HABSBURG SPAIN - Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 26

tion and model of all Europe. By the 18th century, however, the South
American mines might still, on occasion, yield treasure trove, but in a
larger sense the Golden Age of Iberia (Siglo de Oro) was over.
Even today Spaniards unhesitatingly proclaim Miguel de Cervantes,
creator of the immortal Don Quixote, their greatest literary figure. Cer-
vantes was but one of a galaxy of literary geniuses that included Mateo
Alemán, master of the picaresque genre; the Renaissance poets Juan
Boscán and Garcilaso de la Vega; the baroque poets Luis de Góngora
and Francisco de Quevedo; and the mystically oriented Juan de la Cruz
(St. John of the Cross), Teresa de Ávila (St. Teresa), and Luis de León.
Drama, too, flourished with special glory in the 17th century in the
work of Lope de Vega, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and Tirso de Molina
(who gave the world that eternal archetype, Don Juan). Among
Europe's greatest painters of the 1600s were El Greco, Velázquez, Bar-
tolomé Murillo, and Francisco de Zurbarán. Portugal enjoyed a flower-
ing of its distinctive culture in the 1500s, when painters such as Nuno
Gonçalves and the great poet-historian of exploration and adventure
Luis de Camões gave luster to their nation before the Spanish annexa-
tion and the protracted war of liberation diverted the national creative
energies. Many Iberian artists and writers in the generations to come
would tacitly accept the judgment of other Europeans that the great
days were over. They felt themselves to be pygmies standing on the
shoulders of giants. For others, however, the challenge to reclaim lost
laurels would inspire distinguished achievements.