We explain what the Golden Age, its aesthetic periods and its main authors. In addition, its characteristics, trends and more.
What was the Golden Age?
It is known as Golden Age to a period of Spanish literary culture that developed between the 16th and 17th centuries. It was a stage of flourishing arts and literature in Spain of the dynasty of the Austrias or Habsburgos.
This period began around 1500, with the reunification of the Iberian Peninsula under the Catholic Monarchs, and culminated towards the end of 1600. Despite its name, it is not an exact delimitation of time, but identifies a literary and artistic style that was booming for more than a century and a half, and that covers the Renaissance and the Baroque.
The Literature of the Golden Age was marked by the values of Spanish patriotic feeling and Catholicism. Among the preferred genres, epic works and ballads, which in the early Renaissance took the form of cavalry novels. Throughout the 16th century, the picaresque novels appeared, which recounted the comic adventures of chivalrous characters.
Among the most important literary authors of the Spanish Golden Age Are Garcilaso de la Vega (1498? -1536), Santa Teresa de Jesús (1515-1582), Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), Luis de Góngora (1561-1627), Lope de Vega (1562-1635), Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645) and Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681).
In relation to the plastic arts, the Spanish Golden Age was marked by the paintings of El Greco, towards the end of the Renaissance, and Diego Velázquez, which became a Spanish baroque icon.
The denomination Golden age It was devised by Luis José Velázquez, Marqués de Valdeflores, a scholar and antiquarian of the 18th century. He used it for the first time in his study Origins of Castilian poetry of 1754, although this referred exclusively to the 16th century. Then the use of the expression was extended and ended up being used to designate the Spanish literary culture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
See also: Rococó
Historical context of the Golden Age
At the end of the 15th century, the Catholic Monarchs (Isabel I de Castilla and Fernando II of Aragon) managed to complete the so -called Spanish reconquest, defeating the troops of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada. With this victory, they expelled the last Muslim state of the Peninsula. In addition, they incorporated Navarra and Naples, conquered the Canary Islands, occupied areas of North Africa and began overseas expansion through the Atlantic, which led to the meeting of America.
In this way, the Catholic Monarchs made Spain one of the most powerful empires of the time. In turn, the Spanish Empire achieved the constant income of wealth and gold, through the conquest and colonization of the American continent during the 16th century.
In this context, Spanish culture and art took great impulse and linked to different themes. On the one hand, artistic works exalted the greatness of the Spanish State and Catholicism. On the other hand, they received the influence of the Italian Renaissance, from the Spanish impressions of the American world and, later, of the European Baroque. In addition, in this period the printing press was introduced, which allowed a greater dissemination of literary works and generalized the use of the vulgar Castilian language in the writings, instead of Latin.
During the Spanish Golden Age, knowledge that were traditionally reserved for the high classes were popularized. Educational institutions expanded, different artistic works were disseminated and publications were multiplied. In this context, the literary genres of satire and popular comedy, the picaresque novel and, above all, in the polyphonic novel were especially enhanced. Music, painting and sculpture were also influenced by mannerism in the exaggeration of forms and abundance of content.
Aesthetic periods of the Golden Age
The Golden Age includes two different aesthetic periods:
- The Spanish Renaissance. He covered the reigns of the Catholic Monarchs, Carlos I and Felipe II, during the 16th century. The Renaissance style in Spain took particular aesthetic forms, marked by the fusion of the Italian Renaissance current with the Spanish Iberian elements, and influenced by the Islamic aesthetics of the land recovered in the reconquest.
- The Spanish Baroque. He covered the reigns of Felipe III, Felipe IV and Carlos II, during the seventeenth century. The baroque style in Spain was marked by the reaction against idealized beauty and the search for realism.
See also: Baroque period
Gold century literature
During the Spanish Golden Age, literature was characterized by the development of the following genres:
- The cavalry novel. It was a novel narrative form of gentlemen, which reached a great diffusion due to the development of the printing press and inaugurated the format of “novels for deliveries”, which separated the publication in chapters and sought the appearance of intrigues. The most representative novel of the Golden Age was Don Quijote of La Manchawritten by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. In 1605 the first half in four parts was published, and in 1615, the continuation.
- The picaresca novel. It was a type of satirical novel, starring roguesyouth of low social class, marginal or criminal, who earned their lives taking advantage of others with their ingenuity. This antihero worked as a contrast to the medieval chivalrous ideal and expressed a social criticism of Spanish institutions and the distance between the life of the nobles and that of the humble. Among the most representative works of the picaresque novel are The life of Lazarillo de Tormes and its fortunes and adversities (1544, anonymous), Guzmán de Alfarache (1599 and 1604, German Matthew) and Buscón’s life (1604-1620, Francisco de Quevedo).
- Ascetic and mystical poetry. It was a type of religious composition, of Catholic roots, in which poets explored their spiritual call. This trend consolidated the Spanish Catholic faith, in front of the division of the Church with the Protestant reform. The works of San Juan de la Cruz and Santa Teresa de Jesús were representative of this genre.
- Theatrical works. They were works with a renewed, comic and influenced theatrical proposal by contemporary literature and the creation of layer and sword comedies. Among the main dramatists of the period are Lope de Vega, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Tirso de Molina and Juan Ruiz de Alarcón.
- Historical studies. It was a type of narrative aimed at recounting historical events relevant to Spain, such as the reconquest wars or the reigns of important monarchs.
Gold century painting
During the Golden Age, the plastic arts were characterized by the influence of Mannerism, in painters such as El Greco, and other trends in Italian Renaissance, in artists such as Juan de Juanes and Alonso Sánchez Coello.
Throughout the seventeenth century, with the influence of the Baroque, the works of Diego Velázquez, José de Ribera and Alonso Cano.
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References
- Angulo Íñiguez, D. (1980). “Spanish painting of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries” and “Spanish painting of the 16th and Portuguese century of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries”. Art History. I take second. EISA distributor
- Fusi, JP and Calvo Serraller, F. (2014). “The Hispanic Monarchy” and “Baroque and Counter -Reformation.” History of the world and art in the West. Gutenberg Galaxy.
- Peña de Gómez, MP (2006). “The 16th century.” Basic manual of art history. University of Extremadura.
