Plate 23 from "La Tauromaquia": Mariano Ceballos, alias the Indian, kills the bull from his horse

Plate 23 from "La Tauromaquia": Mariano Ceballos, alias the Indian, kills the bull from his horse

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Little is known about Mariano Ceballos, the toreador who appears in this print. Apparently born in Peru, he spent much of his career in Spain, where he had become famous by the 1770s for his eccentric and audacious behavior in the ring, such as riding saddled bulls and fighting them with short daggers. Several Tauromaquia scenes are characterized by the dominance of light tonalities and an overall impression of emptiness. By contrast, this print began dark and then was leavened by highlights, a method similar to Goya’s lithographic technique. He added aquatint to the plate in various viscosities to increase the depth of space and to heighten the dramatic effect.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 23 from "La Tauromaquia": Mariano Ceballos, alias the Indian, kills the bull from his horsePlate 23 from "La Tauromaquia": Mariano Ceballos, alias the Indian, kills the bull from his horsePlate 23 from "La Tauromaquia": Mariano Ceballos, alias the Indian, kills the bull from his horsePlate 23 from "La Tauromaquia": Mariano Ceballos, alias the Indian, kills the bull from his horsePlate 23 from "La Tauromaquia": Mariano Ceballos, alias the Indian, kills the bull from his horse

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.