Maera in his characteristic right-handed pass made in the manner of a pase de pecho.
Ignacio Sanchez Mejias, Maera’s only rival as a banderillero in difficult and impossible terrains, placing a pair and letting the bull’s horn come so close that it is ripping the gold embroidery from his right trouser leg.
Ignacio Sanchez Mejias cheating in the placing of a pair of banderillas through having a number of capes flopping to take the bull away from the man as he places the sticks. Note, however, how well all the banderillas are placed together.
The beginning of the faena. Luis Freg in the pase de la muerte in Madrid.
The end of the faena. Luis Freg in the hospital with a cornada in his chest. Note the scars on the right leg, the scar in the left armpit, and the unplaited lock of hair, that when braided makes the pigtail that was formerly the caste mark of a bullfighter.
Rafael Gomez y Ortega, called El Gallo, standing in the entrance to the Madrid ring with his young brother, José, called Joselito or Gallito, at the start of Joselito’s career as a matador. El Gallo is on the left, Joselito beside him. Fourth from the left is Enrique Berenguet, called Blanquet, the confidential banderillero of Joselito. The matador on the right is Paco Madrid of Malaga.
Joselito in a pase natural at the start of his career. Note how, without any contortions, with complete naturalness, with no cork-screwing or faking, he is passing the horn past his belly; bringing the bull around controlled by the swinging end of the cloth that the man is keeping before his far eve.
Joselito, at eighteen, watching a Miura bull that he has killed swaying on his legs before going over on his back, four legs in the air.
Joselito working with a difficult bull, provoking the charge with his leg; then doubling the bull on himself with the muleta, making him attempt to turn in a shorter space than his own length to tire him.
Joselito at the height of his career, working close, dominating the bull with absolute security, knowing just how much swing of the cloth will move him, controlled a step at a time, and how much more will provoke the full charge. His intelligence and security and the closeness with which he worked made all the bulls look easy to handle. Blanquet, standing by the white-marked burladero, knowing as much about bulls as Joselito, is the only one in all the audience who looks worried.
Joselito the spring he was killed, fat and out of condition after a winter in Lima, Peru, citing an uncertain bull to charge. The bull is slow to start and Joselito, reluctant to rise from his knees and admit his proposal to pass the bull with both knees on the ground was a failure, has just taken out his pocket handkerchief and thrown it at the bull to start him.
The bull comes (the handkerchief still shows on the ground) and Joselito passes him with the muleta without rising from his knees or having to sway back, having calculated exactly the angle the bull will take in his charge.
Joselito taking a bull out a step at a time from the querencia or position he has taken by the barrera; talking to the bull, working on the eye furthest away from the man with the end of the cloth that he imparts a swinging, flicking motion to with his wrist; exposing his own body to give the bull confidence that there is something to charge and yet keeping the animal’s main point of vision on the cloth and controlling his impulse to charge with that wrist movement. A brave bull is easy to work with if the man is brave and technically sound; it is the cowardly bull and the uncertain bull that call for most intelligent and careful handling since they will charge as fast as the brave bull but there is no way of knowing when the charge may come.
Here are the naturals of Joselito and Belmonte; the touchstones of their art. Joselito, below, is healthy, sound, natural, his physique and knowledge enabling him to keep the bull well controlled in the muleta. Belmonte, above, is natural in that there is no distortion of his body by himself, but he takes the bull from a more dangerous angle, he emphasizes his peril at the same time as his domination and he has a sinister delicacy of movement that Joselito lacks.
JOSELITO DEAD
JUAN BELMONTE
LAST VIEW OF JUAN BELMONTE
FIRST VIEW OF CHICUELO
CHICUELO
Who could do this
CHICUELO
Who hated to kill
CHICUELO
Of the disasters
AFRAID OF THIS
Opening a cornada in the Madrid infirmary
AFRAID OF THIS
Valencia II, called Chato, with a cornada in the right thigh.
