Artigo Revisado por pares

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

1999; American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese; Volume: 82; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/346283

ISSN

2153-6414

Autores

Frederick A. de Armas,

Tópico(s)

Visual Culture and Art Theory

Resumo

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 Botticelli's Primavera. The action in Calder6n's scene corresponds to the left and right sections of the painting: from Mercury's 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.

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