Unos comentarios sueltos sobre el barroco...

When we talk about the Baroque, the two terms culturanismo and conceptismo must be discussed. Culteranismo is a term that refers to the tendency in the Baroque to latinize vocabulary, to use academic, snotty, erudiet words to describe things (usually metaphorically). It also tends to be associated with lay or physical worldly topics (love, pretty women...). As such, the term often gets hung around Góngora´s neck. Of then the topic of a Góngora poem is inconsequential (an earring, for example) but HOW he talks about it is the kicker (the substance is in the metaphor and the vocabulary). Conceptismo is often used to talk about Baroque writing that deals with the twisties and turnies of morality, religious themes, metaphysical issues. To that end, Quevedo often gets tied to ceonceptismo. The metaphor is less concerned with word selection as it is in the portrayal of concept intricacies (often paradox).

When a person talks about the Baroque, it can mean talking both about a particular way of creating beauty (technique stuff) but it can also refer to a kind of outlook on life, a spirit, a culture...

In Spain and Latin America, we're talking about the 17th century, more or less. We are also talking about the Siglo de Oro, the Golden Age. Some people define the Golden Age as just the 17th century while others (me included) think of the Golden Age as the 16th and 17th centuries (the Renaissance moving through the M's -- Mysticism and Manierism -- to the Baroque and, finally, as a final curtain call for the period, the Rococó).

If the Renaissance is peaceful, harmonious measured, graceful, symmetrical, balanced, static...the Baroque is...nervious, exhuberant, cacophonous, dislocated, aysummetrical, off-balance, dynamic.

If the Renaissance is lay-it-out on the table, make it clear...the Baroque is the play of appearance vs. reality, inner against outer, uncertainty, paradox.

If the Renaissance is standardized, archetypical beauty and glitz, the Baroque also shows the real, the ugly, the deformed.

The Baroque and the Renaissance go hand in hand. While some postulate that certain movements are born out of a confrontation with a the preceeding aesthetic, the Baroque is much easier to understand as an extension, a twisting and exaggeration of the Renaissance. If the Renaissance is a piece of soft pink taffy (all cute and rectangle with a nice white stripe down the middle), the Baroque is that piece of taffy pulled and twisted, even a bit slobbery at times. It's still taffy but...