- Cronología
- 1793
- Ubicación
- Private collection
- Dimensiones
- 42 x 31 cm
- Técnica y soporte
- Oil on tin
- Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
- Undisputed work
- Titular
- Private collection
- Ficha: realización/revisión
- 28 Apr 2010 / 27 Jun 2017
This work was painted during Goya's stay in Cádiz and was given to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in January 1794.
In a bullring, perhaps that of Madrid, filled with spectators, we see in the foreground a torero who has his back to us and is holding his cape in both hands as the bull lunges past him. According to Gassier, this type of pass was invented in Goya's time by the famous torero José Delgado (1754-1801), better known as "Pepe-Hillo", who described it in his book entitled The Art of Bullfighting or Tauromachy (Arte de torear o La tauromaquia). Behind the bullfighter, a group of bulls are being herded towards the doors to the bullpen by a picador mounted on horseback.
Using deft brushstrokes, Goya has suggested the figures in the stands only very superficially, representing in much greater detail those in the foreground, and especially the torero himself. The dabs of white on his suit create tiny highlights which further contribute to increasing this figure's importance within the scene. The bullfight is taking place in the afternoon, and we can see how the shadow has begun to invade the left-hand side of the stands.
For more information, see Bulls in the Meadow.
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GoyaMusée Jacquemart-AndréParis1961consultant editor Jean-Gabriel Domergue. From December 1961 to February 1962cat. 12
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Goya: toros y torerosEspace Van GoghArles1990displayed also at Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, consultant editor Pierre Gassier.cat. 6
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Goya. El Capricho y la Invención. Cuadros de gabinete, bocetos y miniaturasMuseo Nacional del PradoMadrid1993from November 18th 1993 to February 15th 1994. Exhibited also at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, March 18th to June 12th 1994 and The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, July 16th to October 16th 1994, consultant editors Manuela B. Mena Marqués and Juliet Wilson-Bareaucat. 36
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L'œuvre peint de Goya. 4 volsp. 178, cat. 1331928-1950
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Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goyap. 169, cat. 3211970Office du livre
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Goya, 1746 – 1828. Biografía, estudio analítico y catálogo de sus pinturas, 4 vols.vol. I, p. 278, cat. 2731970Polígrafa
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L’opera pittorica completa di Goyap. 106, cat. 2731974Rizzoli
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Francisco de Goya, 4 vols.vol. II, p. 811980-1982Caja de Ahorros de Zaragoza, Aragón y Rioja
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Goya, toros y torerospp. 60 y 61 (il.), cat. 61990Ministerio de Cultura, Comunidad de Madrid
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Goya. El capricho y la invención. Cuadros de gabinete, bocetos y miniaturasp. 191, 192, 193 y 198 (il.), cat. 361993Museo del Prado
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“Moors and the Bullfight: History and National Identity in Goya's Tauromaquia”Burlington magazinep. 195, il. 3vol. XC, 22008
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Los mundos de Goya (1746-1828)p. 2392008Lunwerg