Renaissance Spanish architecture. Renaissance literature in selected countries Literature and artistic culture of the Spanish Renaissance

The literature of the Renaissance in Spain developed in complex, contradictory conditions. Some of them favored the formation of peculiar Renaissance phenomena in literature, while others prevented it. It was positive that in Spain, where the struggle against foreign (Arab) enslavement was waged for a long time, where medieval cities won independence quite early, and the peasants in a number of regions (in Castile, etc.) did not know serfdom, the people had long developed a high consciousness of self-worth. The high level of popular self-awareness led to a greater proximity of Spanish humanism to folklore, to the artistic creativity of its people, than to ancient book culture. Together with the named positive factor in Spain in the 16th - early 17th centuries. There was also another - the opposite law. Spain was at that time a country with a very reactionary political regime whose absolutism became hostile to the cities that fought for their liberties. He was hostile to bourgeois development, relied on the military strength of the middle nobility ("caballeros") and on an alliance with the Inquisition, which vigorously persecuted free thought. The foreign policy of the Spanish government was also reactionary, adventurous, drawing the country into devastating wars, which usually ended in defeat and led to a fall in Spain's prestige. The plunder by Spain of the newly discovered territories of America (since 1492) also depleted the country's economy. And yet, even under such unfavorable conditions, Spanish humanism developed and brought forward great artists of the word, especially in the field of the novel and dramaturgy.

The Spanish literature of the early Renaissance (from the 15th to the middle of the 16th century) is characterized primarily by the wide development of folk poetry in the form romance - a lyrical or lyric-epic poem, which reflects patriotism, love of freedom and poetry of the people, - and humanistic poetry I.-L. de Mendoza-Santillana, H.-H. Manrique, Garcilaso de la Vega. In the area of prose dominated novel in its three varieties: knightly, pastoral and picaresque.

Literature mature renaissance (until the 30s of the 17th century), despite the very difficult conditions for humanists that gave rise to its well-known inconsistency, it is generally characterized by great depth and realism. AT poetry this time, a new phenomenon was the emergence epic poem (L. Camões, A. Ersilya). But the greatest achievements in Spanish literature have been realized in the field of fiction and dramaturgy, the peaks of which are the work of Cervantes and Lope de Vega.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) - the greatest Spanish writer, one of the giants of world literature. Much of his literary heritage is explained in his biography, fanned by the spirit of bold adventures characteristic of his era (a trip to Italy, participation in the war against the Turks, captivity by Algerian pirates, imprisonment of an innocent person).

The literary heritage of Cervantes is rich and varied: poems ("Message to Mateo Vasquez", etc.), dramaturgy (tragedy "Numansia", etc.), prose genres - pastoral and chivalric novels, short stories.

The crowning achievement of Cervantes' creative activity is his immortal novel The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha (1605-1615) - a complex, deep work, although its depth, like Rabelais' novel Gargantua and Pantagruel, is not immediately revealed to the reader. The novel is conceived as parody on chivalric novels devoid of vital content. The author wanted to show that immoderate reading of such novels can bring a person to an almost insane state. However, Cervantes' excellent knowledge of the life of the people and his ability to portray typical characters allowed him to create a truly realistic Renaissance novel, in which the depravity of not only chivalric novels, but of all Spanish reality was exposed, and at the same time bright ideas of humanism were embodied. According to V.G. Belinsky, with his "Don Quixote" Cervantes "dealt a decisive blow to the ideal [here: cut off from life] direction of the novel and turned it to reality.

The complexity and depth characteristic of the novel are also inherent in its main characters - Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Don Quixote is parodic and ridiculous when, under the influence of chivalric novels, he imagines himself to be a knight capable of crushing the vices surrounding him, while in fact he performs a number of ridiculous acts (fighting with windmills taken for giants, etc.), paying for the illusory nature of his fantasies very real beatings. But Don Quixote is not only a parody, he carries within himself an affirming, renaissance beginning. He is a noble, disinterested fighter for justice, full of high enthusiasm. His humanism is manifested in the deep humanity of his actions aimed at helping people who suffer injustice.

Don Quixote's judgments about freedom, peace, human dignity, and love breathe deep humanistic wisdom. This is evidenced by the advice given by Don Quixote before the entry of Sancho Panza into the "governorship", as well as from his sayings spoken on various other occasions ("Freedom is one of the most precious blessings, for the sake of freedom, as well as for the sake of honor, one can and must risk life"; "Peace is the best good that exists in the world", etc.). Don Quixote advises his squire not to hide, but to expose his peasant origin, because "a person of modest origin, but virtuous, deserves more respect than a noble, but vicious." For the same reason, Don Quixote considers it quite natural to fall in love with the "very pretty village girl" Aldonsa Lorenzo, nicknamed by him Dulcinea of ​​Toboso. The ignorance of this girl is not a hindrance to love.

The inconsistency of Don Quixote lies in the fact that he fights for the humanistic ideals generated by the anti-feudal nature of the Renaissance, using archaic means drawn from the dilapidated arsenal of wandering knights. From this inconsistency of the hero follows the complex contradictory attitude of the author towards him. Cervantes always makes one feel the nobility of the very idea of ​​this struggle, which was noticed by J.S. Turgenev: "Don Quixote is an enthusiast, a servant of the idea, and therefore is covered with its radiance." It is no coincidence that sometimes the images of the hero and the author merge into one: this happens when the hero is especially expressive in the role of the bearer of the humanist author's philanthropic dream of a better life built on the principles of justice.

Not so simple is Sancho Panza - Don Quixote's squire, a typical Castilian peasant, poor, but alien to humiliation, knowing his own worth, a real bearer of folk wisdom, often covered with a funny joke. He is also an enthusiast who without much thought followed Don Quixote and left his native village, first for the hope of getting the "island" promised by Don Quixote, and later - simply out of philanthropy in relation to the impractical hidalgo, whom he is already sorry to leave without his help. The beneficial effect of the humanist knight made it possible to reveal in Sancho Panza the wonderful qualities of a folk sage. In no other work of Renaissance literature is the peasant placed on such a pedestal as he is in Cervantes' novel.

In the relations of the main characters, an approximation to the humanistic ideal of relationships between people has been made. The writer makes you feel how stuffy it was for his subtly feeling hero to live in a world of arrogance and money-grubbing. The comparatively early death of Don Quixote, who, in the words of Sancho Panza, was "burned from the world by anguish," does not seem unexpected.

The great merits of the novel include a broad display of the Spanish reality of the late 16th - early 17th centuries. with all its contradictions, with an expression of sympathy for the democratic circles of society. The artistic merits of Don Quixote are great, especially its wonderful language, now archaic and eloquent in the Knight of the Sad Image, now sparkling with all the colors of folk speech in Sancho Panza, now expressive and precise in the author himself. Cervantes is credited with creating the Spanish literary language, which is based on the Castilian dialect.

The novel "Don Quixote" is one of the greatest works of world literature, which had a huge impact on the formation of subsequent realism.

Lope de Bega (1562-1635) - the great Spanish writer of the Renaissance, whose dramaturgy brought him the well-deserved fame of one of the titans of the era. L. de Vega's extensive and diverse dramaturgical heritage - he wrote more than two thousand plays, of which about 500 were published - is usually divided into three groups. The first of these are socio-political dramas, based primarily on historical material. The second includes household comedies family-love character (sometimes they are called "cloak and sword" comedies - because of the characteristic attire of noble youth). The third group includes plays religious nature.

To understand the peculiarities of L. de Vega's dramatic works, his theoretical treatise The New Art of Composing Comedy in Our Day (1609) is of great importance. It formulates the main provisions of the Spanish national drama with its focus on the traditions of the folk theater, with a critical attitude towards strict adherence to the notorious "rules" of Aristotelian-classic poetics (where there was more attributed to Aristotle than really put forward by him), with the desire to satisfy the needs of the audience and believability shown on the stage, and skillful construction of intrigue, tightly tied into a knot that would not give the play the opportunity to fall apart into separate episodes. The dramaturgy of L. de Vega was the realization of his theoretical views.

In his household comedies for the most part, the struggle of young people, immigrants from the middle nobility, for their personal happiness is shown. They overcome various obstacles that are put up by class prejudices and the despotic power of their parents. The author's sympathies are on the side of natural human feeling, which does not recognize class partitions. The best of his everyday comedies are "Dance Teacher", "Dog in the Manger", "Girl with a Jug" and others. This is usually comedy intrigue, where little attention is paid to the psychological motivation of action and the obstacles that stand in the way of lovers are relatively easily overcome. Deep in content, artistically bright, the dramaturgy of L. de Vega served as a model for many Spanish writers and playwrights. The best of his plays are staged all over the world.

