ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

HISTORY, LITERATURE AND ARTIN THE SPANISH GOLDEN CENTURYOANA ANDREIA SÂMBRIANThe Spanish Golden Century does not really represent a number of onehundred years, but a period. The term „century” has known a lot of significantsin time, such as epoque or age. Another acception is that of the people who livedin the same time, while Eugen Cizek proposes a fourth variant, representing akey moment in history 1 . Therefore, we can talk of „the century of Pericle”, or„the Spanish Golden Century”.The top moment for the Spanish art is considered to be during the 16 thand 17 th century, corresponding to the Renaissance and the Baroque,respectively. The 16 th century, in turn, is divided in two big periods, the one ofCharles V’s reign and the one of his son, Philip II.The Spanish Golden Age is the Spain of some great personalities ofmankind. Names such as Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Lope de Vega,Velázquez, Calderón de la Barca, El Greco, hallmarked extremely visible theEuropean world. Their teach us about their own reality, about their most intimatethoughts, making us the great honor of sharing their vision of the world.The Spain of VelázquezDiego Velázquez de Silva was born in 1599 2 in Sevilla, son of GerónimaVelázquez and Juan Rodríguez de Silva, descendent of a Portuguese family, whoclaimed to be the heir of the Alba Longa kings.The artistic school of Sevilla was the most important in Spain during thefirst half of the 17 th century, dominated by the Baroque spirit, so wellrepresented by Velázquez, the most important Spanish painter of the Baroqueépoque.When talking about don Diego’s life, Ortega y Gasset said that “it wasone of the most natural and simple a man could ever imagine (…) In the case ofDiego Velázquez, the very little information we have about his life, has a strangecharacter. We know so little about him, but we do not need to know more, asthere was only one big event in Velázquez’s life: he was named the king’spainter when he was very young” 3 .1 Eugen Cizek, Istoria Romei, Bucureşti, Editura Paideia, 2002, p. 237.2According to Richard Cumberland, Antoine Dezallier D’Argenville, AntonioPalomino, this event took place in 1594.3 José Ortega y Gasset, Velázquez. Goya, Bucureşti, Editura Meridiane, 1982, p. 39.ARHIVELE OLTENIEI, Serie nouă, nr. 21, 2007, p. 31–38