The Court

During the Renaissance the courts of European monarchs formed the centre of cultural and political life. Members of the aristocracy came to the court for recreation, to enloy the culture but also to do business. Business and pleasure were not as seperated as they are today.

The way of life at court was determined by strict rules and customs. These rules and customs were described in conduct books, boos that described how people should behave in certain situations. An example is The Courtier. This book, published in 1528, was written by Baldasare Castiglione. This book had an enormous influence all over Europe during the 16th century. It described the perfect example of a gentleman. The book portrayed a true "Renaissance man": "a man with a wide range of talens or interests."² Castiglione described a man "who could compose a sonnet, wrestle, sing a song, accompany himself on an instrument, ride expertly, solve difficult mathematical problems and, above all, speak and write eloquently."³

The book also presented a model for gentlewomen. But this model did nothing more than confirm the idea that the ideal woman was the perfect wife and mother. The courtier, the man that was described in the book, "became the model of the European gentleman"³ in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The monarch and the aristocracy, the people with money and resources, were patrons of all sorts of art: painting, sculpting, tapestries, poetry, plays and music. A patron would commision an artist to create something and then pay the artist for it. As a result the artists were very dependent on their patrons. They could, for instance, not afford to make or write something their patrons would not agree with.