DELGADO GUERRA, Joséf (1754-1801) - photo 1
DELGADO GUERRA, Joséf (1754-1801) - photo 2
DELGADO GUERRA, Joséf (1754-1801) - photo 3

DELGADO GUERRA, Joséf (1754-1801)

Lot 58
13.07.2023 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 4 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 992934
Lot 58 | DELGADO GUERRA, Joséf (1754-1801)
Estimate value
£ 4 000 – 6 000
DELGADO GUERRA, Joséf (1754-1801)

Tauromaquia o arte de torear á cabello y á pie. Madrid: Venga y compañía, 1804.

Clean and crisp substantially enlarged 2nd edition of Delgado Guerra’s seminal text that helped redefine Spain’s famous annual national bull festival. Joséf Delgado Guerra, known as ‘Pepe Hill’ was one of the most prominent bull fighters in Spain and was famously immortalized by Francesco Goya in his series of bullfighting scenes published as La Tauromaquia (1801). In 1796, Guerra presented the rules of his art in Tauromaquia o arte de torear á caballo y á pie, which ultimately laid out and defined the ‘fiesta nacional’, still celebrated in Spain today. It replaced three older forms of the bull festival: the noblemen's bullfights with lances from high horses, which were supposed to represent their power over wild nature; the rampant running of the bulls in the villages, which celebrated the connection between the farmers and their cattle, and finally, the bull-slaughtering festival celebrated by professional butchers (matadors) from the city slaughterhouses together with the local people from the surrounding towns and villages. The form of the ‘corrida’ codified in Guerra's treatise was informed by the new ideals brought about with the Enlightenment and tied together all three types of the traditional bull festivals. The disciplined art of the matador and his assistants propagated by Pepe Hill and others, as well as the transformation of the crowd from actor to observer of the dramatic events, marked the farewell to the more dangerous traditions of earlier bull festivities. The present 2nd edition was published posthumously after Delgado Guerra was killed in the ring by a bull on 11 May 1801. This edition is substantially enlarged, with almost double the text of that of the first edition and includes the addition of 30 illustrations designed by the artist Ascenio Julia (c. 1760-1832) a disciple of Francesco Goya. These illustrations provide factual information on the various roles and the equipment needed to carry out the reinvented ‘fiesta nacional’. Bobins IV, 1397; Graesse II, 353; Palau 70064.



Octavo (171 x 108mm). 30 engravings coloured by a contemporary hand (very light marginal finger-soiling, plates remarkably crisp). Contemporary? Spanish calf, covers panelled with insets of tree calf surrounded by thin gilt border, gilt spine, red edges, marbled endpapers (extremities rubbed, with loss to gilding and joints heavily affected, but not loose, tiny patch of worming at foot of spine, area of abrasion to top of area of upper board). Provenance: Denver Art Museum (stamps on flyleaves) — Charles Bayly, Jr. (tiny ownership label on rear free endpaper from his bullfighting collection).





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Place of origin:Europe, Spain
Auction house category:Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
13.07.2023
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
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