Renaissance in Spain

General characteristics of the Spanish Renaissance.

The literature of the Renaissance in Spain is distinguished by its great originality, which is explained in the peculiarities of the historical development of Spain. Already in the second half of the XV century. here we see the rise of the bourgeoisie, the growth of industry and foreign trade, the birth of capitalist relations and the loosening of feudal institutions and the feudal worldview. The latter was especially undermined by the humanistic ideas that penetrated from the most advanced country of that time - Italy. However, in Spain this process proceeded in a very peculiar way, in comparison with other countries, due to two circumstances that were specific to the history of Spain of that era.

The first of them is connected with the conditions in which the reconquista proceeded. The fact that individual regions of Spain were conquered separately, at different times and under different conditions, led to the fact that in each of them special laws, customs and local customs were developed. The peasantry and the cities based on the conquered lands in different places received different rights and liberties. The heterogeneous local rights and liberties tenaciously held by the various regions and cities were the cause of constant conflicts between them and the royal power. It often even happened that the cities united against it with the feudal lords. Therefore, by the end of the early Middle Ages in Spain, such a close alliance was not established between the royal power and the cities against large feudal lords.

Another feature of the historical development of Spain in the XVI century. is as follows. The result of the extraordinary influx of gold from America was a sharp rise in the price of all products - "price revolution", which affected all European countries, but manifested itself with particular force in Spain. Since it became more profitable to buy foreign products, the Spanish industry of the second half of the 16th century. greatly reduced. Agriculture also fell into decline - partly for the same reason, partly as a result of the massive ruin of the peasants and the impoverishment of a huge number of small noble farmers who could not stand the competition with large landowners who enjoyed various privileges.

All the features of the history of Spain determine the general character of its literature in the 16th - 17th centuries. The literature of the Spanish Renaissance is clearly divided into two periods: 1). Early Renaissance (1475 - 1550) and 2). Mature Renaissance (1550 - the first decades of the 17th century).

At the beginning of this period in Spain, as in most other countries, the emergence of that new, critical and realistic approach to reality, which is characteristic of the Renaissance worldview, is observed. Spain has a number of outstanding scientists and thinkers who overturned old prejudices and paved the way for modern scientific knowledge.

There are printing houses, intensively translated Roman and Greek writers. The university founded in 1508 in Alcala de Henares becomes the center of the humanistic movement. Nevertheless, humanistic ideas did not receive their full philosophical development in Spain. Encountering the most hostile attitude towards themselves at court and among the aristocracy, finding no support from the bourgeoisie, they were muted by the Catholic reaction.

Humanistic ideas in Spanish Renaissance literature find expression almost exclusively in poetic imagery, and not in theoretical writings. For the same reason, the influence of ancient and Italian designs was on the whole much less significant in Spain than, for example, in France or England. In the same way, the cult of form is less characteristic of the Spanish literature of the Renaissance. She is characterized by masculinity, severity, sobriety, great concreteness of images and expressions, dating back to the medieval Spanish tradition. In all these respects, the Spanish literature of the Renaissance has a peculiar, specifically national character.

The religious influences of the era are clearly reflected in this literature. The ideology and practice of Catholicism left a strong imprint both on the life of the people and on the life of the privileged classes.

Nowhere in the literature of the XVI - XVII century. religious themes do not occupy such a prominent place as in Spain. We find here extremely different "mystical" literature - religious poems and lyrics (Luis de Leon, San Juan de la Cruz), descriptions "wonderful conversions", ecstasies and visions (Teresa de Jesus), theological treatises and sermons (Luisde Granada). The greatest playwrights (Lopé de Vega, Calderon), along with secular plays, write religious plays, dramatized legends and lives of saints, or "sacred acts", which had the theme of the glorification of the sacrament "communion". But even in secular plays, religious and philosophical themes often appear ( "Seville mischievous" Tirso de Molina, "Steady Prince" Calderon).

With all the painful character that the development of Spain bore, the people showed the maximum of national energy. He showed great inquisitiveness of mind, determination and courage in overcoming obstacles. The broad prospects that opened up before the people of that time, the scope of political and military enterprises, the abundance of new impressions and opportunities for various vigorous activities - all this was reflected in the Spanish literature of the 16th - 17th centuries, which is characterized by great dynamics, passion and rich imagination.

Thanks to these qualities, Spanish literature "golden age"(as the period is called from about the second third of the 16th century to the middle of the 17th century) occupies one of the first places among the national literatures of the Renaissance. Brilliantly showing itself in all genres, Spanish literature has given especially high standards in the novel and drama, i.e. in those literary forms in which the traits typical of the then Spain could be most fully expressed - the ardor of feelings, energy and movement.

Creation of a national Spanish drama.

In Spain and Portugal, as well as in other countries, there was a medieval theater - partly religious (mysteries and miracles), partly completely secular, comic (farces). The medieval religious theater in Spain, due to the enormous role that the Catholic Church played in the life of the country, was extremely stable - it not only did not disappear during the Renaissance, as happened in Italy and France, but continued to develop intensively throughout the 16th and even 17th centuries. .; moreover, plays of this kind were written by the largest playwrights of the era. During these centuries, the genres of folk comic theater, also cultivated by great masters, remained just as popular.

However, along with these old dramatic genres, by the middle of the 16th century. in Spain, a new, Renaissance system of dramaturgy is being developed, which also influences the interpretation of the above-mentioned old genres by Renaissance writers. This new dramaturgical system originated from the collision of two principles in the theater of the medieval folk or semi-folk tradition and the scientific-humanistic trends that came from Italy or directly from antiquity, but mostly also through Italian mediation. At first, the two types of dramaturgy, expressing these two tendencies, develop in parallel, apart from one another or entering into struggle with each other, but very soon an interaction begins between them, and in the end they merge into a single dramatic system. In this system of the national drama of the Renaissance, the pinnacle of which should be recognized as the work of Lope de Vega, the folk principle is still the main one, although Italian and ancient influences, originally mastered, played a significant role in its formation. The latter was facilitated by the appearance in the XVI century. Spanish translations of Plautus and Terence.

Lope de Vega (1562 - 1635)

Lope de Vega was painted 1800 "comedy", to which we must also add 400 religious plays and a very large number of interludes. However, Lope de Vega himself cared little about the safety of his dramatic works, which were considered the lowest kind of literature, as a result of which most of them were not published during his lifetime. The text of only 400 plays by Lope de Vega (almost entirely in poetry) has come down to us, and another 250 are known only by title.

the scope of the dramaturgy of Lope de Vega is unusually wide. He portrays people of all classes and ranks in a variety of positions, writes plays of everyday, historical, legendary, mythological, pastoral content, drawing plots from Spanish chronicles and romances, from Italian novelists (Boccaccio, Bandello, etc.), from the Bible, historical writings , stories of travelers, from wandering anecdotes or freely composing them on the basis of observations of life; he draws modern and old Spaniards, Turks, Indians, biblical Jews, ancient Romans, even Russians (in the play about False Dmitry - "Grand Duke of Moscow"). This reflects his extraordinary curiosity, his thirst to embrace the world history of mankind and, at the same time, his exceptionally rich imagination.

Lope de Vega outlined his theoretical views on dramaturgy in a poetic reasoning, which is one of the earliest Western European realistic poetics - "The New Art of Composing Comedy Today". This work, written by him already in his mature years (1609), sums up what the poet has long been putting into practice. After various introductory remarks and an outline of the development of comedy and tragedy among the ancients, Lope de Vega forgive me that, while fully recognizing the superiority of Aristotle's rules, he nevertheless deviates from them to please the public. Lope de Vega recommends that authors choose plots in which the tragic and the comic are mixed together, "as happens in nature." Defending the unity of action, he proves that it is possible to violate the unity of place and time. Then he talks about the division of the play into acts, the number of which he reduces from five to three, about its construction, about the significance of the exposition, the "knot" of intrigue and denouement, about the different styles in which different roles should be written, about the effective endings of scenes, about the use of different metric sizes, about the desired volume of the play, which should not be too large so that the viewer does not get tired, about all kinds of tricks aimed at maintaining the interest of the viewer, who should not guess about the denouement until the last scene, etc.

The dramas of Lope de Vega do not lend themselves to precise and exhaustive classification. Of the entire mass of his writings, three groups of plays can be distinguished, especially significant: plays "heroic"(on plots from national history), comedies "cloak and sword" and plays in which the people or their individual representatives perform.

