The Registry of the Deceased for the parish of Santo Tome, Toledo, contains a brief entry dated April 7, 1614, recording the death of one Domenico (Pita Andrade 162). That same year, or perhaps the year after Luis de Gongora sought to put into the form of a sonnet a more fitting tribute than that of the official notice: Esta en elegante, oh peregrino, de porfido luciente dura llave al pincel niega al mundo mas suave, que dio espiritu a leno, vida a lino. su nombre, aun de mayor aliento digno que en los clarines de la Fama cabe, el campo ilustra de ese marmol grave. Yace el Griego. Heredo Naturaleza arte, y el Arte estudio; Iris, colores; Febo, luces--si no sombras, Morfeo.-- Tanta urna, a pesar de su dureza, lagrimas beba y cuantos suda olores corteza funeral de arbol sabeo. Gongora's Inscripcion para el sepulcro de Dominico Greco is one of his most often anthologized poems. From del Rio (623) through Terry (23), Jones (90), and others, the poem occupies a notable position among such other well-known pieces as Mientras por competir, A Cordoba, and Menos solicito veloz saeta. Its frequent inclusion in poetic collections is indicative of the universal critical acclaim it has enjoyed. As Damaso Alonso, dean of Gongora scholars, averred, it is a [m]agnifico soneto funeral y testimonio que al mayor pintor del barroquismo profeso su mayor poeta (172-73). The sonnet belongs to an extensive corpus of poetic encomia composed by Gongora over the course of his literary career. Some laud his friends, such as Juan Rufo and Paravicino. Others are dedicated to potential patrons. Still others, as in the case of the Inscripcion, treat the subject of tombs. Scholarly analysis of the sonnet has centered on the way in which it mirrors the literary conventions of the day, derived from Classical theories on the arts, and its pronounced gongorista style. Emilie Bergmann has demonstrated how the description of the tomb is an example of ekphrasis, while also incorporating reminiscences of the epitaph tradition. Gornall notes that references to naturaleza, arte, and estudio underscore elements which were considered a sine qua non for an accomplished artist: He must possess three qualities: natural talent, a knowledge of the rules and traditions of his art, and practice or experience. (115) As Gornall further observes, however, critics are not unanimous as regards how these references are to be interpreted. Damaso Alonso, following Salcedo Coronel, stresses the hyperbolic effect of Gongora's declaration: the colores, luces, and sombras, matched, respectively, with Iris, Febo, and Morfeo, imply that the natural world itself is enhanced by this inheritance (1) (173). For David and Virginia Foster, the El of the sonnet is characterized as Art personified, and with his death, Art, which was once inspired by Nature, has returned to to serve as her inspiration (92). R.O. Jones proposes a completely different interpretation, suggesting that Nature inherits the body of the painter; his fellow-artists inherit his art to study (151). Given the complexity of Gongora's verse, it should be of no surprise that some scholarly disagreement exists in regard to the poem's interpretation. (2) The Fosters have spoken of how the use of hyperbaton in the sonnet presents its own fair number of exegetical problems. (87) Perhaps it is the very challenge of the text which has generated the relatively numerous critical responses to it. What has gone overlooked in this process, however, is the enormous irony which pervades the entire poem; an irony which, I believe, Gongora sought to underscore: there is not--nor was there ever--a forma elegante ... de porfido luciente. Now, as then, any peregrino seeking El Greco's tomb, expecting a great monument carved out of marble, as described in the Gongora sonnet, would be greatly surprised to find a small, black coffin, located in a crypt below the coro of the Convent of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo. …
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Dec 20, 2019
Regina María Polo Martín 
