Summoning to a kill (Citando a matar) - Pablo Picasso - "La Tauromaquia”

Pablo Picasso "La Tauromaquia"
May 1957 dimension: 20 x 30 cm

Etching aquatint with sugar, with hand-etching on copper beveled
printed on paper "Velin pour fil de Guarro" (with dual watermark)
single state
origin: • private art collection
Illustration n. XIX of the text: José Delgado (alias Pepe Illo), La Tauromaquia or Arte de torear, Gustavo Gili -
Ediciones La Cometa, Barcelona 1959

The aquatint illustrates a dexterity and courage of bullfighting move: the bullfighter waiting for the bull, placing the
before him, and he instigates with the muleta, while his right hand holds the Estoque (the spear), ready to pierce
the animal remaining motionless. So that the bull is properly killed, the Estoque must penetrate between the
shoulder blades and reach the heart: for this reason the bullfighter, engraving, seems to take aim. If released
blood, in fact, mean that the lungs were cut and death will be considered imperfect. The
iconographic reference of this incision is traced in a famous print of Bullfighting of Goya
1816: Pedro Romero kills a bull he tamed.

More information in the annex