Plate 3 from the ‘Tauromaquia’:The Moors settled in Spain, giving up the superstitions of the Koran, adopted this art of hunting, and spear a bull in the open

Description

Tauromaquia Plate 3 by Francisco Goya concentrates the danger of a bull hunt into a tightly interwoven group. Men advance with weapons as a horse twists beside a fallen rider, and the bull anchors the center of the struggle. Strong diagonals pull the eye through the action, while the open surroundings heighten its immediacy.

Dated 1816, the work belongs to Goya’s La Tauromaquia series and depicts Moorish hunters confronting a bull in open country. Etching, aquatint, drypoint and burin combine delicate contours with broad tonal passages. The scene’s power lies in the tension between carefully observed movement and the confusion of an encounter that could change in an instant.