Miguel de Cervantes and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux: Difference between pages

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[[Image:Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's marble sculpture 'Ugolino and his Sons', Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's marble sculpture 'Ugolino and his Sons', Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
{{redirect|Cervantes Saavedra}}
[[Image:Jean-Baptiste_Carpeaux_La_Danse.jpg|thumb|right|400px|La Danse (The Dance), Opera Garnier in Paris]]
{{Infobox Writer
{{Commonscat}}
| name = Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
| image = Cervates jauregui.jpg
| caption = portrait of Cervantes{{Ref_label|A|a|none}} by [[Juan Martínez de Jáuregui y Aguilar]] (c. 1600), reportedly apocryphal
| birth_date = [[September 29]], [[1547]]
| birth_place = [[Alcalá de Henares]], [[Spain]]
| death_date = [[April 23]], [[1616]], age 68
| death_place = [[Madrid]], [[Spain]]
| occupation = [[novelist]], [[poet]] and [[playwright]]
}}
Don '''Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra'''{{Ref_label|B|b|none}} ({{IPA2|miˈɣel ðe θerˈβantes saaˈβeðra}} in modern Spanish; [[September 29]], [[1547]] &ndash; [[April 23]], [[1616]]) was a [[Spain|Spanish]] [[novelist]], [[poet]], and [[playwright]]. Cervantes was one of the most important and influential persons in [[literature]] and the leading figure associated with the cultural flourishing of sixteenth century Spain (the [[Siglo de Oro]]). His novel, ''[[Don Quixote]]'', is considered as a Spanish founding classic of [[Western literature]] and regularly figures among the best novels ever written; it has been translated into more than sixty-five languages, while editions continue regularly to be printed, and critical discussion of the work has persisted unabated since the [[18th century]].<ref name="Br">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Cervantes, Miguel de|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|date=2002}}</ref>. He has been dubbed ''el Príncipe de los Ingenios'' (the Prince of Wits).


'''Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux''' ([[May 11]], [[1827]], [[Valenciennes]] –[[October 12]], [[1875]], [[Courbevoie]]) was a French sculptor and painter. His early studies were under [[François Rude]]. Carpeaux won the [[Prix de Rome]] in [[1854]], and moving to [[Rome]] to find inspiration, he there studied the works of [[Michelangelo Buonarroti|Michelangelo]], [[Donatello]] and [[Andrea del Verrocchio|Verrocchio]]. Staying in Rome from [[1854]] to [[1861]], he obtained a taste for movement and spontaneity, which he joined with the great principles of [[baroque art]]. In [[1861]] he made a bust of [[Mathilde Bonaparte|Princess Mathilde]], and this later brought him several commissions from [[Napoleon III]]. He worked at the pavilion of [[Flora (goddess)|Flora]], and the [[Opéra Garnier]]. His group La Danse (the Dance, [[1869]]), situated on the right side of the façade, was criticised as an offence to common decency.
[[Image:Miguel de Cervantes at the National Library.jpg|200ppx|thumb|right|"The pen is the language of the soul; as the concepts that in it are generated, such will be its writings." - Miguel de Cervantes at the National Library, Spain - ]]


He never managed to finish his last work, the famous Fountain of the Four Parts of the Earth, on the Place Camille Jullian. He did finish the terrestrial globe, supported by the four figures of [[Asia]], [[Europe]], [[North America|America]] and [[Africa]], and it was [[Emmanuel Frémiet]] who completed the work by adding the eight leaping horses, the tortoises and the dolphins of the basin.
Cervantes, born in [[Alcalá de Henares]], was the fourth of seven children in a family whose origins may have been of the minor [[gentry]]. The family moved from town to town, and little is known of Cervantes's early years. Cervantes made his literary début in 1568. By 1570 he had enlisted as a soldier in a Spanish infantry regiment and continued his military life until 1575, when he was captured by [[barbary pirate]]s on his return home. He was ransomed by his parents and the [[Trinitarians]] and returned to his family in [[Madrid]].


== Sculptures by Carpeaux ==
In 1585, Cervantes published a pastoral novel, ''[[La Galatea]]''. Because of financial problems, Cervantes worked as a purveyor for the [[Spanish Armada]], and later as a [[tax collector]]. In 1597 discrepancies in his accounts of three years previous landed him in the Crown Jail of Seville. In 1605 he was in [[Valladolid]], just when the immediate success of the first part of his Don Quixote, published in Madrid, signaled his return to the literary world. In 1607, he settled in Madrid, where he lived and worked until his death. During the last nine years of his life, Cervantes solidified his reputation as a writer; he published the ''Exemplary Novels'' (''Novelas ejemplares'') in 1613, the ''Journey to Parnassus'' (''Viaje del Parnaso'') in 1614, and in 1615, the ''Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses'' and the second part of ''Don Quixote''. [[Carlos Fuentes]] noted that, "Cervantes leaves open the pages of a book where the reader knows himself to be written. "<ref>Fuentes, Carlos. ''Myself with Others: Selected Essays.'' (1988).</ref>


* Ugolin et ses fils - [[Ugolino della Gherardesca|Ugolino]] and his Sons (1861, in the permanent collection of the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]])[[http://www.insecula.com/oeuvre/photo_ME0000009025.html]] with versions in other museums including the [[Musée d'Orsay]]
==Biography==
* The Dance (commissioned for the [[Palais Garnier|Opera Garnier]])
===Family and Early Life===
* Jeune pêcheur à la coquille - [[Naples|Neapolitan]] Fisherboy - in the [[Louvre]], [[Paris]] [[http://www.insecula.com/oeuvre/photo_ME0000034255.html]]
* Girl with Shell
* [[Antoine Watteau]] monument, [[Valenciennes]]


==Neapolitan Fisherboy==
Cervantes was born at [[Alcalá de Henares]], a castilian city about 20 miles from Madrid, probably on September 29 (the feast day of [[St. Michael]]) 1547. He was baptized on [[October 9]].<ref name="Br" /> Miguel's paternal great-grandfather was Ruy Díaz de Cervantes, a prosperous draper who was born most probably in the 1430s. He married a Catalina de Cabrera about whom nothing at all is known. Their son, Miguel's grandfather Juan studied law at [[University of Salamanca]], for most of his life he served as a minor magistrate, ended his career as a specialist in fiscal law for the [[Spanish Inquisition]] and was a well-to-do man. He married Leonor Fernández de Torreblanca; she was probably Juan's cousin. She was a daughter of Cordoban physician. Miguel's father, Ruy (Rodrigo), was a [[barber-surgeon]] who set bones, performed bloodlettings, and attended "lesser medical needs". He presented himself as a nobleman and liked to act as a gentleman, which was not easy because of his low income.<ref>William Byron, "Cervantes. A Biography," Doubleday& Company: Garden City, NY, 1978, pp. 23-32.</ref> Cervantes's mother seems to have been a descendant of Jewish converts to Christianity.<ref name="Can">J. Canavaggio, [http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/cervantes/biography/new_english_cerv_bio.html Miguel de Cervantes]</ref> Little is known of Cervantes' early years and education, but it seems that he spent much of his childhood moving from town to town with his family. While some of his biographers argue that he studied at the [[University of Salamanca]], there is no solid evidence for supposing that he did so.{{Ref_label|C|c|none}} There has been speculation also that Cervantes studied with the [[Jesuit]]s in [[Córdoba]] or [[Sevilla]].<ref name="Am">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Cervantes, Miguel de|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia Americana|date=1994}}</ref>
[[Image:Estudios villa lou.jpg|thumb|Inscription on the former location of López de Hoyos's school in Madrid.]]
All that we know positively about his education is that humanist [[Juan López de Hoyos]] called him his "dear and beloved pupil." This was in a little collection of verses by different hands on the death of [[Isabel de Valois]], second queen of [[Philip II of Spain]], published by López de Hoyos in 1569, to which Cervantes contributed four pieces, including an elegy, and an epitaph in the form of a sonnet.<ref name="Or">J. Ormsby, [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/cervantes/c41d/preface1.html About Cervantes and Don Quixote]</ref> That same year he left Spain for Italy;<ref name="Q">C. Qualia, ''Cervantes, Soldier and Humanist'', 1</ref> it seems that for a time he served as chamberlain in the household of Cardinal [[Giulio Acquaviva]] in [[Rome]].


