The Spanish Golden Age (Spanish: Siglo de Oro [ˈsiɣlo ðe ˈoɾo] 'Golden Century') was a period of intense artistic, literary, and intellectual flourishing in Spain that broadly coincided with the political rise of the Spanish monarchy under the Catholic Monarchs of Spain and the Spanish Habsburgs. The period is generally associated with the reigns of Isabella I, Ferdinand II, Charles V, Philip II, Philip III, and Philip IV, during which Spain became a leading political and military power.
The Golden Age is conventionally considered to have begun in 1492, a year often treated as a turning point in Spanish history because it saw the completion of the Reconquista with the conquest of Granada, the first voyage of Christopher Columbus to the Americas, the establishment of the Inquisition, and the publication of Antonio de Nebrija's Grammar of the Castilian Language. Its political phase is often regarded as having ended in 1659 with the Treaty of the Pyrenees, although the period is commonly understood to have continued in cultural terms until 1681, the year of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's death.
The era was characterized by extensive royal, aristocratic, and ecclesiastical patronage, which supported literature, painting, architecture, music, and theatre. Major artistic and cultural projects, including El Escorial, contributed to the formation of a distinctive Spanish court and religious culture. The period encompassed the Plateresque and Renaissance styles and extended into the early Spanish Baroque. It produced many of the best-known figures in Spanish cultural history, including Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Luis de Góngora, Francisco de Quevedo, Diego Velázquez, and composers such as Tomás Luis de Victoria and Francisco Guerrero.
Overview
The Spanish Golden Age began after the union of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, which brought stability following years of conflict. After the conquest of Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) and the expulsion of the Jews, the various Christian kingdoms under the Catholic Monarchs of Spain unified into a single state. This era saw a flourishing of literature and the arts in Spain. The most significant patron of Spanish art and culture during this time was King Philip II (1556–1598).
During this period, Philip II's royal palace, El Escorial, known in its own time as the eighth wonder of the world, attracted some of Europe's greatest architects and painters, including El Greco. These artists introduced foreign styles to Spanish art, contributing to the development of a uniquely Spanish style of painting.
The start of the Golden Age can be placed in 1492, with the end of the Reconquista, the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the New World, the expulsion of Jews from Spain, and the publication of Antonio de Nebrija's Grammar of the Castilian Language. Amongst scholars of the period, it is generally accepted that it came to an end around the time of the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), that concluded the Franco-Spanish War of 1635 to 1659. Others, however, extend the Golden Age up to 1681 with the death of Pedro Calderón de la Barca, the last great writer of the age. Generally, it is divided into a Plateresque/Renaissance period and the early part of the Spanish Baroque period.
The Spanish Golden Age spans the work of Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote de la Mancha; and of Lope de Vega, Spain's most prolific playwright, who wrote around 1,000 plays during his lifetime, of which over 400 survive to the present day. Lope de Vega, Luis de Gongora, Quevedo, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and many other prominent poets attended the famous Medrano Academy (also known as the Poetic Academy of Madrid) established by Sebastián Francisco de Medrano in 1616.
Diego Velázquez, regarded as one of the most influential painters of European history and a greatly respected artist in his own time, was patronized by King Philip IV and his chief minister, the Count-Duke of Olivares.
What is widely acknowledged as some of Spain's greatest music was written during this period. Composers such as Tomás Luis de Victoria, Cristóbal de Morales, Francisco Guerrero, Luis de Milán and Alonso Lobo helped to shape Renaissance music and the styles of counterpoint and polychoral music. Their influence lasted long into the Baroque period, resulting in a revolution of music.
Painting
During the Italian Renaissance, few great artists from Italy visited Spain, but the Italian holdings and relationships established by Ferdinand of Aragon, Queen Isabella's husband and, later, Spain's sole monarch, prompted a steady flow of intellectuals across the Mediterranean between Valencia, Seville, and Florence. Luis de Morales, one of the leading exponents of Spanish Mannerist painting, retained a distinctly Spanish style in his work, reminiscent of medieval art. Spanish art, particularly Morales's, was notable for its mysticism and religious themes, which were encouraged by the Counter-Reformation and by the patronage of Spain's Catholic monarchs and aristocracy. Spanish rule of Naples was important for making connections between Italian and Spanish art, with many Spanish administrators bringing Italian works back to Spain.
El Greco
Known for his unique expressionistic style, which elicited both puzzlement and admiration, El Greco ("the Greek") was originally from the island of Crete. He was not Spanish but Greek by birth. El Greco studied the great Italian masters of his time—Titian, Tintoretto, and Michelangelo—during his stay in Italy from 1568 to 1577. According to legend, El Greco once claimed he would paint a mural as good as one of Michelangelo's if one of the Italian artist's murals was demolished first. After falling out of favor in Italy, he found a new home in Toledo, central Spain. During this period, Spain was an ideal environment for the Venetian-trained painter, with art flourishing throughout the empire and Toledo being a great place to receive commissions. His paintings of the city became models for a new European tradition in landscapes and influenced the work of later Dutch masters. In his lifetime, El Greco was influential in creating a style based on impressions and emotion, characterized by elongated fingers and vibrant color and brushwork. His works uniquely featured faces that captured expressions of somber attitudes and withdrawal while still having his subjects bear witness to the terrestrial world.
