In his new book De la Bravura al Toreo (of which more anon), José Ignacio Miguel del Corral points to a faena of Rafael Molina Sánchez Lagartijo in Madrid on 11 June 1885 as “marking the future of tauromaquia”. It was the fourth faena of Lagartijo’s encerrona with bulls of Dolores Monge, the widow of Murube. Lagartijo was now in his twentieth season as a matador de toros. In another year of rivalry between the Cordoban and Frascuelo, some aficionados admired the former’s banderillas, artistry and knowledge of the lidia, but others were more critical. A Señor Amallo, for instance, commented on Lagartijo’s 1885 temporada as a whole: “How can we speak of this matador without recalling his continual flights from the bull, his hunched passes dragging the muleta and his crooked approach to the kill, coming away from the suerte frightened most of the time?”

Certainly, 11 June 1885 was not one of his more auspicious days by the standards of that time. These were the days when what really counted was the bulls’ performance en varas and the contrast between their violent attacks on the picadors’ horses and the toreros’ daring and athletic quites. Following the tercio de banderillas, the matador’s job was simply that - to kill the bull using the muleta and sword as little as possible and downing his opponent as soon as he could.

Lagartijo’s opening murube that afternoon was descompuesto and charged unpredictably, the matador giving it a bajonazo after 19 passes. More muletazos and a further three attempts with the sword were needed before the faena ended. The second bull killed two horses but fled from the lure come the final tercio; 25 muletazos followed, Lagartijo needing four attempts with the estoque. With the third bull, the number of passes rose to 28, while there were three entries with the estoque and one descabello.

The ‘modern’ faena

By now, the crowd had grown restless, and the spectators’ humour was not improved when the fourth murube came into the ring clearly lame. The public demanded that the animal be returned to the corrales, which the president ordered, and in its place came ‘Momito’, a negro zaíno, which La Nueva Lidia reported was “just as lame as its predecessor”. The crowd immediately called for the bull to be sent out, but this time the president refused to give in to their wishes, and, amidst continuing protests, the animal went on to take 10 varas, with just one derribo.

The bronca continued throughout the second tercio, and La Nueva Lidia reported on the faena as follows: “The protests and the chanting and the calls to the president continued and Lagartijo produced two passes with the left hand, six with the right, three altos, a pase cambiado and a pinchazo. Five passes followed with the left hand, 13 with the right, three altos, two cambiados and a short stab with the sword. Two further passes, then a pinchazo. Five more passes and another stab. Three muletazos and a miss with the sword altogether. One more pass and a bajonazo delivered a media vuelta finished off the beast.”

Things arguably improved with the last two animals - the fifth was given just three passes and a similar number of entries with the sword, while the last received 11 muletazos and three swordthrusts. However, dissatisfied elements in the crowd shouted, “Que se vaya, que se vaya!” throughout each faena.

If that fourth faena really was a portent of tauromaquia’s future, the spectators did not think much of it. Miguel del Corral bases his claim on the number of passes achieved, alleging that the murube charged continuously and templado. What was perhaps more a foretaste of the future was that here was a figura toreando at length in front of an unimpressed crowd, as the animal was weak and offered little challenge… La Nueva Lidia’s correspondent, E. Sandoval, an admirer of Lagartijo, summed up the corrida as “a disreputable day”.

Postscript

Lagartijo experienced two more particularly disastrous encerronas in Madrid. On June 5 1892, the 50-year-old opted to face bulls from his own ganadería. In deciding to become a breeder of toros de lidia, Lagartijo had initially attempted to put together a herd of Vázquez animals owned by King Miguel I of Portugal and the Duke of Veragua. However, the latter refused to sell to the Cordoban, and in the end the matador had to make do with a semental of Miura and cows from Laffitte - a mix of already mixed blood which Lagartijo himself apparently had doubts about.

The Madrid public, however, had high hopes for this corrida, only to see them dashed. The bulls turned out to be broncos, charging unevenly and hooking dangerously, and mansos (Aurelio Ramírez Bernal says in his Los grandes sucesos de la vida taurómaca de Lagartijo, “Instead of having sangre brava, they contained tiger nut milk”). Firecracker banderillas were placed in the third and fourth bulls in attempts to improve things and the president ordered further banderillas de fuego to be placed in the sixth bull when it failed to charge to the picador. During that tercio, Lagartijo placed a pair of banderillas that brought the crowd to its feet, but the die was cast, his bulls’ performance that afternoon persuading the matador to get out of the bull-breeding business altogether. He sent most of his herd to the slaughterhouse, the only animals to survive being some that he had agreed to sell in advance of the Madrid encerrona to Jacinto Trespalacios and the Marqués de Cúllar. Some of these were later sold on to form part of the original Palha herd in Portugal.

At the end of 1892, Lagartijo announced that the following year would be his final temporada. He chose to appear just five times, giving farewell performances in Zaragoza, Bilbao, Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid; a publicity campaign ensued, praising the veteran torero to the skies, the ticket prices being equally high. The Zaragoza and Bilbao afternoons were dreadful; Barcelona saw a strong performance from the matador on one bull; and the Valencia corrida was a success.

In the capital, he once again opted to face six bulls - this time, animals from the Duke of Veragua - but he was out of luck once more, the bulls proving tricky, and Lagartijo left the spectators so dissatisfied and angry that he needed an armed guard to escort him from the plaza. Ramírez Bernal said this final afternoon was a “black stain” on the figura’s reputation: “I never saw a worse corrida […] Lagartijo was fatal, with not a pass nor an estocada of any merit. Fleeing, unsettled, he displayed an incomprehensible fear as if he was a bad beginner […] Everything he did was terrible and vile and he wasn’t bothered by the whistling, insults or even the threats which the least refined high up in the plaza aimed at him.” So ended a career of over 40 years as a torero.