Description
The professional bullfighting cape is a rigid and very heavy cloth. It is used to fix the bull and to make artistic movements whilst receiving it into the ring.
It measures about 100 and 125 cm and weighs between 4 and 7kg.
Its origin comes from the very beginnings of bullfighting when the knights who went out to fight bull on horses, wore a cape and used it with the bull. Formerly it was red and lighter.
Capes of the current bullfighting are pink with internal lining in yellow, or sometimes blue or purple. They are made of synthetic material, nylon or silk, in order to avoid being destroyed by the horn of the bull, besides being treated so blood do not penetrate, and to give them more weight and stiffness.
This cape is not the same as the parade cape, which wear the bullfighters during their entrance to the plaza or paseillo and that is smaller and embroidered with gallons, gold and religious images.