3.2: The 18th Century in Spain

 

---

By the end of the 17th century, Spain had lost its political and military hegemony in Europe due to inflation, internal tensions, tactical errors and the complicated administrative apparatus, among other factors. While capitalism was rising in new powers such as France and England, the Spanish empire used the wealth it brought from its colonies for war and to consume imported products, not to develop local industry. The kingdom also had immense debts to bankers from other European countries, which affected its domestic and foreign policy. So, in a debate with the baroque mercantilist mentality that resisted the new winds of rationalist industrialization, the 18th century was for Spain a period characterized by the effort to incorporate and catch up with the new economic and ideological system of the rest of Western Europe.

“Allegory of Industry”, by Francisco de Goya (1746-1828).

---

Political and Cultural Life

“Without the rules of the art, whoever gets something right is by chance.” —Tomás de Iriarte (1750-1791), in Literary Fables, VII (1782).

Without Rules in Art, No One Can Get It Right But by Chance

scope: extent until: even coming from: originated Suspicion: Suspicion

The sociopolitical system under the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal limited the reach of the Enlightenment in the Iberian Peninsula and in Ibero-America. In these regions, monarchical absolutism, the power of the Catholic Church, the agro-mining economy and the socioeconomic hierarchy dominated, manifestations fundamentally contrary to the liberal tendencies of the Enlightenment. The middle or bourgeois class was much less numerous, rich and influential than in France or England. In addition, these two nations, in which the Age of Reason flourished, were competitors and even enemies of the Spanish Empire, so the ideas coming from there were viewed with suspicion in Iberian circles of power. However, during the 18th century there were political reforms to rationalize monarchy, and the French Enlightenment made itself felt, not without profound ambiguities, especially among the educated officials of the peninsula and the colonies. In 1700, Philip V, of the powerful French Bourbon dynasty (to which King Juan Carlos still belongs today), began to reign in Spain. Philip had been named successor by his uncle, King Charles II, of the Habsburg dynasty, who had no heirs and hoped to please King Louis XIV of France—Philip's grandfather—to avoid the division of the Spanish empire. For this reason, the 18th century began in Spain with the War of Succession (1700-13), between the supporters of the Habsburgs and those of the Bourbons, which resulted in the loss of Spanish territories in various parts of Europe. The Bourbons impose and emphasize authoritarian centralism. Philip V reigned until 1746, was succeeded by his son Ferdinand VI until 1759, this was succeeded by his brother Charles III until 1778, and finally Charles IV, who handed power to Napoleon in 1808. The administration of the Bourbon kings was characterized by economic and political reforms in the spirit of “enlightened despotism”, that is, the justification of monarchical authoritarianism to manage the country efficiently and rationally (in the Enlightenment style), although centralist and despotic. Intellectuals gain prestige in court, new institutions of science are established, and attempts are made to develop the economy in a strategic and centralized manner. However, the crown continues to lose power to other powers with greater capitalist development.

Word: term Tertulia: Literary Gathering inn: restaurant subject: issue, topic farce: farce, a comic drama using buffoonery.

Spanish intellectual life followed French and English trends in the 18th century, although in a contradictory way and with its own touches. In the name of clarity and rational authoritarianism, typically neoclassical institutions, the Royal Academies, are established, which seek to regulate history, law and the arts. In 1713, the Royal Spanish Academy of Language was founded to “fix the voices and words of the Spanish language in their greatest property, elegance and purity”, promoting normativity, first in language, but later also in literary production. In a similar way, literature follows French neoclassical models, seeking to subject the imagination to rational norms, with clarity and order. But the Spanish versions of these efforts maintain some ironic distance from the rationalism, secularism and faith in progress typical of the Age of Enlightenment. Another Enlightenment custom, that of English cafés and French literary salons, translates into the very Spanish tradition of “get-togethers”, meetings of intellectuals in inns and cafés to discuss current issues as well as the works of classical and contemporary authors. In the theater, Leandro Fernández de Moratín (1760-1828) adapts Molière's works into Spanish and writes a large number of dramas. In the prologue to the edition of his works, Fernández de Moratín defines comedy with a clearly neoclassical spirit: “he paints men as they are, imitates existing national customs and [them]. form a believable, instructive and pleasant fable” to educate in “good manners”. Following these rules, his most successful comedy, El Sí de las Niñas (1801), develops the action in one place and in less than twenty-four hours. In a fun and quite obvious way, he criticizes the education of the young women of his time, who were taught to obey their parents without questioning, and instead defends freedom and the right to think independently. Entertainment for ordinary people is also exemplified by the numerous sainetes — brief farces about urban life. One of the most famous authors of sainetes was Ramón de la Cruz (1731-1794), who incorporated typical figures of the time, such as the petimetres (people concerned about being fashionable), the majos and the manolas (working-class youth).

