Plate 27 from "La Tauromaquia": The celebrated picador, Fernando del Toro, draws the fierce beast on with his pike

Plate 27 from "La Tauromaquia": The celebrated picador, Fernando del Toro, draws the fierce beast on with his pike

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Unaware of the danger, a blindfolded horse is trapped to keep it from fleeing in panic. The animal’s defenselessness is emphasized by the light area on its chest, suggesting a stationary target. The gaze of the picador prepares the viewer for the violence about to be unleashed, while the dramatic resolution of the clash is prefigured at left by another horse rearing in fright and a dead animal ready to be dragged away. In their apparent disinterest, the two spectral figures in the background imply the routine nature of death in rituals of bullfighting.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 27 from "La Tauromaquia": The celebrated picador, Fernando del Toro, draws the fierce beast on with his pikePlate 27 from "La Tauromaquia": The celebrated picador, Fernando del Toro, draws the fierce beast on with his pikePlate 27 from "La Tauromaquia": The celebrated picador, Fernando del Toro, draws the fierce beast on with his pikePlate 27 from "La Tauromaquia": The celebrated picador, Fernando del Toro, draws the fierce beast on with his pikePlate 27 from "La Tauromaquia": The celebrated picador, Fernando del Toro, draws the fierce beast on with his pike

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.