Juan Pedro Domecq Solis, who died on April 18 aged 69, was head of the dynasty that has bred Spain's most celebrated fighting bulls; by concentrating on fine lines and lively disposition rather than on pure power and aggression, he claimed to have replaced the country's toros bravos with a toro artista.
Juan Pedro Domecq Solis A Domecq bull was bred almost exclusively for the final third of the corrida in which, after the picadors and banderilleros have left the ring, the matador is left alone to face and kill the bull. It is in these few minutes that the bullfighter is scrutinised for the daring and skill of his passes. But it is the character of the bull, principally, that determines the nature of the showdown.
Matador Jose Maria Manzanares makes a close pass of a Domecq bull
Some bloodlines, notably Miura bulls, are notorious for their occasionally lethal combination of aggression and intelligence, encouraging tension in the stands, but not always the spectacle of man and beast united in near-harmonious battle that some aficionados claim to seek in the ring.
Domecq bulls, on the other hand, are renowned for a complicity, if not in their own demise, then in the blood-spattered dance that precedes it. A willingness and energy to pass repeatedly back and forth allows the matador to establish a rhythm and elegance that encourages fans to brandish their white handkerchiefs as soon as the cries of "Olé" have subsided and the body of the bull has been dragged from the sand.
It was a temperament encouraged by Domecq Solis's father, Juan Pedro Domecq y Diez, who himself built upon the bloodstock traditions established by his own father, Juan Pedro Domecq y Nunez de Villavicencio, who bought Veragua, Spain's oldest ganaderia, or breeding estate, in the 1930s.
It was for this "co-operativeness" (allied no doubt to the fact that facing his bulls was less likely to lead to the hospital or morgue) that most matadors were happy to see the "V" of Domecq's Veragua estate branded on the flanks of the beasts charging at them.
And while a few critics turned up their noses at the bulls' supposed lack of fight, public enthusiasm was such that, by the end of Domecq Solis's life, his bloodlines were to be found in around 40 per cent of fighting bulls in Spain.
Juan Pedro Domecq Solis was born in Seville on April 10 1942 and grew up in Jerez de la Frontera, 15 miles northwest of Cadiz. He studied Engineering for a year in Seville before moving in 1959 to Madrid, where, in 1966, he completed his studies in Agriculture at the Escuela Especial de Ingenieros Agrónomos. In 1972 he moved to Barcelona to study business management at the Institute of Higher Business Studies.
By then he had already taken over the management of the other notable aspect of his family's farming business – vines. "We are a family that began making sherry in the 18th century," he noted. "But we always had a second passion, the breeding and selection of livestock."
The Veragua "iron" (or brand, associated with the estate) is every bit as old as the Domecq family's history in sherry. In 1755, in Seville, Gregorio Vázquez created a mixed herd of bulls, mostly of animals once kept by Dominican and Carthusian monks. In 1778 the herd passed to his son, Vicente José, who aimed to make the bulls the most famous of the day. When his son, José Vicente Vázquez, took over the herd, he improved the stock further by interbreeding his animals with the finest beasts from other herds, notably those owned by the Marquises of Casa Ulloa, Becquer and Cabrera and the Count of Vistahermosa.
This interbreeding produced medium-sized bulls of power and of noted "courage" during the fight. When Vázquez died in 1830, the majority of his herd passed to King Fernando VII, who used it to found the royal ganaderia. When the king died three years later, this was sold to the Dukes of Osuna and of Veragua; the latter's grandson sold it in 1928 to Don Manuel Martín Alonso, who in turn sold it to Juan Pedro Domecq y Nunez de Villavicencio in 1930.
It was his son, Juan Pedro Domecq y Diez, who revolutionised bull fighting by breeding animals that "struggled until death". Until then, bulls were bred for their power and aggression when faced with the mounted picadors, whose lances wound the bull in the neck, weakening it.
But Domecq bulls were smaller, tear-shaped beasts, with broad shoulders and fine hindquarters; they were bred not for their attitude to the horseman at the beginning of the fight, but the matador at the end of it.
It was this new emphasis that allowed toreros to express their artistry, and paved the way for the close passes and daredevilry that form the climax to the modern bullfight.
After Juan Pedro Domecq y Diez's death in 1975, Juan Pedro Domecq Solis inherited a small fraction of the herd – 84 cows and four bulls: "Ojalado", "Garabato", "Desgranado" and "Rancherito". From these four bulls he meticulously drew out the traits established by his father, developing a genetic database of his herd in partnership with the veterinary faculty at the Complutense University in Madrid. Determined that his animals should be fit enough to last the 20 minutes of any fight, he even ran them each day to build up their endurance. Slowly the definitive "toro artista" emerged.
