Picasso: Romancero du Picador

Pen and Wash Drawings of the Bullfight

From another related film in the Roland Collection, The Forceful Gaze (531), we learn how the artist, after days of curious lethargy following a visit to a bullfight, suddenly rose from his bed and executed - in two furious hours of creativity - the whole of his famous Toromaquia series of matador scenes. The theme of the bullring was indeed a favorite one with him, explored especially through etchings, drawings, engravings and lino-cuts. With the sharp tools of the engraver - brush, etching needle and pen - Picasso executed his strokes with the graceful precision, panache and flamboyance of a matador wielding spear, sword and cloak. Based on Picasso's most Spanish series of drawings, this short film is a fusion of art and music. The drawings depict the bullfight, that tragic confrontation between life and death, between man and beast. They reveal the mounted picador whose picas test the bull's bravery, the graceful and heroic matador, the public hooting and applauding in turn. Picasso, Spanish-born, depicts his types with the sardonic eye of a Goya, such as the chaste señorita in her mantilla, guarded by a shawled and crone-like duenna. Dissolves and camera movement trace the vigorous drawings, blending with the clamor of the arena, rousing bullfight marches, piercing flamenco coplas and dances accompanied by guitar and castanets. This creates a sense of action in a film which requires minimal narrative. The brilliance of Picasso, the Spanish spirit, and the drama of the bullfight merge.

For more information see section 19 and section 26

© 1998-2008 The Roland Collection & Pira Intl.