Juan de Jáuregui

[7][8] Jáuregui's Rimas (1618), a collection of graceful lyrics, where he integrated also some translations of Horace, Martial and Ausonius,[3] is preceded by a controversial preface which attracted much attention on account of its outspoken declaration against the culteranismo[6] of Luis de Góngora.

Another Spanish poet, Francisco de Quevedo, mentioned Jáuregui in "La perinola" with scorn.

Through the influence of Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, he was appointed groom of the chamber to Philip IV, and gave an elaborate exposition of his artistic doctrines in the Discurso poético contra el hablar culto y oscuro (1624), a skillful attack on the new theories, which procured for its author membership in the honorary Order of Calatrava.

It is plain, however, that the shock of controversy had shaken Jáuregui's convictions, and his poem Orfeo (1624) is visibly influenced by Góngora.

This rendering reveals Jáuregui as a complete convert to the new school, and it has been argued that, exaggerating the affinities between Lucan and Góngora—both of Cordoban descent — he deliberately translated the thought of the earlier poet into the vocabulary of the later master.

Unsigned portrait of an unidentified gentleman, which once was taken to be Jáuregui's lost portrait of Cervantes. The name of Cervantes at the top and that of Jáuregui at the bottom were added centuries after it was painted. [ 4 ]