High Renaissance and Baroque: Rembrandt to Wren (Plus Gallery Talks)

During the seventeenth century Europe was dominated politically and artistically by France, and Louis XIV’s palaces, gardens and court life would be widely imitated.  Spain also saw a flowering of art and architecture for both church and state, while the Netherlands developed a new type of market, with buyers going to shops and auctions rather than commissioning works directly from artists. In the same period England’s leading Baroque architect, Christopher Wren, designed palaces for the Stuart kings, while his church buildings combined Baroque grandeur with Protestant simplicity. Across Europe luxury goods such as lacquer, textiles, and ceramics, started to arrive from the East in great quantities. Imported tea and coffee became fashionable drinks and fine wares were produced to serve them.