We look at the waning influence of the church and the aristocracy in Europe and the way that the decadence of the old order gives way to reason and democracy throughout the 18th Century.

1. The Enlightenment

2. Hyacinthe Rigaud, Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre, 1701

3. Palace at Versailles, 1682

4. Hall of Mirrors, Palace at Versailles, 1682

5. Marie Antoinette's Bedroom, Palace at Versailles, 1682

6. François Boucher, Venus Consoling Love, 1751

7. Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767

8. Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784

9. Jacques-Louis David, Death of Socrates, 1786

10. Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Marat, 1793

11. Jacques-Louis David, Napolean Crossing the Alps, 1800-01

12. Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe, 1770

13. Charles Willson Peale, Benjamin Franklin, 1789