Carpeaux submitted a plaster version of ''Pêcheur napolitain à la coquille'', the Neapolitan Fisherboy, to the [[French Academy]] while a student in [[Rome]]. He carved the marble version several years later, showing it in the Salon exhibition of 1863. It was purchased for [[Napoleon III]]'s empress, [[Eugénie de Montijo|Eugènie]]. The statue of the young smiling boy was very popular, and Carpeaux created a number of reproductions and variations in marble and bronze. There is a copy, for instance, in the Samuel H. Kress Collection in the [[National Gallery of Art]] in [[Washington D.C.]]
===Soldier and captive===
[[Image:The Battle of Lepanto by Paolo Veronese.jpeg|thumb|right|The ''Battle of Lepanto'' by [[Paolo Veronese]] (c. 1572, oil on canvas, 169 x 137 cm, [[Gallerie dell'Accademia]], [[Venice]])]]
The reasons that forced Cervantes to leave Castilia remain unclear. Whether he was the "student" of the same name, a "sword-wielding fugitive from justice", fleeing from the royal warrant of arrest for having wounded a certain Antonio de Sigura in a duel is another mystery. This fugitive was condemned "by default to having his right hand publicly cut off and to banishment from the realm for ten years".<ref name="Lokos118">E. Lokos, ''The Enigma of Cervantine Genealogy'', 118</ref> In any event, in going to Italy Cervantes was doing what many young Spaniards of the time did to further their careers in one way or another. Rome would reveal to the young artist its ecclesiastic pomp, [[ritual]] and majesty. In a city teeming with ruins, Cervantes could focus his attention on [[Renaissance]] art, architecture and poetry (knowledge of [[Italian literature]] is so readily discernible in his own productions), and on rediscovering antiquity; he could find in the ancients "a powerful impetus to revive the contemporary world in light of its accomplishments".<ref name="Ar32">F.A. de Armas, ''Cervantes and the Italian Renaissance'', 32<br>* F.A. de Armas, ''Quixotic Frescoes'', 5</ref> Thus, Cervantes' continuing desire for Italy, as revealed in his later works, was in part a desire for a return to Renaissance.<ref name="Ar33">F.A. de Armas, ''Cervantes and the Italian Renaissance'', 33</ref>


Some years later, he carved the Girl with a Shell, a very similar study.
By 1570 Cervantes had enlisted as a soldier in a Castilia infantry regiment stationed in [[Naples]], then a possession of the Castilian crown. He was there for about a year before he saw active service. In September 1571, Cervantes sailed on board the ''Marquesa'', part of the [[galley]] fleet of the [[Holy League (Mediterranean)|Holy League]] (a coalition of the [[Pope Pius V|Pope]], [[Spain]], [[Republic of Venice|Venice]], [[Republic of Genoa]], [[Duchy of Savoy]], the [[Knights Hospitaller|Knights of Malta]] and others under the command of [[John of Austria]]) that defeated the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] fleet on [[October 7]] in the [[battle of Lepanto|Gulf of Lepanto]] near [[Gulf of Lepanto|Corinth]]. Though taken down with fever, Cervantes refused to stay below, and begged to be allowed to take part in the battle, saying that he would rather die for his God and his king than keep under cover. He fought bravely on board a vessel, and received three gunshot wounds &ndash; two in the chest and one which rendered his left hand useless for the rest of his life. In ''Journey to Parnassus'', he was to say that he "had lost the movement of the left hand for the glory of the right" (he was thinking of the success of the first part of ''Don Quixote''). Cervantes always looked back on his conduct in the battle with pride: he believed that he had taken part in an event that would shape the course of [[European history]].<ref name="Q" />
{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5"
| style="text-align: left;" | "What I cannot help taking amiss is that he{{Ref_label|D|d|none}} charges me with being old and one-handed, as if it had been in my power to keep time from passing over me, or as if the loss of my hand had been brought about in some tavern, and not on the grandest occasion the past or present has seen, or the future can hope to see. If my wounds have no beauty to the beholder's eye, they are, at least, honourable in the estimation of those who know where they were received; for the soldier shows to greater advantage dead in battle than alive in flight."
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | Miguel de Cervantes ('''''Don Quixote - Part II''''', "The Author's Preface" translated by [[John Ormsby]])
|}


Carpeaux sought real life subjects in the streets and broke with the classical tradition. The Neapolitan Fisherboy's body is carved in intimate detail and shows an intricately balanced pose. Carpeaux claimed that he based the Neapolitan Fisherboy on a boy he had seen during a trip to [[Naples]].
After the battle of Lepanto Cervantes remained in hospital for nearly six months, before his wounds were sufficiently healed to allow his joining the colors again.<ref name="F33">J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, ''The Life of Cervantes'', 9</ref> From 1572 to 1575, based mainly in Naples, he continued his soldier's life; he participated in expeditions to [[Corfu]] and [[Pylos|Navarino]], and saw the fall of [[Tunis]] and [[La Goleta]] to the [[Ottoman Turks|Turks]] in 1574.<ref name="G220">M.A. Garcés, ''Cervantes in Algiers'', 220</ref>


==External links==
On [[September 6]] or [[September 7|7]] [[1575]] Cervantes set sail on the [[galley]] ''Sol'' from Naples to [[Barcelona]], Spain, with letters of commendation to the king from the duke de [[Sessa]] and Don Juan himself.<ref name="F41">J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, ''The Life of Cervantes'', 41</ref> On the morning of [[September 26]], as the ''Sol'' approached the Catalan coast, it was attacked by [[Algerian]] corsairs. After significant resistance, in which the captain and many crew members were killed, the surviving passengers were taken to [[Algiers]] as captives.<ref name="G236">M.A. Garcés, ''Cervantes in Algiers'', 236</ref> After five years spent as a slave in Algiers, and four unsuccessful escape attempts, he was ransomed by his parents and the [[Trinitarians]] and returned to his family in Madrid. Not surprisingly, this period of Cervantes' life supplied subject matter for several of his literary works, notably the Captive's tale in ''Don Quixote'' and the two Algiers plays, ''El trato de Argel'' (''The Traffic of Algiers'') and ''Los baños de Argel'' (''The Bathrooms of Algiers''), as well as episodes in a number of other writings, although never in straight autobiographical form.<ref name="Br" />


*[http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=rs_display_res&critere=jean+baptiste+carpeaux&operator=AND&nbToDisplay=5&langue=fr A page on the official Louvre site giving access to some of Carpeaux's works (French language only)]
===Literary pursuits===
*[http://www.insecula.com/contact/A005511_oeuvre_1.html A page from insecula.com listing more views of Carpeaux's works (also in French;] it may be necessary to close an advertising window to view this page)
{{main|Don Quixote}}
*[http://www.studiolo.org/MMA-Ugolino/Ugolino.htm A page analysing Carpeaux's ''Ugolino'', with numerous illustrations]
In [[1584]], he married the much younger Catalina de Salazar y Palacios. During the next 20 years he led a nomadic existence, working as a purchasing agent for the [[Spanish Armada]], and as a tax collector. He suffered a bankruptcy, and was imprisoned at least twice ([[1597]] and [[1602]]) because of irregularities in his accounts, one due rather to some subordinate than to himself. Between the years 1596 and 1600, he lived primarily in [[Seville]]. In 1606, Cervantes settled permanently in Madrid, Spain; where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1585, Cervantes published his first major work, ''La Galatea'', a pastoral romance, at the same time that some of his plays, now lost except for ''El trato de Argel'' (where he dealt with the life of Christian slaves in Algiers) and ''El cerco de Numancia'', were playing on the stages of Madrid. ''La Galatea'' received little contemporary notice, and Cervantes never wrote the continuation for it, (which he repeatedly promised). Cervantes next turned his attention to the drama, hoping to derive an income from that source, but the plays which he composed failed to achieve their purpose. Aside from his plays, his most ambitious work in verse was ''Viaje del Parnaso'' ([[1614]]), an allegory which consisted largely of a rather tedious though good-natured review of contemporary poets. Cervantes himself realized that he was deficient in poetic gifts.

