The seminar aspires to take responsibility for the contemporary call to imagine a "global" art history. To do so, it will consider the period of most intense interaction between naval power provided both trade and conflict (colonies). This is also the era of "gunpowder" empires and the rise of centralized, large-scale, dynastic states from East Asia to Western Europe. In addition to new forms of visual culture, such as maps, this is also a moment of enhanced artistic exchange through travel, leading to the formation of large collections, including "exotic" objects. Emphasis will focus on shared readings and will also endeavor to consider other world regions, chiefly Islamic Asia and East Asia, along with emerging colonial regions, such as Spanish America, alongside Europe, considered broadly.