Luis de Góngora in the context of "Culteranismo"

The Spanish Golden Age (Spanish: Siglo de Oro Spanish pronunciation: [ˈsiɣlo ðe ˈoɾo], "Golden Century") was a period that coincided with the political rise of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain and the Spanish Habsburgs, during which arts and literature flourished in Spain. It is associated with the reigns of Isabella I, Ferdinand II, Charles V, Philip II, Philip III, and Philip IV. The Golden Age is generally considered to begin in 1492, marked by the end of the Reconquista, Christopher Columbus’s voyages, and the publication of Antonio de Nebrija's Grammar of the Castilian Language. It ended around 1659 with the Treaty of the Pyrenees, though some extend it to 1681, after the death of Pedro Calderón de la Barca.

The period of cultural flourishing saw major patrons, with El Escorial attracting leading artists including El Greco, contributing to a distinct Spanish style, and also includes the Plateresque/Renaissance and early Spanish Baroque styles, with major figures like Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Luis de Góngora, Diego Velázquez, and composers such as Tomás Luis de Victoria and Francisco Guerrero.

Spanish Baroque literature is the literature written in Spain during the Baroque, which occurred during the 17th century in which prose writers such as Baltasar Gracián and Francisco de Quevedo, playwrights such as Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Calderón de la Barca and Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, or the poetic production of the aforementioned Francisco de Quevedo, Lope de Vega and Luis de Góngora reached their zenith. Spanish Baroque literature is a period of writing which begins approximately with the first works of Luis de Góngora and Lope de Vega, in the 1580s, and continues into the late 17th century.

The fundamental characteristics of Spanish Baroque literature are the progressive complexity in formal resources and a theme centered on the concern for the passage of time and the loss of confidence in the Neoplatonic ideals of the Renaissance. Likewise, the variety and diversity in the subjects dealt with, the attention to detail and the desire to attract a wide audience, of which the rise of the Lope de Vega comedies are an example. From the dominant sensual concern in the 16th century, there was an emphasis on moral values and didactics, where two currents converge: Neostoicism and Neoepicureism. El Criticón from Baltasar Gracián is a point of arrival in the baroque reflection on man and the world, the awareness of disappointment, a vital pessimism and a general crisis of values.

Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas, Knight of the Order of Santiago (Spanish pronunciation: [fɾanˈθisko ðe keˈβeðo]; 14 September 1580 – 8 September 1645), was a Spanish nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era. Along with his lifelong rival Luis de Góngora, Quevedo was one of the most prominent Spanish poets of the age. His style is characterized by what was called conceptismo. This style existed in stark contrast to Góngora's culteranismo.