If a remark which Cervantes himself makes in the prologue of Don Quixote is to be taken literally, the idea of the work, though hardly the writing of its "First Part", as some have maintained, occurred to him in prison at [[Argamasilla de Alba]], in La Mancha. Cervantes' idea was to give a picture of real life and manners, and to express himself in clear language. The intrusion of everyday speech into a literary context was acclaimed by the reading public. The author stayed poor until 1605, when the first part of Don Quixote appeared. Although it did not make Cervantes rich, it brought him international appreciation as a man of letters. Cervantes also wrote many plays, only two of which have survived; short novels, and the vogue obtained by Cervantes's story led to the publication of a continuation of it by an unknown who masqueraded under the name of [[Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda]]. In self-defence, Cervantes produced his own continuation, or "Second Part", of Don Quixote, which made its appearance in 1615.

For the world at large, interest in Cervantes centers particularly in Don Quixote, and this work has been regarded chiefly as a novel of purpose. It is stated again and again that he wrote it in order to ridicule the [[romance of chivalry|romances of chivalry]], and to destroy the popularity of a form of literature which for much more than a century had engrossed the attention of a large proportion of those who could read among his countrymen, and which had been communicated by them to the ignorant.

Don Quixote certainly reveals much narrative power, considerable humor, a mastery of dialogue, and a forcible style. Of the two parts written by Cervantes, the first has ever remained the favourite. The second part is inferior to it in humorous effect; but, nevertheless, the second part shows more constructive insight, better delineation of character, an improved style, and more realism and probability in its action.

In 1613, he published a collection of tales, the Exemplary Novels, some of which had been written earlier. On the whole, the Exemplary Novels are worthy of the fame of Cervantes; they bear the same stamp of genius as Don Quixote. The [[picaroon]] strain, already made familiar in Spain by the [[Lazarillo de Tormes]] and his successors, appears in one or another of them, especially in the ''Rinconete y Cortadillo'', which is the best of all. He also published the ''Viaje del Parnaso'' in 1614, and in 1615, the ''Eight Comedies and Eight New Interludes''. At the same time, Cervantes continued working on ''Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda'', a [[Byzantine novel|novel of adventurous travel]] completed just before his death, and which appeared posthumously in January, 1617.

===Death===

Cervantes died in Madrid on [[April 23]], [[1616]]; coincidentally [[William Shakespeare]] also died on that date, but not on the same day; Britain was still using the [[Julian calendar]], whereas Spain had already adopted the [[Gregorian calendar]].<ref>C. Calvo, ''Shakespeare and Cervantes in 1916'', 78.</ref> In honour of this coincidence [[UNESCO]] established April 23 as the [[International Day of the Book]].<ref>[http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=5125&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html World Book and Copyright Day — April 23, 2006], United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)</ref>
It is worth mentioning that the Encyclopedia Hispanica claims the date widely quoted as Cervantes' date of death, namely [[April 23]], is the date on his [[tombstone]] which in accordance of the traditions at the time would be his date of burial rather than date of death. If this is true, according to Hispanica, then it means that Cervantes probably died on [[April 22]] and was buried on [[April 23]].

==Works==
===Novels===

Cervantes's novels, listed chronologically, are:

* ''[[La Galatea]]'' ([[1585]]), a [[pastoral]] [[Romance (genre)|romance]] in prose and verse based upon the genre introduced into Spain by [[Jorge de Montemayor]]'s ''Diana'' ([[1559]]). Its theme is the fortunes and misfortunes in love of a number of idealized shepherds and shepherdesses, who spend their life singing and playing musical instruments.
* ''[[Don Quixote|El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha I]]'' ([[1605]])
* ''[[Exemplary Novels|Novelas ejemplares]]'' ([[1613]]), a collection of twelve short stories of varied types about the social, political, and historical problems of the Cervantes' Spain:
** ''La gitanilla''(The Gypsy Girl)
** ''El amante liberal'' (The Generous Lover)
** ''Rinconete y Cortadillo''
** ''La española inglesa'' (The English Spanish Lady)
** ''[[El licenciado Vidriera]]'' (Vidriera, the Lawyer)
** ''La fuerza de la sangre'' (The Power of Blood)
** ''El celoso extremeño'' (The Jealous Old Man From Extremadura)
** ''La ilustre fregona'' (The Illustrious Kitchen-Maid)
** ''Novela de las dos doncellas'' (The Two Damsels)
** ''Novela de la señora Cornelia'' (Lady Cornelia)
** ''Novela del casamiento engañoso'' (The Deceitful Marriage)
** ''El coloquio de los perros'' (The Dialogue of the Dogs)
* ''[[Don Quixote|Segunda parte del ingenioso caballero don Quijote de la Mancha]]'' ([[1615]])
*''[[Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda|Los trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda, historia septentrional]]'', The Labours of Persiles and Sigismunda: A Northern Story ([[1617]]).
:''Los trabajos'' is the best evidence not only of the survival of [[Byzantine novel]] themes but also of the survival of forms and ideas of the Spanish novel of the second [[Renaissance]]. In this work, published after the author's death, Cervantes relates the ideal love and unbelievable vicissitudes of a couple who, starting from the Arctic regions, arrive in Rome, where they find a happy ending for their complicated adventures.

====''Don Quixote''====
{{mainarticle|Don Quixote}}

[[Image:Don Quixote.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Statues of Don Quixote (left) and Sancho Panza (right)]]

''Don Quixote'' (sometimes spelled "Quijote") is actually two separate books that cover the adventures of ''Don Quixote'', also known as the knight or man of [[La Mancha]], a hero who carries his enthusiasm and self-deception to unintentional and comic ends. On one level, ''Don Quixote'' works as a [[satire]] of the romances of [[chivalry]] which ruled the literary environment of Cervantes' time. However, the novel also allows Cervantes to illuminate various aspects of human nature by using the ridiculous example of the delusional Quixote.

Because the novel - particularly the first part - was written in individually published sections, the composition includes several incongruities. In the preface to the second part, Cervantes himself pointed out some of these errors, but he disdained to correct them, because he conceived that they had been too severely condemned by his critics.
Cervantes felt a passion for the vivid painting of character, as his successful works prove. Under the influence of this feeling, he drew the natural and striking portrait of his heroic ''Don Quixote'', so truly noble-minded, and so enthusiastic an admirer of everything good and great, yet having all those fine qualities, accidentally blended with a relative kind of madness; and he likewise portrayed with no less fidelity, the opposite character of [[Sancho Panza]], a compound of grossness and simplicity, whose low self-esteem leads him to place blind confidence in all the extravagant hopes and promises of his master. The subordinate characters of the novel exhibit equal truth and decision.

A translator can not commit a more serious injury to ''Don Quixote'' than to dress that work in a light, anecdotal style{{Fact|date=February 2007}}. A style perfectly unostentatious and free from affectation, but at the same time solemn, and penetrated, as it were, with the character of the hero, diffuses over this comic romance an imposing air, which, were it not so appropriate, would seem to belong exclusively to serious works and which is certainly difficult to capture in a translation. Yet it is precisely this solemnity of language which imparts a characteristic relief to the comic scenes{{Fact|date=February 2007}}. It is the genuine style of the old romances of chivalry, improved and applied in a totally original way; and only where dialogue style occurs is each person found to speak as he might be expected to do, and in his own peculiar manner. But wherever Don Quixote himself harangues, the language re-assumes the venerable tone of the romantic style; and various uncommon expressions used by the hero serve to complete the delusion of his covetous squire, to whom they are only half intelligible. This characteristic tone diffuses over the whole a poetic colouring, which distinguishes ''Don Quixote'' from all comic romances of the ordinary style; and that poetic colouring is moreover heightened by the judicious choice of episodes.

