The Baroque in Calderón

The Baroque in Calderón by Angel Valbuena Prat, university of Wisconsin With the revaluation of the baroque style in 1927 on the anniversary of Gongora, there came about a return to Calderón, This about face was in order since Calderón had been kept from proper evaluation due to his own baroque characteristics» The baroque in Calderón is an expression of dynamism which breaks from classic serenity; This is seen in the culteranismo of Gongora where a lack of equilibrium between form and ideas is witnessed» It is seen also in. Quevedo in conceptismo with its twisting more of ideas than of form, althou.~h there can be no separation of the two. The baroque poet or artist knows how to paint and describe. He uses the senses as a way to the soul. His descriptions are well thought out and whether they be in Calder6n or in a painting by Velazquez, are best seen from a distance, In his baroque forms, Calderón can be compared vdth Gongora in literature, El Greco in art, and iVagner in music. Like i 'agner, he represents one of the great triumphs of the ego. Calderón combines in his religio-philosophieal plays not only poetry and plastic arts, but also music. His works can be generally divided into two periods, that in which he stylizes and perfects mechanically the realistic, popular, national theater oí Lope and his followers, and the creative period, on the other hand* Characteristics of his baroque style which predominates in his work are the law of subordination of the characters to the protagonist and the contrast by parallelism in the case of duality of the protagonist, both characters placed on a basis of subordination to the hierarchy of the rest of the figures. The protagonist who stands out at the cost of other characters is seen in El Alcalde de Zalamea where everything else is subordinate to Pedro Crespo. In Lope's play we see coordination of all the characters whereas in Calderón Pedro Crespo is the center of all action, In El Magico Prodigioso we see the devil and Ciiriano as the antagonist and the protagonist. In the a"utos there are often several counterposed characters such as the ie very human formsj these men de carne- y hueso resemble Shakespeare's characters. There are others which represent a social type or the incarnation of a particular quality or a sector of society but who have few personal qualities. These resemble Molière 's characters, Pedro Crespo who represents all justice seeking people typifies the characters of this class. A third type, found especially in the autos, proceeds through symbols. Virtues and vices and ideas take body in these figures. This exaltation of symbolism is seen in the figures of Grace, Innocence, Will, etc., in Andrómeda y Perseo and in Beauty, Discretion, etc., in El Gran Teatro el .undo. Segismundo in the play, La Vida es Suefio, is a symbol of humanity. A new theatrical form is found in the conflict of man versus himeelf. Witness Segismundo ' s words : Pues ya que vencer aguarda Mi valor grandes victorias, Hoy ha de ser la más alta Vencerme a mí. In Segismundo there is a robustness and vitality which characterizes the baroque in the descriptions, ideas-, and langage of Calderón; In Kosaura's opening speech in La Vida es Suefto, for example, there is a dynamic comparison of the crags of the mountain with the wrinkled forehead of á person who looks at the sun. Besides the description or decoration which is an exterior expression of dynamism, there is an interior dynamism which throughout Calderón is more importnat. In these first few lines of La Vida es Sueffo are seen many baroque characteristics: literary fatalism, pessimism, .the allegorical element, stoicism, and plastic -"".·¦¦>, emphasized by such vehicles as. exterior decoration, color, movement, mythological allusions, and symbolism. A chain of settings, situations and images develops -and grows within this dynamism. In Segismundo the. dynamism which first turns outward changes to an inward reflection by an explosion, a violence within himself, at which point he fights between instinct and reason. Among Calderón' s ideas...