"I defend it [bullfighting] as an art form, as important as music and painting, [but] with a difference," he said. "It's an ephemeral art that is gone in a moment." For Domecq the fights are part of a Mediterranean culture that enshrines ritual, but celebrates improvisation within that ritual. He offered flamenco as another example.
He was president of the Union of Breeders of Fighting Bulls from 1984 to 1994. Away from the ring, Domecq farms produced some of Spain's best jamon.
Juan Pedro Domecq Solis was killed when his car was involved in a head-on collision with a lorry. Six members of his family had previously died in traffic accidents, including his son, Fernando, and a nephew.
He had four children, and before his death bequeathed the Veragua iron to his son, Juan Pedro Domecq Moreno.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/sport-obituaries/8486827/Juan-Pedro-Domecq-Solis.html
Juan Pedro Domecq Solis was born in Seville on April 10 1942 and grew up in Jerez de la Frontera, 15 miles northwest of Cadiz. He studied Engineering for a year in Seville before moving in 1959 to Madrid, where, in 1966, he completed his studies in Agriculture at the Escuela Especial de Ingenieros Agrónomos. In 1972 he moved to Barcelona to study business management at the Institute of Higher Business Studies.
By then he had already taken over the management of the other notable aspect of his family's farming business – vines. "We are a family that began making sherry in the 18th century," he noted. "But we always had a second passion, the breeding and selection of livestock."
The Veragua "iron" (or brand, associated with the estate) is every bit as old as the Domecq family's history in sherry. In 1755, in Seville, Gregorio Vázquez created a mixed herd of bulls, mostly of animals once kept by Dominican and Carthusian monks. In 1778 the herd passed to his son, Vicente José, who aimed to make the bulls the most famous of the day. When his son, José Vicente Vázquez, took over the herd, he improved the stock further by interbreeding his animals with the finest beasts from other herds, notably those owned by the Marquises of Casa Ulloa, Becquer and Cabrera and the Count of Vistahermosa.
This interbreeding produced medium-sized bulls of power and of noted "courage" during the fight. When Vázquez died in 1830, the majority of his herd passed to King Fernando VII, who used it to found the royal ganaderia. When the king died three years later, this was sold to the Dukes of Osuna and of Veragua; the latter's grandson sold it in 1928 to Don Manuel Martín Alonso, who in turn sold it to Juan Pedro Domecq y Nunez de Villavicencio in 1930.
It was his son, Juan Pedro Domecq y Diez, who revolutionised bull fighting by breeding animals that "struggled until death". Until then, bulls were bred for their power and aggression when faced with the mounted picadors, whose lances wound the bull in the neck, weakening it.
But Domecq bulls were smaller, tear-shaped beasts, with broad shoulders and fine hindquarters; they were bred not for their attitude to the horseman at the beginning of the fight, but the matador at the end of it.
It was this new emphasis that allowed toreros to express their artistry, and paved the way for the close passes and daredevilry that form the climax to the modern bullfight.
After Juan Pedro Domecq y Diez's death in 1975, Juan Pedro Domecq Solis inherited a small fraction of the herd – 84 cows and four bulls: "Ojalado", "Garabato", "Desgranado" and "Rancherito". From these four bulls he meticulously drew out the traits established by his father, developing a genetic database of his herd in partnership with the veterinary faculty at the Complutense University in Madrid. Determined that his animals should be fit enough to last the 20 minutes of any fight, he even ran them each day to build up their endurance. Slowly the definitive "toro artista" emerged.
"I defend it [bullfighting] as an art form, as important as music and painting, [but] with a difference," he said. "It's an ephemeral art that is gone in a moment." For Domecq the fights are part of a Mediterranean culture that enshrines ritual, but celebrates improvisation within that ritual. He offered flamenco as another example.
He was president of the Union of Breeders of Fighting Bulls from 1984 to 1994. Away from the ring, Domecq farms produced some of Spain's best jamon.
Juan Pedro Domecq Solis was killed when his car was involved in a head-on collision with a lorry. Six members of his family had previously died in traffic accidents, including his son, Fernando, and a nephew.
He had four children, and before his death bequeathed the Veragua iron to his son, Juan Pedro Domecq Moreno.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/sport-obituaries/8486827/Juan-Pedro-Domecq-Solis.html
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