Suerte XI: The death of the bull
Medium
Woodcut
Dimensions
Sheet: 8 11/16 × 12 5/8 in. (22 × 32 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Max G. Wildnauer Fund, 1978
Accession Number
1978.643.15(6)
Tags
About this artwork
This woodcut depicts the final moment of the bullfight, when the matador delivers the fatal sword thrust known as the estocada. The image belongs to a series documenting the ritualized stages of the corrida, presenting the spectacle with documentary precision. The composition shows the dramatic confrontation between man and beast, capturing the tension and danger inherent in this traditional Spanish cultural practice. Antonio Carnicero (1748-1814) created the influential series "Colleción de las...
Art Historical Context
"Suerte XI: The Death the Bull" captures theactic estocada, the matador's fatal sword thrust, in a tense showdown between man and beast. This woodcut, produced anonymously in Spain around 185080, belongs to a documenting the ritualized stages the corrida de toros with precise, almost journalistic detail. Spectators crowd the arena's edges, heightening the drama of this traditional Spanish spectacle, where danger and skill collide. The print adapts compositions from Antonio Carnicero's influential 1790 etching series, *Colección de las principales suertes de una corrida de toros*, which system...