Rarely Seen Goya Prints Reveal Work of a Master

The gore, sportsmanship and pure daring of bullfighting is captured in fine detail in Francisco de Goya’s early 19th century etchings. But the black-and-white prints seem even more vivid displayed against a wall of crimson red, curved like a bullring and stained like the blood of a thousand matadors.

For the first time in four decades, the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University is exhibiting the Spanish master’s print series, “La Tauromaquia,” along with “Los Disparates,” a series of disturbing, dreamlike images painted in Goya’s later years.

Both first-edition series, part of the museum’s permanent collection, were believed etched between 1814 and 1824, when Goya was perfecting his mastery of engraving copper printing plates.

“He’s the first great printmaker in the history of Spain,” said curator Mark Roglan, who previously was a researcher at the Prado Museum in Madrid.

Goya is often considered the father of modern art, and his works mark the beginning of 19th century realism, Roglan said.

His etching skills became so refined that he eventually composed directly on the copper plates without need of preparatory drawings. The techniques were a “revolution that changed the direction of graphic art and as a great force that linked art to modernity,” Roglan said.

“La Tauromaquia,” translated as “The Art of Bullfighting,” depicts the evolution of the bloody sport, including the time of Arab rule of Spain in the 8th through 15th centuries. The 33 prints also feature bullfighters of Goya’s time, many of whom were his friends and members of royalty.

Offered in public art galleries, the prints never became a huge commercial success. They also were not always historically accurate. Clothing, architecture and portraits of historical figures sometimes conflict with the period represented.

Stephanie Stepanek, a print expert at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, said she believes the bullfighting scenes were an endorsement of the sport, not a commentary on its violent nature.

“He intended to show the history and human ability to be a master of the sport,” she said.

“Los Disparates” is more difficult to interpret. The name has no direct translation but alludes to the absurd and irrational. It was Goya’s last major print series, designed when he was deaf and believed to be living a lonely, solitary life on the outskirts of Madrid.

He spent his last years retreating into a world of fantasy and darkness, Roglan said. The 22 prints are filled with images of fear, violence and sorrow: a faceless figure shrouded in a robe being swallowed by a monster, a man falling into an abyss, men flying with artificial wings.

“Los Disparates’” engravings were not made into prints until 1864, 36 years after his death.

“They were exclusively done for himself,” Roglan said. “They were very intimate. We do not know exactly what these things meant. Some say the only way to understand his prints is through psychoanalysis.”

Stepanek said some scholars believe the prints are based on the biblical book of Proverbs, although Goya never documented that notion. “They are very enigmatic,” she said. “It’s very unusual, bizarre behavior. He definitely had ideas about society or political events.”

The Meadows Museum, which houses one of the largest collections of Spanish art outside of Spain, also owns first editions of Goya’s two other major print series, “The Caprices” and “The Disasters of War,” both of which have been displayed in the last five years.

“La Tauromaquia” and “Los Disparates” were not displayed for many years because the works are lesser known and not as easily understood by museum patrons, Roglan said. Also, the museum reopened last year in a new facility with six times the exhibition space of the previous campus location, where much of the permanent collection had to be stored.

The four sets of prints were acquired by Algur Meadows and his wife in April 1967, two years after the opening of the Meadows Museum. The Meadowses later bought four late-edition prints to complete the set of all known prints connected with “Los Disparates,” along with two more late prints closely related to “La Tauromaquia.” The prints were purchased for the museum.

Goya, born in Fuendetodos in 1746, established his reputation by painting frescoes for a basilica in Saragossa, Spain. He later worked at a tapestry factory. He also began to paint portraits and became court painter to Charles IV in 1789.

He lived through the turbulence and atrocities of the war of independence against invading France, which led to his war disasters series. His most innovative works were created after a near-fatal illness left him deaf at the age of 47.

The print series, which opened Jan. 27, runs at the Meadows through April 1.