Plate 21 from "La Tauromaquia": Dreadful events in the front rows of the ring at Madrid and death of the mayor of Torrejon

Plate 21 from "La Tauromaquia": Dreadful events in the front rows of the ring at Madrid and death of the mayor of Torrejon

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The most extraordinary bullfighting episode that Goya might have witnessed is undoubtedly that depicted here, the death by goring of the mayor of Torrejón in the bullring at Madrid. While the circumstances and the identity of the actual victim are unclear, similar accidents were documented in 1790 and 1801. The diminutive figure watching in the background resembles Goya. This bystander’s attentive yet detached expression, compared with the other figures’ looks of horror, might allude to the creative distance that separates artist from subject.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 21 from "La Tauromaquia": Dreadful events in the front rows of the ring at Madrid and death of the mayor of TorrejonPlate 21 from "La Tauromaquia": Dreadful events in the front rows of the ring at Madrid and death of the mayor of TorrejonPlate 21 from "La Tauromaquia": Dreadful events in the front rows of the ring at Madrid and death of the mayor of TorrejonPlate 21 from "La Tauromaquia": Dreadful events in the front rows of the ring at Madrid and death of the mayor of TorrejonPlate 21 from "La Tauromaquia": Dreadful events in the front rows of the ring at Madrid and death of the mayor of Torrejon

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.