The Baroque Period in Spain

Posted on Oct 5, 2024 in Music

1. The Baroque Period in Spain (17th Century)

1.1 Political, Social, and Economic Aspects

Spain, a powerful country at the beginning of the 17th century, experienced decline and territorial loss by mid-century, losing its European hegemony. Several factors contributed to this situation:

  • Transfer of Power to Favorites: Secretaries of state, such as the Duke of Lerma (favorite of Philip III) and the Count-Duke of Olivares, exerted significant influence over the monarch.
  • Economic Crisis: Wars placed a heavy financial burden on the country. Inflation, high taxes, poor harvests, and unemployment increased poverty and social unrest, leading to riots.
  • Depopulation: Plague epidemics and migration to cities swelled the ranks of the poor, criminals, and beggars.
  • Corruption and Idleness: The nobility remained unproductive, engaging in intrigues, lavish spending, and ostentation.

1.2 Religion

The monarchy enforced the principles of the Counter-Reformation. The Inquisition controlled cultural activities, and art reflected the religious values of the time.

1.3 The Ideology of the Baroque

Baroque art expressed a worldview shaped by conflict and crisis. The Renaissance ideals of harmony and beauty faded, replaced by insecurity and pessimism. The following themes emerged:

  • Sense of Crisis and Disillusionment: The difficulties of the time led to a pessimistic outlook and a sense of disappointment.
  • Uncertainty and Change: The changing nature of reality and the veil of appearances fostered uncertainty.
  • Contradictions and Opposites: Reality was perceived as a struggle of opposites, reflected in art through the contrast of light and shadow.
  • Human Weakness and Mortality: Themes of human frailty, the presence of death, and the fleeting nature of time became prominent.
  • Irrationalism and Superstition: There was a rise in irrational beliefs, a magical view of reality, and belief in the supernatural.

1.4 Baroque Culture

Despite the crisis, the 17th century was a period of cultural flourishing, known as the Golden Age, alongside the Renaissance.

  • Patronage and Official Culture: The monarchy actively promoted artistic activities (patronage). Universities and colleges controlled official culture.
  • Oral and Visual Communication: With high illiteracy rates, information was transmitted orally, through sermons, images, and festivals.
  • Scientific Developments: Spain lagged behind other European countries in advancements in astronomy, physics, medicine, and mathematics.
  • The Baroque Hall: Two key phenomena characterized this period: a tendency towards ostentation and display (in festivities, public life, and religious ceremonies) and the rise of theater as a grand spectacle, closely linked to festivals.

2. Baroque Poetry

2.1 Thematic Aspects

Baroque poetry continued earlier themes but intensified expressive resources. It reflected the disappointment and sense of crisis of the time. Diverse topics included:

  • Love Poetry: Continued the Renaissance tradition of expressing love’s pain and frustration, often using Petrarchan imagery. Parody and burlesque approaches also emerged.
  • Moral and Philosophical Poetry: Dominated by pessimism, disillusionment, the transience of life, and awareness of death. Satirical poetry often criticized courtly intrigue, injustice, and the pursuit of wealth.
  • Religious Poetry: Focused on religious celebrations, spiritual reflection, and repentance.
  • Burlesque Poetry: Emphasized humor, parody, mockery, and even personal attacks.

2.2 Formal Aspects

Baroque poetry built upon Renaissance models while incorporating new features. It was characterized by:

  • Formal Variety: Showcased a wide range of genres, styles, and linguistic registers.
  • Display of Ingenuity: Poets demonstrated their wit through the use of expressive resources.
  • Metrics: There was a preference for shorter verse forms, especially the octosyllable in various combinations (e.g., seguidillas, letrillas, romances), often grouped in quatrains and with introductory choruses.
  • Conceits and Expression: Sharp wit and elaborate poetic development were evident in various forms. The “concept” (a clever thought) was central, expressed through metaphors, comparisons, and periphrasis. Contrasts and contradictions were highlighted through antithesis and paradox. The desire for surprise led to the use of dialogue and hyperbole. Other features included anaphora, parallelism, cultism (use of elaborate language), and the inclusion of colloquial language.

3. Luis de Góngora

Góngora created the most innovative poetic language of his time, eliciting both admiration and rejection.

3.1 Poetic Works

  • Minor Art Poetry: Cultivated romances (e.g., “The Fable of Pyramus and Thisbe”) and letrillas, particularly burlesque and satirical ones.
  • Sonnets: Explored themes of love, burlesque, disillusionment, and the transience of life.
  • Major Poems: “Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea” and “Solitudes.” The former narrates the story of the cyclops Polyphemus who, in love with the nymph Galatea, kills her lover Acis out of jealousy.

