Frederick A. de Armas

Lope de Vega and Titian

LOPE de Vegas debt to Italian Renaissance culture is well known. His knowledge of the Florentine Platonists, his utilization of Aristotelian commentators such as Robortello, and his wide command of the literature including the works of Ariosto, Boccaccio, G. Cintio, and Tasso are often cited in this connection. Their influence is perceived in every genre extending from epic poetry to the comedias de capa y espada. Yet, while much has been written on these topics, very little attention has been devoted to Italian Renaissance art and its influence

At War with Primavera: Botticelli and Calderón's "El sitio de Bredá"

In El sitio de Bredd, Calder6n makes use of Italian Renaissance art in order to construct a subplot that softens the cries of war. This counter-movement to the well known horrors of war serves first of all to humanize the Spaniard who had acquired a reputation of cruelty in the Netherlands. It also allows a text of war to humanize the face of the enemy. Indeed, a haunting woodland scene in the first act can be viewed as a dramatic ekphrasis of Botticellis Primavera. The action in Calder6ns scene corresponds to the left and right sections of the painting: from Mercurys message on the left to the rape of Chloris/Flora on the right. The three Graces in both painting and play stand for the Senecan notion of liberality. It is through acts of generos- ity that bellicose impulses are transmuted into a vision of harmony and abundance.

Lo fingido verdadero. Acting is Believing (review)

(págs. 146-161) indica lo que el editor de comedias puede aprender de las acotaciones escénicas. Interpretándoles bien se puede determinar si el texto dramático que se edita fue escrito para una representación en los corrales o destinado a ser representado en uno de los teatros de la corte con sus aparatos escenográficos. Digno de ser utilizado será también el amplio material sobre las distintas compañías, sobre las representaciones en los corrales y en los teatros de la corte, así como las relaciones hechas por viajeros extranjeros y cronistas españoles. Editing the comedia es una lectura indispensable para cada uno que intente editar un texto dramático del teatro clásico español. No sólo se dará cuenta de los problemas, sino al mismo tiempo recibirá buenos consejos, y en abundancia, que le ayudarán a resolver sus problemas.

The Threat of Long-Haired Stars: Comets in Lope de Vega's El maestro de danzar

On the title page of William Cunninghams The Cosmographical Glass (1559), a Renaissance reader would clearly see the figure of Polybius using «a cross-staff to locate a comet which presages some changeful event in the Histories.»1 Comets were then perceived as ominous and puzzling phenomena in an ordered cosmos. They were signs of sudden change and disaster, particularly in the political and social arena, bringing sudden death to princes, and famine or plague to the people. Towards the close of the sixteenth century an astronomical curiosity to observe and determine the causes and nature of the phenomenon began to balance out the traditional astrological view. Doris Hellman states that «the observations of the comet of 1577 were instrumental in bringing about a change in the opinions regarding comets, and that they mark ... a decided advance in cometary theory.»2 This shift did not immediately lessen interest in comets as signs of disaster. More than one hundred years later, the Cometomania (1684) continued the focus on the predictive and sensational aspects of such apparitions. Edmund Halley was as interested in the 1682 comet as the authors of the tract. His prediction of the return of this comet in 1758 was eventually proven right and a new chapter in cometary history could be said to have begun. As Halley stated in a dedicatory ode to Newtons Principia (1687):

From Mantua to Madrid: The License of Desire in Giulio Romano, Correggio and Lope de Vega's El castigo sin venganza

This essay focuses on Lope de Vegas strangely problematic tragedy El castigo sin venganza (1631) and the reasons for possible censorship. In order to better understand the plays political mysteries, it will be argued that the Italian setting (Ferrara) both hides and reveals the actual location of the action: the city of Mantua. The appearance in the play of the Gonzagas, the ruling family of Mantua, confirms this and sets the action at the time of the War of Mantuan Succession (1628-30). The war had been triggered by the death of the last of Vincenzo, who died without an heir. While this moment marked Spains declining influence in Italy, the naming of a Gonzaga as first Duke of Mantua a century earlier by Charles V stands as the pinnacle of Spanish influence and the moment of greatest artistic flowering in Mantua. In a doubling of history, both of these moments are presented in the play. While the latter foregrounds Spains defeat, the earlier one allows the spectator to transform mythological allusions into artistic canvases by Correggio and Giulio Romano. These ekphrases form a permissive museum of pagan sensuality in which the main characters of the play mirror themselves. While Correggios Ganymede and Giulio Romanos decorations for the permissive Palazzo del Te, where Federigo Gonzaga feasted with his mistress, reflect the forbidden sexualities at play, Giulios Hall of Giants seems to lash out against license, as Jupiter tries to contain those that threaten his heavenly Court. The bloody denouement, although seeming to delimit the zones of licit desire, actually problematizes the relationship between eros and power, thus enriching the images with a deeper textuality. Lopes is indeed a play that storms the walls of heaven, of the Court, as it searches for a new erotic and political freedom to say and picture that which was forbidden. (FAD)

