Theatricality and the Auto de fé

In Grefer's article, she discussed the ceremony of the auto de fé and its relationship with theater. Her particular focus was on a play by Pedro Calderón de la Barco (1600-1681), whose work is considered the culmination of Spanish Baroque theater. Although this may not be completely translatable to our project, the article is an interesting read and offers two potential sources: Henry Kamen's The Spanish Inquisition (New York: New American Library, 1965) and  Leslie Levin's Metaphors of Conversion in Seventeenth-Century Spanish Drama (London: Tamesis, 1999.)

There's a possibility that we could also look at the ties of theater and religion in Italy. For instance, Barbara Mujica's "Golden Age/Early Modern Theater: Comedia Studies at the End of the Century," Hisapnia, Vol. 82 No. 3 (September, 1999), pp. 397-407 discussed theater's reflection of societal values. There should be a connection between the dramas of Spanish Baroque and the dramas of antiquity, which can be tied broadly about the theatricality of gladiatorial games.

Grefer, Victoria. "Metatheater in El mágico prodigioso: Defending the Auto de fe?." Bulletin of the Comediantes, Vol. 64 No. 1 (January, 2012), pp. 75-87.



Rawlings compared one of the well-known paintings of the auto de fé, Francisco Rizi's 1683 rendition of the Madrid Plaza Mayor auto de fé on June 30, 1680, with a narrative piece by José del Olmo, who was responsible for writing the official chronicle of the event for the Church. This article gives great detail of the procession and theatricality of the auto de fé, also giving detail images of Rizi's painting. Rawlings concluded that the role of the auto de fé in society, by the end of the 17th century, served an exaggeration of the elite's political ambitions. Also by the end of the century, the auto de fé became redunant and replaced by autos particulares or autillos.

Rawlings, Helen. "Representational Strategies of Inclusion and Exclusion in José del Olmo's Narrative and Francisco Rizi's Visual record of the Madrid Auto de Fe of 1680." Romance Studies, Vol. 29 No. 4 (November, 2011), pp. 223-41