the bullfight

The Bullfight from 1779, in the Prado, is one of Goya's tapestry cartoon series and his earliest significant treatment of the subject that would haunt his imagination for the rest of his career, culminating in the remarkable Tauromaquia series of thirty-three etchings published in 1816. The bullfight was the central spectacle of Spanish popular culture — simultaneously beloved by the masses, denounced by Enlightenment reformers as barbaric, and celebrated by Romantic visitors as the most authentically Spanish of experiences. Goya's relationship to it was complex from the beginning: he was himself an aficionado who reportedly fought bulls in his youth, and he brought to his bullfighting images both insider's knowledge of the art and a clear-eyed awareness of its violence. This early tapestry cartoon treats the subject within the decorative conventions required by the royal commission; the later Tauromaquia prints would strip away the decorative framing to reveal the bullring as a theatre of elemental confrontation between human and animal. The Prado's possession of this early cartoon alongside the major late works documents the full arc of his engagement with this distinctively Spanish subject.

The wide-format composition captures the arena's circular space and the crowd's energy with bright, decorative colors suited to the tapestry medium. Goya's handling of the bull and matador shows his early mastery of animal painting and his understanding of the corrida's choreography.