This session will explore the social implications of intimacy in the production, reception, and circulation of early modern art. Among the questions that could be addressed are: How did artists deploy particular media or exploit the material qualities of their works to craft advantageous intimacies with their desired constituents’ To what ends did patrons ask artists to portray socially intimate relationships’ In what ways did the display or circulation of works help to shape intimacy, whether through forging or fissuring bonds’ Could depicted gestures or acts of intimacy slip out of containment to challenge the boundaries of appropriate social intimacy? What are the implications of viewing art in intimate architectural spaces’ Proposals that explore social tensions in early modern intimacies as defined through representation and reception are particularly welcome.