Wounded Bullfighter Matador Antique Art Print ~ Pierre Giraud

Antique Goupil & Cie. photogravure art print from the picture by Pierre-Francois-Eugene Giraud.

Printed on mid-weight ivory colored stock. Reverse side is blank.

Title: The Devisa

Publication: The Masterpieces of French Art

Publication Year: 1883

Approximate Page Size (in inches): 14 x 11

Approximate Image Size (in inches): 9¾ x 7

Condition: Very nice, clean condition. Some very minimal foxing in margin area. Atticpaper.com watermark does not appear on actual print.

Like brothers in taste, if not in greatness of character, we may apply the accusing phrase "butchered to make a Roman holiday," in spirit to the Spaniards as well as to the Romans. As the populace of ancient Rome -- women as well as men -- crowded the arena and witnessed with delight bloody and mortal combats between man and beast and man and man, and surveyed with heartless unconcern the mangled corpses that strewed the ground, even so the people of Spain flock with enthusiasm to their national sport of bull-fighting and find a savage delight in the torture and slaughter of the animals, and a still more exquisite thrill in the wanton destruction of human lives.

Our artist introduces us to one of these tragic amusements, and a painful scene it is. A torreador mortally wounded is conducted into the chapel (strange combination of chapel and arena!) to die. Pausing at the door of the sanctuary, his eyes, in which the death film is already seen, turn with lingering fondness to his fainting loved one, while he reaches towards her, as a last token of honor and devotion, the devisa (a knot of ribbons) which he has torn from the bull.

Such a scene might well sober the excited crowd and send them in sadness home. But not so. Their sport is not even interrupted. Look but a few paces beyond this dying man and this agonized woman, and see the waving caps and hear the frenzied shouts of the multitude as the sport goes madly on. Surely this picture tells its story and points its moral with signal power.