«Descriptio puellae» y cultismo en Góngora y Lope de Vega:: el palacio como dama, la dama como palacio

This paper examines some elements of the descriptio puellae topic in texts by Góngora and Lope. Specifically, we study the image of the lady as an attractive palace, which is developed in a famous sonnet by Góngora («De pura honestidad templo sagrado») and in several texts by Lope: sonnet 64 of the Rimas («Yo vi sobre dos piedras plateadas»), some passages from De cosario a cosario (before 1619), from El caballero de Olmedo (c. 1621) and, especially, from La Circe (1624). After reviewing some elements of the descriptio puellae topic, and in particular the architectural metaphors, we examine the Gongorine sonnet and the sources proposed by the critics, to which we add the Song of Songs. Next, we study descriptiones puellarum in Lope, both architectural and non-architectural, and, among the first, those that use the metaphor of the column: to speak of the lady’s neck, according to the Petrarchan canon, or to speak of her legs, according to a daring but widespread erotic tradition that the aforesaid Rimas sonnet retakes. Finally, and in the central part of the work, we examine these metaphors in late Lope texts, such as La Circe.