The «episodic fable»: The freedom of the artist is in the background

© 2018 Instituto de Estudios Auriseculares (IDEA). All rights reserved. An examination of «background» (that which is accessorial, accidental, padding, or «faraway») in the literature or painting of the Spanish Golden Age; namely, the presence of episodes, digressions, simultaneous actions or interpolations which, essentially, were meant for the reader to be emotionally involved and able to recreate in their imagination the literary discourse they imbued with energeia, freedom, and variety. The influence of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Ariosto, or romanzi authors favored what was known as «episodic fable».