51
La Gitanilla, pp. 19, 47 and 105.
52
«En esto, Las tres gitanillas que iban con Preciosa, todas tres, se arrimaron a un rincón de la sala, y cosiéndose las bocas unas con otras, se juntaron por no ser oídas». La Git., p. 53. Although at first sight this might not appear to be excellent proof, I consider it important, for it was this curious huddle of three gipsy girls in a corner that first led me to suspect an inspiration in Botticelli.
53
Imagines, ii, 24; Fairbanks's translation, Loeb Library. The italics are mine.
54
«Venus comes and is followed by the little loves; Flora offers welcome kisses to her eager husband, and in their midst, with loosely hanging hair and nude breasts, Grace dances, playfully treading the earth with rhythmic step». (vv. 210-21). The italics are mine. For more on the confusion between Horae and Graces see C. Dempsey, «Mercurius Ver», p 264. Dempsey also is the source for my quotations from Philostratus and Poliziano. His well-documented descriptions of dancing Horae and Graces have been very useful, in particular his observation (p. 255) that the Graces in the Primavera «assume their double function as the attendants of Venus (and the followers of Mercury) and as the springtime Horae».
55
La Gitanilla, p. 8.
56
«¡A ello, hija! ¡Andad, amores, y pisad el polvito atán menudito!» La Git., p. 10. The man that so enthusiastically shouts this encouragement is described by the author as being «más humano... más modorro» (more human... more lethargic) than the others; and since he is the one most influenced in a positive way by Preciosa's dancing, we can readily identify him as the drowsy humanist who awakens after a long sleep of utter dullness.
57
«I shall tread the fine dust / so finely ground / I shall tread the dust / so finely ground». F. Rodríguez Marín includes this refrain in his footnote on p. 10.
58
In a way, the arrival of the gipsies in Spain, towards the middle of the fifteenth century, coincided with the first breezes of Italian humanism that blew westward across the Mediterranean in approximately the same period. The gipsies actually made their first appearance in Barcelona in 1447, during the reign of Alfonso V of Aragon, a king who was called El Magnánimo because of the favors he bestowed on the men of letters of the early Renaissance in Italy and in Spain. There is also a parallel in the Italian Renaissance, since the arrival of the gipsies there, at the very beginning of the 15th century, corresponds quite well with its earlier rebirth of letters. In addition, they could, since they brought with them more joyful and animated dances, be considered, on an artistic level, the heralds of the new spirit.
59
La Git., p. 25. I believe that the mention of Spring showers is the only allusion to springtime in the entire story. Curiously enough, Preciosa does not make her entry into Madrid in the Spring, as might be expected in a reenactment of Botticelli's Primavera. She arrives on the feast of St. Anne, that is, on the 25 of July, and her subsequent visits to the court take place in August. The explanation lies, perhaps, in a similar anomaly in Botticelli's painting, where, though the flowers on the ground might suggest Spring, the heavy foliage and the full grown fruit on the trees, in particular, point towards the latter part of the Summer. But this need not surprise us, since the Allegory of Spring is indeed that of the eternal Spring which comes not as an annual springtide, to be repeated once a year, but as a permanent transformation that comes in an age that is already mature and rapidly approaching its 'Fall.'
60
«resplandeció Preciosa como la luz de una antorcha entre otras luces menores». La Git., p. 25.