Plate 1 from "La Tauromaquia": The way in which the ancient Spaniards hunted bulls on horseback in the open country

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This print belongs to the group of thirteen scenes surveying the history of Spanish bullfighting that opens Tauromaquia. Goya attempted to evoke its origins in this print, showing an early Spaniard dressed in animal skins on horseback, riding in a mountainous setting. The awkward way the figure holds the lance underscores the rudimentary beginnings of bullfighting; it was thought to have been introduced to Spain when the Iberian Peninsula was under the rule of the Romans or the Moors.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art