Plate 24 from La Tauromaquia: The Same Ceballos Mounted on Another Bull Breaks Short Spears in the Ring at Madrid

This etching is from a series of thirty-three prints called La Tauromaquia, devoted to the art of the bullfight and published when Goya was seventy years old. Each image in the series portrays a moment in the sequence of ritualized movements in a bullfight. The artist conveys the drama enjoyed by the Spanish public but also the historical evolution of the practice, which began as indigenous sport and was transformed by the Moors during their occupation of Spain before it became a royal activity in which kings and nobles participated. In Plate 24, a celebrated matador from South America, named Mariano Ceballos, performs his signature feat of fighting one bull while mounted on another—a display that resulted in his death in 1780.