Title:
'Es Una Trampa!' from the series: 'Mis Confesiones'
Artist: Pierre De Casavacas
Medium: Single digit finger painting
Depicted here is one of a series of works on The Great Bull Heist of 1450, created by the sole surviving member of that ill fated plot. It was dreamed up by three young brothers, who had recently lost their father's grist mill in Galatea to their penchant for drinking and loose women.
The three brothers were named Jose, Juan, and Pierre (he was adopted) de Casavacas, but only Pierre was fated to survive the fatal events at the bull ring in 1450. The plan was to dress as visiting bullfighters from an arena in far-away Gallipoli, and enter town asking for work at the local bullring. They would ask that all the bulls in the town would be lined up and ready to fight, and would promise that, between the three of them, they could defeat all the bulls in town. And of course, they were willing to wager on the outcome.
As is common in these types of confidence scams, the brothers had a secret weapon: their bull fighting blankets (now incorrectly known as capes, the bullfighter's blanket was originally meant to symbolize the sweet and subtle sleep-of-death the bull almost unknowingly suffered at the hands of a mast matador). The brothers had special blankets, smearing along the linings with the juice of crushed poppy bulbs. The soporific effect of these bulbs would quickly knock the bulls unconscious, making them easy pray for the brothers' swords. Thus the brothers would make away with most of the towns money. Also, they had a deal with a nearby bull merchant, who would come into the newly bull-deficient town and sell the desperate townspeople low grade bull at high grade prices.
Everything went according to plan until the very last moment before the bulls were about to be released. This was when Jose (on the right) noticed that their blankets had been switched, and were no longer smeared with poppy juice. The townspeople had clearly caught on to the brothers' plan, and switched the blankets so that they could instead be entertained by watching the bulls gore the three men to death.
The brothers, lead by Pierre, quickly climbed out of the ring and ran off into town, with the entire heard of bulls running behind them. They were met on all sides by the jeering laughter of the townspeople, and no one opened their doors to help. Only Pierre escaped, losing all but one finger in the process. He would later wed the daughter of the town's mayor.
Now, we have no idea idea how betrayed the brother's plan to the townspeople, although historians have long thought that it was an inside job. We have scholars working away at Pierre's series of paintings night and day, to decipher the strange language he used (known as Span-ish) to entitle his drawings. We will report future findings as we come across them.
Oh, and the name of the town? Pamploma...
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