La Plaza De Toros, in Madrid, has a capacity of 23,000 ecstatic aficionados; among them, recently, was artist LeRoy Neiman (on European assignment for Playboy), whose intense, impressionist use of color captures here the excitement and spectacle of the bull ring. The corrida begins with a flourish of trumpets heralding the ritual entrance of the matadors and their cuadrillas (crews) to salute the Presidential box. Neiman's sketch-pad notes describe the fight itself. "There is a moment of expectant silence and the bull charges in, aroused by his sudden freedom and the blinding light of the sun-streaked arena. More swirls of trumpets, each announcing a stage, or suerte of the fight: the suerte de capa, performed by the matador himself with his magnificent cape – it is here the graceful, dangerous passes such as the veronica are made. Then comes the suerte de varas by the mounted picadors, whose function is to pick El Toro's powerful neck muscles; the suerte de banderillas, in which ribboned darts are thrust into his neck; and the final stage, the spectacular suerte de muleta, when the matador's large cape is replaced by the small red muleta and sword. If the fight is going well, the atmosphere is not unlike that of a Roman circus, from which the corrida descended. The crowd, emotional and spirited, is quick to criticize and as quick to approve. At the final thrust of the sword, the bull sinks to the ground, reluctant and savage as a dying gladiator, as proud as the matador, his killer, who strides away, hand raised to the throng. A national hero, he has faced death in the afternoon for this moment of wild adulation."
