Painting and Poetry in the Spanish and Spanish American Culture of the Golden Age

In this course we will explore the relationship between painting and poetry during the Spanish Renaissance and Baroque by focusing on relevant themes of the time: the revival of interests in figures from pagan mythology (e.g. Europa, Venus, Vulcan, Laocoön); the Council of Trent and its influence on Christian painting and literature from Spain and its American colonies; the representation of women according to the period’s norms of beauty; melancholy as sickness; the vanitas topus; mysticism and eroticism; and Casta Painting. Paintings of El Greco, Zurbarán, Velázquez, Villalpando, among others, will be analyzed in conjunction with their counterparts in literary texts by Teresa of Avila, Garcilaso de la Vega, Lope de Vega, Francisco de Quevedo, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, etc. Contemporary art will also be considered. No previous knowledge of art is required. (1 unit)

Required texts: Susan Woodford, Cómo mirar un cuadro (Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gili, 1983. ISBN: 9788425212420); Alfonso Pérez Sánchez, Pintura Barroca en España. 1600-1750 (Madrid: Manuales Cátedra, Cátedra, 2010, ISBN: 978-84-376-2684-0); Elias Rivers ed., Renaissance and Baroque Poetry of Spain. With English Prose Translations (Waveland Press. Any edition. ISBN 0881333638) Poesía colonial hispanoamericana. (Madrid: Cátedra, 2004 ISBN: 978-84-376-2113-5).

This course is cross-listed with Culture.