1. How did European artistic culture change during the eighteenth century? What happened to the tradition of aristocratic patronage? What role did the middle class play in the new culture?
2. Who were the major literary figures of eighteenth-century Britain? What are their most notable works? What thematic issues did they explore, and what formal innovations did some of them introduce or develop?
3. What literary works did the French philosophes compose? What forms did they tend to prefer, and how did they use those forms to express their philosophical, social, and political ideas?
4. What are the basic characteristics of Rococo art? How did they develop, and how do they differ from the characteristics of Baroque art?
5. How did Rococo painting develop in France? Who were the leading painters, and what were the defining characteristics of their styles? How did moral genre painting rise in opposition to Rococo? Who promoted that style, and who was the major French practitioner of it?
6. Who were the leading painters of this period in England? What subjects did they generally prefer, and what are the characteristics of their styles? What special role did Reynolds play in defining the course of eighteenth-century English painting?
7. How did Rococo architecture develop in France and Germany, and who were the leading designers? What architectural style became most popular in England, and how did that style differ from both Baroque and Rococo architecture?
8. How did music theory change during the late eighteenth century? Who were the major theorists, and what ideas did they articulate?
9. How did Enlightenment values find expression in the arts of the eighteenth century? What styles did Enlightenment thinkers oppose, and what styles did they favor, and why?