Overcoming Nature through Painting: An Interpretation of “Mirad a quién alabáis” by Lope de Vega

Abstract

The architecture of Mirad a quién alabáis, a palatine comedy of Lope de Vega’s later life (princeps: 1621), rests on the verbal portraits that various characters realize of the extraordinary beauty of Juana Esforcia, Duchess of Milan. The constant use of pictorial references impels to see such portraits, of remote Petrarchan origin, as a manifestation of ekphrasis, the lady portrayed as a vivid work of art and, above all, the playwright as an unsurpassed “painter”. Thus, the ability of descriptions to arouse passions on the scene becomes a further testimony, when not a glimpse, of Lope’s formal mastery during what were convulsive years for his literary and dramatic realm, as well as a mise en abyme of his theatrical art.