Fable: fable stage: to stage illustrated: learned ones Put on stage: to stage   late: backward approach: approach   increasingly: more and more still: even

Another important literary genre of Spanish neoclassicism, due to its didactic value, its classical base and its connection with French rationalism, was the fable, widely cultivated by Tomás de Iriarte (1750-1791) and Félix María Samaniego (1745-1801). The Spanish fables of this time depict the conflict between religious authoritarianism and liberal rationalism that was raging in the Peninsula, and in which the enlightened had, in general, less economic and political influence than the despots. The Spanish ambiguity with regard to neoclassicism and the Enlightenment is also highlighted in the painting of one of the artists considered most important today in the history of Western art: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828). While he was a court painter and became the official portrait painter of Charles IV, Goya was a friend of the Illuminists and a supporter of liberal reforms, which led him to voluntarily exile himself in France in 1824 after the failure of a movement against the Spanish monarchy. Aesthetically, too, Goya made the “journey” of his country in that century: he began by cultivating the ornate aesthetics of Rococo (a form of Baroque); then he adopted for a time the harmonic simplicity and good taste of neoclassicism in his youth; and, in his maturity, he combined his knowledge of the Spanish pictorial tradition, the profound observation of his people and the sensitive response to historical conflicts in his own style with characteristics that can be associated with romanticism, realism and even expressionist and innovation and even expressionist and innovation and surrealist of the 20th century. Thus, paradoxically, within a “backwater” nation, Goya regains his “own” Spanish vision by avoiding the imitation of neoclassical models and formulas and emphasizing a personal and analytical approach to his objects, resulting in a certain way more “modern” —less restricted by academic rules—than the orthodox Enlightenment and neoclassicists. The Enlightenment in Spain became increasingly weak during the reign of Charles IV, a frail monarch dominated by the aristocrat Manuel Godoy, the queen's lover. The French Revolution created even greater anxiety against Enlightenment ideas, perceived as a threat to the kingdom, interrupting a process of reforms that was just beginning. This process was definitively frustrated by Napoleon's political maneuvers, which culminated in the French occupation of Spain and Portugal in 1808.

---

Neoclassical aesthetics

Facade of the Prado Museum, Madrid, 1786-1819. Emilio J. Rodríguez Posada, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Because of its practical utility and its impact on social secularization, architecture was a favorite art form of neoclassicism. The buildings privilege secular institutions for the public good, such as hospitals, libraries, museums, theaters, parks, and historical monuments, rejecting baroque ornamentation and drawing inspiration from classical motifs in search of an architectural model of universal validity. Functionality and serene harmony are essential, as can be seen in the Prado Museum building, designed in 1785 by the Spanish architect Juan de Villanueva. It is also symbolic of the difficulties and contradictions of the Age of Enlightenment in Spain. It was commissioned by King Charles III as part of his Enlightenment reforms. Initially it was to be the headquarters of the Academy of Sciences and the Office of Natural History, a symbol of the importance of this knowledge during the Enlightenment, but it was destined for an art museum in 1814, a sign of the decline in support for science in the Spanish monarchy. Its construction began in 1786, still indicating the solvency of the Spanish crown, but it could not be inaugurated until 1819 due to the French invasion of Spain, thus also indicating the decline of the Iberian empires.

Baroque vs. Neoclassical aesthetics

---

Fuentes

---

• Alonso, E. et al. Goya and the Spirit of Enlightenment. Boston: Little Brown, 1989.
• 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. Brief history of Spain. Editorial Alliance, 2017.
• Glendinning, N. A Literary History of Spain: The Eighteenth Century. London: Berrn; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1972.
• Kattan Ibarra, Juan. Cultural perspectives of Spain. NTC Publishing, 1990.
• Polt, J. H. R. 18th Century Poetry. 4th edn, Madrid: Castalia, 1994.