auto sacramental
Spanish religious play
An auto sacramental is a type of Spanish religious drama, typically allegorical and performed on the feast of Corpus Christi.
These one-act plays dramatized theological concepts—especially the Eucharist—through personified abstractions like Sin, Grace, or Human Nature.
The form flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with Calderón de la Barca its greatest practitioner.
- transubstantiationChange of underlying substance
- Corpus ChristiLatin for Christ's body
- processionFormal moving line
- feast daySaint's commemorative holiday
- symbolismRepresenting concepts through images
Holy Communion · personification · consecration · typology · parable · liturgy · devil · redemption · scaffold · grace · plaza · pageant · allegory · sin · virtue · wagon · soul · host
- religious dramapassion play, mystery play, mystery plays, morality plays, morality play
- ritual dramamystery play, mystery plays, passion play, passion plays, morality play
- Spanish textsDon Quixote, corrido, picaresque, Cervantes, Borges
- Baroque Theatrestage machinery, Racine, masque, scenic design, theatrical spectacle
- Iberian LiteratureCervantes, Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, Calderon, picaresque
- Medieval Spanish LiteratureEl Cid, Alfonso X, romances
auto sacramentalcomedia
Spanish-language play
farce · comedy of manners · burlesque · vaudeville · music hall
auto sacramentalsocial realism
Unidealized portrayal of workers' lives