The late 16th and 17th centuries are frequently labelled the age of theatre. Throughout western Europe, the dramatic arts attained new heights of cultural prestige, political importance and commercial success. This series of essays investigates the dialogue between the newly invigorated theatre and the plastic arts. Discussed are the interactions between spectator and spectacle, social performance and the staging of the individual, the shaping of space and time, and the debates over the relationship that visual and theatrical representations have to the objects they portray.