Renaissance and Baroque stardom

During most of the 17th and early parts of the 18th centuries Europe was at war. most of the European countries had to deal with a lot of Political and religious factions. Which lead to the widespread of unrest and warfare. most of the war was largely rooted in conflict between militant catholics and militant protestants. This was the driving force in the shift to secular, dynastic and nationalistic concerns. The wars were concluded with the Treaty of West Phelia in 1648 and was responsible for the reconstruction of most of Europe. The treaty in essence granted freedom of religious choice through out Europe. This ended the ideal of a united christian Europe; markets expanded with growth of long-distance trade, rising profits and a wider range of goods.
The Bank of Amsterdam was founded by the Dutch in 1609 which became the center of European transfer banking. Merchant firms held money on account with the transport of precious metals as payment. Exposure to an array of goods affected the Europeans diets, coffee and tea became explosively popular. Sugar and tobacco growth expanded, this lead to the enslavement of Africans as a way of meeting the expanded demand for these commodities. Better ship building and competition between the countries lead to geographic exploration.
The Catholic church began to launch their counter reformation to challenge the protestants reformation. The Pope and clergy continued to be a major artistic patron restoring Catholicism's predominance and centrality. With this, artist became ever more famous as their works became more dynamic, complex, larger and more elaborate with the grand scale of the architecture design supporting the aims of the church. This century is characterize b the Italian baroque art and made masters of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael and Caravaggio like no others.
Do we have artistic masters today? I would say yes! I truly believe that there has to be masters in every Century. i have always enjoyed looking at works by Goya, Manet, Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh. With today's technology with photos and computers we are moving into a new era, and who knows what will happen as we look back at this Century. maybe we will find our masters. I do not know much about today's art, but I can not wait to find out about it.