The “heroic” plays depict various episodes from the history of Spain during the time of the Gothic kings, i.e. before the Arab conquest "The Life and Death of Wamba"), fighting the Moors ("Girl from Simanka", "Noble Abenserach"), the struggle of kings with recalcitrant feudal lords and the unification of the Spanish monarchy ("Fuenta Ovehuna"), finally discovering America ("The New World Discovered by Christopher Columbus"). Imbued with an ardent patriotic feeling, they usually idealize their native antiquity, fanned with poetry. Lope de Vega paints here majestic and exciting pictures of the past, thus proving the power of Spain and reinforcing her claims to a leading role on the world stage.

Second group of plays, comedies "cloak and sword", is named after the typical accessories of the noble costume in which their characters perform - representatives mainly of the middle and lower modern nobility. These everyday comedies of Lope de Vega, in other words, "comedies of manners", constitute a very significant part of his dramatic heritage and, moreover, one that, during the life of the poet, brought him the greatest fame, and not only in his homeland, but also in other countries. And now these plays are extremely popular in Spain. Particularly famous are: "Dog in the manger", "Nets of Phoenix", "Madrid Waters", "Valencian wave", "Girl with a jug", « Whims of Belisa», "Slave of his beloved" etc. The plots of these plays are based almost exclusively on the play of feelings: love, jealousy, noble pride and family honor. At the same time, they almost do not show the social environment, background, life circumstances that could influence the development of the characters' feelings. On the other hand, to enliven the action, a stock of traditional motives and conditional devices is widely used, such as, for example, secret dates, serenades, duels, disguises, unexpected meetings, misunderstandings, substitutions, all kinds of coincidences, recognition, etc.

Despite some ideological and artistic limitations of comedies "cloak and sword" Lope de Vega, they are a brilliant, in many ways the foremost example of the art of the Spanish Renaissance. The central theme of these plays - love - is not of a narrowly noble nature. Lope de Vega always means love not as a sensual whim, which it often was in the aristocratic society of that time, but as a deep, all-encompassing feeling that affirms the idea of ​​a full-fledged human personality. Such "honest" love, always striving for marriage as the only form of complete mutual possession, acting in an ennobling way on lovers, is, in the understanding of Lope de Vega, a healthy, natural feeling, equally accessible to both a nobleman and the most modest peasant.

These plays are full of cheerfulness and optimism. They breathe faith in the possibility of happiness, in the success of the human person, boldly fighting for his feelings, for his goals. The heroes of Lope de Vega are brave, resolute, full of energy; their movements are impetuous, their words and deeds are ardent and impetuous. These are full-blooded Renaissance natures, in which the life force overflows. The female images of Lope de Vega are remarkable: his heroines have no less spiritual wealth, they are no less enterprising, smart and courageous than their partners. Passionate, they stop at nothing. In this regard, Lope de Vega does not deviate from reality at all, since in the society of the nobility of his day, women, constrained by the harsh guardianship of their fathers, brothers or husbands, played a very inconspicuous role. He revealed and strengthened the possibilities that he felt in the Spanish woman of his era.

Everyday comedies by Lope de Vega sparkle with wit. Their gaiety comes from the internal comedy of situations that arise as a result of various misunderstandings. It is reinforced by grotesque characters, in whose faces they ridicule - in tones more humorous than satirical - swagger, irascibility, stupid pedantry, excessive gullibility, talkativeness, and similar human weaknesses and vices. But servants are special carriers of the comic principle. The type of servant-jester is already found among the predecessors of Lope de Vega, but among them it is usually a simpleton, amusing the audience with his stupidity or clumsiness. The amusing servant Lope de Vega sometimes performs this function, but even more often he witty ridicules others. Quite often he turns out to be smarter, or at least more resourceful than his master, whom he helps out of trouble.

The plays of Lope de Vega, whose heroes are the people of their people, are not numerous. In his image, the most modest peasants or artisans in their mind, energy and moral qualities are no less than aristocrats. They are equally characterized by a sense of dignity and a sense of honor. Only their manners are simpler, they live closer to nature, and this is their great advantage, which fully compensates for the lack of education.

Fuente Ovehuna. The most famous of the plays of this kind and one of the pinnacles of Lope de Vega's work is the drama "Fuente Ovehuna" ("Sheep Key"). It can also be attributed to the number of historical plays, since its action takes place at the end of the 15th century, during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. The most significant thing in this play, imbued with truly revolutionary pathos, is that its hero is not some individual character, but the masses of the people, the collective.

The commander of the Order of Calatrava, Fernand Gomez, who is located with his detachment in the village of Fuente Ovehuna, commits violence against the inhabitants, insults the local alcalde and tries to dishonor his daughter Laurencia. The peasant Frondoso, who loves her, manages to protect the girl. But during the wedding of Frondoso and Laurencia, the commander appears with his henchmen, disperses the audience, beats the alcalde with his own staff, wants to hang Frondoso and kidnaps Laurencia in order to then take possession of her by force. The peasants cannot endure such dishonor: all of them - men, women, children - without exception arm themselves and beat the rapists. At the time of the court case appointed by the king in this case, when the peasants are tortured, they demand recognition of who exactly killed Fernand Gomez, they all answer as one: "Fuente Ovejuna!". The king is forced to stop the court: he "forgives" peasants and takes Fuente Ovehuna under his direct rule. Such is the power of popular solidarity.

In this play, the concept of honor from the category of noble feelings passes into the category of extra-class, universal. It becomes synonymous with the dignity of the human person, standing guard over their rights. Lope de Vega depicts how, under the influence of wild violence, social self-awareness awakens in the peasant masses, how initially scattered members of the rural community rally into a strong team capable of struggle and heroism.

Lope de Vega is looking in history for the justification of the union of the people with the royal power. Indeed, in his time, as in the early Middle Ages, the political aspirations of the Spanish people were usually clothed in the form of monarchical ideas. However, Lope de Vega lacked the vigilance to discern the true nature of royal power, as it was in contemporary Spain. Being a strong supporter of the system of absolutism, which he tried to reconcile with his democratic and humanistic aspirations, Lope de Vega was forced to idealize the image of the king. At the same time, as a subtle and truthful artist, he could not help but see the royal power of his day in its true light and reflect what he saw in his work. He tried to overcome this contradiction by distinguishing between the ruler and the man in the king; and everything negative that royal power carried with it, he attributed to the person. As ruler, the king is infallible; as a man, he is subject to all human weaknesses and vices, although he is capable of correction. Therefore, criticism of the behavior of the king as a human person is useless and even unacceptable: his person is sacred, it requires unconditional respect and obedience. But objectively, the images of kings in Lope de Vega often contain an exposure of the idea of ​​royal power.

Dramatists of the school of Lope de Vega.

The first place belongs to Tirso de Molina (1571 - 1648), the greatest playwright of this group and an ardent follower of Lope de Vega. Tirso de Molina was a monk and historiographer of his order. This did not prevent him, along with purely religious plays, from writing very cheerful and cheerful comedies, which brought him persecution from the spiritual authorities. He owns about 400 plays of various kinds, of which only 80 have come down to us.

The work of Tirso de Molina is distinguished by the same inconsistency as the work of Lope de Vega. Tirso de Molina created the genre of religious and philosophical drama.

This group includes the most famous of the plays written by Tirso de Molina - "Seville mischievous". This legend is of folklore origin: it is based on a story about a daredevil who invited a statue of a dead man to dinner and paid for it with his life. Tirso de Molina associated with this story a characteristic type of unscrupulous seducer of women and an immoralist.

Don Juan (this is the Spanish form of this name), desiring to enjoy the love of Donna Anna, the bride of his friend, by deceit, comes under the guise of him on a date with her and runs into her father, the commander, whom he kills. Having seduced before and after that other women of the most diverse social status - a duchess, a fisherwoman, a shepherdess, he mockingly invites a statue of the commander he killed to dinner and, accepting her return invitation, goes to the church where the commander is buried, and there he dies, falling into hell.

The hero of Tirso de Molina is still very primitive. He conquers women not thanks to his personal charm, but by more crude means: aristocrats - by deceit, commoners - with a promise to marry and make his chosen one a noble lady. But he captivates with cheerfulness, energy, extraordinary courage, which the author portrays in attractive colors.

