2.3: The 17th Century in Spain

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increasing: growing size: size weaken: to weaken references: referents, objects to represent and process

If in the 16th century the Spanish crown became the largest and possibly the richest kingdom in Europe, thanks in part to its colonial expansion, which made immense quantities of gold, silver and other valuable products available, by the end of the 17th century rising inflation; internal regional, economic and ideological tensions; tactical errors within complex European politics; political corruption and the size of the administrative apparatus, among other factors, were weakening Spanish power. The aristocratic class, however, generally enjoyed great wealth in these two centuries and, especially in the arts and letters, had a great influence in Europe. That is why this period is known as “The Golden Age”, with well-known figures to this day, such as El Greco (1541-1614), José de Ribera (1591-1652), Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664) and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682) in painting, mystical poets (Teresa de Ávila, Luis de León, Juan de la Cruz), baroque poets (Luis de Góngora, Francisco de Quevedo), and the playwrights Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca and Tirso de Molina. It is also the century of Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). ^The great influx of wealth, merchandise and references during this period, in which people were moving from small feudal or Renaissance kingdoms to powerful imperial monarchies, generated an awareness of complexity and an aesthetic of excess, today known as the Baroque [1].

“In Ictu Oculi” (In the Blink of an Eye), by Juan de Valdés Leal, 1672.

The Baroque: multiplication of commodities, of references, of meanings

The truth, the more difficult, the more pleasant it is, and the knowledge it costs is more valued.” —Baltasar Gracián, conceptist from Aragon (1601-1658)

The most difficult truth is, the most enjoyable, and when knowledge takes effort, it is more highly valued.

Netherlands: Netherlands increasingly: more and more provide: to contribute loan: loan underline: to underline around: around malestar: unrest soul: soul regarding: with respect to the tradition of rupture: a tradition of breaking with tradition (a concept coined by Mexican thinker Octavio Paz). label: seal, mark imbalance: artificial lack of balance : contrived, affected contrapposite (it.) : counterpoise: a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot. restlessness: restlessness because: thus challenge: reflection (thought) reflection: reflection (thought) reflection: reflection (mirror image) Bet: to bet impressive: imposing both... and what it should: what it should         Defeat: defeat   to crumble: to crumble As can be expected: as can be expected Ingenious: witty hyperbole: exaggeration   Hyperbaton: Alteration of Normal Word Order, Use of Latin Syntax   cult: cultured Lutheranism: Lutheranism a kind of heresy: a sort of heresy

