madrid square.  This is a scene with only a few characters, the strictly necessary ones, which are the focus of the composition, which will remain almost unchanged when it is transferred to the plate and therefore to the print. We see in detail, although not as much as in the later engraving, how the bull mortally wounds the famous bullfighter Pepe Illo and how he tries to free himself from the pitón. At his side, a member of the bullfighter's team tries unsuccessfully to divert the bull's attention so that he releases the bullfighter, who dies in the bullring infirmary twenty minutes after the goring.

In the drawing we can see how Goya resolves almost all the figures with rapid strokes, although he places somewhat more emphasis on the bull than on the other elements. Nor does he neglect the lighting. In fact, we see how the shadows of the bullrings are projected onto the arena, which helps to convey the idea that we are in a circular space. We can intuit the barrier, which is only sketchily drawn, where it seems that two people are trying to jump into the bullring, as in the later engraving, where this action is, however, more developed and defined.