Capricho's Clock: Time in Calderón's Comedies

Several of Calderón's plays situated in Madrid focus on time. For the purposes of this study, I have considered time in two aspects: first, a chronological time that governs schedules, meetings, personal interests, short-term desires, in a word, the exigencies of everyday life, and, second, cyclical time that concerns the larger issues and rhythms of life. I explore the contrast between these two notions in several of Calderón's plays and two paintings of Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, one by Pieter Aertsen and the other by Velázquez.