During the 16th and 17th centuries (1500-1700), Western Europe was in full expansion of mercantilism or precapitalism, that is, an economy based on international trade. Having large quantities of precious metals (gold and silver) determined financial hegemony, because with them large armies and all kinds of basic and luxurious products could be paid for. This mercantile process was particularly strong in the most colonialist nations such as Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, England and France, with access to workers and mines in many parts of the world. The absolute monarchy made it possible to neutralize part of the power of the feudal lords and facilitated commercial monopolies. Although the bourgeois social class was increasingly economically and socially powerful, characterizing what we now call “Modernity”, the aristocratic class (the nobles) still had a lot of political power. For this reason, the monarchical model was successful, since at the same time it respected aristocratic hierarchies, it allowed the influence of the bourgeoisie (bankers, merchants, incipient industrialists) through the money they provided in taxes and loans to the Crown. It also unified currency, language, military, and laws across larger territories, facilitating and protecting commercial exchange. Already in The Prince (1513), the Italian Macchiavello had emphasized the need to have strong states, unified around common interests. Ideologically, it is a period of great scientific, aesthetic and philosophical innovation. It is time to consolidate a new model of life in response to the constant changes introduced by commercial and colonial expansion, and also in dialogue with the unrest caused by these changes. The Earth is no longer the center of the universe (Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler); a scientific (Pascal, Newton) and philosophical (Bacon, Descartes, Locke, Spinoza) revolution is taking place that seriously questions the religious conception of the world. It is an epistemological and ethical crisis. Observation begins to be more important than faith, logic more than dogma, money and ostentation more than land or loyalty, the individual more than authority. The concept of humanity is a moral and ideological battlefield: are the colonized as human as the colonizers? What defines us as human: the soul or the capacity to think? What gives us Europeans the authority to dominate other parts of the world, where does our superiority come from? Self-reflection is a notable feature of thinking in this era. There is a multiplicity of stimuli: more books, more objects, more languages, more stories, more people and exotic products that we didn't know anything about a few decades ago. In art and literature, originality is increasingly important, the creation of styles that fascinate a refined public and that demonstrate novelty compared to what was in fashion a few decades earlier. A “tradition of rupture” begins. Many painters, architects, musicians and writers must now exhibit not only extreme virtuosity in their field, but also the ability to leave a personal stamp, to create their own and influential style, or to attract different types of audiences (not only court nobles but also rich bourgeois). Thus, the Western aesthetic of this time seeks to innovate in the face of Renaissance styles, which tended to naturalness and balance. In contrast, many creators are now looking for beauty in imbalance and artificiality. This aesthetic of excess is sometimes classified into successive periods called Mannerist (16th century), Baroque proper (17th century) and Rococo or Late Baroque (18th century). If the Renaissance counterpart suggested calm and equanimity, for example, the Baroque exaggerates it to inspire restlessness and agitation. If Renaissance were associated with the harmony of the circle, Baroque would be the eccentricity of the ellipse. ^[2] It is understandable that in this era of abundance and passionate debates, an aesthetic characterized by excess appears: pomp, exploration of the infinite, the challenge of limits, intensity, constant self-reflexivity (the works are like mirrors of themselves or reflections on representation). This excess can be associated with the tremendous amount of merchandise, technical advances and presences of other cultures that invade Europe. It is also linked, of course, to rising economic inflation. The value and authenticity of everything is questioned: of things, of principles, of words, of life. The fascination with complexity (of forms, of concepts, of references, of construction) and ostentatious ornament are characteristic. The baroque key is the counterpoint, the decentralized, the difficulty. Another factor that contributes to the shaping of this aesthetic, especially in painting, is the Counter-Reformation of Catholicism. The Council of Trent (1545-63), which celebrated the Catholic Church in response to Protestant reforms in Germany, Switzerland and England, among others, emphasized the importance of using art to teach doctrine without direct recourse to the Bible, and of associating strong emotions with devotion to the Christian faith. Dramatism then became a desirable stylistic note, in particular for works paid for by Catholic patrons. This would explain, in part, why many of the earliest manifestations of Baroque appeared in Catholic Europe (Spain, France, Italy). Questioned at its core, ecclesiastical authority is committed to ostentation: an extreme passion for radical values (reform of religious communities, mysticism), for the defense of dogma (the Inquisition), for imposing luxury and spectacularity (immense churches, full of gold and famous art; great rituals). Monarchical culture also promotes similar values, such as pomp, majesty, and exhibitionism. Paradoxically, both the Church and the monarchy are in crisis: they no longer fully believe in what they represent. Money and citizen participation support them materially, but ideologically they are justified by anachronistic values such as lineage and vertical authority. Representation is in crisis, nothing seems to mean what it should, the senses are multiplying, there is no coincidence between words and things. The situation of Spain in the Baroque era is paradoxical. It begins during the energetic reign of Philip II (1554-98), when the Spanish Empire “didn't set the sun” because it had lands all over the world, and goes approximately to Charles II (1665-1700), the last king of the Habsburg dynasty, when the Spanish crown lost control of Portugal (1668) and shortly before losing the Netherlands (1713), among other territories. It is a time of great wealth for the elite, largely because of the metals and products of the Spanish-American territories, but also of great poverty for the people, because of widespread corruption; of military power and international politics, but also of serious defeats and constant challenges against other nations in Western Europe; of strong authoritarianism, but of profound internal fragmentation; of splendour in literature and painting (it is the “Golden Age”), but also of pessimism because of the feeling of living in an empire that is crumbling under inept rulers; of great cultural influence over Europe and America, but also of religious dogmatism that hinders intellectual development; of commercial monopoly over the Indies, but also of smuggling and piracy; of great colonial exploitation, but also of strong internal debates about the ethics of slavery and the treatment of indigenous people; of great ethnic diversity, but of obsession with the cleansing of blood and doctrinal purity. As is to be expected, a very notable feature of Spanish literary baroque is its taste for paradox, debate and satire. In Spain at that time, there were two schools vying for poetic hegemony. Conceptism, more associated with Castile and Aragón, preferred to be fast, ingenious, relatively concise, and to use word games and hyperbole to convey the complexity of unconventional concepts. Its main representative was Francisco de Quevedo from Madrid. Cultheranism, more associated with Andalusia, was very ornate, extensive, full of cultured references and hyperbaton to show off formal complexity and scholarship. Its main representative was Luis de Góngora from Córdoba. Spanish Baroque poetry then seems almost like a dramatic work between famous rival poets, enemies. In fact, the term “cultheranism” was invented by its opponents, in a typically conceptist game, combining “cult” with “Lutheranism”, to present it as a kind of poetic “heresy”. Both schools, however, are a clear expression of baroque aesthetics —decentered, excessive, in internal debate, dynamic—, of the epistemological crisis that occurred in Western Europe during these centuries, and of the privileged role that poetry played as a discursive genre in articulating this crisis.

