Francisco quevedo y luis de gongora biography

Spanish Baroque lyric poet (1561-1627)

"Góngora" redirects here. For other people bearing the surname, see Góngora (surname). For the plant genus, see Gongora.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is de Argote and the second or maternal family name is Góngora.

Luis de Góngora y Argote (born Luis de Argote y Góngora;Spanish:[lwisðeˈɣoŋɡoɾa]; 11 July 1561 – 24 May 1627) was a Spanish Baroque lyric poet and a Catholic prebendary for the Church of Córdoba. Góngora and his lifelong rival, Francisco de Quevedo, are widely considered the most prominent Spanish poets of all time. His style is characterized by what was called culteranismo, also known as Gongorismo. This style apparently existed in stark contrast to Quevedo's conceptismo, though Quevedo was highly influenced by his older rival from whom he may have isolated "conceptismo" elements.

Biography

Góngora was born to a noble family in Córdoba, where his father, Francisco de Argote, was corregidor, or judge. In a Spanish era when purity of Christian lineage (limpieza de sangre) was needed to gain access to education or official appointments, he adopted the surname of his mother, Leonor de Góngora. His uncle, Don Francisco, a prebendary of Córdoba Cathedral, renounced his post in favour of his nephew, who took deacon's orders in 1586.

As a canon associated with this cathedral, Luis de Góngora traveled on diverse commissions to Navarre, Andalusia and Castile. The cities that he visited included Madrid, Salamanca, Granada, Jaén, and Toledo. Around 1605, he was ordained priest, and afterwards lived at Valladolid and Madrid. While in Madrid, he attended the Medrano Academy (Poetic Academy of Madrid) founded by its president Sebastian Francisco de Medrano between 1616–1622.

While his circle of admirers grew, patrons were grudging in their admiration. Ultimately, in 1617 through the influence of the Duke

Spanish nobleman, writer and politician (1580–1645)

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Gómez de Quevedo and the second or maternal family name is Santibáñez Villegas.

Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas, Knight of the Order of Santiago (Spanish pronunciation:[fɾanˈθiskoðekeˈβeðo]; 14 September 1580 – 8 September 1645) was a Spanish nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era. Along with his lifelong rival, Luis de Góngora, Quevedo was one of the most prominent Spanish poets of the age. His style is characterized by what was called conceptismo. This style existed in stark contrast to Góngora's culteranismo.

Biography

Quevedo was born on 14 September 1580 in Madrid into a family of hidalgos from the village of Vejorís, located in the northern mountainous region of Cantabria. His family was descended from the Castilian nobility.

Quevedo's father, Francisco Gómez de Quevedo, was secretary to Maria of Spain, daughter of emperor Charles V and wife of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, and his mother, Madrid-born María de Santibáñez, was lady-in-waiting to the queen. Quevedo matured surrounded by dignitaries and nobility at the royal court. Intellectually gifted, Quevedo was physically handicapped with a club foot, and myopia. Since he always wore pince-nez, his name in the plural, quevedos, came to mean "pince-nez" in the Spanish language.

Orphaned by the age of six, he was able to attend the Imperial School run by the Jesuits in Madrid. He then attended university at Alcalá de Henares from 1596 to 1600. By his own account, he made independent studies in philosophy, classical languages, Arabic, Hebrew, French and Italian.

In 1601, Quevedo, as a member of the Court, moved to Valladolid, where the Court had been transferred by the King's minister, the Duke of Lerma. There he studied theology, a subject that would become a

Luis de Góngora y Argote, the Golden Age Spanish poet best known for developing the Baroque literary style Gongorismo, was born on July 11, 1561, in Córdoba, Spain, where he was also raised. Góngora, who was descended from nobility, had at least one sibling—a sister. His father, a judge, had a personal library which the young Góngora frequently used. Through his relatives’ connections, Góngora received a fine education. In 1576, he enrolled at the University of Salamanca. He attended the university for four years, though he never earned a degree. Instead, Góngora took religious orders, though he did not become an ordained priest until he was in his fifties. Instead, he worked as a prebendary—an administrator within the clergy. He had little success in this position, however, due to his lax personal habits. The bishop censured Góngora for absenteeism, talking during prayer service, socializing with actors, and writing poetry. Additionally, Góngora was a card player and a bullfighting aficionado. 

Góngora’s role as a prebendary, however, did offer him opportunities to travel around Spain. In 1602, he went to Valladolid, which was then, briefly, the Spanish capital. Seven years later, he traveled to Madrid, which had resumed its status as the permanent Spanish capital. During these trips, he associated with powerful political figures who became instrumental in his future. 

Góngora initiated his poetry career as a writer of light verse. He published numerous romances, or romancillos, and endechas, or Spanish ballads. Additionally, he penned letrillas (lyric poems) and sonnets. He often wrote  about jealousy or featured female protagonists longing for husbands who have gone to fight in wars. Góngora’s shorter poems helped him achieve popularity. They were simple and sought to produce an emotional response within the reader. His longer poems, particularly the “Fable of Polyphemus” and “Solitudes,” both of which wer

Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas (September 17, 1580 - September 8, 1645) was a Spanish writer during the Siglo de Oro, the Golden Era of Spanish Literature. Considered a master of the elaborate style of baroque Spanish poetry, Quevedo is one of the most gifted poets to have lived in what remains the high watermark of Spanish literary production. Quevedo's style, which relied on the use of witty conceits and elaborate metaphors, is reflective of his own somewhat cynical attitudes towards literature as a whole; Quevedo was fiercely distrustful of excessively complicated literature, and he attempted to introduce a style of poetry that was, for his time, remarkably clean and concise.

A gifted novelist as well, Quevedo was notorious as a master satirist, and he used his considerable talent for mockery to defame his artistic competition. As with many capable of satire and simultaneously blessed with God-given talent, Quevedo seemed also prone to point criticisms outward, including allowing this to develop into less than respectful relationships with contemporaries.

Life and Work

Quevedo was born in 1580 to a family of wealth and political distinction. Raised in an upper-class atmosphere, Quevedo's early life was largely free of the troubles and conflicts that were to plague him as an adult. At the age of 16 he entered the University of Alcalá. He continued his studies for ten years, transferring halfway through his educational career to the University of Valladolid. By the time of his graduation Quevedo was a master of French, Italian, English, and Latin, as well as his native Spanish, and he had also acquired a reputation among his classmates for his scathing wit and gifts for versification.

By the time he had graduated from college, Quevedo's earliest poems, published when he was still a student, had attracted the attention of Miguel de Cervantes and Lope de Vega, elder luminaries of Spanish literature