The essential connection of these episodes with the whole has sometimes escaped the observation of critics, who have regarded as merely parenthetical those parts in which Cervantes has most decidedly manifested the poetic spirit of his work. The novel of ''El curioso impertinente'' cannot indeed be ranked among the number of these essential episodes, but the charming story of ''the shepherdess Marcella'', the history of ''Dorothea'', and the history of ''the rich Camacho'' and the poor Basilio, are unquestionably connected with the interest of the whole.

[[Image:QuijoteIVCentenario.JPG|200px|right|thumb|IV centenary of Don Quixote of La Mancha (1605-2005)]]

These serious romantic parts, which are not, it is true, essential to the narrative connexion, but strictly belong to the characteristic dignity of the whole picture{{Fact|date=February 2007}}, also prove how far Cervantes was from the idea usually attributed to him of writing a book merely to excite laughter. The passages, which common readers feel inclined to pass over{{Fact|date=February 2007}}, are, in general, precisely those in which Cervantes is most decidedly a poet, and for which he has manifested an evident predilection. On such occasions, he also introduces among his prose, episodical verses, for the most part excellent in their kind and no translator can omit them without doing violence to the spirit of the original.

Were it not for the happy art with which Cervantes has contrived to preserve an intermediate tone between pure poetry and prose, ''Don Quixote'' would not deserve to be cited as the first classic model of the modern romance or novel. It is, however, fully entitled to that distinction. Cervantes was the first writer who formed the genuine romance of modern times on the model of the original chivalrous romance that equivocal creation of the genius and the barbarous taste of the [[Middle Ages]]. The result has proved that modern taste, however readily it may in other respects conform to the rules of the antique, nevertheless requires, in the narration of fictitious events, a certain union of poetry with prose, which was unknown to the [[Greeks]] and [[ancient Rome|Romans]] in their best literary ages{{Fact|date=February 2007}}. It was only necessary to seize on the right tone, but that was a point of delicacy, which the inventors of romances of chivalry were not able to comprehend. [[Diego de Mendoza]], in his ''Lazarillo de Tormes'', departed too far from poetry. Cervantes, in his Don Quixote restored to the poetic art the place it was entitled to hold in this class of writing; and he must not be blamed if cultivated nations have subsequently mistaken the true spirit of this work, because their own novelists had led them to regard common prose as the style peculiarly suited to romance composition.

''Don Quixote'' is, moreover, the undoubted prototype of the comic novel. The humorous situations are, it is true, almost all burlesque, which was certainly not necessary, but the satire is frequently so delicate, that it escapes rather than obtrudes on unpractised attention; as for example, in the whole picture of the administration of Sancho Panza in his imaginary island. The language, even in the description of the most burlesque situations, never degenerates into vulgarity; it is on the contrary, throughout the whole work, so noble, correct and highly polished, that it would not disgrace even an ancient classic of the first rank{{Fact|date=February 2007}}. This explanation of a part of the merits of a work, which has been so often wrongly judged, may perhaps seem belong rather to the eulogist than the calm and impartial historian. Let those who may he inclined to form this opinion study ''Don Quixote'' in the original language, and study it rightly, for it is not a book to be judged by a superficial perusal{{Fact|date=February 2007}}. But care must be taken lest the intervention of many subordinate traits, which were intended to have only a transient national interest, should produce an error in the estimate of the whole. By the [[20th century]] it became clear that Don Quixote was the first true modern novel, a systemical and structural masterpiece.

Don Quixote is one of the Encyclopedia Britannica's "[[Great Books of the Western World]]" and the Russian author [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]] called it "the ultimate and most sublime word of human thinking". Notably, [[Israel]]i [[Prime Minister of Israel|Prime Minister]] [[David Ben-Gurion]] learned the [[Spanish language]] so that he could read it in the original{{Fact|date=April 2007}}, considering it a prerequisite to becoming an effective statesman.

====''La Galatea''====

''[[La Galatea]]'', the [[pastoral]] romance, which Cervantes wrote in his youth, is an imitation of the ''Diana'' of [[Jorge de Montemayor]], and bears an even closer resemblance to [[Gil Polo]]'s continuation of that romance. Next to ''Don Quixote'' and the ''Novelas exemplares'', it is particularly worthy of attention, as it manifests in a striking way the poetic direction in which the genius of Cervantes moved even at an early period of life.

====''Novelas ejemplares''====

It would be scarcely possible to arrange the other works of Cervantes according to a critical judgment of their importance; for the merits of some consist in the admirable finish of the whole, while others exhibit the impress of genius in the invention, or some other individual feature.

A distinguished place must, however, be assigned to the ''Novelas<ref name="Novelas">The Spanish title of ''novela'' is misleading. In modern Spanish it means "[[novel]]", but Cervantes used it meaning the Italian shorter ''[[novella]]s''.</ref> ejemplares'' ("Moral or Instructive Tales"). They are unequal in merit as well as in character. Cervantes doubtless intended that they should be to the Spaniards nearly what the [[novella]]s of [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]] were to the Italians, some are mere anecdotes, some are romances in miniature, some are serious, some comic, and all are written in a light, smooth, conversational style.

Four of them are perhaps of less interest than the rest: ''El amante liberal'', ''La señora Cornelia'', ''Las dos doncellas'' and '' La española inglesa''. The theme common to these is basically the traditional one of the [[Byzantine novel]]: pairs of lovers separated by lamentable and complicated happenings are finally reunited and find the happiness they have longed for. The heroines are all of most perfect beauty and of sublime morality; they and their lovers are capable of the highest sacrifices, and they exert their souls in the effort to elevate themselves to the ideal of moral and aristocratic distinction which illuminates their lives.

In ''El amante liberal'', to cite an example, the beautiful Leonisa and her lover Ricardo are carried off by Turkish pirates; both fight against serious material and moral dangers; Ricardo conquers all obstacles, returns to his homeland with Leonisa, and is ready to renounce his passion and to hand Leonisa over to her former lover in an outburst of generosity; but Leonisa's preference naturally settles on Ricardo in the end.

Another group of "exemplary" novels is formed by ''La fuerza de la sangre'', ''La ilustre fregona'', ''La gitanilla'', and ''El celoso extremeño''. The first three offer examples of love and adventure happily resolved, while the last unravels itself tragically. Its plot deals with the old Felipe Carrizales, who, after traveling widely and becoming rich in America, decides to marry, taking all the precautions necessary to forestall being deceived. He weds a very young girl and isolates her from the world by having her live in a house with no windows facing the street; but in spite of his defensive measures, a bold youth succeeds in penetrating the fortress of conjugal honor, and one day Carrizales surprises his wife in the arms of her seducer. Surprisingly enough he pardons the adulterers, recognizing that he is more to blame than they, and dies of sorrow over the grievous error he has committed. Cervantes here deviated from literary tradition, which demanded the death of the adulterers, but he transformed the punishment inspired by the social ideal of [[honour]] into a criticism of the responsibility of the individual.

