Forty-eight vignettes of bullfighting manoeuvers and scenes from the ring
ca. 1800–1850
Medium
Woodcut, hand coloured using stencils
Dimensions
sheet: 16 15/16 x 12 5/16 in. (43.1 x 31.3 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011
Accession Number
2012.136.896
Tags
Art Historical Context
This vibrant woodcut print, titledForty-eight Vignettes of Bullfighting Maneu and Scenes from the Ring captures the thrill of Spain's iconic bullfighting tradition around 1800–1850. Produced anonymously by the Casa Piferrer workshop—likely a Barcelona-based print shop—it features dozens of small, lively scenes depicting matadors, picadors, and banderilleros executing daring passes, charges, and kills in the ring. These vignettes offer a panoramic view of the spectacle, from the bull's entrance to the dramatic finale, reflecting bullfighting's rise as a national passion during Spain's Romantic ...
About the Artist
Anonymous|Casa Piferrer
In the vast tapestry of art history, "Anonymous" stands not as a singular individual but as a collective designation for countless unidentified creators whose works have endured across millennia. These artists, spanning prehistoric cave painters to medieval illuminators and folk craftsmen, produced the foundational layers of human visual culture. Prior to the Renaissance, when individual fame emer...