On painting and poetry: reflexions on art and literature in sixteenth-century Portugal

In the 16th and 17th-centuries both major Iberian nations of Portugal and Spain enjoyed what is commonly known as their Golden Age. Considering here their artistic outputs, both in Literature and in Fine Art, the author seeks to draw some parallels between Golden Age painting directives and how these are also mirrored in literature of the period. These directives are dominated by the outcome of the Council of Trent and the Counter-Reformist movement, which Portugal adopted into Royal decree before any other nation. With a focus on sonnets and poetry by António Ferreira and Vasco Mousinho de Quevedo, the author shows how the guidelines so strictly followed by artists were also present in the minds of poets, reflected in their visual language