Francisco de Goya

Dogs to the bull (Bullfighting C)

Clasificación
Dogs to the bull (Bullfighting C)
Datos Generales
Cronología
1814 - 1815
Dimensiones
245 x 347 mm
Técnica y soporte
Aguafuerte, aguatinta, punta seca, buril y bruñidor
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Documented work
Ficha: realización/revisión
01 Oct 2021 / 22 Jun 2023
Inventario
-
Inscripciones

C (print, upper right-hand corner)

Historia

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

This print, discarded by Goya and not included in the first edition of the Bullfighting of 1816 because of faults in the etching of the aquatint, was added and published for the first time, along with six others (A-G), in the third edition of the series, printed by Eugène Loizelet in Paris in 1876. It was retained in subsequent editions of the Bullfighting.

A state proof made before engraving the lettering is preserved.

The plate of the print is preserved in the National Chalcography (no. 369), with The Moors are doing another fight in the square with their bathrobe engraved on the obverse.

Análisis artístico

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

Print showing the same subject as They throw dogs to the bull. In fact, this was probably the first version of the theme engraved by Goya, but he eventually discarded it because of the result obtained with the aquatint. He was not convinced by the way it turned out because there was too much bite and it became too dark.

As a result, he ruled out including it in the series, replacing it in the end with They throw dogs to the bull, which is a second, somewhat simpler version of the same theme, a view shared by authors such as Bagües, Lafuente Ferrari and Martínez-Novillo.

In Bagüés's view, moreover, the composition of the present print is similar to that of the substitute engraving, except that here there are more figures, specifically a group of labourers on the left who contemplate the fight between the dogs and the bull as they wait to be able to give the bull the final blow. Several later authors also comment on the coincidence of the composition between the two prints. The composition is centralised, with the figures standing out in the centre to capture the viewer's attention, thus avoiding scattering.

The work is also thematically related to a Goyaesque lithograph entitled Bull harassed by dogs, which also shows the unique bullfighting practice of throwing dogs at tame bulls, a practice that was eventually replaced by the use of fire banderillas, also reflected in the series in the print 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 of a bull but of a cat and a man on a donkey: Man on a donkey, with a cat on his head, pursued by dogs (F.39).

There is a preparatory drawing of the present print, also entitled Dogs to the bull (Bullfighting C)

Exposiciones
  • Grabados y dibujos de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    Biblioteca Nacional
    Madrid
    1946
    catalogue Elena Páez Ríos
  • 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
  • Schlaf der Vernunft. Original radierungen von Francisco de Goya
    Munich
    2000
  • Madrid
    2002
  • Madrid
    2002
  • Bilbao
    2012
  • Zaragoza
    2017
Bibliografía
  • Bibliography']['number
    ZaragozaTip. del Hospicio
    1926
    p. 39
  • LAFUENTE FERRARI, Enrique
    Bibliography']['number
    1946
    pp. 177-216, espec. pp. 210-211
  • LUJÁN, Néstor
    Bibliography']['number
    BarcelonaTartessos-F. Oliver Branchfelt
    1946 (reed. 1951)
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Bibliography']['number
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    vol. II, 1964, p. 353, cat. 239
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    p. 280, cat. 1223
  • HOLO, Selma Reuben
    Bibliography']['number
    MilwakeeMilwaukee Art Museum
    1986
    p. 19
  • MARTÍNEZ-NOVILLO, Álvaro
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridCaser-Turner
    1992
    pp. 21, 36 y 39
  • 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. 361
  • MATILLA, José Manuel y MEDRANO, José Miguel
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMuseo Nacional del Prado
    2001
    pp. 101-102
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    Bibliography']['number
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 186-201
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