''Rinconete y Cortadillo'', ''El casamiento engañoso'', ''El licenciado Vidriera'' and ''El coloquio de los perros'', four works of art which are concerned more with the personalities of the characters who figure in them than with the subject matter, form the final group of these stories. The protagonists are two young vagabonds, Rincón and Cortado; Lieutenant Campuzano; a student, Tomás Rodaja, who goes mad and believes himself to have been changed into a witty man of glass, offering Cervantes the opportunity to chain witty jokes; and finally two dogs, Cipión and Berganza, whose wandering existence serves as a mirror for the most varied aspects of Spanish life. Rinconete y Cortadillo is one of the most delightful of Cervantes' works. Its two young vagabonds come to [[Seville]] attracted by the riches and disorder that the sixteenth-century commerce with the Americas had brought to that metropolis. There they come into contact with a brotherhood of thieves led by the unforgettable Monipodio, whose house is the headquarters of the Sevillian underworld. Under the bright Andalusian sky, persons and objects take form with the brilliance and subtle drama of a [[Velazquez]], and a distant and discreet irony endows the figures, insignificant in themselves, as they move within a ritual pomp that is in sharp contrast with their morally deflated lives. When Monipodio appears, serious and solemn among his silent subordinates, "all who were looking at him performed a deep, protracted bow." Rincón and Cortado had initiated their mutual friendship beforehand "with saintly and praiseworthy ceremonies." The solemn ritual of this band of ruffians is all the more comic for being concealed in Cervantes' drily humorous style.

==== ''Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda''====
[[Image:Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (1617).png|thumb|Frontispiece of Persiles and Segismunda.]]
The romance of ''Persiles and Sigismunda'', which Cervantes finished shortly before his death, must be regarded as an interesting appendix to his other works. The language and the whole composition of the story exhibit the purest simplicity, combined with singular precision and polish. The idea of this romance was not new, and scarcely deserved to be reproduced in a new manner. But it appears that Cervantes, at the close of his glorious career, took a fancy to imitate [[Heliodorus]]. He has maintained the interest of the situations, but the whole work is merely a romantic description of travels, rich enough in fearful adventures, both by sea and land. Real and fabulous geography and history are mixed together in an absurd and monstrous manner; and the second half of the romance, in which the scene is transferred to Spain and Italy, does not exactly harmonize with the spirit of the first half.

===Poetry===

Some of his poems are found in ''[[La Galatea]].'' He also wrote ''Dos canciones a la armada invencible''. His best work, however, is found in the [[sonnets]], particularly ''[[Al túmulo del rey Felipe en Sevilla]]''. Among his most important poems, ''Canto de Calíope'', ''Epístola a Mateo Vázquez'', and the ''[[Viaje del Parnaso]]'' (Journey to Parnassus), ([[1614]]) stand out. The latter is his most ambitious work in verse, an [[allegory]] which consists largely of reviews of contemporary poets.

Compared to the novelist, Cervantes is often considered a mediocre poet. Should one cast a glance on the collected works of Cervantes, in order to ascertain what their author was entitled to claim as his original property, independently of his contemporaries and predecessors, we shall find that the genius of that poet, who is in general only partially estimated, shines with the finer lustre the longer it is contemplated. That kind of criticism that is to be learned, contributed but little to the development and formation of his genius. A critical tact, which is a truer guide than any rule, but which abandons genius when it forgets itself, secured the fancy of Cervantes against the aberrations of common minds, and his sportive wit was always subject to the control of solid judgement. The vanity, which occasionally made him mistake the true bent of his talent, must be confessed to have been pardonable, considering how little he was known to his contemporaries. He did not even know himself, though he felt the consciousness of his genius. From the mental height to which he had raised himself, he might, without too highly rating his own abilities, look down on all the writers of his age. More than one poet of great, of immortal genius, might be placed beside him in his own country; but of all the Spanish poets, Cervantes alone belongs to the whole world.

====''Viaje del Parnaso''====
[[Image:Viaje del Parnaso.jpg|thumb|Frontispiece of the ''Viaje'' (1614).]]
The prose of the ''Galatea'', which is in other respects so beautiful, is also occasionally overloaded with epithet. Cervantes displays a totally different kind of poetic talent in the ''[[Viaje del Parnaso]]'', a work which cannot properly be ranked in any particular class of literary composition, but which, next to ''Don Quixote'', is the most exquisite production of its author.

===Plays===

Comparisons have also diminished the reputation of his plays, but two of them, ''[[El trato de Argel]]'' and ''[[La Numancia]],'' ([[1582]]), made a big impact and were not surpassed until [[Lope de Vega]] appeared.

The first of these is written in five acts; based on his experiences as a [[Moorish]] captive, Cervantes dealt with the life of Christian slaves in Algiers. The other play, ''Numancia'' is a description of the siege of Numantia by the Romans stuffed with horrors and described as utterly devoid of the requisites of dramatic art.

Cervantes's later production consists of 16 dramatic works, among which eight full-length plays:

''El gallardo español'',
''Los baños de Argel'',
''La gran sultana'',
''Doña Catalina de Oviedo'',
''La casa de los celos'',
''El laberinto del jamon'',
the cloak and dagger play ''La Entretenida'',
''El rufián dichoso'' and ''Pedro de Urdemalas'', a sensitive play about a pícaro who joins a group of Gypsies for love of a girl.

He also wrote eight short farces (entremeses) :
''El juez de los divorcios'',
''El rufián viudo llamado Trampagos'',
''La elección de los alcaldes de Daganzo'',
''La guarda cuidadosa'' (The Vigilant Sentinel),
''El vizcaíno fingido'',
''El retablo de las maravillas'',
''La cueva de Salamanca'', and ''El viejo celoso'' (The Jealous Old Man).

These plays and entremeses made up ''[[Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses|Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses nuevos, nunca representados]]'' (Eight comedies and Eight New Interludes) , which appeared in [[1615]]. Cervantes's entremeses, whose dates and order of composition are not known, must not have been performed in their time. Faithful to the spirit of Lope de Rueda, Cervantes endowed them with novelistic elements such as simplified plot, the type of description normally associated with the novel, and character development. The dialogue is sensitive and agile.

Cervantes includes some of his dramas among those productions with which he was himself most satisfied; and he seems to have regarded them with the greater self-complacency in proportion as they experienced the neglect of the public. This conduct has sometimes been attributed to a spirit of contradiction, and sometimes to vanity. That the penetrating and profound Cervantes should have so mistaken the limits of his dramatic talent, would not be sufficiently accounted for, had he not unquestionably proved by his tragedy of ''Numantia'' how pardonable was the self-deception of which he could not divest himself.

Cervantes was entitled to consider himself endowed with a genius for dramatic poetry; but he could not preserve his independence in the conflict he had to maintain with the conditions required by the Spanish public in dramatic composition; and when he sacrificed his independence, and submitted to rules imposed by others, his invention and language were reduced to the level of a poet of inferior talent. The intrigues, adventures and surprises, which in that age characterized the Spanish drama, were ill suited to the genius of Cervantes. His natural style was too profound and precise to be reconciled to fantastical ideas, expressed in irregular verse. But he was Spaniard enough to be gratified with dramas, which, as a poet, he could not imitate; and he imagined himself capable of imitating them, because he would have shone in another species of dramatic composition, had the public taste accommodated itself to his genius.

====''La Numancia''====
{{mainarticle|La Numancia}}

This play is a dramatization of the long and brutal siege of the [[Celtiberians|Celtiberian]] town Numantia, [[Hispania]], by the Roman forces of [[Scipio Africanus]].

Cervantes invented along with the subject of his piece a peculiar style of tragic composition, in doing which he did not pay much regard to the theory of Aristotle. His object was to produce a piece full of tragic situations, combined with the charm of the marvellous. In order to accomplish this goal, Cervantes relied heavily on allegory and on mythological elements.

The tragedy is written in conformity with no rules save those which the author prescribed to himself; for he felt no inclination to imitate the Greek forms. The play is divided into four acts, (''jornadas'') and no chorus is introduced. The dialogue is sometimes in tercets and sometimes in [[redondilla|''redondillas'']], and for the most part in octaves without any regard to rule.

