A History of Spain / founded on the Historia de España y de la civilización española of Rafael Altamira

by Charles E. Chapman; Rafael Altamira

Many factors contributed to make this a brilliant period in Spanish historical literature. Indeed, in this field of studies more than in any other Spaniards attained to renown, even though they fell short of the glorious achievements of the historians of the preceding era. The disputes arising from the various aspects of eighteenth century thought led men to look up precedents and to cite their authorities, while the frequency with which certain writers set forth false documents necessarily sharpened the instinct for criticism. A school of critics sprang up which attacked errors and false statements wherever they found them, although the intensity of religious life and the power of the church caused most of the historians to abstain from overthrowing such legends of a sacred character as had become firmly rooted in the popular mind. Gregorio Mayáns and the Jesuit Masdeu were among the leading exponents of this school. Books or articles on historical method were frequent, and most authors of histories were wont to express their views in the preface to their volumes. These writers, in addition to their exposition of the rules for criticism and style, displayed a broad concept as to the content of history, holding that it should be expressive of the civilizations of peoples. Thus, Masdeu entitled his history Historia crítica de España y de la cultura española (Critical history of Spain and of Spanish culture). While these ideas had been set forth by the great writers of the sixteenth century they were now predominantly held, both in Spain and in Europe generally. This was a great age for the collection and publication of documents. The already mentioned España sagrada was a noteworthy example. The new Academy of History began to perform noteworthy service in this regard. Numerous copies were made and abundant notes taken by writers like Burriel (real author of the Noticia de la California, or Account about California, ascribed to Venegas, though a prolific writer also on subjects having nothing to do with the Americas) and Muñoz (first archivist of the Archivo General de las Indias and author of an Historia del nuevo mundo, or History of the new world) whose materials still remain in great part unpublished. Reprints of old editions were brought out and foreign works translated, while vast gatherings of bibliographical data (in the shape of catalogues, dictionaries of various types of subject-matter, and regional or subject bibliographies) were made. Many works of original investigation were written, like those of Masdeu and Muñoz already cited, or the Vida de Carlos III (Life of Charles III) of Fernán-Núñez. A special group of legal and economic historians whose writings were very important in their bearings on the times might be made up. Martínez Marina was the principal historian of this class, although Burriel, Asso, Capmany, Jovellanos, Llorente, Cornejo, and Campomanes are worthy of mention. Literary history attracted the erudite. Among the works of this group were studies concerning the origin and history of the Castilian tongue, including the first dictionary of the language, published by the Academy (1726-1739), with a statement of the authorities for the sources of each word. Many of the writings of the historians already named, besides those of numerous others, had some reference to the Americas, but the colonies themselves were the source of a prolific historical literature. Kino, Arlegui, Mota Padilla, Espinosa, Villa-Señor, Ortega, Burriel, Alegre, Baegert, Beaumont, Palou, Clavigero, Arricivita, Revilla Gigedo, and Cavo (all dealing with New Spain, or provinces of that viceroyalty) are only a few of the writers (most of them colonials) who left volumes which serve today as a rich source of materials and as an enduring monument to the names of their authors.

Neo-classic influences upon polite literature.

The regeneration of Spain made itself felt to a certain extent in the realm of polite literature, as well as in other forms of Spanish intellectual life. Cultivated men of letters were desirous of rescuing Spanish literature from the vices which had fastened upon it at the close of the seventeenth century, and they turned to the so-called neo-classic influences then dominant in western Europe, but represented more particularly by France. Ronsard, Montaigne, Corneille, and others had already begun to affect Spanish writers of the seventeenth century, and in the period of the Spanish Bourbons the works of Corneille, Racine, Marmontel, and Voltaire were offered to Spaniards in translation. The writings of other foreigners were in like manner made accessible, such as those of Alfieri, Young, and Milton. So devoted were the Spanish neo-classicists to their trans-Pyrenean models that they were unable to see any value in the great Spanish works of the siglo de oro, especially those of the dramatists. They went so far as to propose the expulsion of the national drama from the Spanish stage (except such works as could be arranged according to neo-classic tastes) and the substitution of plays from the French and Italian. Among their tenets were that of the three unities (of time, place, and action) and one which required that the action should be reduced to the amount of time it took to represent it. The greatest of the neo-classicists was Ignacio de Luzán, whose Poética, or Poetics (1737), was the highest and most creditable example of the doctrine of his school. Naturally, if only from motives of patriotism, a group of nationalistic authors sprang up in opposition to the neo-classicists and in defence of the Spanish literature of the preceding era, but the French influence was so strong that even this group was much affected by the precepts of the new school. The public remained faithful to the national writers of the siglo de oro, whose plays formed the principal element in theatrical representations. Abroad, Spanish writers of the golden age still enjoyed a repute which their countrymen were seeking to deny them. English and German writers continued to translate or avail themselves of the works of Cervantes and the picaresque novels, while the Gil Blas of the Frenchman Lesage was a clear-cut, if brilliant, imitation of Spanish models. The expulsion of the Jesuits, who took up their residence in Italy, helped to convert Italy from the Hispanophobe attitude which in company with France she had maintained with regard to Spanish literature, for the more learned Jesuits were able to demonstrate the false basis of this feeling, both by their own works, and by their exposition of the merits of the Spanish writers of the past. The German Humboldt and the Frenchman Beaumarchais, both of them men of wide reputation, also took up cudgels in defence of Spain.

Achievements of the era in polite literature.

