This course will survey the ways in which strategies of collecting and display developed in the West from c. 1500 to the mid-nineteenth century. Drawing on examples from Italy, France, Britain, Germany and the early years of the American republic, it will explore the history of a broad range of modes of collecting, as well as issues such as antiquarianism, connoisseurship, and the rise of the public art museum. The museum will be examined in its social context, and in relation to other culturally important institutions, including the art market, the academy, the court, and the nation-state.