Culteranismo is a stylistic movement of the Baroque period of Spanish history that is also commonly referred to as Gongorismo (after Luis de Góngora).
[1][2][3] Culteranismo is characterized by an ornamental, ostentatious vocabulary and a message that is complicated by a heavy use of metaphors and latinate complex syntactical order.
The name blends culto ("cultivated") and luteranismo ("Lutheranism")[1] and was coined by its opponents to present it as a heresy of "true" poetry.
[1] " Estas que me dictó, rimas sonoras, / Culta sí aunque bucólica Talía, / Oh excelso Conde, en las purpúreas horas / Que es rosas la alba y rosicler el día, / Ahora que de luz tu niebla doras, / Escucha, al son de la zampoña mía, / Si ya los muros no te ven de Huelva / Peinar el viento, fatigar la selva."
Culteranismo existed in stark contrast with conceptismo, another movement of the Baroque period which is characterized by a witty style, word games, simple vocabulary, and an attempt to convey multiple meanings in as few words as possible.