Hagiographical Theatre and Counter-Reformation. Between Baroque Aesthetics and Arte Nuevo

Abstract

The study by Natalia Fernández analyses the combination of components in the comedia nueva with elements that are in line with the counter-reformist ideology. She uses a comparative method whereby in order to assess the presence of post-Tridentine religious ideas in Castilian hagiographic theater, she compares three works dedicated to Saint Jerome, Saint Augustine and Saint Anthony of Padua from the last third of the sixteenth century with six more works from the following century which were also dedicated to these saints, and which by then formed part of the comedia nueva sub-genre, the comedia de santos. One of the aspects common to the works from both centuries is the iconic representation of the saints. The cult of the saints, reaffirmed at Trent, had acquired during the Middle Ages a sensory dimension, in particular through images, whose veneration is also reaffirmed at the council. The other issue that Fernández studies comparatively is the addition of profane elements that do not come from hagiographic sources, but which are added to satisfy the tastes of the spectators, namely plots involving gallantry and love, humour, conflicts of jealousy and honour, etc., which created the mixture of the sacred and the profane that is so characteristic of hagiographic theater.