'An invaluable book...a powerful reading of paintings and sculpture as texts of power in early modern England.' - Professor Kevin Sharpe, University of Southampton In a survey which ranges widely from the building of Henry VII's palaces to the proposed monument to Charles I by Wren, David Howarth examines aspects of the visual arts in the English Renaissance to consider what they meant for those who commissioned them and those at whom they were directed. A variety of artefacts are considered for what they can tell us of the values of the court in early modern England.