== Cervantes' historical importance and influence==

Cervantes' novel ''Don Quixote'' has had a tremendous influence on the development of prose fiction; it has been translated into all modern languages and has appeared in 700 editions. The first translation in English, and also in any language, was made by [[Thomas Shelton]] in 1608, but not published until 1612. Shakespeare had evidently read Don Quixote, but it is most unlikely that Cervantes had ever heard of Shakespeare.
[[Carlos Fuentes]] raised the possibility that Cervantes and [[Shakespeare]] were the same person (see [[Shakespearean authorship question]]). [[Francis Carr]] has suggested that [[Francis Bacon]] wrote Shakespeare's plays and ''[[Don Quixote]]''.<ref> Francis Carr, ''Who Wrote Don Quixote?'' (London: Xlibris Corporation, 2004).</ref>

''Don Quixote'' has been the subject of a variety of works in other fields of art, including operas by the Italian composer [[Giovanni Paisiello]], the French Jules [[Massenet]], and the Spanish [[Manuel de Falla]]; a tone poem by the German composer [[Richard Strauss]]; a German film (1933) directed by G. W. Pabst and a Soviet film (1957) directed by Grigori Kozintzev; a ballet (1965) by George Balanchine; and an American musical, [[Man of La Mancha]] (1965), by Mitch Leigh.

Its influence can be seen in the work of [[Smollett]], [[Daniel Defoe|Defoe]], [[Henry Fielding|Fielding]], and [[Sterne]], as well as in the classic 19th-century novelists [[Sir Walter Scott|Scott]], [[Dickens]], [[Flaubert]], [[Melville]], and [[Dostoyevsky]], and in the works of [[James Joyce]] and [[Jorge Luis Borges]].The theme also inspired the 19th-century French artists [[Honoré Daumier]] and [[Gustave Doré]].

==Ethnic and Religious Heritage==

Though most Cervantes scholars regard Cervantes of Spanish blood as far as his geneaology could be analyzed, some researchers suggest possible [[Basque]] and [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] origins.

His religious background is a more contested issue. Cervantes has been declared an Old Christian (pure blood), [[New Christian]] (converso), secularist, and [[Humanist|Christian humanist]]. The two most thoroughly researched of which being Old Christian and New Christian. Purporters of the New Christian theory, established by [[Americo Castro]], often suggest it to be on Cervantes' mother's side. The theory is almost exclusively supported by circumstantial evidence but would "explain" some mysteries of Cervantes' life.<ref>Cervantes: A Biography by William Byron, Pg 32</ref> The theory has been supported by authors such as Anthony Cascardi and Caravaggio. Others reject it strongly such as Claudio Albornoz or Francisco Olmos Garcia, who considers it a "tired issue" only supported by Americo Castro.<ref>Cervantes and His Postmodern Constituencies
by Anne J. Cruz, Carroll B. Johnson, Pg 116</ref>

The second origin theory suggests Cervantes is of Old Christian stock. Most of the evidence for this is supported by documentary evidence but does not help fill the gaps of some personality and life aspects of Cervantes as the New Christian theory does. In particular the only surviving document addressing Cervantes pedigree is the [[1569]] "Informacion de la limpieza de Miguel de Cervantes, estante en Roma" which addresses Cervantes directly as an Old Christian.<ref>Cervantes and His Postmodern Constituencies by Anne J. Cruz, Carroll B. Johnson, Pg 117</ref> The full story of Cervantes' background will obviously never be known.

