Baroque Commons: Visions of Natural Sovereignty in Global Crisis By Fabien Montcher

https://www.academia.edu/143686771/Baroque_Commons_Visions_of_Natural_Sovereignty_in_Global_Crisis?email_work_card=title This paper explores the concept of baroque commons—idealized visual representations of nature created by elite families in early modern Europe amid environmental disruption, confessional unrest, and global crisis. Due to fears of natural chaos and social instability, dynastic powers turned to theatrical images of harmonious landscapes, gardens, and symbolic maps to assert control over both real and imagined spaces. These representations not only legitimized territorial expansion and bonded labor but also reframed nature as a manageable and sovereign domain. Focusing on transregional 17th-century campaigns of families such as the Farnese and Borghese, this study examines how baroque commons served as tools of environmental imperialism and dynastic self-promotion, offering new insight into the entangled politics of nature, image-making, and power during a global age of crisis. In this article, Prince Ottavio Farnese’s dissertation served as a key text in promoting baroque commons, using visual and textual strategies to advance dynastic claims and assert control over nature amid environmental and political upheaval.