Mitologí­a y magia óptica: sobre la relación entre retraro, espejo y escritura en la poesí­a de Góngora

Abstract

When in the context of Baroque magia artificialis, mythical models are called for to describe and explain optical phenomena, this reference to myth is assimilated essentially to the historical-cultural horizon of the emergence of complex devices of optical, artistic, technical, and scientific images. This is shown mainly in the continuity of older traditions belonging to the magic of image, in which the idea of 'vivification' or 'animation' of images is related in multiple cases to the mythical figures of the demiurge-artists, Prometheus and Pygmalion.