==Criticism Bibliography==

<li>''Fighting Windmills: Encounters with Don Quixote'' / Durán, Manuel and Rogg, Fay R., 2006</li>
<li>''Don Quijote Across Four Centuries'': papers / Johnson, Carroll B., 2006</li>
<li>''The Utopian Nexus in Don Quixote'' / Jehenson, Myriam Yvonne and Dunn, Peter., 2006</li>
<li>''Paranoia and Modernity: Cervantes to Rousseau'' / Farrell, John., 2006</li>
<li>''Quixotic Offspring: The Global Legacy of Don Quixote'' / Macalester College., 2006</li>
<i>''Cervantes' Don Quixote: A Reference Guide'' / Mancing, Howard., 2006</li>
<i>''The humble story of Don Quixote: reflections on the birth of the modern novel'' / Bandera, Cesáreo., 2006</li>
<li>''Quixotic frescoes: Cervantes and Italian Renaissance Art'' / De Armas, Frederick., 2006</li>
<li>''The writer's experience: essays on self and circumstance in the Hispanic literatures'' / Earle, Peter., 2006</li>
<li>''Cervantes (Modern Critical Views)'' / Bloom, Harold., 2005</li>
<li>''The Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote de la Mancha'' / Sieber, Charles., 2005</li>
<li>''Cervantes: essays in memory of E.C. Riley'' / Robbins, Jeremy., 2005</li>
<li>''Cervantes and the Hermeneutics of Satire'' / Reichenberger, Kurt., 2005</li>
<li>''Ekphrasis in the age of Cervantes'' / De Armas, Frederick Alfred., 2005</li>
<li>''Love and the Law in Cervantes'' / Gonzalez Echevarria, Roberto., 2005</li>
<li>''Miguel de Cervantes (Bloom's BioCritiques)'' / Bloom, Harold., 2005</li>
<li>''A Companion to Cervantes's Novelas ejemplares'' / Boyd, Stephen F., 2005</li>
<li>''Unhappily Ever After: Deceptive Idealism in Cervantes's Marriage Tales'' / Kartchner, Eric J., 2005</li>
<li>''Cervantes's Novel of Modern Times: a new reading of Don Quijote'' / Quint, David., 2005</li>
<li>''Cervantes in the English-speaking World: New Essays'' / Fernández-Morera, Darío., 2005</li>
<li>''Cervantes' Don Quixote: A Casebook'' / González Echevarría, Roberto., 2005</li>
<li>''Don Quixote: A Touchstone for Literary Criticism'' / Parr, James., 2005</li>
<li>''Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?'' / Bloom, Harold., 2004</li>
<li>''The Cervantes Encyclopedia'' / Mancing, Howard., 2004</li>
<li>''Don Quixote, Don Juan, and Related Subjects'' / Parr, James., 2004</li>
<li>''Passing for Spain: Cervantes and the fictions of identity'' / Fuchs, Barbara, 2003</li>
<li>''Cambridge companion to Cervantes'' / Cascardi, Anthony J., 2002</li>
<li>''Never-ending Adventure: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Spanish Literature'' / Dunn, Peter., 2002</li>
<li>''A study of Don Quixote'' / Eisenberg, Daniel, 2001</li>
<li>''Awry Views: anamorphosis, Cervantes, and the early picaresque'' / Castillo, David., 2001</li>
<li>''Cervantes's Don Quixote (Modern Critical Interpretations)'' / Bloom, Harold., 2001</li>
<li>''Adventures in Paradox: Don Quixote and the Western Tradition'' / Presberg, Charles., 2001</li>
<li>''Cervantes, the Novel, and the New World'' / De Armas Wilson, Diana., 2001</li>
<li>''Cervantes for the 21st century'' / Dudley, Edward J., 2000</li>
<li>''Cervantes and the comic mind of his age'' / Close, A. J., 2000</li>
<li>''Ben Jonson and Cervantes: Tilting against Chivalric Romances'' / Yumiko, Yamada., 2000</li>
<li>''Miguel de Cervantes (Twayne World Authors Series)'' / Manuel Duran., 1999</li>
<li>''Cervantes and the craft of fiction'' / Llosa, Mario Vargas., 1999</li>
<li>''Cervantes, Don Quixote (Norton Critical Editions)''., 1999</li>
<li>''Cervantes and his postmodern constituencies'' / Cruz, Anne J., 1999</li>
<li>''Cervantes: essays on social and literary polemics'' / Finello, Dominick L., 1998</li>
<li>''Don Quixote in England'' / Paulson, Ronald., 1998</li>
<li>''The Age of Reasons: Quixotism, Sentimentalism and Political Economy'' / Motooka, Wendy., 1998</li>
<li>''Cervantes, Raphael and the Classics'' / De Armas, Frederick., 1998</li>
<li>''The Endless Text: Don Quijote and the Hermeneutics of Romance'' / Dudley, Edward J., 1997</li>
<li>''International Colloquium on Perspectives on Cervantes'' / Fernández de Cano y Martín., 1997</li>
<li>''Magical Parts: Approaches to Don Quixote'' / Friedman, Edward., 1996</li>
<li>''Cervantine Marriages'' / Rogers, Coreen Louise., 1996</li>
<li>''Cultural Authority in Golden Age Spain'' / Various., 1995</li>
<li>''Not Necessarily Cervantes: Readings of the Quixote'' / Hathaway, Robert., 1995</li>
<li>''Refiguring Authority: Reading, Writing, and Rewriting in Cervantes'' / Gerli, Michael., 1995</li>
<li>''The Western Canon'' / Bloom, Harold., 1994</li>
<li>''Cervantes and the Modernists: the Question of Influence'' / Williamson, Edwin., 1994</li>
<li>''Cervantes' Exemplary Fictions: A Study of the Novelas Ejemplares'' / Hart, Thomas., 1994</li>
<li>''Magical Parts: Approaches to Don Quixote'' / Various., 1994</li>
<li>''Pastoral Themes and Forms in Cervantes's Fiction'' / Finello, Dominick L., 1994</li>
<li>''Studies on Cervantes'' / Selig, Karl-Ludwig., 1993</li>
<li>''Through the Shattering Glass: Cervantes and the Self-made World'' / Spadaccini, Nicholas., 1993</li>
<li>''Quixotic Desire: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Cervantes'' / De Armas Wilson, Diana., 1993</li>
<li>''After Cervantes'' / Macklin, J. J., 1993</li>
<li>''Discovering the Comic in Don Quixote'' / Gorfkle, Laura., 1993</li>
<li>''Cervantine journeys'' / Hutchinson, Steven D., 1992</li>
<li>''Don Quixote and the Poetics of the Novel'' / Martinez-Bonati, Felix., 1992</li>
<li>''Utopia and Counterutopia in the Quixote'' / Maravall, Jose Antonio., 1991</li>
<li>''On Cervantes: essays for L.A. Murillo'' / Parr, James A., 1991</li>
<li>''A Critical Introduction to Don Quixote'' / Murillo, L.A., 1990</li>
<li>''Miguel de Cervantes: Don Quixote'' / Close, A.J., 1990</li>
<li>''Cervantes and Ariosto'' / Hart, Thomas., 1989</li>
<li>''In the Margins of Cervantes'' / Weiger, John G., 1988</li>
<li>''Don Quijote, Symbol of a Culture in Crisis'' / Creel, Bryant L., 1988</li>
<li>''Critical Essays on Cervantes'' / El Saffar, Ruth S., 1986</li>
<li>''Cervantes'' / Cannavagio, Jean., 1986</li>
<li>''Don Quixote'' / Riley, E.C., 1986</li>
<li>''Letter and Spirit in Hispanic writers'' / Trueblood, Alan., 1986</li>
<li>''Modern Critical Views (Cervantes)'' / Bloom, Harold., 1986</li>
<li>''The Substance of Cervantes'' / Weiger, John G. Publication, 1985</li>
<li>''Cervantes'' / Russell, P.E., 1985</li>
<li>''Beyond Fiction: the Recovery of the Feminine in the Novels of Cervantes'' / El Saffar, Ruth., 1984</li>
<li>''Studies on Don Quijote and Other Cervantine works'' / Bleznick, Donald William., 1984</li>
<li>''Nabokov: Lectures on Don Quixote'' / Bowers, Fredson., 1983</li>
<li>''Cervantes and the Humanist Vision: a Study of Four Exemplary Novels'' / Forcione, Alban K., 1982</li>
<li>''Skepticism in Cervantes'' / Ihrie, Maureen., 1982</li>
<li>''The Romantic Approach to Don Quixote: a Critical History'' / Close, A. J. , 1978</li>
<li>''Don Quixote: or, The Critique of Reading'' / Fuentes, Carlos., 1976</li>
<li>''Hamlet and Don Quixote: Turgenev's ambivalent vision'' / Kagan-Kans, Eva., 1975</li>
<li>''The Image of Don Quixote in the 17th century'' / Quilter, Daniel Edward., 1975</li>
<li>''Cervantes; a critical trajectory'' / Barbera, Raymond E.,1971</li>
<li>''Cervantes (Twentieth Century Views)'' / Nelson, Lowry., 1970</li>
<li>''Cervantes Across the Centuries'' / Flores, Angel., 1969</li>
<li>''The World of Don Quixote'' / Predmore, Richard., 1967</li>
<li>''Our Lord Don Quixote: The Life of Don Quixote & Sancho'' / Unamuno, Miguel de., 1967</li>
<li>''Cervantes and the Art of Fiction'' / Trotter, G. D., 1965</li>
<li>''From the Poetic World of Shakespeare and Cervantes'' / Suarez de Alcocer, Maria., 1964</li>
<li>''Meditations on Don Quixote'' / Ortega y Gassett, Jose., 1961</li>
<li>''Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature'' / Auerbach, Erich., 1957</li>
<li>''Cervantes'' / Entwistle, William., 1940</li>
<li>''A Man Called Cervantes'' / Frank, Bruno., 1935</li>
<li>''Cervantes'' / Schevill, Rudolph., 1919</li>
<li>''Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra: A Memoir'' / Fitzmaurice-Kelly, James., 1913</li>
<li>''Life of Miguel de Cervantes'' / Edward Watts, Henry., 1891</li>

*[http://rubbersoul21.googlepages.com/cervantesbiblio.html Expanded Bibliography]

</ul>

==Notes==
<div class="references-small">
'''a.''' {{Note_label|A|a|none}} The most reliable and accurate portrait of the writer to date is that provided by Cervantes himself in the ''Exemplary Novels'' (translated by Walter K. Kelly):<ref name="Gut">M. de Cervantes, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14420/14420-8.txt The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes]</ref>
{{Cquote2|quotetext=This person whom you see here, with an oval visage, chestnut hair, smooth open forehead, lively eyes, a hooked but well-proportioned nose, and silvery beard that twenty years ago was golden, large moustaches, a small mouth, teeth not much to speak of, for he has but six, in bad condition and worse placed, no two of them corresponding to each other, a figure midway between the two extremes, neither tall nor short, a vivid complexion, rather fair than dark, somewhat stooped in the shoulders, and not very lightfooted: this, I say, is the author of ''Galatea'', ''Don Quixote de la Mancha'', ''The Journey to Parnassus'', which he wrote in imitation of Cesare Caporali Perusino, and other works which are current among the public, and perhaps without the author's name. He is commonly called MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA.|personquoted=Miguel de Cervantes|quotesource=''Exemplary Novels (Author's Preface)''|quotewidth=20px|quoteheight=20px}}
'''b.''' {{Note_label|B|b|none}} His signature spells ''Cerbantes'' with a ''b'' but he is now known after the spelling ''Cervantes'' used by the printers of his works. ''[[Saavedra]]'' was the surname of a distant relative that Cervantes adopted as his second surname after his return from [[Barbary Coast]].<ref name="SC">M.A. Garcés, ''Cervantes in Algiers'', 191-192<br>* C. Slade, ''Introduction'', xxiv</ref> The earliest documents signed with Cervantes' two names (''Cervantes Saavedra'') appear several years after his repatriation. Cervantes began adding the second surname ''Saavedra'' (a name that did not correspond to his immediate family) to his patronymic in 1586-1587, in official documents related to his marriage to Catalina de Salazar.<ref name="C191-192">M.A. Garcés, ''Cervantes in Algiers'', 191-192</ref>

'''c.''' {{Note_label|C|c|none}} The only evidence is a statement by Professor [[Tomas González]], that he once saw an old entry of the matriculation of a Miguel de Cervantes.<ref name="OrFiK">J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, ''The Life of Cervantes'', 9<br>* J. Ormsby, [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/cervantes/c41d/preface1.html About Cervantes and Don Quixote]</ref> No subsequent scholar has been successful in verifying this statement. In any case, there were at least two other Miguels born about the middle of the century.<ref name="Or" />

