Many of the incidents depicted in the print series La Tauromaquia actually happened and involved toreadors and matadors whom Goya would have seen in the ring. The Rendón of the title worked with Pepe Illo, one of the most famous bullfighters in Spain, and the author of a key work on the art of bullfighting. Rendón was one of his ‘picadores’, or lancers on horseback. Here, Goya shows Rendón in the middle of one of his acts of controlling the bull using a spear, while the rest of the company gets into position around it. In this print, Goya pays more detailed attention to the crowd of spectators, even taking care to mark some of their features. Pepe Illo was a legend in the world of bullfighting, and his name attracted crowds in their thousands.