During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries much of the most innovative art and architecture in Europe and Asia was produced in the major courts. From London to Kyoto, courts sponsored architecture intended to support their political power as well as painting, sculpture, and furnishings that sustained the impression of their magnificence. Focusing on the Medici, Hapsburg, Bourbon, Stuart, Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal courts this module will explore the ways in which the arts succeeded and failed to support these rulers and the impact of their production upon the emergence of modern consumer culture as well as the more general transformation of society. Particular attention will be paid to the role of women as patrons, including as agents of cultural transfer.

Students should be able to identify and analyse the chief works of art created at the major sixteenth and seventeenth century courts covered by the module; they should be able to identify and analyse the way in which art functioned within these courts; and they should be able to identify and analyse the impact that patronage, including that of women, had upon the production of art in these societies.