3.2 Style

Góngora’s style is characterized by its difficulty, due to the use of mythological and religious allusions and a complex vocabulary.

  • Phonic Features: Employed alliteration and paronomasia (wordplay based on similar sounds).
  • Syntactic Features: Used long and complex sentences, allusive periphrasis, and syntactic cultism (e.g., bimembre verses).
  • Lexical Features: Predominance of cultism (learned vocabulary) and elaborate metaphors related to color and music.

4. Lope de Vega

Lope de Vega was a prolific writer of extraordinary creative ability.

4.1 Poetic Works

  • Minor Art and Italianate Poetry: Composed both traditional Spanish verse forms and Italianate poetry.
  • Romances: One of the masters of the ballad form, including Moorish and pastoral romances.
  • Petrarchan Poetry: In addition to love sonnets, he wrote mythological, moral, and circumstantial poems (e.g., “The Beauty of Angelica”).
  • Religious Poetry: Included sacred rhymes, sonnets, and other poems expressing devotion, confession, and repentance (e.g., “Rhymes of the Human and Divine”).
  • Burlesque Poetry: “The Lawyer of Glass” is a diverse collection featuring burlesque and satirical sonnets and parodies of Petrarchan conventions, such as a song in which the beloved is a washerwoman.

5. Francisco de Quevedo

Quevedo produced a vast and varied body of work, known for its quality and range of themes, attitudes, and linguistic resources.

5.1 Poetic Themes

  • Love Poetry: Developed familiar themes: the beauty of the unattainable beloved, the lover’s suffering, the madness of love, and love transcending death. He intensified Renaissance imagery with a mournful poetic voice, haunted by time’s passage and death.
  • Moral and Metaphysical Poetry: Expressed deep disillusionment and reflected on the brevity of life, appearances, and the inevitability of death.
  • Satirical and Critical Poetry: Targeted human behavior and social types, particularly women (misogyny was a common feature of Baroque satire). He degraded classical myths and Petrarchan conventions.
  • Religious Poetry: Expressed repentance for sins.

5.2 Style

Quevedo’s style is characterized by complex ideas and wit. He excelled in the use of metaphors, comparisons, antithesis, and contrasts. His satirical and burlesque poetry employed caricature, puns, hyperbole, learned vocabulary, hyperbaton (unusual word order), neologisms, and the modification of proverbs.

6. Baroque Prose

Baroque prose encompassed both fiction and didactic works with a moralizing purpose. Renaissance narrative genres continued to be practiced.

  • Narrative Prose: Included pastoral novels, Byzantine novels, short stories, and picaresque novels.
  • Didactic Prose: Included political and religious treatises.

6.1 Picaresque Novel

  • “The Life of Guzmán de Alfarache”: Featured two levels of discourse: the narrative of a rogue’s life and the narrator’s moral reflections. Guzmán’s autobiography selectively presents events that shaped his development. The work combines plain style, slang, colloquialisms, learned vocabulary, syntactic complexity, and expressive resources.
  • “The Life Story of Buscón”: This work’s classification as a picaresque novel is debated due to its deviations from the genre. Buscón, the protagonist, desires social advancement and shows no remorse. The narrative is presented as revenge against Pablos, highlighting his ambition and violence. Quevedo uses picaresque elements and employs humor through hyperbole, puns, and personification.

6.2 Didactic Prose of Quevedo

  • “Dreams”: A collection of satirical stories targeting social groups and individuals who exemplify improper conduct.
  • “The Last Judgment”: A trial of characters representing various social classes and types.
  • “The Devil’s Dialogue”: A conversation between a narrator and the devil about those in hell and their punishments.
  • “The Dream of Hell”: Depicts two paths: the narrow path of virtue, chosen by few, and the wide, pleasurable path of sin, chosen by many who are condemned to hell.
  • “The World from the Stage”: Represents disillusionment through an old man personifying hypocrisy, revealing the world as it truly is.
  • “The Dream of Death”: Social types march towards hell in a procession of death.

6.3 Didactic Prose of Baltasar Gracián

Gracián’s works targeted a learned audience and aimed to teach principles of reason and wisdom for achieving personal excellence. His most famous work is “The Critic.”

  • “The Critic”: Represents the journey of human life. Gracián equates the ages of man with the seasons. The book combines a central narrative with numerous satirical and allegorical episodes. Critilo, an old castaway, encounters Andrenio, a young man raised by a wild beast (representing Spain), who recounts his life. Critilo symbolizes experience and virtue, while Andrenio represents ignorance of the world and instinct. The work offers a critical and pessimistic view of the world.