After the arrival of the statue, don Juan, still drenched in cold sweat, quickly regains control of himself and says: “It's all just imagination. Down with stupid fear!.. Am I, who is not afraid of living bodies, endowed with soul, strength and mind, - should I be afraid of the dead? Tomorrow I will go to the chapel, since I have been invited there - let all Seville marvel at my fearless feat!. However, don Juan is by no means an atheist. He thinks he can still "correct" while he wants to enjoy life. To the exhortations of his servant and all those around him, reminding him of the afterlife, he nonchalantly replies: "You give me a long time!". But death takes him by surprise. At the last moment, he shouts to the statue: “I want to call a priest to forgive my sins!”- and dies without having time to repent. At the same time, the image of don Juan contains a number of positive features, and the author himself partly admires him: his exceptional strength, courage and rapture with life.

Along with these plays, Tirso de Molina owns many comedies full of the most cheerful and witty inventions. As a master of intrigue, he is in no way inferior to Lope de Vega, and in relation to the development of characters, he often surpasses him. He especially succeeds in female images, almost obscuring the male ones in a number of his plays. His heroines are distinguished by great passion, rare energy and enterprise, ingenuity, the ability to defend their rights and fight for their happiness.

Of the other playwrights of this school, Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (1580 - 1639) stands out. In the work of Alarcon, a transition is already planned from comedies of intrigue to comedies of characters, which he significantly deepens and polishes much more than Lope de Vega. At the same time, his plays are characterized by restraint of fantasy, strictness of composition, a certain dryness of images and language, as well as a distinct moral tendency. In a number of his comedies, he gives a heartfelt portrayal of friendship, generosity, and so on. Plays: "Weaver of their Segovia", "Doubtful Truth".

Of the followers of Lope de Vega, Guillen de Castro (1569 - 1631), who often took his subjects from folk romances, also deserves mention. It is characterized by liveliness of imagination, ardor, brilliance, and at the same time a passion for depicting very dramatic situations, stormy feelings, and fantastic adventures. An example of this is his play "Sid's Youth", the plot of which is based on folk romances about Sid.

The life and work of Cervantes.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547 - 1616) was born in the town of Alcala de Henares. He belonged to the hidalgia and was the son of a poor doctor. Lack of funds prevented him from getting a good education, but he still graduated from the university. At the age of twenty-one, Cervantes entered the service of the papal ambassador to Spain, Cardinal Acquaviva. When he returned to his homeland, Cervantes went with him to Italy. After the death of the cardinal, he entered as a soldier in the Spanish army operating in Italy, was soon enrolled in the fleet and took part in the Battle of Lepanto (1571), where he fought bravely and received a severe injury to his left hand. In 1575, he decided to return to Spain, but the ship on which he sailed was attacked by Algerian corsairs and Cervantes was captured by them. He languished in Algiers for five years, repeatedly plotted to escape, ending in failure, until he was finally redeemed from captivity. At home, he found a ruined family, and his military merits were already forgotten in Spain. In search of income, Cervantes writes plays for the theater, as well as various poems, for which, having brought them to some noble person, one could receive a small monetary reward. In addition, he is working on Galatea, which was published in 1585. At this time, Cervantes is getting married. The scarcity and insecurity of earnings forced Cervantes to accept the position of first a grain collector for the army, then a collector of arrears. Having entrusted public money to one banker who fled with them, Cervantes in 1597 goes to prison on charges of embezzlement. Five years later, he is again imprisoned on charges of money abuse.

Cervantes spent the last 15 years of his life in great need. Nevertheless, this was the period of the highest flowering of his work. In 1605 the first part of the novel was published. "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha", begun or at least conceived by Cervantes during his second imprisonment. Publication in 1614 by a certain Avellaneda of a spurious sequel "Don Quixote" prompted Cervantes to hasten the end of his novel, and in 1615 the second part of it was published. Shortly before this, in the same year, he published a collection of his plays, and before that, in 1613, he published "Instructive Novels". The following year he graduated from Literary Satire "Journey to Parnassus". The last work of Cervantes ball novel "Pesiles and Sihismunda" published after his death.

The life of Cervantes, typical of a sensitive and gifted representative of hidalgia, is a series of ardent hobbies, failures, disappointments, continuous courageous struggle with poverty and at the same time with the inertia and vulgarity of the surrounding world. The same long way of searching for the past and the work of Cervantes, who found himself relatively late. He writes to order, adapts to the prevailing style, develops "fashionable" genres, striving to have their say in this area, to introduce realistic content and deep moral issues into this style and genres. but these attempts are invariably unsuccessful until, in his declining years, Cervantes creates his own style and his own genres, capable of fully expressing his finally mature thought.

Almost all of Cervantes' lyrics, his literary and satirical poem, as well as experiments in the field of pastoral and chivalric romance are distinguished by some conventionality and far-fetchedness. ("Galatea" and "Persiles and Sihismunda"). The same can be said about the largest part of his dramatic work. In his dramaturgy, Cervantes primarily seeks verisimilitude, rebelling against the too free treatment of space and time by some of his contemporary playwrights, against the piling up, in the plot of various adventures, extravagances and absurdities, against the discrepancy between the social position of the characters and their language, etc.

The pinnacle of Cervantes' dramatic work is his interludes, probably written between 1605 and 1611. These are small, hilariously comic pieces in which types and situations have much in common with medieval farces, but are much more lively. With great knowledge of folk life and the psyche, Cervantes draws scenes of their lives of peasants, artisans, city dwellers, judges, bleached students, exposing the debauchery of the clergy, the tyranny of husbands, the swindling of charlatans, and also good-naturedly ridiculing gullibility, talkativeness, passion for litigation and other human weaknesses. Subtle humor and wonderfully vivid language give these plays great charm. Particularly popular ones "Theater of Miracles", "Salaman cave", « Jealous old man" and "Two Talkers".

Even more remarkable is the collection of his fourteen "Instructive short stories". Cervantes first established in Spain the type of Renaissance Italian short story, decisively departing from the tradition of medieval storytellers, but at the same time he reformed this Italian type, giving it national Spanish features. Their plots are almost entirely composed by Cervantes. Life, the situation is entirely Spanish. The style is characterized by a truly sideboard combination of precision with humor, sometimes good-natured, sometimes bitter. A huge place is occupied by the speeches of the characters, often very lengthy.

Cervantes' novels can be divided into three groups: love-adventure novels (for example, "Gypsy", "English Spanish" etc.), descriptive ("Riconete and Cortadillo", "Jealous Estramadur" etc.) and philosophical-sentimental ( "Licentiate Widriera", "Conversation of two dogs"), although a strict distinction is not possible here, since many short stories contain features characteristic of other groups. Collection title - "Instructive Novels", means an invitation to look deeper into life and rebuild it on a moral basis. Cervantes believes in the possibility of a happy resolution of the most intricate and dangerous situations, if the people who have fallen into them are honest, noble and energetic; he believes in "voice of nature" and in its good forces, in the final triumph of a man fighting against evil and hostile principles. In this regard, he is always on the side of a young and sincere feeling, defending his rights against any coercion and social conventions. The ideals of Cervantes, revealed in "Instructive short stories", is love for life, but without intoxication with it, courage without arrogance, moral exactingness towards oneself and others, but without any asceticism or intolerance, modest, unostentatious heroism, and most importantly - deep humanity and generosity.

The novel "Don Quixote"

Novel "Don Quixote" was written by Cervantes in his later life. The novel is the result of his creative reflections. This work, insufficiently appreciated by contemporaries, brought its author posthumous fame and was declared by critics of the 19th - 20th centuries. one of the greatest creations of human thought.

"Don Quixote"- this is clearly indicated by the author in the prologue to the first part of the novel and in its final lines - it was conceived primarily as a parody of chivalric novels. Don Quixote, a poor provincial hidalgo, driven mad by reading chivalric novels and determined to restore the ancient institution of knight-errant, like the heroes of chivalric novels, goes out on exploits in honor of his imaginary "ladies" to protect all the offended and oppressed in this world. But his armor is the rusty fragments of his ancestors' weapons, his horse is a pitiful nag that stumbles at every step, his squire is a cunning and rude local peasant, tempted by the prospect of quick enrichment, the lady of his heart is a peasant girl Aldonsa Lorenzo from a neighboring village, renamed the mad Don - Quixote to Dulcinea de Toboso. In the same way, all knightly rites and customs are parodied in the novel: the knighting ceremony, etiquette "knight service" lady (for example, when Don Quixote orders "defeated" adversaries to go to Dulcinea de Toboso and put themselves at her disposal).