Despite the vigorous conflict of the two schools of literature, Spain was unable to produce writers who could rank with those of the siglo de oro. Epic poetry practically did not exist; oratorical literature, whether secular or religious, was of slight account; and only one notable novel appeared in the century, the Fray Gerundio (Brother Gerund) of the Jesuit Isla. This work, which aimed to ridicule the sacred oratory of the times, was nevertheless defective in that it introduced much material foreign to the narrative, but it was in excellent Spanish and teeming with witty passages. Both in this work, and in his translation of Lesage’s Gil Blas, Isla won a place along with Feyjóo as one of the best writers of the day in the handling of Spanish prose. There were several notable lyric poets, such as Meléndez Valdés, Nicolás Fernández de Moratín (usually termed Moratín rather than Fernández), the latter’s son Leandro, and Quintana. Except for the younger Moratín all belonged to the patriotic Spanish school. Quintana, with his philanthropic and liberal note, his solemn, brilliant, and pompous style, and the rigidity and coldness of his classical rhetoric, was perhaps the most typical representative of the age. The most marked achievements in the field of belles lettres were in the drama. At the beginning of the century Spanish theatres had been closed as the result of a moral wave which left only the great cities, like Madrid, Barcelona, Cádiz, and Valencia, with an opportunity to attend dramatical representations. The entry of French influences and the polemics to which they gave rise led to a revival of the drama, until it became the favorite form of literature with both the public and the writers. Only four dramatists may be said to have displayed unquestioned merits: García de la Huerta, who employed a mixture of the old Spanish methods with the newer French; the younger Moratín, the most distinguished representative of the French school; Ramón de la Cruz, who depicted the life of the Spanish people, and for the first time placed the customs of the Madrid proletariat on the Spanish stage; and González del Castillo, a worthy rival of the last-named in the same field. This was an era of great actors, both men and women.

Conflict between the baroque and neo-classic styles in architecture and sculpture.

The fine arts experienced the same influences and were the subject of the same conflicts as occurred in the field of polite literature. At the outset the baroque style in an even more exaggerated form than in the preceding era was the principal basis of architecture. This was vanquished by the classical reaction, born in Italy, and coming to Spain by way of France. The new art, called neo-classic, or pseudo-classic, endeavored to return to Roman and what were considered Greek elements, interpreting them with an artificial and academic correctness which was entirely lacking in sentiment and warmth. The Academy of Fine Arts (Bellas Artes de San Fernando), established in the reign of Ferdinand VI, became the stronghold of the neo-classic school, and was able to make its views prevail, since it was the arbiter as to the style of public buildings and the dispenser of licenses to engage in the profession of architecture. The museum of the Prado, Madrid, the work of Juan Villanueva, may be taken as an example of the neo-classic edifices. In sculpture the traditional use of painted wood remained a dominant factor throughout most of the century, although there were evidences presaging its abandonment. While some small figures representing popular types were made, the majority of the works of statuary were for the church, which was by far the most important customer of the sculptors. Some of the most notable results were those obtained in the groups for use in the pasos, or floats, carried in the processions of Holy Week. Especially meritorious were those of Salcillo, greatest of the baroque sculptors. The profuse ornamentation of baroque art helped to cause a continuance of the use of stone in sculpture, since it was difficult, with wood, to procure the effects of foliage. The baroque was soon swept away, however, in favor of the neo-classic style, of which Álvarez was the most distinguished exponent. The same influences, in both architecture and sculpture, operated in the Americas as in Spain. Both arts prospered more than they had in the past.

Mediocrity of Spanish painting in this era.

Greatness of Goya.

At the close of the seventeenth century Spanish painting had fallen away, until nothing of consequence was being done. A revival commenced with the accession of Philip V, but the results were not great. The entire era was filled with the dispute between French and Italian influences. In the reign of Charles III the German painter Mengs, who represented a kind of eclecticism which endeavored to combine the virtues of the masters in the various Italian schools of the great era, became the idol of Spanish artists and the arbiter of the Academy. No Spaniard, unless possibly Bayeu and Menéndez, is even worthy of mention,—with one glorious exception. Into an age of painting which had sunk to mediocrity, when artists were endeavoring to treat their themes only according to prescribed rules and manners, came Francisco José Goya (1746-1828), the greatest painter of his time and one of the greatest of all history, deserving of a place with Velázquez, El Greco, and Murillo, perhaps ranking ahead of the two last-named in the list of superb exponents of the pictorial art whom Spain has given to the world. The keynote of his work was the free expression of his own personality, unhampered by convention. A thorough-going realism, both in subject-matter and in manner of treatment, was a distinctive feature of his painting, which sought to represent character, movement, and life. Even his religious pictures set forth matters as his own eyes saw them, resulting in the anachronism of scenes from sacred history in which the figures and the atmosphere were Spanish of Goya’s day. He was a most prolific painter, leaving a vast number of portraits, ranging from those of members or groups of the royal family from Charles III to Ferdinand VII (notably the family of Charles IV) to persons of lesser note, some religious paintings (which are not so convincing as his other works), an exceptionally large number of scenes depicting popular customs (an invaluable collection, in which respect Goya was at his best), the stirringly patriotic pictures of the Dos de Mayo in 1808 and the executions of the following day, and the two remarkable majas (the one dressed and the other nude, each being the same person in the same attitude). Hundreds of his cartoons are still in existence, many of them exhibiting such freedom from convention and such unrestraint as to have shocked his contemporaries and many others ever since. Withal he was a most brilliant, clear, and harmonious colorist, able to get audacious effects which were extraordinary in his day, a forerunner of the modern schools. It is worthy of note that the Americas stepped forth in this period to supply several notable artists comparable with those of the age in Spain, Goya excepted.