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Judging by the success of films like The Favourite to TV series like The Crown and Victoria, contemporary viewing audiences are fascinated by the lives and lifestyles of historical queens. These filmed portrayals fixate on queens' sexual behavior and offer voyeuristic pleasure in sumptuous sets and costumes. Politics and power relations are figured primarily through sexuality, maternity, and personal relationships. This panel hopes to probe the image and characterization of queenship in the long 18th century as portrayed in visual arts and popular culture of the time and in relationship to our own era. Did queens have as much (or as little) power as we see in these films? How did the relationship of queens to luxury industries influence public opinion? How did the structure of courts and queenship change visibly as the century moved towards revolution? Topics might include: the body of the queen vs. the king in art, literature and the popular press; propaganda and slander; dress, makeup or ornament; the politics of reproduction; divinity and corporeality; caricatures and portraits; political marriages and alliances; patronage of the arts and architecture.