• Cross-Cultural Studies
• /
• v.22
• /
• pp.51-72
• /
• 2011

The economic decline coincided with the crooked political path of Spanish monarchy that has been on an almost permanent state of war. The Spanish empire was divided and consequently, general impoverishment spread throughout the whole country quickly. Nevertheless Spanish culture reached the climax, especially in the field of painting. Spanish paintings of 17th century are basically religious based on concept of Baroque, whose theme is usually the immaculate conception or mysterious figures of saints. Velaquez, Mrillo, and Ribera are the main painters who represented the trend of this time. Despite having fame as religious court painters, they painted subjects from low society such as beggars in rags, dwarves, jesters, or the poor child. They reflected an optimistic expression and an awe for human being in their paintings greatly. In this paper, we are dealing with three main representative painters of Baroque era whose theme was a picaresque character. This character was one of the axes that coexisted with royals and nobles in 17th century of Spain. The art works that are dealt in this paper serve as materials for historial values and through them we can observe the atmosphere of decline that dominated Spain of the time.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Costume Conference
• /
• 2003.10a
• /
• pp.77-77
• /
• 2003

If we look closely to the power shift of the powerful countries historically. during the 16th century Spain's power came from gold, colony trade, the mercenary force, close relation with the thrown, 17th century Netherlands owes their power to trade, capital market, the marines, 18th century France owes it to population, agriculture, public administration, and the army. Also, England had their industry, political unity, finance and trust, the marines, liberalistic principles, a geographical merit of being an island which can be defended well and the 20th century America has their cosmopolitan culture, supernational communication, the capacity of the economy, science technology, military strength, alliances, liberalism international formation. But in the 21st century culture and art will prevail over the information age where technology and knowledge was the key, and it is predicted that this will be the source of power for a strong country. Rolfe Yesson, the head of The Copenhagen Research Center for future studies said, "Information age has ended and in the future Dream Society will arrive which focuses on making distinctions by delivering dreams and emotions to consumers". As cyberspace gradually substitutes reality, cyberspace has become more than an information search engine and has become a place where people fulfill their desires and exchange culture. And as a medium for diffusing culture, the importance of the digital dress-up avatar is predicted to increase gradually.gradually.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
• /
• v.50
• /
• pp.371-394
• /
• 2018

La estrella de Sevilla, is a representative masterpiece of the Golden Age of Spain, and is a tragic work of Lope de Vega, who was a representative drama writer living in the 17th century. However, regardless of its great literary value, there are insufficient researches on this drama even in Spain, due to several controversies surrounding the truth about Lope's creation. Here, this research concretely investigated the tragic characteristic of this drama, by largely dividing it into the viewpoint of Aristotle and Shakespeare. Thanks to the noble social status of the characters and proper dialogue of the hero Sancho Ortiz in trouble, there seems to be no problem in performing the cathartic function that Aristotle mentioned regarding the work in his review. However, there are a few problems in the aspect of the 'hero's free will to resist the absolute fate,' which is fundamentally the essence of the associated Aristotelian tragedy. Because, there's no Hamartia in this drama, the core mechanism that forms the absolute fate, makes the statement that accordingly, no absolute fate or irresistible force of destiny is established. Rather, the tragic characteristic of this drama can be more properly investigated from the viewpoint of Shakespeare. As noted differently from Aristotle, Shakespeare considered that the tragic characteristic came from the hero's characteristic. According to him, tragedy starts from the hero's value view and personality, instead of the external factors such as an absolute fate. Actually, Busto's death and separation between Sancho Ortiz and Estrella, two tragic affairs of La estrella de Sevilla, were caused by the crooked selfishness of King Sancho IV, who abused his authority, and Sancho Ortiz' excessively blind loyalty to the King, rather than the irresistible event. In conclusion, in light of a lethargic and hopeless situation, with no eventual choice of options before the injustice of absolute power, is must have been a significant tragedy for the audience, witnessing the play's tragic ending.