Abstract
A poem called 'Canción real' by Francisco López de Zárate (c. 1580-1658), in praise of painting and the contemporary artist Vicencio Carducho, deserves to be better known. Its historical and ideological context, furthermore, needs clarification. It was printed in Carducho's Diálogos de la pintura (1633), and like other poetical works by Zárate expresses the author's keen interest in painting, stimulated no doubt by the culture of art collecting and patronage at the Spanish Court at the period. Three main ideas about painting emerge in this work: the notion of painting as a language, an interest in the effects of a painting on its viewers, and an awareness of the painter's religious and supernatural role and responsibilities. These themes suggest that Zárate was well versed in the artistic theory of his time and was almost certainly familiar with Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti's Discorso intorno alle imagini sacre e profane (1582). Our annotated edition of the Spanish text, with a short introduction and a verse translation into English, seeks to provide the basis for a better understanding of the poem.