Bullfighting is an ancient tradition
While it is true that taurine culture has been around for thousands of years, and that other bull-events such as the running of bulls have been recorded for hundreds of years, the modern corrida de toros as you would see it in Spain, Mexico, France and other countries today is a relatively young spectacle.
Although the current three act structure was first codified by Pepe Hillo in 1796, the modern aesthetics of bullfighting are a result of the stylistic revolution that sprang from the great rivalry of José Gomez “Joselito” and Juan Belmonte during the 1910s.
It is from this time forward on that personal artistic expression became an explicit quality on which a matador can be judged, rather than bravery and technical execution. Modern bullfighting hence looks back at roughly the same amount of history as sound movies and the modern cinema.