The title of this engaging study is perhaps a bit too subtle and its subtitle a bit too general. The subject is the representation in early modern Spain of the myth of Venus and Mars and the discovery of their illicit relationship by Vulcan, god of fire and husband of the goddess of love. Oliver J. Noble Wood has done extensive research on the trajectory of the story and on the ways in which the literary and visual arts have depicted the tale of adultery and retribution. Some of the texts and paintings under scrutiny are well known, while others have rarely been examined; the combination is effective and edifying. The author strongly disagrees with a statement by Dámaso Alonso — poet, critic, and arguably the most brilliant commentator on the writings of Luis de Góngora — that, in the seventeenth century, the goal of imitation was to re-create beautifully and in polished form rather than to invent anew. Noble Wood maintains that imitation and invention are inseparable, and that poets and painters take their personal signatures quite seriously. Dámaso Alonso’s point that the concept of originality in Golden Age Spain differs from current views is valid, but so, of course, is the contention that every imitation bears the mark and the talent (or deficiencies) of the imitator. Baroque sensibility accentuates the notion of rivalry, which presupposes a recognition and acknowledgment of preceding texts and art objects in order to surpass them. The weight and complexity of invention are, thus, more a given than a guiding thesis here. The value of the book lies in the analyses of the variations on a theme.

There is a decisive element of recovery in the approach, since the allusions to this particular story were not as prevalent in seventeenth-century Spain as in the case of other mythological tales. Chapter 1, “Mythological Sources,” looks at background material, from classical antiquity to vernacular translations and interpretations, iconographical history, and editions, some with illustrations. Chapter 2, “Mythological Subtexts,” focuses on allusions, direct and veiled, to the love triangle. Noble Wood’s interest is on the exemplum — depending on the artist — as a statement on human nature, as a space for expansion, and as parody. Chapter 3, “Mythological (Mock) Epics,” deals with two poetic versions of the story, by Juan de la Cueva (1604) and Lope de Vega (1624). Noble Wood discerns in each a dialectics of honor plot and comedy, as well as an occasion for hyperbole and revisionism. Chapter 4, “Mythological Burlesques,” turns to the ballads (romances) by five midcentury writers, the best known of whom are Alonso de Castillo Solórzano and Miguel de Barrios. The title of the chapter conveys a shift from satire to burlesque and, thereby, in the main, from high to low humor, a sort of deconstruction of affairs in lofty places. The selected poets may stand in the shadow of Góngora and Francisco de Quevedo, but they emulate the Baroque extremes and excesses of the masters. Noble Wood observes a progressive tendency toward corruption and subversion of the story, already a deflation of the eminence of the deities. Chapter 5, “Mythological Paintings,” features Diego Velázquez’s renditions of Vulcan’s forge, Mars, and Venus at her mirror, from approximately 1630 to 1650. That the three paintings are, if not restrained, decidedly enigmatic allows Noble Wood to seek pictorial analogues for his textual readings and for alternate renderings of the myth. As with Baroque art in general, circumstances become more puzzling, and the role of the consumer becomes more prominent and more intricate. A subtext of this final chapter is the remarkable sophistication of Velázquez, who finds nuances in narrative and poetic precedents, and elegantly (and eloquently) develops them in the paintings.

The range of authors and of interpretive and rhetorical strategies covered, along with the juxtaposition of the most celebrated poets to those labeled as imitators, is commendable. In early modern Spain, the Baroque becomes more Baroque, and cultural ideologies become more cumbersome, in what may be termed the good sense. Noble Wood controls the broadly based material soundly and with notable insights. The study should provide a treat for Hispanists and for scholars and students of the classics and of early modern Europe.