Plate 13 of "La Tauromaquia": A Spanish mounted knight in the ring breaking short spears without the help of assistants

Art Historical Context

In Francisco de Goya's *La Tauromaquia*, Plate 13 captures a thrilling moment of equestrian valor in the bullring: a Spanish mounted knight deftly breaking short spears, or *garrochas*, against charging bull without assistants. Created in 1816, this print exemplifies Goya's fascination with bullfighting (*tauromaquia*), Spain's national spectacle, blending heroism with raw danger. As a Romantic artist, Goya elevated the sport's historical roots, drawing from 18th-century traditions while critiquing its spectacle through dramatic compositions. Goya masterfully combined etching, burnished aquatint for velvety tones, drypoint for expressive lines, and burin for precise details, achieving a sense of motion and texture on the modest plate (9 3/4 × 14 in.). The knight's poise atop his rearing horse, amid dust and fury, highlights the picador's solitary skill—a nod to bullfighting's chivalric origins, evoking medieval jousts. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (Rogers Fund, 1921), this work reflects Goya's innovative printmaking amid Spain's turbulent Napoleonic era, immortalizing a cultural ritual that symbolized national pride and human fragility. Visitors, imagine the arena's roar as horse, knight, and bull collide in timeless tension!

About the Artist

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) · 1746–1828

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) was a Spanish painter and printmaker considered the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Rising from modest provincial origins to become First Court Painter to Charles IV, Goya's career spanned the Enlightenment's optimism and the brutal Napoleonic invasion that shattered it. A mysterious illness in 1793 left him permanently deaf and ...