SPANISH KINGS' IMAGE CHANGES WITH NEW RESOURCES
Charles V stands, has no hat or crown and his hands are free. In another work he rides a horse.
Carlos V by Bartolomé Vicente, toward 1675 / zoom |
Sixteenth-century Seville, crossroad of Eastern luxury and New World treasure, is more important than Venice.
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| View of Seville, attributed to Alonso Sánchez Coello , toward 1580 / zoom |
But they come from the outside, not local producers:
Origins of Spain's new revenues: Flanders and the Americas
Dominating wealthy Flanders and seizing the treasures of Latin America finance 150 years of hegemony and a Golden Age of churches, theater decors, thousands of plays and celebrated paintings. Some of them:
The Burial of Count Orgaz by El Greco, toward 1587 / zoom
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The Clubfoot by Jusepe de Ribéra, 1642 / zoom |
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They finance the Inquisition as well. Like other official neutralizations of wealth, it reinforces authority:
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| The Procession of the Inquisition of Goa, 1783 / zoom |
 Tribunals appear throughout Spain and in the territories it controls. Each remunerates two or three Inquisitors, who are thoroughly trained, well-paid members of the elite, as well as notaries, lawyers, scribes, doctors, prison guards and executioners.
Victims must repent before the king, or if outside Madrid before his representatives. Then they learn whether will be burned. |
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The Inquisition at Night by Francisco Goya, 1810 / zoom
Night makes the spectacle still more terrifying.
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The regime makes forcibly converted Jews or Muslims, who may still retain ancestral practices, the defenseless enemy. But it does nothing to the approximately 200 Protestants — they are too few to bother with.
The economy does not change. Neither does Spain.
Internet, photographer unknown
The facade of Saint James is rebuilt in the 18th century — with 16th-century decor.
When its outside revenues give out France sucks it into its orbit as inexorably as producers in Africa sweep away archaic kingdoms when the Atlantic slave trade ends.
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In 1700 the ambassador of Spain kneels before Louis XIV's son, the new king of Spain.
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