'''d.''' {{Note_label|D|d|none}} "He" refers to the writer of a spurious Part II of Don Quixote (''Second Volume of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'') known under the [[pseudonym]] [[Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda]]. Avellaneda had referred to Cervantes as an "old and one-handed" man.<ref name="Q" />
</div>

==Citations==
<div class="references-small"><references/></div>

==References==
===Printed sources===
<div class="references-small">
*{{cite book|last=Armas|first=Frederick A. de|title=The Cambridge Companion to Cervantes By Anthony Joseph Cascardi|year=2002 | publisher=Cambridge University|id=ISBN 0-521-66387-3|chapter=Cervantes and the Italian Renaissance}}
*{{cite book|last=Armas|first=Frederick A. de|title=Quixotic Frescoes: Cervantes and Italian Renaissance Art|year=2006 | publisher=University of Toronto Press|id=ISBN 0-802-09074-5|chapter=The Exhilaration of Italy}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|title=Cervantes, Miguel de|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia Americana|date=1994|publisher=Grolier Incorporated}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|title=Cervantes, Miguel de|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|date=2002}}
*{{cite book|last=Calvo |first=Clara|title=Shifting the Scene: Shakespeare in European Culture By Ladina Bezzola Lambert, Balz Engler|year=2004 | publisher=University of Delaware Press|id=ISBN 0-874-13860-4|chapter=Shakespeare and Cervantes in 1916: The Politics of Language}}
*{{cite book|last=Fitzmaurice-Kelly |first=James|title=The Life of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra|year=2005 | publisher=Kessinger Publishing|id=ISBN 1-417-97000-6|chapter=The Youth of Cervantes}}
*{{cite book|last=Garcés|first=María Antonia|title=Cervantes in Algiers: a Captive's Tale|year=2002 | publisher=Vanderbilt University Press|id=ISBN 0-826-51470-7|chapter=An Erotics of Creation}}
*{{cite book|last=Lokos |first=Ellen|title=Cervantes and his Postomodern Consituencies by Ann J. Cruz|year=1998 | publisher=Routledge (UK)|id=ISBN 0-815-33206-8|chapter=The Politics of Identity and the Enigma of Cervantine Genealogy}}
*{{cite journal|last=Qualia|first=Charles B.|title=Cervantes, Soldier and Humanist |journal=The South Central Bulletin|volume=9|issue=No.1|pages=1+10-11|date=Januar 1949|url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0038-321X(194901)9%3A1%3C1%2B10%3ACSAH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press}}
*{{cite book|last=Slade|first=Carole|title=Don Quixote|year=2004 | publisher=Spark Publishing/SparkNotes|id=ISBN 1-59308-046-8|chapter=Introduction}}
</div>
===Online sources===
<div class="references-small">
* {{cite web
| title = Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616): Life and Portrait
| work = The Cervantes Project
| last = Canavaggio
| first = Jean
| url = http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/cervantes/biography/new_english_cerv_bio.html
| accessdate = 2007-01-04
}}
* {{cite web
| title = E-book of The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes (Translated by Walter K. Kelly)
| work = The Project Gutenberg
| last = Cervantes Saavedra
| first = Miguel de
| url = http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14420/14420-8.txt
| accessdate = 2007-01-01
}}
* {{cite web
| title = Don Quixote - Translator's Preface - About Cervantes And Don Quixote
| work = The University of Adelaide Library
| last = Ormsby
| first = John
| url = http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/cervantes/c41d/preface1.html
| accessdate = 2007-01-02
}}
* {{cite web
| title = World Book and Copyright Day - [[April 23]], [[2006]]
| work = United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
| url = http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=5125&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
| accessdate = 2006-10-17
}}
</div>

==External links==
{{wikisource}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{Commons|Miguel de Cervantes}}
* {{gutenberg author| id=Miguel+de+Cervantes+Saavedra | name=Miguel de Cervantes}}
*[http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/index.shtml Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes] Spanish web site with multiple Cervantes links and audio of whole of Don Quixote
*[http://coloquio.com/famosos/alpha.htm Famous Hispanics]
*[http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/cervantes/V2/CPI/index.html The Cervantes Project] with biographies and chronology
*[http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/CAU_CHA/CERVANTES_SAAVEDRA_MIGUEL_DE_1.html Entry] in the [[1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica]]
*[http://www.donquichote.org Relevant information about Miguel de Cervantes]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20060425103107/http://www.members.shaw.ca/b-cia/EQuijote/Intro.htm Life and times before writing Don Quixote]
*[http://www.thornton1.freeserve.co.uk/cervantes.htm Cervantes chapter from Spanish Literature by H. Butler Clarke 1893]
{{Cleanup-spam}}


[[Category:French sculptors|Carpeaux, Jean-Baptiste]]
<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
[[Category:1827 births|Carpeaux, Jean-Baptiste]]
{{Persondata
[[Category:1875 deaths|Carpeaux, Jean-Baptiste]]
|NAME= Cervantes, Miguel de
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de; De Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel
|SHORT DESCRIPTION= Spanish [[novelist]], [[poet]] and [[playwright]]
|DATE OF BIRTH= [[September 29]], [[1547]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH= [[Alcalá de Henares]], [[Spain]]
|DATE OF DEATH= [[April 23]], [[1616]]
|PLACE OF DEATH= [[Madrid]], [[Spain]]
}}
[[Category:Spanish novelists|Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de]]
[[Category:Spanish poets|Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de]]
[[Category:Spanish dramatists and playwrights|Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de]]
[[Category:Renaissance writers|Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de]]
[[Category:People excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church|Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de]]
[[Category:1547 births|Cervantes, Miguel]]
[[Category:1616 deaths|Cervantes, Miguel]]
[[Category:Slaves|Cervantes, Miguel]]
[[Category:Jewish writers| Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de]]


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Revision as of 01:07, 19 June 2007

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's marble sculpture 'Ugolino and his Sons', Metropolitan Museum of Art
La Danse (The Dance), Opera Garnier in Paris
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux.

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (May 11, 1827, Valenciennes –October 12, 1875, Courbevoie) was a French sculptor and painter. His early studies were under François Rude. Carpeaux won the Prix de Rome in 1854, and moving to Rome to find inspiration, he there studied the works of Michelangelo, Donatello and Verrocchio. Staying in Rome from 1854 to 1861, he obtained a taste for movement and spontaneity, which he joined with the great principles of baroque art. In 1861 he made a bust of Princess Mathilde, and this later brought him several commissions from Napoleon III. He worked at the pavilion of Flora, and the Opéra Garnier. His group La Danse (the Dance, 1869), situated on the right side of the façade, was criticised as an offence to common decency.

He never managed to finish his last work, the famous Fountain of the Four Parts of the Earth, on the Place Camille Jullian. He did finish the terrestrial globe, supported by the four figures of Asia, Europe, America and Africa, and it was Emmanuel Frémiet who completed the work by adding the eight leaping horses, the tortoises and the dolphins of the basin.

Sculptures by Carpeaux

Neapolitan Fisherboy

Carpeaux submitted a plaster version of Pêcheur napolitain à la coquille, the Neapolitan Fisherboy, to the French Academy while a student in Rome. He carved the marble version several years later, showing it in the Salon exhibition of 1863. It was purchased for Napoleon III's empress, Eugènie. The statue of the young smiling boy was very popular, and Carpeaux created a number of reproductions and variations in marble and bronze. There is a copy, for instance, in the Samuel H. Kress Collection in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

Some years later, he carved the Girl with a Shell, a very similar study.

Carpeaux sought real life subjects in the streets and broke with the classical tradition. The Neapolitan Fisherboy's body is carved in intimate detail and shows an intricately balanced pose. Carpeaux claimed that he based the Neapolitan Fisherboy on a boy he had seen during a trip to Naples.

External links

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