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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Other poetic greats in the Golden Age
The Renaissance played a significant role in Spanish
poetry early on in the Golden Age. Garcilaso de la Vega
did more than most to push the ‘Italian style’ in Spain
with his courtly love poetry, making particular use of
the sonnet. Garcilaso’s friend, Juan Boscán Almogáver,
who wrote charming love poetry to his wife, was
similarly smitten with the Italian style in the early 16th
century.Then came the two Golden Age giants of
poetry:
Luis de Góngorais regarded by many as the greatest
poet Spain has ever produced. He took natural
beauty, love and contemporary society as themes, often
referencing obscure ancient
mythology in the process, but is best
remembered for a dextrous use of
imagery and metaphor. His most
famous work was the unfinished
Soledades(1627).
Francisco de Quevedo’s fame
carries near equal weight.
Witty, biting and ironic, his poetry
explored contemporary society,
and specifically vice and hypocrisy.
None of it was published in his own
lifetime, during which he was better
known for polemic pamphlets and for the picaresque
novel,El buscón(1626).
Poetry showdown:
Culteranismovs
Conceptismo
Luis de Góngora’s style of
poetry was sometimes
referred to asCulteranismo
(and alsoGóngorismo),
usually given as a term of
abuse by those who felt he
used far too many words
and allegories to describe
something simple. The
complexity and ostentation
of Góngora’s verse did
indeed (still does) leave
many readers cold.
Opponents lined up in the
Conceptismocamp, writing
with a pared down yet witty
and equally word-conscious
vocabulary, as championed
by Francisco de Quevedo.
While Quevedo and
Góngora employed different
approaches, they shared a
rare mastery of the Spanish
language.
Bad boy Luis
While studying in
Salamanca, Luis de Góngora
apparently spent so much
money on gambling and
prostitutes that he couldn’t
afford to continue his
studies and left with no
qualifications. A career in
the clergy beckoned – he
eventually got a job as
War of words chaplain to Felipe III.
Quevedo and Góngora
were bitter enemies.
They devoted a large
proportion of their poetry
to insulting each other,
often it must be said
with considerable flair.
Quevedo once accused
his nemesis of sodomy in
a feud that culminated
with Quevedo buying
Góngora’s house in the
hope of turfing him out
on the street.
