What is the essence of this art?

Bullfighting, as Mr. Hemingway says, "a decadent art in every way," is an art, indeed, "if it were permanent it could be one of the major arts." It does not seem absurd to Mr. Hemingway to compare it with sculpture and painting, or to set Joselito and Belmonte side by side with Velazquez and Goya, Cervantes and Lope de Vega, Shakespeare and Marlow. Even such refined elements as the line of the matador's body at the critical instant or the "composition" of bull and man enter into the intelligent "aficionado's" enjoyment. Bull-fighting is thus presented as an art heightened by the presence of death and, if the spectator can project himself into the matador's place, in the terror of death. For even the best matadors have their moments of fear - even their days and seasons of fear.

About DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON By Ernest Hemingway

Wall painting in Knossos Palace

Some try to link Spanish bullfighting to the Roman circus and even further back to Minoan bull-leaping but this is probably stretching it a bit. What I think it really boiled down to was battle and horses. In the not so distant past the aristocracy liked to fight and always from back of a horse. If rider and steed were not a quick and nimble combination the chances were they both died on the battlefield. 

Spanish Corrida represented in Cantigas de Santa María by Alfonso X el Sabio

To practice, Spanish nobles clubbed together (the clubs still exist today, in Sevilla or Ronda, for example) to organise competitions amongst themselves, usually in their town’s main square. There was nothing unusual in this; competitions like these have been around for as long as people have ridden horses. It’s just that at some point bulls were thrown into the mix, which definitely was a departure. A loose, and slightly grumpy, bull was an excellent way to test horse and rider under pressure. The horse had to remain surefooted and his noble rider calm as they showed off their bravery and skill by riding circles around the bull, inches away from its horns. A safety net was provided: Servants were on standby on the sides to distract the bull when things got too hot – or went wrong. No doubt the servants waved around their hats or capes to catch the bull’s attention when necessary.

Benavente, Zamora circa 1500

Sometime in the early 1700s King Felipe V banned nobles from fighting bulls. Apparently Felipe disapproved and thought it set a bad example to the masses. The Pope agreed. It is more likely too many of Felipe’s nobles were getting killed. It was at the time of this ban that the men on the ground started to become the main attraction. Waving around their cape developed eventually into a system of stylized passes, each with its own name, like the “veronica“; traditions were born and bullfighting gained a life of its own. In time, however fighting bulls from the back of a horse did return, which means there are two broad forms of bullfighting in Spain. The “corrida de toros“, where the bull is fought by a men on their feet and the “corrida de rejones” where it is done from a horse. The majority of bullfights, by far, are “corridas de toros”. There are also minor variations to both forms, but generally they follow the same format. 

Tauromaquia by Goya

Some say bullfighting is a sport. Others say it is an art form. In Spain the bullfights are reported in the culture section of the newspapers – next to the book reviews. However there is scoreboard in bullfighting – the “escalafon” – where the number of ears and tails a bullfighter has been awarded through the season are chalked up, so you could say it is a kind of sport. But is it art? Bullfighting certainly has aspects of an art form. The stylized passes with the cape can be expressed in a certain way, a bit like expressing something through dance. Some people find the passes beautiful to look at and ballet-like. Others simply see a self-important ponce prancing about in tight pants. The bullfight certainly carries a lot of cultural baggage, like the “pasodobles” you will hear played at bullfights. There is plainly a cross pollination between Flamenco culture and bullfighting culture. In the south of Spain especially, the connection with the spring fairs – the Ferias is obvious. When one thinks of Spanish culture, it’s hard not to include bullfighting in that mental picture

Tauromaquia. Picasso, 1957

Tauromachie, Picasso video. 

What Orson Welles had to say on the matter: “What is the essence of this art? That the man carry himself with grace and that he move the bull slowly and with a certain majesty. That is, he must allow the inherent quality of the bull to manifest itself.” 

