Conquering Fear: Farol de Rodillas

This postcard of a moment in a bullfight (La Fiesta Brava) is strikingly beautiful. It depicts the daring move of the matador called, farol de rodillas, literally, “light of knees.” It refers to a maneuver in which the matador drops to his knees before the bull and as the animal charges waves his cape over and around his head.

The bullfighter painted here is the renown Carlos Arruza (1920-1966), also known as “The Cyclone.” Arruza was one of the most prominent bullfighters of the 20th-Century. He began fighting bulls at the age of 14. Born in Mexico of Spanish parents, he moved to Spain in 1944 and fought bulls for many years. He also appeared in several films about bullfighting and even had a part in the 1960 John Wayne film, The Alamo. Like may artist-athletes, Arruza came out of retirement three times – the last time as a rejoneador or a bullfighter on horseback with a lance.

I wish I could make out the artist’s name in the lower left corner. I’ve used my magnifying glass but the signature is not legible -- another mystery. Maybe one of my readers can help here.

The other mystery is how this postcard became part of my collection. I do not remember my grandmother or any one else giving it to me or buying it. There is no post mark and the stamp has been removed rather indelicately. The card was mailed to a Jeff Malone of Livonia, Michigan.

Women with Deer

I worked as a Humanities Department archivist at Eastern Michigan University nearly four decades ago. This was in the era before power points or computer assisted classroom instruction, so the work was slow and meticulous. I took photos of art history antiquities from books that were later developed into slides for use in projectors. As I spent hours sweating over a camera beneath hot lights, I began to admire these ancient images. I remember photographing this image in particular. Some years later, I bought this postcard at an art gallery in Petoskey, Michigan.

This postcard is in pristine shape but the actual Roman fresco (nearly 2,000 years old) has cracks and other degradations. The fragment is from the First Century A.D. called Fresco with Woman and Deer. The caption on the back says the fragment is housed in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California. I have not had success locating it among their online archives, though I found another similar fresco with a women and swan here.