by Mike Booth, Part III/III

La Tauromaquia
There may have an element of opportunism in Goya's choice of theme for his next series of etchings, as his fellow Madrid artist, Antonio Carnicero, had already popularized the bullfight in drawings and prints, both in Spain and in Europe. Goya's ambitious bullfight series, "La Tauromaquia," consisted originally of thirty three etchings executed with typical Goyesque vigor. All the images are framed by thick lines and include busy, realistic scenes of activity both in the ring and behind the barriers.

As usual in Goya's prints, some of the most engaging characters lurk in the semi-shade of the background. Again in La Taurmaquia the maestro has resorted to etching on the back sides of some previously-etched-but-unsuccessful plates. It's not quite clear when Goya began this series, which was published in 1816. Some authors place the date as early as "the first of the 19th century," others as late as 1814. Most of the preliminary sketches for the series are preserved in the Prado Museum in Madrid, some of them including red washes with which Goya simulated aquatint effects.

A Rocambolesque History
The history of the editions of La Tauromaquia series and the rocambolesque changes of ownership of the plates extends down to our own times. By the middle of the 19th century the plates, still property of Goya's heirs, yielded a second edition, printed in the workshops of La Calcografía Nacional in Madrid in 1855. Shortly afterwards the Spanish state declined to purchase the plates and they were acquired by the Paris editor, Loizelet, who pulled the third edition in 1876. This editor added seven new etchings to the series, images which he found on the back sides of some of the plates, designated by the letters "A" to "G." Subsequent editions have all incorporated these seven additional images, making a total of forty.

The Spanish artist, Ricardo de los Ríos, bought the plates in Paris at the turn of the 20th century and brought them back to Spain. He ordered the fourth edition in 1905, again in the workshop of La Calcografía Nacional, after which the plates made their way back to Paris. Another Spaniard, Francisco Estévez Botey, bought them there in 1920, apparently in a speculative move, as he brought them back to Spain and sold them to La Calcografía Nacional.

It was during the siege of Madrid in the Spanish Civil War (1937) that the seventh and allegedly finest edition of La Tauromaquia was pulled. The plates then stayed in the Calcografía Nacional till 1979 when they were acquired by the parent organization, the Real Academia de San Fernando, who edited the eighth and last edition in 1984.

The State of the Bullfighter's Art
Goya's Tauromaquia prints portray the complete panoply of bullfighting stunts and techniques known up until his time: matadors on foot or mounted on horseback, sitting on chairs or standing on tables, or pole vaulting over the bull. The series includes scenes of bull baiting with dogs and of terrified spectators fleeing before the bull and, in plate 33, we find Goya's contemporary, the bullfighter Pepe Illo, lying dead on the sand of the arena.

The combination Goya/bullfight remains a powerful attraction in today's Spain. Every summer they celebrate the "corrida goyesca" ("Goyesque bullfight") in the 17th-century bullring of the mountain town of Ronda with modern-day matadors outfitted in suits from Goya's time. It's a major social event comparable to Ascot in England, where the cream of Spanish society turns out in all their finery for a day of folly, an ambiente in which Goya, the court painter, master of highest-of-high and lowest-of-low folly, would have felt very much at home.

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