The overheated imagination of Don Quixote makes him see brilliant adventures or magic in everything, take windmills for giants, an inn - a luxurious castle, a barber's basin - for a wonderful helmet, convicts - for oppressed knights, a lady riding in a carriage - for a kidnapped princess .

All the exploits of Don Quixote, performed by him to restore justice on earth, lead to completely opposite results: the shepherd Andres, for whom Don Quixote interceded, after his departure is subjected to even more severe beatings; the convicts released by him scatter to become the scourge of society again; an absurd attack on a funeral procession ends with a broken leg of an innocent licentiate; the desire to help the Spanish knight, surrounded by the Moors, leads to the destruction of the puppet theater, on the stage of which this was depicted. All those Don Quixote tries "protect", pray to the sky "punish and destroy his grace with all the knights ever born into the world". Don Quixote is insulted, beaten, cursed, mocked, and, to top the shame, he is trampled on by a herd of pigs. Finally, exhausted morally and physically, the Knight of the Sad Image returns to his home and there, having become seriously ill, he begins to see clearly before his death; he again becomes Don Alonso Quijana, nicknamed the Good for his deeds, renounces chivalric nonsense and makes a will in favor of his niece, with the proviso that she will lose her inheritance if she marries a man who loves chivalric novels.

Satire on chivalric romances was a genre very common during the Renaissance, but Cervantes deepened the situation and complicated the image of the main character. First of all, he endowed his hero with not only negative, but also positive features, and in addition, he gave him a double life - in a healthy and in a delusional state, which makes him almost two different characters. Further, Cervantes gave Don Quixote a companion who partly contrasts with him, partly complements him. Last but not least, Cervantes brought Don Quixote into constant and varied contact with real life.

First of all, in his novel, Cervantes ridiculed not only chivalric romances as a literary genre, but also the very idea of ​​chivalry. Ridiculing chivalric novels, he struggled with the old, feudal consciousness, which was reinforced by them and found its poetic expression in them. He protested in his novel against the entire worldview of the ruling elite of Spain, who tried to revive on new foundations "knightly" ideas, and above all against the feudal Catholic reaction that supported these ideas.

Cervantes condemns not Don Quixote himself, endowed with traits of rare spiritual nobility, kindness and prudence, but those delusional chivalrous ideas that captured the imagination of the poor hidalgo. The latter could only happen because Don Quixote is all directed towards the past. This past is the world of chivalry that Don Quixote is trying to restore. He acts blindly, following ready-made norms and rules that have outlived their time, read by him from old books, he does not know how and does not want to take into account real possibilities, with the real needs and requirements of people, with the actual state of things.

In his adventures, Don Quixote not only constantly fails, but also sows destruction around him. His madness is all the more dangerous because it is contagious, as seen in the example of Sancho Panza.

However, if Cervantes makes fun of Don Quixote, at the same time he is full of deep sympathy for him. The means used by Don Quixote are absurd, but the goal is lofty. Cervantes in every possible way emphasizes the high moral qualities, disinterestedness, generosity of Don Quixote, his sincere desire to benefit humanity. According to Sancho Panza, his master has "pigeon heart". In moments of mental enlightenment, when Don Quixote forgets his chivalrous fantasies, he is unusually attractive - he is easy to get along with everyone, exceptionally humane and reasonable. His speeches arouse the admiration of the listeners, they are full of high humanistic wisdom.

Remarkable in this respect is the advice given by Don Quixote to Sancho Panza before he enters the government. "governorship": “Look inside yourself and try to know yourself, and this knowledge is the most difficult of all that can be. Knowing yourself, you will no longer pout like a frog wishing to be compared with an ox.. Don Quixote continues: “Speak with pride about your virility, Sancho, and admit without blushing that you are from the peasantry, for it would never occur to anyone to shame you with this, as long as you yourself are not ashamed of it ... Remember, Sancho: if you embark on the path of virtue and you will try to do good deeds, then you will not have to envy the deeds of princes and seniors, for blood is inherited, and virtue is acquired, and it has an independent value, unlike blood, which has no such value.. Elsewhere Don Quixote teaches Sancho: “There are two types of genealogies: others are descended from sovereign princes and monarchs, but their family line gradually dwindles and narrows over time, like a pyramid turned upside down, others came from the common people, but little by little they rise from step to step and, finally become noblemen. Thus, the difference between them is that they were once what they are not now, and others are now what they were not before.. Or more : "Virtue makes blood noble, and a person of humble origin, but virtuous, deserves more respect than noble, but vicious". About freedom Don Quixote says Sancho thus: “Freedom, Sancho, is one of the most precious bounties that the sky pours out on people; no treasures can compare with it: neither those that are hidden in the bowels of the earth, nor those that are hidden at the bottom of the sea. For the sake of freedom, as well as for the sake of honor, one can and must risk one's life, and, on the contrary, bondage is the greatest of all misfortunes that can befall a person. I say this, Sancho, for this: you saw how we were looked after and how we were surrounded by contentment in that castle that we just left, and yet, despite all these luxurious dishes and refreshing drinks, it seemed to me personally as if I endure the pangs of hunger, for I did not partake of them with the same feeling of freedom, as if it were all mine, while the obligations imposed by benefactions and graces are fetters that restrict the freedom of the human spirit».

An addition to the image of Don Quixote is the image of Sancho Panza. It also has precedents in medieval literature. Cervantes created a complex, deeply realistic image that reflects the essential aspects of the Spanish life of that time and is very important for the overall idea of ​​the novel. At first glance, Sancho Panza is the exact opposite of his master: while Don Quixote, exhausting himself physically, longs to work selflessly for the benefit of mankind, Sancho Panza, first of all, tries to please his flesh and serve himself. He likes to sleep and eat most of all (his very name is expressive: panza in Spanish means "belly"), he wants to become a count and governor, he wants his wife Teresa Panza to ride in a gilded carriage. Dreaming about how he will become a ruler, Sancho Panza asks if he can sell all his subjects into slavery and put the money in his pocket. He is all in practice, in the present, while Don Quixote is all in a dream about the past, which he wants to revive. But at the same time, there is a deep inner similarity between them, making them the sons of one people and the product of one era.

Their fate is similar: both, carried away by their fantasies, break away from the family and a peaceful healthy life; to roam the world in search of fortune, and both are eventually healed of their delusions, convinced that they were at the mercy of the mirages. But the difference between them is that Don Quixote was captivated by the dream of eradicating evil on earth and of knightly glory, i.e. the old chivalric ideal in its classical form, and Sancho Panza, under the influence of the mad Don Quixote, was seduced by the idea of ​​easy money, the spirit of adventurism, i.e. modern form of knightly ideal - "chivalry" initial accumulation.

There is also a difference in how they heal from their mirages. Don Quixote, despite the hail of failures raining down on him, remains in the grip of his chivalrous illusions, until, finally, the veil falls from his eyes. But that second, healthy person who lives in him develops throughout the novel under the influence of both contact with life and communication with the pure soul of Sancho Panza. Don Quixote's speeches at the moments of enlightenment of his consciousness become more and more significant and wise, and in parallel with this, he becomes more trusting and frank with his squire, more and more often asks him for advice and help, and the social distance between them is shrinking, until, in the last chapters, does not disappear at all.

On the contrary, Sancho Panza is healed mentally and morally long before the end of the novel. He is freed from the delusions he received from Don Quixote as a result of severe trials, the last of which was his "governorship". However, in managing your "solid island" he entered already cured of the thirst for profit that had previously possessed him, and this happened to him partly under the influence of Don Quixote's constant example of spiritual nobility and kindness. Sancho Panza accompanies Don Quixote on the latter's third trip, no longer for reasons of profit, but out of heartfelt affection for his affection for his master, whom he sincerely loved. At the end of the novel, he does not remember the salary that he owes him. Under the influence of Don Quixote, Sancho becomes kinder and more generous in his relations with people, he is no longer led by a thirst for enrichment, but by a love of justice and humanity.

In general, both for Don Quixote, chivalric undertakings, and for Sancho Panza, his dreams of enrichment are only a temporary borrowed shell, deeply alien to their nature. Both of them are the noblest representatives of the Spanish people. If the madcap Don Quixote is the bearer of the highest humanistic ideas, then the ingenuous merry fellow Sancho Panza is the embodiment of folk wisdom and moral health. Both are intimately close to each other, which is especially pronounced in the episode of the governorship of Sancho Panza, where the noble humanistic ideals of Don Quixote intersect with Sancho's practical reason, honesty and healthy humanity. Another moment of their deep and already final rapprochement is the finale of the novel, when Sancho Panza, shedding tears, says goodbye to the dying master, who has freed himself from his delusions and is no longer Don Quixote of La Mancha, but again - Alonso Quixana the Good.

