16th-Century Literary Renewal
XVI Century: The Renewal (1492-1789)
Transition from the Middle Ages
This era, spanning from the discovery of America in 1492 to the French Revolution in 1789, marked significant shifts from the medieval period:
- Politics: Emergence of modern nations governed by absolute monarchies. In Spain, this began in the 16th century with the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, uniting the crowns of Castile and Aragon. They were succeeded by Charles I, also heir to the German Empire. This period of expansion concluded with Philip II, a key figure in the Counter-Reformation.
- Economics: Rise of capitalism, where wealth and land, rather than noble lineage, determined power.
- Intellect: Humanism, characterized by the revival of Greco-Roman culture and aesthetics.
- Thought: Dominant currents included Epicureanism (pursuit of pleasure), Stoicism (resignation), Skepticism (doubt), and Neoplatonism (belief that all creation reflects divine beauty).
- Religion: A period of crisis.
- Literature: A new era beginning in 1526, influenced by Garcilaso de la Vega.
The Renaissance: A European Movement
The Renaissance, a 16th-century European movement, applied humanist ideals to culture and politics.
First Renaissance (1517-1556): The Era of Charles V
Spain, open to foreign influences, embraced the broader European, particularly Italian, trends. Italian lyricism influenced a new metric system, incorporating hendecasyllable and heptasyllable lines, and new poetic stanzas (e.g., sonnets). The aesthetic ideal emphasized naturalness and emotional detachment, exemplified by Garcilaso de la Vega. Love, often Petrarchan in style and theme, was central.
Petrarchism
Petrarchan love presented a conflict between desire and unattainable consummation. Idealized nature and mythological themes were also prominent.
Garcilaso de la Vega
Garcilaso’s concise yet high-quality work included three eclogues, 38 sonnets, two elegies, four songs, and one ode. He introduced Italian sonnet forms to Spain. His primary theme was love, explored through two distinct phases:
- Poetry in vita: Written during his beloved Elizabeth’s lifetime, expressing the disappointment of unrequited love.
- Poetry in morte: Composed after Elizabeth’s death, conveying a sense of acceptance and resolution.
Style: Garcilaso pursued perfection, achieving remarkable musicality, smoothness, and elegance. His rhetorical devices included traditional Castilian elements like anaphora and parallelism, alongside Italian-inspired antithesis and epithets.
- Sonnet V: Divided into two parts. The first two quatrains depict the beloved’s image imprinted on the poet’s soul. The two tercets explore the concept of fidelity in love.
- Sonnet XIII: Describes the nymph Daphne’s transformation into a laurel tree.
Mannerism (Second Renaissance, 1556-1598): The Era of Philip II
The Counter-Reformation led to a closure of Spain to foreign ideologies. Naturalness gave way to artifice, with an emphasis on imagination and originality. Themes included patriotic love, moral and religious reflections, and skeptical, ironic, and pessimistic tones. Stylistic devices, particularly those affecting the entire work, were widely employed. Fernando de Herrera was a prominent figure.
Religious Lyric
Emerging in 15th-century Europe and 16th-century Spain, religious lyricism was influenced by the Counter-Reformation’s inward focus and the spread of Renaissance ideals. Two main currents emerged:
- Ascetic: Rooted in theology, it focused on the journey to spiritual perfection through love, purification, and detachment from earthly pleasures. Fray Luis de León was a key figure.
- Mystic: Characterized by the experience or knowledge of divinity, seen as a divine gift from God. San Juan de la Cruz exemplified this current.
Fray Luis de León
The Perfect Wife, a prose work, outlines the virtues of an ideal wife. The Names of Christ explores Christ’s various names in the Bible. His verse showcased mastery of the ode, exploring ascetic and philosophical themes, often reflecting on the simple life. His Renaissance style emphasized formal simplicity, harmony, and meticulous craftsmanship. He frequently used the Italian hendecasyllable.
San Juan de la Cruz
San Juan’s work, inspired by religious sentiment, is brief, totaling less than 1,000 lines. He adapted traditional romances and Petrarchan forms to divine themes. His major mystical works include:
- The Dark Night of the Soul (eight stanzas): Depicts the soul’s journey towards union with God.
- Spiritual Canticle (40 stanzas): Explains the path to God.
- The Living Flame of Love (four six-line stanzas): Celebrates the supreme joy of divine love.
Style: San Juan employed traditional and Italianate expressive resources, including repetition, antithesis, and paradox. He combined popular and rustic vocabulary with cultured terms, troubadour-inspired language, and diminutives. The prominent use of nouns creates a sense of immediacy.
Transcendence: San Juan powerfully expresses the passion of love, desire, and union with the divine. Symbolism is central to conveying the ineffable.