Bullfight

Bullfight, 1867, canvas, Museo del Prado — this large canvas depicting a Spanish corrida belongs to Fortuny's sustained engagement with his native country's most distinctive public spectacle. After the Moroccan war campaign paintings, the bullfight offered a comparable subject: intense light, crowded spectacle, movement and violence, and the social mixture of Spanish society gathered in the plaza de toros. Fortuny had studied Goya's Los Caprichos and the Tauromaquia etchings closely, and his Bullfight acknowledges that Aragonese master's earlier engagement with the same subject. By 1867, however, Fortuny's technique was developing toward the brilliant, rapid execution that would define his mature style; the bullfight's motion and colour gave him opportunities unavailable in his cabinet pictures. The Prado's holding of this work alongside his other major canvases makes Madrid the centre of his Spanish production.

Large canvas requiring Fortuny to work at a scale uncommon in his career. The arena setting provides strong architectural geometry — the circular plaza, tiered stands, and sandy ring — against which figures and animals create dynamic compositional movement. Intense Spanish sunlight bleaching the sand creates extreme tonal contrasts between illuminated areas and the deep shadow under the gallery.