In 1816, Goya published his Tauromaquia, a series of 33 lively bullfighting scenes executed in etching and aquatint. Goya’s turn to this comparatively conventional subject, devoid of any overt social criticism, was probably motivated by his desire to avoid censorship. In plate no. 12, he shows how, at the end of a bullfight, the torturing and killing of the bulls became a free-for-all when the tired animal was released to be finished off by the crowd. Goya returned to this theme in Disparate no. 6 (Cruel Folly). (TD 2024, translation Büro LS Anderson, Berlin)
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