Plate 18 of "La 'Tauromaquia": The daring of Martincho in the ring at Zaragoza

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

1816 · Etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint · Drawings and Prints

This print shows the heart-stopping antics of Martincho (Antonio Ebassun), a bullfighter active in the second half of the eighteenth century. Goya devoted four Tauromaquia plates and one unpublished print to this otherwise obscure matador. Here, he sits on a chair with his feet shackled, confronting the charging animal. The matador’s sword is echoed visually by the strip of burnished aquatint that follows a roughly horizontal path and demarcates two tonal sections. The mass of dark shading below—narrowing like an arrow as it nears the bull—intensifies the focus on man and beast, underscoring the power of the thrust, and prefigures their ultimately deadly clash.

Artist

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

Date

1816

Medium

Etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1921