Goya treated the theme of bullfighting in a number of paintings, in a celebrated series of prints-the?Tauromaquia, published in 1816-and in four lithographs published in Bordeaux in 1825 when he was in exile. During the mid-nineteenth century there was a brisk business in copies of Goya's popular bullfight compositions, and the use here of certain motifs that appear in Goya's other bullfight scenes has led some authorities to view our painting as a pastiche by another hand. The richness of the composition however, and the brilliant handling of the foreground crowd are worthy of Goya himself.