Repères méditerranéens

 

Arles, like Nimes, is one of the main bull-fighting towns in France. It benefits from being close to the Camargue – a large part of which is in the commune of Arles – for in the Camargue are the major bull-raising ranches in France. Arles is one of the principal venues for "Camarguais racing" (in which athletic young men try to snatch a cockade, that is a rosette of ribbons, from the tip of the bull's horns and, at the end, the animal rejoins the herd) with the main exhibition of skill in the "Gold Cockade". But the town is also well known for its Spanish-style ferias, which today are at Easter and September. With its Roman arena, capable of holding 25,000, Arles possesses a remarkable venue for spectacle. This amphitheatre was built under the Flavians (Vespasian, Titus and Domitian) between 40 and 80 AD and since 1981 has been on UNESCO's heritage list, a century after it was classified in France as a historic monument. That was the time when infatuation with bull-fighting gripped one part of southern France. Arles boasts it organised its first bull-fight in 1830, to celebrate the military expedition to Algeria. But the arrival of the true Spanish corrida in France dates from the Second Empire (1852-1870) with the first complete bull-fights given in Bayonne in August 1853. From then on this type of bull-based spectacle spread across part of the south west and, to a lesser extent, across Provence, essentially in those towns which had a Roman arena (Nimes, Arles, Frejus). During the 1950's the Arles arena hosted many corridas, of which the most famous was the September wine harvest corrida, to which the most famous matadors came. That is what we see in this film

The regular presence of Picasso in the stands at Arles can be explained by his living in Provence – at this time he lived at the Chateau de Vauvenargues, near Aix – and by his friendship with the matador Luis Miguel Dominguin, originally booked for the wine harvest corrida. However the first meeting between the two men, introduced by Jean Cocteau in 1950, was not a success since Dominguin refused to let himself be painted, saying they did not know each other well enough. But little by little they became close friends, despite the difference in age: the painter was then 69, the young matador 24. Their finest collaboration was Toros y Toreros, published by the Cercle d'or in 1963. Picasso published engravings inspired by the fine and proud silhouette of his friend Dominguin, who wrote the text and the prologue.

 

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