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[1] The word baroque was used by later critics to refer to this artistic era. That is, the creators of the XVI-XVIII centuries did not call their style “baroque”. For a long time (18th and 19th centuries) it had a pejorative meaning with the meaning of excessive and irrational. The term possibly comes from the Portuguese word “barroco” (in Spanish it would be “barrueco”), which means “irregularly shaped pearl”, or “fake jewel”.

[2] The Cuban writer Severo Sarduy suggests this image in his essays on the Baroque. The geometric ellipse has two “eccentric” foci, and becomes a circle when the eccentricity is zero. It's no coincidence that Baroque architecture frequently uses elliptical arches. Cuban writer Severo Sarduy suggests this image in his essays on the baroque. The geometrical ellipse has two “eccentric” foci. It becomes a circle when the eccentricity of its foci is equal to zero. It is no coincidence that baroque architecture often used elliptical arches.

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Renaissance vs. Baroque

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Chronology

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Brief chronology of the Spanish Golden Age
1479	Union of Castile and Aragon under the Catholic Monarchs — “Kings of Spain”
1492	The Catholic Monarchs annex Granada, the last Muslim kingdom on the peninsula. Jews are expelled. Nebrija publishes the first grammar of Spanish. Columbus arrives in America.
1517-1556	Reign of Charles I, first of the Habsburg dynasty in Spain.
1519	Charles I of Spain is elected German emperor with the name of Carlos V. Ferdinand Magellan begins his first trip around the world.
1519-22	Conquest of Mexico.
1532-33	Conquest of Peru.
1556-98	Reign of Philip II and Spanish military hegemony in Europe
1565	Colonization of the Philippines
1580	Philip II becomes king of Portugal.
1598-1621	Reign of Philip III. The Spanish State has huge debts and a lot of inflation.
1609	Expulsion of the Moors. Some 300,000 inhabitants leave Spain.
1618-48	Thirty Years' War (between Catholics and Protestants — between European powers).
1621-65	Reign of Philip IV.
1640	Lisbon uprising. Portugal is once again an independent kingdom. Rebellion of Catalonia.
1648	Independence of the Netherlands.
1665-1700	Reign of Charles II, last king of the Habsburg dynasty. Great political decline.

Fuentes

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• Blanco Aguinaga, Carlos, et al. Social history of Spanish literature. Akal, 2000.
• Davies, Catherine, ed. The Companion to Hispanic Studies. Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Garcia de Cortázar, Fernando and José Manuel González Vesga. A brief history of Spain. Editorial Alliance, 2017.
• Kattan Ibarra, Juan. Cultural perspectives of Spain. NTC Publishing, 1990.
• Sarduy, Severo. Baroque. Editorial Sudamericana, 1947.