Unfortunate events in the front seats of the ring of Madrid, and the death of the Mayor of Torrejón
Encyclopedia
Unfortunate events in the front seats of the ring of Madrid, and the death of the Mayor of Torrejón (or Fatal mishap in the stands...) (or The Speed of Daring of Juanito Apiñani in the Ring of Madrid) (Spanish: Desgracias acaecidas en el tendido de la plaza de Madrid, y muerte del alcalde de Torrejón) is an etching
with burnished aquatint
, drypoint
and burin
on paper by the Spanish painter and printmaker
Francisco Goya
.
Unfortunate events is one in a series of 35 etchings making up his Tauromaquia ("Art of Bullfighting") series, which he produced between 1815 and 1816. The plate has been described by Robert Hughes
as among the greatest of Goya's graphic output.
Throughout his life, Goya was a keen follower of bullfighting and boasted that he had taken on a bull in his youth.
The etching details an event from 15 June 1801 when a bull broke through barriers at a bullfight
in Madrid, killing two people (including the mayor of Torrejón de Ardoz
) and injuring a number of other spectators. The lifeless body of the mayor is seen impaled and hanging from the triumphant-looking animal's horns, while the second dead man is shown beneath the barrier in the middle-ground, mourned by a woman in white.
The action takes place entirely on the lower right side of the print, which is separated from the left and upper areas by rail and skyline. These areas are almost completely empty and devoid of detail; the composition rebels against traditional artistic conventions regarding balance and harmony. Three of the etching's quarters are completely still; the activity is contained entirely in the right foreground, where a jumbled and blurred mass of survivors are running left and right in panic to escape. None have crossed the handrail; the corpse of one victim lies straddled beneath the barrier, between the two halves of the canvas.
s, is closest to the spirit of Modernism
. He was to use areas of empty space for dramatic and evocative effect again in his "Black Paintings
", notable in The Dog
and The Great He-Goat. Hughes, writing on how Goya anticipates a number of the later ideas of European art, remarked in 2004 of the "naked power with which Goya has played off void against solid, black against light, empty space against full." The picture rewards detailed examination, in that much of the subtleties are not at first obvious. For example, the late mayors shoe can be seen in the distance protruding from the bull's neck; making him all the more pathetic figure against the force and strength of the animal. In addition, the bull appears to be urinating on the body of a victim just below him.
Etching
Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
with burnished aquatint
Aquatint
Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching.Intaglio printmaking makes marks on the matrix that are capable of holding ink. The inked plate is passed through a printing press together with a sheet of paper, resulting in a transfer of the ink to the paper...
, drypoint
Drypoint
Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. Traditionally the plate was copper, but now acetate, zinc, or plexiglas are also commonly used...
and burin
Burin
Burin from the French burin meaning "cold chisel" has two specialised meanings for types of tools in English, one meaning a steel cutting tool which is the essential tool of engraving, and the other, in archaeology, meaning a special type of lithic flake with a chisel-like edge which was probably...
on paper by the Spanish painter and printmaker
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
Francisco Goya
Francisco Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown, and through his works was both a commentator on and chronicler of his era...
.
Unfortunate events is one in a series of 35 etchings making up his Tauromaquia ("Art of Bullfighting") series, which he produced between 1815 and 1816. The plate has been described by Robert Hughes
Robert Hughes (critic)
Robert Studley Forrest Hughes, AO is an Australian-born art critic, writer and television documentary maker who has resided in New York since 1970.-Early life:...
as among the greatest of Goya's graphic output.
Throughout his life, Goya was a keen follower of bullfighting and boasted that he had taken on a bull in his youth.
Description
Bullfighting
Bullfighting is a traditional spectacle of Spain, Portugal, southern France and some Latin American countries , in which one or more bulls are baited in a bullring for sport and entertainment...
in Madrid, killing two people (including the mayor of Torrejón de Ardoz
Torrejón de Ardoz
Torrejón de Ardoz is a town in the urban area of Madrid, Spain that has about 110,000 inhabitants.It is a town 20 km east of Madrid on the NII highway . It is essentially a dormitory town, mostly consisting of apartments. It can be reached by bus from Av...
) and injuring a number of other spectators. The lifeless body of the mayor is seen impaled and hanging from the triumphant-looking animal's horns, while the second dead man is shown beneath the barrier in the middle-ground, mourned by a woman in white.
The action takes place entirely on the lower right side of the print, which is separated from the left and upper areas by rail and skyline. These areas are almost completely empty and devoid of detail; the composition rebels against traditional artistic conventions regarding balance and harmony. Three of the etching's quarters are completely still; the activity is contained entirely in the right foreground, where a jumbled and blurred mass of survivors are running left and right in panic to escape. None have crossed the handrail; the corpse of one victim lies straddled beneath the barrier, between the two halves of the canvas.
Empty space
Goya's use of empty space has been described as an indication of how his work, of all the Old MasterOld Master
"Old Master" is a term for a European painter of skill who worked before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An "old master print" is an original print made by an artist in the same period...
s, is closest to the spirit of Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
. He was to use areas of empty space for dramatic and evocative effect again in his "Black Paintings
Black Paintings
The Black Paintings is the name given to a group of paintings by Francisco Goya from the later years of his life, likely between 1819–1823. They portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his fear of insanity and by then, his bleak outlook on humanity...
", notable in The Dog
The Dog (Goya)
The Dog is the name usually given to a painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. It shows the head of a small black dog gazing upwards...
and The Great He-Goat. Hughes, writing on how Goya anticipates a number of the later ideas of European art, remarked in 2004 of the "naked power with which Goya has played off void against solid, black against light, empty space against full." The picture rewards detailed examination, in that much of the subtleties are not at first obvious. For example, the late mayors shoe can be seen in the distance protruding from the bull's neck; making him all the more pathetic figure against the force and strength of the animal. In addition, the bull appears to be urinating on the body of a victim just below him.
Sources
- Hagen, Rose-Marie & Hagen, Rainer. Francisco Goya, 1746-1828. Taschen, 2003. ISBN 3-8228-1823-2
- Hughes, RobertRobert Hughes (critic)Robert Studley Forrest Hughes, AO is an Australian-born art critic, writer and television documentary maker who has resided in New York since 1970.-Early life:...
. Goya. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. ISBN 0-3945-8028-1