The Medicis were a banking family who gained power in Florence during the fifteenth century and held sway for over two hundred years in the Northern Italian city state. While controlling the wheels of state, the Medicis were also important patrons of important Renaissance artists, making great strides in art possible in the sixteenth century. In particular, artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Botticelli were only able to make the works they did because of the protections of the Medicis.

Caravaggio (1571-1610) built on earlier Renaissance paintings that used naturalistic poses and deep use of contrast and color, but pushed them into almost new forms. Caravaggio focused on emotional themes through natural pose and extremely sharp contrasts between dark and light elements in his paintings. These refinements were key to the development of the Baroque style of the seventeenth century.

These paintings are two classic examples of Dutch painting from the seventeenth century: Figure 3 presents The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn (1642), and Figure 4 shows The Astronomer by Johannes Vermeer (1668). Both exhibit typical features of Dutch golden age painting, including strong contrasts and vivid colors, which are used to portray important Dutchmen of the day.

Figure 3: The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn (1642)

Figure 4: The Astronomer by Johannes Vermeer (1668)

The men in the foreground of Rembrandt van Rijn's The Night Watch all carry muskets and wave banners, indicative of militia soldiers in the seventeenth century. The captain, Frans Banning Cocq, was an actual leader of a militia, and Rembrandt intentionally captured his company. It was also intentional on the artist's part to show their supporters behind them.

Figure 3: The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn (1642)

Figure 4: The Astronomer by Johannes Vermeer (1668)

Francisco de Goya became the court painter to King Charles IV of Spain in the 1790s, and made many portraits of the royal family until Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808. This painting, Charles IV of Spain and His Family, was made in 1801, and shows a dynasty trying to keep itself together.

Figure 1: Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez (1656)

Figure 2: Charles IV of Spain and His Family Francisco de Goya (1801)

After the German priest Martin Luther inaugurated the Protestant Reformation in 1519, the Roman Catholic Church made various attempts to reinforce itself. In the mid-sixteenth century, the Counter-Reformation came about, during which Catholicism sought to address the criticisms of the Protestant Reformation while remaining loyally Catholic. Carvaggio's painting of the disciples encountering the risen Jesus at Emmaus is emblematic of this trend, as the work shows shows a realistic, devotional, and personal religion that nonetheless has a focus on mysticism and traditional Church doctrine.

Figure 3: The Annunciation (Cortona) by Fra Angelico (1433)

Figure 4: Supper at Emmaus (Milan) by Caravaggio (1606)

Rembrandt van Rijn, like other Dutch Masters of the seventeenth century, painted different images from other European painters, thanks to the Netherlands' unique religious and political situation. As a Protestant-majority nation that was ruled by the Spanish monarch, court paintings, images of Roman antiquity, and classical mythology were unpopular subjects among the Dutch in the seventeenth century. As such, the most popular subjects for Rembrandt were scenes from the Bible, especially the New Testament.

The lapis lazuli stone was mined in Afghanistan and Pakistan since the seventh millennium BCE. In the early Renaissance, it was finally imported to Europe, where the paint produced from lapis lazuli from the stone became highly valued. This paint was widely used in Renaissance art for the blue robe of the Virgin Mary; it is also widely associated with the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.

Impressionists had less of an interest in painting works with religious themes while Baroque artists often engaged with these themes. Impressionism emerged in France while Baroque art gained popularity across Western Europe. Both Impressionists and Baroque artists had an interest in portraiture and the everyday world. Both kinds of artists showed an interest in capturing light on the canvas. 

Rubens derived great insight into European politics from his diplomatic missions, and never ceased to promote peace. He used Allegory of the Outbreak of War to express his horror at the Thirty Years War and promote his message of peace.