The Beauty of Holiness: Architectural Representations of the Temple of Jerusalem in Spanish Golden Age Poetry

This essay is a comparative analysis of three texts of major poets of Spain’s Golden Age: Luis de Góngora, Lope de Vega, and Juan de Jáuregui. The poets worked with a common trope, sharing a worldview that blended themes of Hebrew kingship with the Spanish Habsburg dynasty. The poems are based on the concept of Spanish Solomonism, and are related by inventive, and very different, evocations of the Temple of Jerusalem as the seat of Christian monarchy, holiness, and visual beauty.