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1. ConceptA regency (French régence) in general denotes the government of a country by a regent in the absence or minority of the sovereign. The term is also applied to epochs in European cultural history, especially the early 18th-century  Régence in France and the Regency period in Britain in the early 19th century.Katrin Simona Knopp2. Régence (France)Historically speaking, the Régence is the period between the death of King Louis XIV (1715) and the declaration of the majority of Louis XV (1723), during which Duke Philippe II of Orléans acted as…

1. Concept and originsThe ut pictura poesis  discourse (Latin “as painting, so poetry”) in the early modern period was dominated by reception of the  Ars poetica of Horace (14 bce; found on line 361ff.), who had himself taken up a maxim of Simonides of Ceos (6th century bce) preserved by Plutarch ( De gloria Atheniensium 346F), to the effect that painting was mute poetry and poetry spoken painting [6]. Humanists and artists of the early modern period used Horace’s dictum to elevate painting to the ranks of the artes liberales, and from the 16th century onwards to pursue t…

1. DefinitionVeduta (Italian “view,” pl.  vedute) is the name given to a topographically exact painting or drawing of a town or landscape view. It belongs to the genre of landscape painting. Vedute evolved in the 17th century in the context of the Grand Tour, and reached the height of their popularity in the 18th century. Precursors dating back to the late Middle Ages and Renaissance existed in the form of town images of various kinds (Urban landscape).Katrin Simona Knopp2. Late Middle Ages and RenaissanceTown views are regularly seen in the backgrounds of sacred and p…

1. Definition A  castrum doloris (‘castle of grief’; German Trauergerüst, in Grimm also Trauerburg, Trauerbühne – ‘sepulchral scaffold/tower/stage’ [1]) is an architectural structure that was increasingly used from the beginning of the early modern period for the public viewing of deceased prominent personalities or their effigies (see below, 2.). This was thus a form of ephemeral festival decoration as an element of sepulchral culture, since it was only put up for the duration of the funeral rites (exequies) inside a space that was generally consecrated and open to the public. The  c…