It is very characteristic that in a novel in which there are several hundred characters, very few representatives of the aristocracy are shown, and if they appear, they are outlined in the most mean and general strokes. Such are the duke and duchess in the second part, like puppets in comparison with the rest of the characters in the novel, bright and lively. Cervantes very subtly makes you feel all the emptiness and boredom of their magnificent life filled with ceremonies, which makes them rejoice at the meeting with Don Quixote and his squire as a welcome fun.

Some vague attitude of Cervantes towards the clergy, although his statements on this subject are also extremely disguised. AT "Don Quixote" spiritual persons are not shown at all in their specific practice. Apart from a certain number of monks, students of theology and priests participating in Don Quixote's road adventures as extras, in the whole novel there is only one clergyman who has a certain physiognomy - this is a friend of Don Quixote, a priest of the same village where the hero lives , enlightened and judicious, always able to give good advice, who, during an inspection of the library of Don Quixote, discovered a delicate literary taste, taking care of the affairs of Don Quixote and his recovery, he is nothing like a priest, and no one would have guessed his belonging to this corporations, if not for his dress.

If Cervantes avoids depicting in his novel the tops of society and the clergy, then he gives in it a broad picture of folk life, depicting truthfully and colorfully peasants, artisans, mule drivers, shepherds, poor students, soldiers, tavern maids, etc. All those little people walking "on the ground with just feet", he describes objectively and diversified, without hiding the rudeness, greed, quarrelsomeness, propensity to swindle of many of them, but at the same time emphasizes the huge stock of industriousness, activity, optimism and good nature lurking in them. Cervantes is full of trust and sincere sympathy for all these people, he tries to show them from the good side. The rude tavern maid Maritornes buys a mug of beer for poor Sancho Panza with her last pennies. The hostess of the inn carefully treats Don Quixote, beaten by the muleteers. Cervantes opposes this half-impoverished, but full of vibrant creative powers, Spain with official Spain, predatory, arrogant and pious, idealizing itself in pompous pictures of chivalric novels or sugary images of pastoral novels.

In all these scenes, which form the main background of the novel, elements of a healthy life are given that are capable of further development. Complementing them are several inserted short stories, which depict the highest, very complex forms of life, partly poeticized in tragic, partly in sentimental tones. These short stories echo some of the episodes of the main story. The purpose of these short stories is to show the possibility of noble and beautiful forms of human activity on a purely real basis of sound feelings and concepts, as opposed to the knightly nonsense of Don Quixote.

The profound nationality of Cervantes' novel lies in the thoughtful and sympathetic depiction of the broad background of folk life; in the rapprochement of Don Quixote with Sancho Panza, in showing the creative possibilities lurking in this son of the Spanish people; in a clear and sober attitude to life; in the denunciation of any social untruth and violence; in deep love and respect for the person of whom this book speaks; in the optimism that she breathes, despite the sad nature of most of her episodes and the sadness that pervades her.

All this corresponds to the wonderful realistic language of the novel, clear, colorful, rich in shades, which has absorbed many elements of folk speech. The language of the characters of Cervantes is different depending on their social status and character. The contrast between the measured and important, sometimes even somewhat archaic language of Don Quixote and the not always correct, but juicy and expressive, interspersed with proverbs, sayings, interjections, the truly folk speech of Sancho Panza is especially clear. The language of the characters also changes in Cervantes in connection with the nature of the situation or the state of mind of the speakers, taking either oratorical, colloquial, pathetic, joking or familiar connotations.

Cervantes brilliantly captured the main trends and problems of his era. Summarizing them in the images of the two main characters of his novel, he invested in them a great universal content. Thanks to this, the central images of the novel, reflecting the actual state of Spain in the 16th-17th centuries, at the same time acquired a much broader meaning, retaining their vitality and expressiveness in subsequent centuries. In particular, since Cervantes, who wrote his novel in the conditions of the crisis of humanism, reflected in it with great force the collision of the ideal aspirations of the human mind with the world of self-interest and personal interests, "Don Quixote" became for future generations of thinkers and writers a model of opposition between the ideal and "base reality".

Meaning "Don Quixote" for the further development of the European novel is very large. Destroying the old chivalric romance, Cervantes at the same time lays the foundations for a new type of novel, signifying a huge step forward in the development of artistic realism.

Roman Cervantes was at the beginning of the XVII century. an exceptional phenomenon, far ahead of its era. It was only truly understood and could have a real influence on European literature in the eighteenth and especially in the nineteenth century, when a higher form of realism became possible. From that moment on, ideas, images, narrative style, general tone and individual stylistic features "Don Quixote" found a wide response in European literature. Of the writers on whom the influence of Cervantes was especially pronounced, one can name Fielding, W. Scott, Dickens, Gogol.

At the end of the XV and the beginning of the XVI centuries. significant changes took place in the political and economic life of Spain. By that time, the scattered Spanish kingdoms and provinces had united into the Spanish state, and the centuries-old reconquista (the reconquest of the Spanish lands under the rule of the Arabs) had ended. The exploitation of the native population in the territories of the New World occupied by Spain began. Associated with the great geographical discoveries of the late XV - early XVI centuries. the revival of industry and maritime trade contributed to the development of bourgeois relations, especially in the southern coastal provinces of Spain.

By the beginning of the XV century. refers to the emergence in Spain of humanistic ideas that shook the foundations of the medieval scholastic worldview. In the field of architecture, the first manifestations of new trends date back to the end of the 15th century. At that time there was not yet that sharp break with the Gothic, which marked the first steps of the Renaissance in Italy. The planning and structural foundations of the buildings continued to remain unchanged. New trends manifested themselves at first in the creation of new architectural images with the help of familiar Gothic and Moorish forms.

The transformation of Spain under Charles V into a world power, in which, according to the old expression, “the sun never set”, contributed to the strengthening of cultural ties between Spain and other European countries, primarily with Italy. The trips of Spanish architects to Italy and the work of Italian masters in Spain (in particular, sculptors who made tomb structures commissioned by the Spanish nobility) helped to familiarize the Spaniards with the order system and architectural ideas of the Italian Renaissance. In the works of Spanish architecture, along with Gothic and Moorish forms, elements of the order began to appear, at first in a purely decorative plan. This first phase in the development of the Spanish Renaissance, thanks to the chased subtlety of decorative forms, received (since the 17th century) the name "plateresque" (plateria - jewelry craftsmanship).

Along with plateresque at the turn of the first and second quarters of the 16th century. another trend arose, which was based on a tectonic understanding of the order, great rigor of planned constructions and restraint of decor, inspired by the study of ancient classics and the works of Italian masters. Very often, Spanish architectural historians apply the term "Greco-Roman" (greco-romano) to this direction.

The development of capitalist relations in Spain proceeded at a very slow pace. The reign of Philip II, a fanatical Catholic, "Vicar of the Holy See", who mercilessly eradicated not only religious heresy, but also any manifestation of free thought with the help of the Inquisition, was extremely unfavorable for the development of the optimistic art of the Renaissance. This predetermined the great limitation of its late phase of development, dating back to the second half of the 16th century.

Changes in the political life, socio-economic and cultural development of Spain at the end of the 15th and in the 16th centuries. affected the typology of structures. In urban planning, these changes were reflected relatively little. The revival of industry and trade that took place at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries affected mainly the cities of the southern provinces - Catalonia and Valencia. The discovery of the New World had a particularly favorable effect on Seville, which received a monopoly on transatlantic trade and became the main port of Spain.

Barcelona and Valencia also continued to be among the main commercial and industrial centers of Spain. The population in these cities began to grow rapidly in the first half of the period under review. The territory of these cities also grew, new residential quarters arose, and public buildings appeared.

The cities of other Spanish provinces, including Castile, developed much more slowly. This was mainly due to the limited development of early capitalist relations in Spain, which has already been mentioned.

With the unification of the Spanish provinces into an integral state and the transformation of Spain into a world power, the question arose of its capital. Philip II, apparently in order not to glorify any of the old centers of the Spanish provinces, moved his residence in 1560 to Madrid - an insignificant city until that time, located in the geographical center of the country. However, Madrid continued to be a small, dirty and undeveloped city, built up mainly with one-story houses.

The layout of Spanish cities in the late XV-early XVI centuries. changed very little. Spanish cities generally retain their medieval character during this time. Their layout was still dominated by a complex, intricate network of curvilinear streets, converging to the market, the public square (placa mayor) and to a small square in front of the old Gothic cathedral.