Rubens, Calderón y los dioses de «La vida es sueño»: Urano, Saturno, Júpiter

This essay studies two myths that have been proposed as sources for La vida es sueno : the myth of Uranus castrated by Saturn and the story of Saturn dethroned by Jupiter. While both have to do with the confrontation between father and son (Basilio and Segismundo), each brings different themes and motifs to the work. The first has to do with the retention of power and the opposition to freedom; while the second appears in its astrological sense. Basilio is related to the malefic influence of Saturn that leads to incarceration. In its positive aspects, the saturnine influences that fall upon Segismundo allow him to eventually conceive a broader vision, thus pardoning the father and becoming part of a new Golden Age presaged by Rosaura/Astraea. Ruben’s painting, Saturn Devouring his Son , help us to visualize the complementarity that exists between the two major myths that are at the basis of the conflict in Calderon’s work

Sultanas, reinas, damas y villanas: Figuras femeninas en la comedia ecfrástica del Siglo de Oro

TópiCo inagotable es el florecimiento de las artes y la creación de un teatro nacional en el Siglo de oro, ambas basadas en inmemoriales conceptos, Dios como pintor del cosmos y como autor del gran teatro del mundo. De allí, que el teatro dentro del teatro y el cuadro dentro del cuadro apuntan a este concepto y crean ese desbordamiento barroco que se encamina “a conmover hondamente para repercutir en el espíritu con la inquietud y sugerencia de lo grave trascendente e infinito” (orozco Díaz 19).2 Las hilanderas de Velázquez, por ejemplo, nos ayuda no sólo a visualizar el desdoblamiento del arte dentro del arte sino que nos lleva a comprender el momento teatral en el Siglo de oro: abajo un público, los mosqueteros de corrales (aunque ya pudiéramos interpretar a estas hilanderas como Atenea y Aracne); en el tablado, la representación y, más atrás una pintura, en este caso una copia del Rapto de Europa de Tiziano, que abre los espacios reducidos. Tal pintura no se exhibiría sino que se mencionaría, se describiría o se apuntaría a ella (sin que se mostrase) en una comedia del Siglo de oro. Es así que Lope de Vega y Tiziano, Calderón y Velázquez, crearon escenas de inefable y humana grandeza, reveladoras de nuestra condición en el universo; escenas que se sustentaban mutuamente.3 Vicente Carducho, por ejemplo, elogió una comedia de Lope como “tan bien pintada . . . con tal disposición, colorido y viveza” que movía las almas e incitaba los corazones.4 Si cada escena en el teatro es como una pintura viva, que se exhibe, pero con palabras, personajes y movimiento, ¿qué decir del constante impulso de aludir, describir e incluir retratos, y grandes lienzos mitológicos, sacros o bélicos dentro de estas comedias?5 propongo que hay en el teatro aurisecular un tipo o sub-género de comedias en las que la obra de arte es ele-

The Comedia and the Classics

Spanish Golden Age theater is known for its rejection of the classics. And yet, before the advent of Lope de Vega, during the late 16th century many plays were written in imitation of classical tragedy. After a brief glance at these early plays and how they inadvertently paved the way for the future of the comedia, this chapter turns to Cervantess Numancia, the one canonical play from this period, so as to understand how it differs radically from the new comedy as established by Lope de Vega (1562-1635). It then analyzes Lopes famous treatise Arte nuevo de hacer comedias [New Art of Writing Plays] to determine the reasons utilized for the rejection of the classics and to uncover within this very work a more subtle insertion of the ancients. The chapter explores some of the ways in which classicizing elements of comedy survived, comparing Terence and Lope de Vega.Keywords: Cervantess Numancia; classical tragedy; comedia; Lope de Vega; Spanish Golden Age theater; Terence

El virreinato de Nápoles en las «Novelas ejemplares» de Cervantes

In many of his literary works Cervantes exhibits a desire for Italy, which can be encountered in his dedications and his many references to the art, literature and culture of the peninsula. Cervantes recalls in particular his lengthy stay in Naples, capital of the most important Spanish viceroyalties of the time. This essay studies Cervantes’ desire for Italy through the lenses of the Novelas ejemplares. Here, this impetus seems somewhat ambiguous in that the dedicatory to the Count of Lemos is far from laudatory and the references to the viceroyalty in the Novelas ejemplares themselves are brief and almost sinister. Instead of affirming the desire for Italy, these allusions to Naples create an almost insoluble mystery.

El cortesano endiosado: espectáculos paganos en El burlador de Sevilla

This essay looks at pagan disguises utilized in plays and courtly entertainments of the Golden Age, focusing on El burlador de Sevilla. Don Juan and all those who surround him, turn to mythology, pretending to be deities and thus reflecting the theatrical culture of the court where the nobility often assumed such pagan guises. When he metamorphoses himself into Jupiter, don Juan reminds us that this particular guise was common in most European courts of the times were courtiers and kings imagined themselves as abiding in a new Olympus. Don Juan, then, defies society, utilizing the same symbols of power that served to exalt the Habsburgs. Don Juan’s power of metamorphosis is seen most clearly in Tisbea and Isabela who both play the part of Europa to the god/bull.