The seemingly inexhaustible subject of the sister arts of painting and literature is fertile ground for early modern scholarship, as Jesús Botello López-Canti's erudite monograph on Cervantes and Lope de Vega proves. The extensive introduction traces the ut pictura poesis topos from antiquity to the Baroque while providing a valuable exploration of the subject within the specifically Spanish context. Ekphrasis, the rhetorical device usually defined as the literary description of visual works of art, and which the author employs somewhat loosely throughout the book, is discussed at length, as is the post-Tridentine emphasis on sacred images. Botello presents an overview of the public and private spaces where contemporary viewers could access images and concludes with a survey of scholarship on the topic (here, the absence of Emilie Bergmann's work is puzzling). The study then devotes four chapters each to Cervantes and Lope, ending with a brief conclusion.
Botello's approach to his subject varies according to the texts analyzed. The first chapter on Cervantes discusses the Knight of the Green Coat, the enigmatic character from the 1615 Quixote, by studying color symbolism. After chronicling the application and significance of green up to Cervantes's time, Botello examines its presence in El Greco's paintings, which, he speculates, Cervantes might have seen.
The second chapter on the Quixote examines certain aspects of the work (the interpolated novels, the protagonist's intermittent disappearances, the emphasis on multiperspectivism) and their correspondence with Renaissance and Baroque pictorial techniques. Also discussed are mimesis and its concomitant ability to trick the senses. The chapter ends with a reading of Dorotea from the 1605 Quijote that associates her with images of the biblical Susanna and Counter-Reformation ideology.
Cervantes's play The Baths of Algiers is the subject of the next two chapters. First, Botello examines the scene of the martyrdom of the child Francisquito in light of visual representations of Christ's flagellation, finding in it an undeniably orthodox post-Tridentine message. Next, he studies what he deems an example of allusive ekphrasis in a narrative passage possibly representing the Battle of Lepanto, interpreting the fragment within the context of the historical, symbolic, and psychological impact of the 1571 Christian victory over the Ottoman Empire.
The commentary on Lope de Vega begins with La Circe. Botello identifies combined ekphrasis in the narrative poem as Lope seems to reference several of Titian's erotic mythological paintings housed in the royal collection. The use of ekphrasis is read within the contexts of Lope's attempts at fashioning himself as a virtuous subject before the Count of Olivares—to whom the piece is dedicated—as well as his ongoing, competitive dialogue with Góngora.
In Lope's powerful sonnet “On Judith's Triumph,” Botello sees double ekphrasis in the representation of two salient moments in the biblical story: Holofernes's decapitation and Judith's triumph. The affinities between Lope and Tintoretto, a probable visual influence, are underscored, as is the poet's desire to imbue his writing with the prestige afforded by references to works of art.
Next, another sonnet with an Old Testament theme, “On Abel and Joseph,” is examined with reference to possible allusions to pictorial depictions of Abel's slaying by Cain and the unsuccessful seduction of Joseph by Potiphar's wife. Here, without making any definitive judgments on direct influences, Botello illustrates how Lope employs allusive ekphrasis in presenting both motifs while exploring envy, one of his most cherished themes.
Finally, the study centers on two scenes from Lope's Shepherds of Bethlehem: the Annunciation and the Adoration of the Magi. The author suggests some likely pictorial influences, including the possibility that, in this case, the painter Juan Bautista Maíno was influenced by Lope's Adoration, and not the other way around.
While I would perhaps wish to see a bit more nuance to some of his conclusions (particularly with respect to the elusive Cervantes), together with clearer distinctions made between the practice of ekphrasis and other manifestations of ut pictura poesis, Botello makes his points convincingly and supports them with substantial arguments and research. This is solid and useful scholarship that provides rich contextualization of the texts discussed, both literary and pictorial, and pays careful attention to the various aesthetic, ideological, and historical factors informing the works.
