PRINCES AND ARTISTS: Patronage and Ideology at...

PRINCES AND ARTISTS: Patronage and Ideology at Four Habsburg Courts 1517-1633 by Hugh Trevor-Roper (Thames & Hudson: $17.95). The noted British historian argues that the art commissioned by various 16th-Century rulers served as a vehicle for the ideology that dominated their courts. The cultivated taste of Emperor Charles V reflected the optimism of the early Humanist movement at the beginning of his reign--and its bitter failure when he abdicated in 1555; in contrast, the grim palace of the Escorial epitomized vast power and resolute Catholicism of his son, Philip II of Spain. Emperor Rudolf II was fascinated by science, alchemy, mysticism and the recherche work of the Mannerist artists, while the paintings commissioned from Rubens by “the Archdukes,” Albert and Isabella, captured the resurgent strength of the southern Netherlands.