Sense and Spectacle in the Age of Philip IV - Performing Empire in Word, Music, and Image

This book accounts for the outpouring of celebrations in the Habsburg Empire upon the 1657 birth of Felipe Próspero, heir to Philip IV of Spain. These celebrations allow us to interrogate the shifting uses of performance in the empire's center and periphery. Such spectacles could work to contain and manipulate public sentiment, but at other moments they questioned sanctioned power structures. A study of zarzuela texts, opera libretti, notated music, paintings, poems, and historical documents shows that an array of people took advantage of this festive moment to question the empire's policies in surprising ways. Sensorial experience played a crucial role during these celebrations. For its part, the Crown engaged a variety of senses, especially sight, sound, and smell, in order to augment the impact of royal spectacles. But simultaneously, those who questioned the Crown also did so through an engagement of the sensorial world.

List of contents

Dedication and Acknowledgements, List of Figures, Introduction Prince Felipe Próspero, Festival Culture, and the Performative Sense, Chapter 1: Calderón de la Barca, Rubens, and Apollo's Desire, Chapter 2: Antonio de Solís, Velázquez, and Minerva's Competition, Chapter 3: Naples, Opera, and Parthenope's Song, Chapter 4: Florence, Cavalli, and Ipermestra's Choice, Chapter 5: Parades, Poetry, and Plus Ultra in Lima and Manila, Epilogue Making Sense of Spectacle, Index, Works Cited.

About the author

Mary B. Quinn (University of New Mexico) is the author of The Moor and the Novel: Narrating Absence in Early Modern Spain and co-editor of Aural Culture and Poetics in the Early Modern Hispanic World: Sound, Rhythm, and Music.

Product details

• Authors: Quinn Mary
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 01.12.2025
• EAN: 9781041185925
• ISBN: 978-1-041-18592-5
• No. of pages: 212
• Series: Connected Histories in the Early Modern World
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Social & cultural history, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / Spanish & Portuguese, LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / Historical Events, Social and cultural history, Literary studies: general, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, HISTORY / Europe / Spain, festival;senses;habsburg empire;philip prosper;performance