Art and magic in the court of the Stuarts

"Vaughan Hart examines the influence of magic on Renaissance art in the Stuart Court. This period, spanning from the inauguration of James I to the execution of Charles I, saw art, in its role as an element of royal propaganda, used to represent the power of the monarch and his apparent command over the hidden forces of nature. Court artists therefore sought to represent magic as an expression of the Stuart Kings' Divine Right, and later of their policy of absolutism. Court masques, sermons, heraldry, gardens, architecture and processions represented the self-image of the Stuart monarch. Magic of the kind enshrined in Neoplatonic philosophy and the court art which expressed its notion of the cosmos played its part in the causes of the Civil War and the destruction of the Stuart image which ensued."--Provided by the publisher.