Cathedrals, town halls, alcazars (palaces of Arab rulers, later used by Spanish kings) formed architectural accents, effectively completing the prospects of many streets.

In Spanish cities, which for a long time were under the dominion of the Moors, one can easily trace the influence of Muslim urban planning. In Toledo, Seville, Valencia and Barcelona, ​​Saragossa, etc., the network of streets has acquired a particularly complex and intricate character. There are almost no spaces. The houses face the street with blank facades, almost devoid of window openings.

During the period under review, no major urban developments that could change the character of Spanish cities were carried out (well-known examples of regular, integral ensembles of Spain date back to a later time). Only separate buildings were erected, which became new architectural accents. Sometimes new buildings were located in close proximity to already existing monumental structures, being one of the links in the gradually emerging urban ensembles. Most often, however, new large public buildings and private palaces were located among the small ordinary buildings of the streets and introduced a new scale into the appearance of the old streets, which had to be taken into account in the development in the future.

The beautification of Spanish cities continued to be very primitive. The streets were dirty, the sources of water supply were most often wells or a river, from where water was transported in barrels. In Segovia, an aqueduct built by Roman builders was successfully used for this purpose.

	Fig.2. Castile. House; Ibarre (Biscay). Casa Aranguren; Goisueta (Basque Country). House
Fig.3. La Mancha. Mill; Levant. "Barracos"

The planning and constructive methods of ordinary urban residential buildings remain closely connected with the traditions of folk architecture. Dwelling houses in cities sometimes differ very little from dwellings in rural areas. Types of residential buildings vary greatly under the influence of different climatic conditions, household habits, depending on local building materials and artistic traditions (Fig. 1-5).

Very often in Spain, a patio (patio) was included in the structure of the house. In large houses, one can sometimes find two courtyards, one of which was usually used for purely household purposes. Only in the northern provinces with a cold, rainy climate did a compact layout of dwellings predominate.

A residential building in Castile usually has two floors. On the ground floor there is a large porch (saguan) used as a pantry and work space. In the cities, the saguan communicates with a patio, in the villages - with a corral (cattle yard) or a vegetable garden. The ground floor also houses the kitchen and living room. In the houses of artisans and merchants, a workshop or shop is located on the first floor. The second floor, which leads to a staircase adjacent to the saguan, is usually occupied by bedrooms. The patio is surrounded by open galleries with stone, brick or wooden pillars.

Natural stone and brick were used as wall materials. The inner walls were sometimes made with earthen walls. Roofs are tiled.

Due to climatic conditions, the facades were made almost deaf, with rare and small window openings. The front door was sometimes processed in the form of a portal. Until the middle of the 16th century. Gothic or Moorish motifs predominate in the compositions of the portals. In the future, the reproduction of order elements also begins to appear.

In residential Basque town houses, the first floor is often occupied by a vestibule, a pantry, a workshop (in artisans' houses) or a shop. In the villages, there is also a barn for cattle on the ground floor. On the second floor, the front room faces the main facade, and the kitchen on the back. Bedrooms are located between them.

The walls of houses in this province were made of wild stone. If the main facade went to the side, protected from the wind, the facade wall was made of half-timbered brick infill and with large window openings that illuminated the front room. The top floor often hung over the bottom. The same houses are found in the villages of Castile adjacent to Cantabria. In the villages of Cantabria, there are large detached peasant houses "caserios", in which a vast attic for drying hay is arranged above the second floor, also slightly protruding from the plane of the main facade.

A characteristic feature of Basque residential buildings, due to the influence of climatic conditions, is strongly protruding cornices.

In the houses of Andalusia, Valencia and Catalonia, which have developed under the influence of Moorish residential architecture, the patio is an indispensable element in the layout of the house. In the patio, paved with multi-colored pebbles and surrounded by galleries, wells were often arranged. The walls were made of bricks, plastered and whitewashed. According to the Moorish tradition, the walls were decorated with inserts of colored glazed tiles with floral ornaments or Arabic “wickerwork”.

In the villages of the fertile strip along the Mediterranean coast, an interesting type of residential building "barracos" has developed (Fig. 3). A longitudinal inner wall divides the first floor into two halves. In one of them - a common kitchen-dining room, in the other - living rooms and bedrooms. The attic is used for drying various vegetables and fruits and for breeding silkworms.

The walls of the "barracos" are made of raw brick, made with an admixture of chopped straw. A light wooden floor, supported by a longitudinal beam resting on a wooden pole, is hemmed with wicker mats to save timber. Only along the run a light wooden flooring is arranged, which serves to pass through the attic. Reed roofing.

In rural areas, along with residential buildings, folk architecture created a number of types of agricultural structures. The most common of these are barns for storing agricultural products, the so-called "orreos" (Fig. 4). The Asturian "orreos" are especially interesting. The storage room, requiring good ventilation, was raised to protect against rodents on stone or wooden pillars. For the same purpose, a flat stone slab was placed on top of the pillars, hanging from the pillars. In addition, the staircase leading to the barn and made of stone was constructed in such a way that there was a significant gap between it and the barn, preventing rodents from moving to the gallery surrounding the storage room and formed by the overhang of the floor beams. The walls of the barn were built from local material. In Asturias, most often the enclosing walls were built from vertically placed logs connected by a tongue and groove.

Among the widespread types of agricultural structures are windmills, grape presses, etc. The windmills of La Mancha, immortalized by Cervantes in Don Quixote, are to this day an integral feature of the landscape of this desert plateau (see Fig. 3).

Fortified castles (the construction of which was prohibited by the "Catholic kings") were replaced by city palaces. The premises of the palace were usually grouped around a vast courtyard. Characteristic features of the composition of the palace facades are the corner turrets and an open gallery running along the upper floor and facing the street.

At the end of the XV and the beginning of the XVI centuries. the royal court, occupied with the completion of the reconquista, with North African and Italian military expeditions, did not conduct large palace buildings, limiting itself to the repair and reconstruction of its old residences and the construction of places of worship, mainly chapels. The first large palace building dates back to the reign of Charles V. This is a palace in Granada.

The Catholic Church still had significant funds at its disposal, which allowed it to erect monumental church buildings. At the end of the XV and the beginning of the XVI centuries. the most grandiose of the Christian churches of that time was being completed - the cathedral in Seville. At the same time, the cathedrals of Astorga and Placencia were built. The construction of the great cathedrals of Salamanca and Segovia stretched over the entire 16th century. At the same time, many small chapels were attached to the old Spanish cathedrals at the expense of the Spanish grandees and spiritual nobility. In their composition, these chapels were varieties of the general architectural type of a small, close to a square room, covered with an octagonal vault. Usually used as tombs, these chapels have preserved a large number of wonderful tombs made by the best foreign and Spanish sculptors.

In the field of civil architecture, the loss of their former importance by urban communes has affected the limited construction of municipal government buildings and other public buildings built at the expense of cities. City halls (ayuntamento) began to be built again during the 16th century. after the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.

At the expense of the royal treasury and charity of the richest representatives of the spiritual nobility and aristocracy, hospitals, hospices, and educational institutions were built.

The hospital at that time had a distinct imprint of monastic architecture. The dominant volume was usually the church. The high hospital halls, covered with Gothic cross vaults, resemble in their character the monastic dormitories of medieval monasteries. The spacious courtyard, which served as a walking place for convalescent patients, was an integral part of the hospital building.

Educational institutions were designed and built as significant monumental structures. Entrance lobbies, library rooms, patios used for relaxing during breaks, and the church were finished very carefully, and sometimes magnificently.

The most common building material was stone. In central and southern Spain, deposits of various grades of sandstone and limestone are found almost everywhere. Marble rocks of various gradations in hardness and color are also common. A historically determined feature of construction technology in a number of provinces was the simultaneous use of two systems - the Gothic system of stone vaulted structures and the construction techniques of the Mudéjar masters, who cultivated a combination of brickwork walls with wooden ceilings. In the north, in Galicia and the provinces inhabited by the Basques, soft, easily workable rocks are rare. Granite predominates, making it difficult to manufacture complex profiles and parts. A simplified planar interpretation of details gives the architecture of these areas a very peculiar imprint. In Aragon, the difficulty of obtaining suitable stone for construction and the abundance of clay caused the widespread use of bricks and a developed, rich and sophisticated brickwork technique.