Diego Velázquez
Diego Velázquez was born on June 6, 1599, in Seville, to parents of minor nobility and was the eldest of six children. Widely regarded as one of Spain's most important and influential artists, he became a court painter for King Philip IV and gained increasing demand across Europe for his portraits of statesmen, aristocrats, and clergymen. His portraits of the King, his chief minister the Count-Duke of Olivares, and the Pope showcased his belief in artistic realism and a style comparable to many of the Dutch masters. Following the Thirty Years' War, Velázquez met the Marqués de Spinola and painted his famous Surrender of Breda (1635), celebrating Spinola's victory at Breda in 1625. Spinola was impressed by Velázquez's ability to convey emotion through realism in both his portraits and landscapes, the latter of which became a lasting influence on Western painting. Velázquez's friendship with Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, a leading Spanish painter of the next generation, ensured the enduring influence of his artistic approach.
Velázquez's most famous painting is the celebrated Las Meninas (1656, Prado Museum in Madrid) in which the artist includes himself as one of the subjects.
Francisco de Zurbarán
The religious element in Spanish art gained prominence in many circles during the Counter-Reformation. The austere, ascetic, and severe works of Francisco de Zurbarán exemplified this trend in Spanish art, alongside the compositions of Tomás Luis de Victoria. Philip IV actively patronized artists whose views aligned with his perspectives on the Counter-Reformation and religion. The mysticism in Zurbarán's work, influenced by Saint Theresa of Avila, became a defining characteristic of Spanish art in subsequent generations. Influenced by Michelangelo da Caravaggio and the Italian masters, Zurbarán dedicated himself to an artistic expression of religion and faith. His paintings of St. Francis of Assisi, the Immaculate Conception, and the Crucifixion of Christ reflected a significant aspect of seventeenth-century Spanish culture, set against the backdrop of religious conflict across Europe. Zurbarán diverged from Velázquez's sharp realist interpretation of art and, to some extent, drew inspiration from the emotive content of El Greco and earlier Mannerist painters. Nevertheless, Zurbarán respected and maintained the lighting and physical nuance characteristic of Velázquez's style.
It is unknown whether Zurbarán had the opportunity to study Caravaggio's paintings; nonetheless, he adopted Caravaggio's realistic use of chiaroscuro. The painter who may have had the greatest influence on his characteristically severe compositions was Juan Sánchez Cotán. Additionally, polychrome sculpture—which had reached a high level of sophistication in Seville by the time of Zurbarán's apprenticeship and surpassed that of the local painters—served as another important stylistic model for the young artist. The work of Juan Martínez Montañés is particularly close to Zurbarán's in spirit.
Zurbarán painted directly from nature and frequently utilized the lay figure in his study of draperies, in which he was particularly skilled. He had a notable talent for depicting white draperies, leading to numerous representations of the white-robed Carthusians in his works. Zurbarán is said to have adhered to these meticulous methods throughout his career, which was successful and spent entirely in Spain. His subjects were predominantly austere and ascetic religious scenes, often depicting the spirit subduing the flesh. These compositions were frequently simplified to a single figure. His style is more reserved and subdued than Caravaggio's, with a color tone that is often bluish. Exceptional effects are achieved through precisely finished foregrounds, primarily utilizing light and shade.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo began his art studies under Juan del Castillo in Seville. The city's great commercial importance at the time ensured that he was also subject to influences from other regions, which enabled him to become familiar with Flemish painting. His first works were influenced by Zurbarán, Jusepe de Ribera and Alonso Cano, with whom he shared a strongly realist approach. As his painting developed, however, his more important works evolved into a polished style that suited the bourgeois and aristocratic tastes of the time, especially his Roman Catholic religious works.
In 1642, at the age of 26, he moved to Madrid. While there, it is highly likely that he became familiar with the work of Velázquez and that he viewed the work of Venetian and Flemish masters in the royal collections; the influence of both can be seen in the rich colors and softly modeled forms of his later work. Murillo returned to Seville in 1645, where in the same year he painted 13 canvases for the monastery of St. Francisco el Grande. This proved a boost to his reputation. Following the completion of a pair of pictures for the Seville Cathedral, he began to specialize in the themes that brought him his greatest successes: Mary and the Child Jesus, and the Immaculate Conception.
After another period in Madrid from 1658 to 1660, he returned to Seville. There, he was one of the founders of the Academia de Bellas Artes (Academy of Fine Arts), sharing its direction in 1660 with the architect Francisco Herrera the Younger. This was his period of greatest activity, during which he received numerous important commissions, among them the altarpieces for the Augustinian monastery and the paintings for Santa María la Blanca (completed in 1665). He died in 1682.
Other significant painters
Sculpture
Sculptors of the Renaissance
Sculptors of the Early Baroque period
Architecture
Palace of Charles V
The Palace of Charles V is a Renaissance construction located on the top of the hill of the Assabica, inside the Nasrid fortification of the Alhambra. It was commanded by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who wished to establish his residence close to the Alhambra palaces. Although the Catholic Monarchs had already altered some rooms of the Alhambra after the conquest of the city in 1492, Charles V intended to construct a permanent residence befitting an emperor. The project was given to Pedro Machuca, an architect whose biography and influences are poorly understood. Even if accounts that place Machuca in the atelier of Michelangelo are accepted, at the time of the construction of the palace in 1527 the latter had yet to design the majority of his architectural works. At the time, Spanish architecture was immersed in the Plateresque style, still with traces of Gothic origin. Machuca built a palace corresponding stylistically to Mannerism, a mode still in its infancy in Italy.