Century of Spanish gold

The Siècle of Spanish gold ( Siglo de Oro in Spanish) corresponds to the period of size of Spain in Europe. This one century period is gone back to two different ways:

  • time of the economic and political size of the Spain extends about from first half of the 16th century to first half of the 17th century. The temporal definition of the period is generally rather fuzzy, but never starts before 1492, with the end of the Reconquista and the voyages of Christophe Colomb for the New world and never finishes after the independence of the United Provinces with respect to Spain of the Habsbourg, recognized in 1648.
    Voir the article Histoire of Spain for further information.

  • Another period of extraordinary literary and artistic vitality in Spain and in the Spanish-speaking Pays S of Latin America coincides with the decline and the fall of Habsbourg (Philippe III, Philippe IV and Charles II), at the 17th century.
    In History of art, the period is comparable with the Spanish Renaissance .
    This vitality finds in the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America, and coincides with the political decline then the fall of the dynasty Habsbourg (Philippe III, Philippe IV and Charles II). Sor Juana Innate of Cruz, the last great writer of this golden age dies in Nouvelle Spain in 1695. Also, the Century of gold, in its cultural aspects (in the literature and arts), is identified it at the 17th century. It is this cultural aspect which is most usually indicated under the term of Siècle of Gold and which we will develop here.

The Framework

At that time, Habsbourg, in Spain as in Austria are large patrons. The Escurial, the large royal monastery built by Juan de Herrera under the orders of Philippe II, attracts some of the more European great architects and painters. Diego Vélasquez, an artist immensely respected of its time and considered as one of the major painters of the history of art, cultivates bonds with Philippe IV and its Prime Minister, Gaspar de Guzmán, count d' Olivares, and leaves several portraits showing the originality of its style and the extent of its talent. Greco, another Spanish great painter of the period, incorporates elements coming from the Italian Renaissance in Spanish art and takes part in the birth of a Spanish style original.

Some of the greatest Spanish musical compositions are written during the Century of gold. Type-setters as Tomás Shine of Victoria, Luis of Milán or Alonso Lobo takes part in the development of the Musique of the Rebirth and styles like the counterpoint or the polyphonic music , keeping a great influence throughout the period baroque.

The Spanish literature is also flourishing, with in particular the monumental work of Miguel de Cervantes, the author of the Quichotte . Lope de Vega, the most prolific author of the theater of Spain, undoubtedly writes more than thousand parts, of which four hundreds arrived to us.

Painting

Spain, at the time of the Italian Rebirth, receives the visit of some large artists. The Italian possessions as well as the relations established by the husband of the queen Isabelle Anger of Castille, Ferdinand II of Aragon, single future monarch of Spain, involve movements of intellectuals through the the Mediterranean between Valence, Seville and Florence which parallel to intensifies the increase in the Spanish influence in Europe, and more particularly in Italy. Shine of Morals, one of the leaders of the style Spanish mannerist, preserves, in a work which points out medieval art, a characteristic Spanish style. Spanish art, and in particular that of Morals, contains important mystical elements and monks due to the Counter-Reformation and the patronage of a Spanish monarchy and an aristocracy strongly marked by the Catholicisme.

As its nickname indicates it, that which plays the most important part in the importation of the Italian Rebirth in Spain, Greco, is not Spanish of origin, but was born in Crete under the name of Domenikos Theotokopoulos. He studies the Italian great painters of his time - Titien, Tintoretto and Michel-Angel - during his stay in Italy, of 1568 with 1577. According to the legend, it enters in disgrace after having affirmed that if one destroyed one of the murals of Michel-Angel it would be able to paint also beautiful, and left for Tolède. He plays a great part in the development a style full with emotion, with the lengthened fingers of the characters whom he represents and its bright colors. Its representations of the town of Tolède become models for the new tradition in Europe of the painting of the landscape and influence the Dutch Masters thereafter.

Born in 1599, two generations after Greco, Diego Vélasquez is one of the most important painters of Spain and influenced many artists. A number unceasingly crescent of statesmen, aristocrats and members of the clergy coming from all Europe order portraits with this painter of the court of Philippe IV. Its portraits of the king, of its Prime Minister, the count d' Olivares, or of the pope himself show of a major belief in artistic realism and an original style which influences many Dutch Masters. During the War Thirty Year old, Vélasquez follows Ambrogio Spinola in its countryside to the Netherlands, where it paints celebrates it Reddition of Breda . Vélasquez with the capacity to express emotions through reality in its portraits as in its landscapes. Those, in which it makes the first experiments of daylight in European art, have a durable influence on Western painting. Its friendship with Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, the leader of the following generation of the Spanish painters, ensures the perpetuation of its influence.

The religious element of Spanish art takes an importance increased with the Counter-Reformation. The austere and ascetic work of Francisco de Zurbarán as that of the type-setter Tomás Luis of Victoria illustrate this tendency in Spanish arts. Philippe IV gives a support supported for the artists who share his opinions on the Counter-Reformation and the religion. The mysticism of the work of Zurbarán - influenced by Holy Therese d' Avila - ends up becoming a characteristic of the Spanish art of the last generations of the Century of gold. Influenced by the Italian Caravage and Masters, Zurbarán devotes his artistic work to the representation of the religion and the faith. Its tables on Holy François d' Assise, the Immaculate Conception and the Crucifixion of the Christ are an good example of a third aspect of the Spanish culture of the 17th century, on bottom of wars of religion in Europe. Zurbarán breaks with the realistic vision of Vélasquez and, in a certain way, is turned, for the inspiration and the technique, towards the emotive vision of Greco and of the painters mannerists who it preceding, even if it remains in the wake of Vélasquez with regard to the light and the nuances.