Spain is very poor in forests. This prompted builders to make the most economical use of wood. Widespread in Spain, Moorish wooden ceiling designs are a further development of building techniques taken from Arabia. Their main principle is to create a constructive grid assembled from small pieces of wood (artesonado). Even in buildings erected by adherents of the Renaissance school, one can see these type-setting ceilings, very beloved by the Spaniards.

The mixing of new Renaissance architectural forms with previously developed constructive techniques lasts a very long time in Spain. Only in the second half of the XVI century. the barrel vault and the dome begin to replace almost everywhere the Gothic rib structures of the vaults and the Arabic type-setting ceilings.

Chapter “Architecture of Spain”, section “Renaissance architecture in Western European countries (outside Italy)”, encyclopedia “General history of architecture. Volume V. Architecture of Western Europe XV-XVI centuries. Renaissance". Managing editor: V.F. Marcuson.

In the 8th century Arabs conquered Spain. The Spaniards' war of liberation went on with varying success, and only at the end of the 15th century. The Iberian Peninsula was liberated from Arab domination and, in addition to Portugal, an independent state was formed on it - Spain.

At the end of the XVI - beginning of the XVII century. literature and theatre, painting and architecture in Spain reached an unprecedented flourishing. Spanish national art, especially during the late Renaissance, gave an extremely complete reflection of its time. The ingenious creator of Don Quixote, Cervantes, the playwright Lope de Vega, did not create alone: ​​in the same years, Greco and Velazquez, Zurbaran and Murillo won recognition among the humanists of other countries with their painting.

In the XVI century. in Spain, chivalric romances are widely distributed - a genre already forgotten in other countries. These novels idealized medieval knights with their extraordinary, fabulous adventures, brought up admiration for the feudal world. But the ideal picture of knightly tournaments and fights, extraordinary passions and virtues did not correspond to cruel reality.

The humanistic literature of Spain was faced with the task of overcoming the influence of chivalric romances, which led away from the knowledge of real life.

The greatest humanist writer of Spain, one of the most remarkable realists in the literature of the Renaissance, was Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra.

Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra (1547 - 1616)

The life of Cervantes, the creator of Don Quixote, was not easy. He came from an impoverished noble family. Although Cervantes received a good humanitarian education, he could not find application for his knowledge and abilities for a long time: an unenviable service in the cardinal's retinue, a soldier's lot and the bitter years of Algerian captivity, and finally, the place of a traveling tax collection official. Being in this service, Cervantes goes to prison through someone else's fault.

Cervantes never received real recognition of his work during his lifetime. Entering the literary field early, Cervantes discovered the full strength of his genius talent only in his declining years, when he created the wonderful novels "Instructive Novels", truthful scenes from folk life - "Interludes" and, finally, the famous novel "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha" - an epic about the Knight of the Sad Image and his faithful squire Sancho Panza.

The heroes of the novel "Don Quixote" - the impoverished nobleman Alonso Quijano and the savvy, roguish peasant Sancho Panza - still attract readers from all over the world. These two main characters of the novel perfectly convey the contradictions and contrasts of the then Spain.

Having read numerous chivalric novels, Alonso Quijano comes up with the knightly name Don Quixote of La Mancha, to which Sancho Panza later adds the nickname Knight of the Sad Image. He travels in search of adventure. Every adventure, every detail of this journey reveals the contrast between imaginary life and harsh reality. From here arise extraordinary adventures with windmills, a herd of sheep, convicts, puppet theater. With his behavior, Don Quixote causes ridicule and only occasionally pity, but deep wisdom and unchanging love for people often sound in his reasoning. Through the mouth of Don Quixote, Cervantes expresses progressive, democratic ideas.

Don Quixote angrily condemns the enslavement of man by man. He declares that "to turn ... into slaves those whom the Lord and nature have created free, seems to me extremely cruel" and that "decent people should not be the executioners of their neighbors."

“Freedom, Santo,” he says, “is one of the most precious bounties that heaven pours out on people ... For the sake of freedom, as well as for the sake of honor, you can and should risk your life, and, on the contrary, there is bondage the greatest of all misfortunes that can befall a man."

Sancho Panza, to whom these words are addressed, rightfully occupies a significant place in the novel. Sancho is closely connected with the people's environment, free from class prejudices, with the peasantry, who had a sense of dignity and great life experience.

The joint wandering of the knight and his squire frees them from illusions not immediately, but only after a series of tragicomic and instructive events and meetings. Returning home, Don Quixote passes a murderous verdict on chivalric novels before his death. As an image of a selfless fighter, Don Quixote retains its charm to this day.

Don Quixote belongs to the best works of world literature.

“... he approached the gray one, hugged him, kissed him on the forehead as a sign of greeting ...” G. Dore's illustrations for Cervantes' novel Don Quixote.

The images of Cervantes also live in Russian art - in the drawings and illustrations by I. E. Repin, V. A. Serov and Kukryniksy, in the Soviet film about Don Quixote, where such wonderful actors as N. K. Cherkasov gave their interpretation of the heroes of Cervantes and Yu. V. Tolubeev. An informative and interesting book about the author of Don Quixote - Cervantes. Life and creativity,” wrote the scientist K. N. Derzhavin.

Lope de Vega (1562-1635)

Lope de Vega found his place in life without much difficulty. Unlike Cervantes, he received lifetime recognition.

In what literary genres did Lope de Vega perform: in dramaturgy, epic poetry and lyrics, literary theory and criticism, short stories! However, the first place in his work, undoubtedly, belongs to dramaturgy. Of the many plays by Lope de Vega, about five hundred have been published, mostly comedies.

A humanist writer, Lope de Vega knew how not only to amuse the viewer - he broadened his horizons, introducing him to the historical past, the life of other peoples - distant Rus' and overseas America. He made people think about the fate of their homeland, about the miserable existence of destitute peasants.

In his plays, the clever tricks of the servants - gracioso, reminiscent in many ways of Shakespeare's jesters, aroused sympathy. Lope de Vega relatively rarely acted as an accuser of the political arbitrariness and despotism of the ruling circles.

In the work of the playwright, his wonderful drama "Fuente Ovejuna" ("Sheep Spring", 1612 - 1613) occupies a special place. This play depicts a real event in Spanish history in the 15th century. - the uprising of the peasants against the feudal lord.

It frankly and sharply characterizes the commander (one of the highest ranks of the spiritual order) - the ruler of the village of Fuente Ovehuna; his unbridled arbitrariness is mercilessly exposed.

The uprising is crushed, many peasants are tortured during interrogation. However, their unity, their moral stamina, they are stronger than the armed detachments. The only answer they give to the question of who killed the commander is "Fuente Ovehuna!" (i.e. the whole village) - they deprive the court of the opportunity to identify the perpetrators.

However, Lope de Vega weakens the courage of this popular resistance with a conciliatory ending in the spirit of his time: the king himself becomes a “good” landowner instead of the murdered commander.

The great master of the female portrait, Lope de Vega, creates in this drama a wonderful image of the heroine - Laurencia, who has become, as it were, a symbol of people's honor and courage. Her humanity and citizenship are sharply opposed to the class prejudices and immorality of the commander, and her love for Frondoso reveals the charm of her personality. Laurencia is not alone, along with her worthy fellow villagers - Esteban, her father, Pascuala. The character of Laurencia is close to Shakespeare's heroines, so the role of Laurencia has firmly entered the repertoire of outstanding tragic artists of the world theater, including Yermolova (see vol. 12 DE, article "M. N. Yermolova").

The playwright reveals the personal destinies of the heroes of this drama against the backdrop of social events. This was an extraordinary phenomenon for the Spanish theater of the 17th century.

The comedies of Lope de Vega "Dog in the Manger", "Girl with a Jug", "Dance Teacher", "Valencian Widow" enjoy continued success with the Soviet audience. The secret of this recognition is not only in the entertaining plot, in skillful and funny situations, in the skillful construction of dialogue, but also in the humanistic interpretation of events and characters. The constant engine of action in comedies is the servant - gracioso. Dexterous, inventive and resourceful, roguish and mocking, he often turns out to be more experienced and smarter than his noble master, whose interests he defends, not forgetting, however, about his own. Laughter in Lope de Vega's comedies plays no less a role than love affair, which underlies many of his everyday comedies, the so-called cape and sword comedies.

Lope de Vega has many characters of different age and position in society. But all of them are united by life optimism, the ability to rejoice, love, hate.

Belief in human energy makes the plays of Lope de Vega interesting, their stage performance gives pleasure to our contemporary.

The ideas of the Spanish Renaissance found their final expression in the works of Cervantes and Lope de Vega, who were destined to become the rulers of the thoughts of many generations.