Mariano Ceballos mounted on a bull with a rejón (Bullfighting J) (preparatory drawing).

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

Preparatory drawing for the print Mariano Ceballos mounted on a bull with a rejón (Bullfighting J), a print which in the end was not included in the official Bullfighting series, although two state proofs of it have been preserved, but the plate has not.

In this preparatory study we see Mariano Ceballos performing his famous and reckless number on the back of a bull. In this case there are many secondary characters in action, giving the scene a somewhat chaotic appearance, which Goya later corrected on the plate, and thus in the print, by removing many of them. In any case, it is clear that the main group, which will be reproduced almost verbatim in the print, is the one on the right of the composition. It consists of Mariano Ceballos on the back of a bull facing another bull, which is depicted in profile. Behind this main group we find a large group of secondary figures, many of them sketchy, almost without detail, and the only one that can be distinguished among them is a subaltern who is holding a cape in his hands and seems to be attracting the attention of the white bull. In the left corner is a lightly sketched figure who seems to be in full movement as he moves away from the bull. In the background, the barrier, the bullring and the audience can be glimpsed in the background.

This preparatory study makes it possible to follow the evolution of Goya's approach from a very variegated composition in the drawing to a much more refined one in the plate, in which only the essentials are preserved.