Music

The Spanish music, just like painting, find a new strength in the religion. Tomás Shine of Victoria, type-setter, particularly of music choral society, of the 16th century, is regarded as one of the largest Spanish traditional type-setters. He joint with the combat of Ignace de Loyola against the Reform and becomes priest in 1575. Living some time in Italy, it discovers there the polyphonic music of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Like Zurbarán, Victoria combines technical qualities of the Italian art to the cultural and religious identities Spanish. It incorporates in its work of the calls emotional as well as rates/rhythms and choruses of mystical nature and often experimental. It is distinguished from the dominant tendency of its time by preferring with the counterpoint longer, simpler, less technical and more mysterious melodies, by using the Dissonance in a manner that the Roman École, on the contrary, avoids. It shows an extraordinary creativity in the field of the musical theory by connecting the tonality and the color of its music to those of its words, in particular in its Motet S. Like Vélasquez, it is protected from the Prince - or rather from the queen, with regard to Victoria. The Requiem which he writes at the time of dead of the queen in 1603 is regarded as one of its most solid works and ripest.

The work of Victoria finds an echo in that of Alonso Lobo - a man that Victoria regards as her equal. The compositions of Lobo - also choral societies in the form and nuns in their contents - underline austere nature and minimalist of the sacred music. Lobo seeks to combine the emotional intensity of Victoria to the technical skill of Palestrina and the solution which it finds constitutes the founding document of the Baroque music in Spain.

The first collection of parts of music for Spanish Guitare (another name of the traditional guitar) is composed by Luis of Milán in 1536. In the service of the court of the duke of Valence, Luis of Milán defines the music for guitar, at that time a popular instrument and not of court. The work of Shine of Milán gives to the Spanish guitar, permanent important component of the Spanish culture, a new breath, and the Spanish aristocrats and merchants diffuse it in all Europe. The music for Spanish guitar, such as Luis of Milán reinvents it, knows a new rebirth at the 19th century, and today still a strong popularity.

Literature

Regarded by much as the philosopher's stone written in Spanish language, Don Quichotte is one of the first novels published in Europe. This novel, just like the world in which saw its author, Miguel de Cervantes, is at the border of the Moyen-âge and the modern time. Veteran of the Battle of Lépante (1571), Cervantes knows one difficult period at the end of the years 1590, and is imprisoned for debts in 1597, when it begins the drafting of his masterpiece. The second volume is published in 1615, one year before the death of the author. Don Quichotte is at the same time a medieval novel - a tale of chivalry - and a novel of the modern time then being born. The book is a parody of medieval manners and chivalrous ideal and a criticism of the social structures of a Spanish company rigid and lived like absurdity. Don Quichotte is an important stake of the literary history, and interpretations that one gives some are multiple, pure comic, social satire, analyzes political.

Contemporary of Cervantes, the author of theater Lope de Vega is famous for his dramas, in particular those based on the history of the country. Like Cervantes, Lope de Vega takes part in the battles carried out by the Spanish army and is fascinated by the antique Spanish aristocracy. In the hundreds of parts which he writes, located in contexts as varied as the Bible, the legendary history of Spain, traditional mythology or the contemporary time, Lope de Vega adopts, like Cervantes, a comic approach, transforming for example a conventional moral part into a humorous and cynical work. Its main aim is to distract its public. The mixture that it makes of the moral elements, the comedy, the drama and the popular genius in fact a cousin of Shakespeare, with which it is often compared, and of which he is the contemporary. As a criticism of the company, Lope de Vega attacks, also like Cervantes, number of the old institutions of the country, of which the aristocracy, the knighthood, the rigidity of manners… These two writers constitute an artistic alternative to the asceticism of Francisco Zurbarán. Front in the 17th century, the parts of “cape and sword” of Lope de Vega mixing adventures, intrigues in love and comedy influence its literary heir, Pedro Calderón of Barca.

The theater takes a great importance and becomes an extremely popular spectacle. First true scenic spaces are built at the end of the 16th century. These theaters are called the “ corrales comedias ”. The structure of a “ Corral of comedias ” resembles much that of a Théâtre élisabéthain: a space closed, non covered, is arranged in the patio, the rectangular court located between the houses; at the bottom, a scene, surrounded by platforms and cabins on three sides, fact face with a floor with open sky where the spectators are held upright.

Principal writers

Principal painters

See too

Internal bonds

the Rebirth

  • Baroque

  • Literature of the XVIIe century

External bonds

  • Mystical Spanish of the Century of gold per Philippe Conrad, Historian.

Random links:Olympe-Charles Hériot | Samuel E. Wright | Pergola (Italy) | Max Ophüls | Dmitri Egorov | Régime_matrimonial