The theatre Kenneth Tynan wrote of the “slow, sad fury of a perfect bullfight,” comparing it to Othello in its dark majesty and gravity.

Quote by Federico García Lorca: "El toreo es probablemente la riqueza poética y vital de España, increíblemente desaprovechada por los escritores y artistas, debido principalmente a una falsa educación pedagógica que nos han dado y que hemos sido los hombres de mi generación los primeros en rechazar. Creo que los toros es la fiesta más culta que hay en el mundo"

The Corrida of the 1st of May by Jean Cocteau, the most poetic book related to the Tauromaquia. Picasso, Manolete, Lorca, l'esprit flamenco et le fleuve gitan, autant de composantes du génie espagnol que Cocteau, touriste visionnaire prompt à découvrir la vérité poétique des paysages et des peuples, brasse comme les gemmes d'un éblouissant kaléidoscope.

Extraits:
"La haine est absente d'une corrida, n'y règnent que la peur et l'amour"
"Dans la corrida, il n'y a ni lutte ni duel entre l'homme et la bête mais la formation d'un couple isolé"
"On remarquera en outre, avec quelle curieuse volupté le couple de la bête et l'homme s'enroule, se frôle et se caresse"
"C'est que le grand mystère de la Fiesta consiste justement en ce paradoxe d'adversaires qui tour à tour se féminisent et reprennent les prérogatives de la virilité"
"Cérémonie qui cherche, soit par la corne, soit par l'estocade, à imiter cette pénétration par laquelle nos solitudes cherchent à s'illusionner et à obtenir, à l'aide d'un acte dévié de tout but procréateur, une sorte de triomphe fugace de victoire sur le chiffre deux, signe de mort"
"Le torero est un homme qui marche, à priori, vers le suicide"
"Le taureau, inclinant gracieusement son cou puissant, son front large et frisé d'Antinoüs, regardait la foule et enfonçait sa corne droite dans le ventre du matador à la renverse."
"Assise en train de nous attendre tous, immobile à faire peur, trône cet insecte androgyne aux ailes blanches: la mort."
"La bête s'orne donc d'un bouquet de roses trémières et d'un manteau de sang, comme si elle affichait son orgueil au moment d'accepter la mort de la main d'un être si faible qu'elle le pourrait vaincre par une dernière petite charge."

Miquel Barceló. Lanzarote series, Tauromaquia 1999-2000

Artists, Musicians , Poets, Writers, Politicians... 

Goya, Dalí, Manet, Picasso, José Picón , Jacinto Benavente, Bizet, Serafín , Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, Joaquín Álvarez Quintero, Zuloaga, Sorolla, Ramón Casas, Marí Cassatt, Fortuny, Rugendas Lachler, Fernando Boter, Aranda... Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti , Miguel de Cervantes, Tierno Galván, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez , Camilo José Cela, Tirso de Molina, Miguel Hernández, Valle-Inclán, Manuel & Antonio Machado, Francisco Quevedo, Pérez de Ayala, Jovellanos, Juan Ruiz de Alarcon, Orson Welles, Ernest Hemingway, Peter Viertel, Jean Cau, Ortega y Gasset, Unamuno, Carlomagno, Alfonso X el Sabio, Carlos I de Inglaterra, Miguel Mihura , El Emperador Carlos I, Carlos Arniches, Calderón de la Barca, Fray Luis de León, Alfonso Sastre, Góngora, Benito Pérez Galdós, Jaime de Armiñán, Cossio, Fernando de Rojas, Ginés Pérez de Hita, Vicente Espinel, Juan Enriquez de Zúñiga, Fernán Caballero, Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Nicolás Fernández de Moratín, Duque de Rivas, Ruben Darío, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Gerardo Diego, José Bergamín, Dámaso Alonso, José María Pemán, Jorge Luis Borge , Carlos Velo, Pablo Neruda, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, José Bergamín, Blasco Ibañez,  Jean Cocteau ....