El Salto De La Garrocha

FRANCISCO DE GOYA was 70 years old when he made “TAUROMAQUIA”, a series of 33 engravings about bullfighting scenes. He used techniques of etching and aquatint. Since he was Young he liked bullfights very much. Some of these prints were made to ilustrate the text by Moratín “Historical Letter about the origins and progress of bullfights in Spain, publised in 1777.
This amazing engraving by Goya represents El Salto De La Garrocha ( The Garrocha’s Jumping).
The Stage of Varas is the phase in which the bull is lanced by the Picador in order to weaken it and prepare it for the Stage of Muleta. The Picador uses the Garrocha ,a lance with a 16 cm steel tip.
But The Garrocha has been used in the past differently.
El Salto de la Garrocha ( The Garrocha’s Jumping) consists in the fact that, the bullfighter goes whith the Garrocha to the center of the Arena and calls the bull; and When the bull charges and gets close to the bullfighter, he leans on the Garrocha and jumps over the bull.