Resumen de Moors and the Bullfight: History and National Identity in Goya's Tauromaquia
Francisco Goya’s representation of the history of the bullfight in the Tauromaquia series (1815–16) provides important insights into national identity formation in early-nineteenth-century Spain. These prints give the Muslims of al-Andalus an unprecedented (and historically unfounded) role in the evolution of this quintessentially Spanish pastime. By equating national belonging with the development of cultural practices that transcend religious difference, the Tauromaquia absorbs the Islamic past into the fabric of Spanish history. In doing so it marks a significant departure from the ideology of Christian Reconquest, which took on renewed significance following the Peninsular War with Napoleonic France (1808–13).
