Exhibition - Natural Histories - The bull veragua

This is a remarkable example of a bull. It was stuffed by José María Benedito, who was one of the world’s greatest taxidermists. The technique used here is called dermoplasty. The taxidermist worked like a sculptor, modelling the entire body of the bull or other animal in plaster with added moss to make it more pliable. The innards of this bull are made of moss. Here I have established a relationship of gazes between the white bull in the painting and this Veragua display bull: gazes that convey attraction, knowledge, surprise and fear. This also allows us to communicate, to travel through this painting and this story in a different way. Este toro es un berrendo en ***, capirote salpicado, botinero, coliblanco y astifino. In bullfighting terms this bull would be described with its own specific vocabulary. We might say that its stock is that of a bull which lived like a god, one who was never fought in the ring and was used for breeding purposes. It belonged to the Duke of Veragua, who donated it after its death to the Museo de Ciencias Naturales. It represents the origins of the Spanish fighting bull, from the Vazqueña stock, which, interestingly, was acquired by Ferdinand VII, the founder of this Museum, then subsequently came into the ownership of the Duke of Veragua, a descendent of Christopher Columbus. This is a fierce, untamed animal, which makes its appearance here in no less a space than the central gallery of the Museo del Prado, and obviously influences the entire space. Behind it is the Emperor Tiberius, who has become the bull’s keeper, keeping an eye on it and making sure it doesn’t get completely out of control in the galleries of the Museo del Prado, as this is a stud bull we have here. All the anxious naked ladies on this marvellous wall here will be covering themselves up when they see that a fighting bull like this is loose in the Museum.