Esbozos de retratos en las cartas de Francisco de Quevedo

Abstract

Reading Quevedo’s correspondence gives us the opportunity of looking at his literary production from a new perspective, which completes and helps defining its many different facets. The point of departure in this occasion is his letters. Based on them we study the portraits of persons represented there. Their presence in the letters aims at very different objectives, depending on the person depicted and the addressee of the letter. Very often, these portraits are only sketches, made out of a few strokes, which need an intelligent reading by the addressee to be fully understood. This can explain why some of these portraits seem to us dark and too short: probably, they are supposed to be clear only to the person to whom they are addressed.

La lectura de la correspondencia de Quevedo ofrece una perspectiva que ayuda a completar y matizar las muchas que presenta su obra. En esta ocasión se parte de su <i>Epistolario</i> para estudiar los retratos y las figuras que en él se deslizan, y su finalidad varía atendiendo a las circunstancias y corresponsal al que dirige Quevedo la carta. Estos retratos y figuras en repetidas ocasiones no son más que esbozos construidos con leves pinceladas que necesitan de la lectura cómplice del destinatario de la carta, lo que puede explicar la brevedad y la oscuridad de algunas pinturas, posiblemente solo llenas de claridad para la persona a la que van dirigidas.