Courtly art

"The aim of courtly art is to produce representative objects. This art is created individually by artists invited to royal or magnate courts, but received collectively, by the court. Sacral and courtly art are part of everyday practice, part of the religious courtly life, which fundamentally distinguishes both these forms of art from autonomous art."

"The stereotyped style of cultic representations was well known as early as the Neolithic age, but the stiffly ceremonial forms of courtly art are absolutely new and come into prominence here for the first time in the history of human culture. They reflect the rule of a higher, superindividual social order, of a world which owes its greatness and splendour to the favour of the king. They are anti-individualistic, static and conventional... All the good things and the charms of life are connected, for the privileged members of this society, with their separation from the other classes, and all the maxims which they follow assume more or less the character of rules of decorum and etiquette. This decorum and etiquette, the whole self-stylization of the upper class, demand among other things that one does not allow oneself to be portrayed as one really is, but according to how one must appear to conform with certain hallowed conventions, remote from reality and the present time. Etiquette is the highest law not merely for the ordinary mortal, but also for the king, and in the imagination of this society even the gods accept the forms of courtly ceremonial."

"The term 'courtly art' had already been introduced by Lavachery in describing Lunda art. The originality of courtly art lies in its ability to integrate diversified techniques and sources of inspiration. The first contribution comes from popular artistic tradition, notably in the form of a very elaborate, basketwork technique, as evidenced by the circumcision masks."

"Our knowledge of courtly art and entertainment has recently enjoyed a remarkable advancement as a result of this trend. Great interest in courtly art has been reflected, for instance, in a number of medievalist studies, Angus Fletcher's The Transcendental Masque (its first three chapters are as good a prolegomenon for the study of Renaissance courtly art as I know of), the Inigo Jones quatercentenary in 1973, the works of Roy Strong and Stephen Orgel, the Fetes de la Renaissance series edited by Jean Jacquot, and the facsimile reprinting of many important iconologies and other texts on fine arts in the Renaissance."

"The central and most general preoccupation of courtly art is the praise and encouragement of a healthy civitas ox polis."