AND OF THIS
Manuel Granero killed in the Madrid ring
AND OF THIS
Granero dead in the infirmary. Only two in the crowd are thinking about Granero. The others are all intent on how they will look in the photograph.
AND OF THIS
Vicente Pastor killing in the ring at Burgos. The horn has caught him as he put in the sword because the wind has blown the muleta up and toward the man.
AND OF THIS
After the corada. Varelito in the hospital
AND OF THESE
Bull of Vicente Martinez that went alive out of the Madrid ring in 1923 when Chicuelo was unable to kill him.
These took his place. Manolo Bienvenida, Domingo Ortega and Marcial Lalanda making the paseo in the ring at Aranjuez. Ortega when this photograph was taken was still an unknown novillero and acted as sobresaliente or substitute matador for the other two.
Marcial Lalanda making the quite of the mariposa or butterfly. Moving backward across the ring, the folds of the cape swing lightly. It takes great skill and knowledge of bulls to do properly or at all.
Marcial Lalanda in a cambio de rodillas made when the bull first comes into the ring.
Marcial Lalanda, most scientific and able of present fighters, watching the bull go down after an estocade.
The highly paid Cagancho often kills like this from cowardice while in Navarra amateurs do this for fun.
AMATEUR FIGHT IN PAMPLONA
Sidney Franklin killing on the day of his début in Sevilla and below the same Franklin making a veronica in the ring at Cadiz.
GOOD AND BAD KILLING
Above, Varelito has gone in over the horn, kept the bull’s head down as he crossed with his left hand guiding the bull after the muleta and is coming out with the sword in and the bull already dead from the thrust.
Below, Manolo Bienvenida is coming out before he has ever gone in and is stabbing at the bull in passing without ever bringing his body within range of the horn.
Zurito killing—see how the man’s whole body will pass over the horn, the sword seems going in an inch at a time—the bull’s front legs are doubling under him.
Luis Freg killing—his sword hand tight up against the bull—the bull’s eye controlled by the swing of the cloth at the tip of the muleta.
El Espartero killing—both the bull’s front legs are off the ground—notice how he is crossing with the left hand.
What happens when the bull raises his head from the muleta when the sword is in. The horn is lifting Varelito by the neck. No man going in to kill can be certain the bull may not raise his head from the cloth while the man’s body is passing the horn no matter how well controlled the muleta may be. It is this moment that gives the bull his chance at the man and it is when the man avoids this moment that he is said to assassinate the bull rather than to kill him according to rule.
This, for movement, is Felix Rodriguez in a pase natural on a fast charging bull.
This for instruction, with a certain amount of movement still, is a picador ruining a bull by pic-ing him in the ribs instead of placing the pic in the hump of muscle over his neck and shoulders.
This, to remove all tragedy, is El Gallo, dedicating the last bull of his life as a bullfighter. The story is in the text.
Four of the type of incidents El Gallo avoided so assiduously while fighting bulls for thirty years as a full matador.
Half-bred bull killed in an amateur fight or capea near Madrid but not without, first, having wet his left horn.
The amateur bullfight is as unorganized as a riot and all results are uncertain, bulls or men may be killed; it is all chance and the temper of the populace. The formal bullfight is a commercial spectacle built on the planned and ordered death of the bull and that is its end. Horses are killed incidentally. Men are killed accidentally and in the case of full matadors, rarely. All are wounded; many of them severely and often. But in a perfect bullfight no men are wounded nor killed and six bulls are put to death in a formal and ordered manner by men who expose themselves to the maximum of danger over which their ability and knowledge will allow them to triumph without casualties. In a perfect bullfight, it may be admitted frankly, some horses will be killed as well as the bulls since the power of the bull will allow him to reach the horse sometimes even though the picadors were completely skillful and honorable— which they are not. But the death of the horses in the ring is an unavoidable accident and affords pleasure to no
