Final answer:
Leaders have historically used art and architecture to legitimize their rule by symbolizing power, identity, and political ideology. Monumental structures, decorative arts, and visual propaganda served to communicate authority and reinforce a ruler's claim to sovereignty.
Step-by-step explanation:
Throughout history, leaders have used art and architecture to legitimize their rule by visually communicating their power, legacy, and divine or ideological right to govern. Public structures like temples and palaces were adorned with gold, colored stones, and sculptures, both for decoration and structural support. Triumphal arches, with their fusion of architecture and sculpture, served a symbolic and ornamental purpose in Ancient Rome, embodying the power and triumph of the rulers. Magnificent structures like mosques, madrasas, and palaces were often commissioned by sultans and caliphs to visibly assert their power and reinforce their legitimacy within their capitals.
In the case of Ilkhanid and Mamluk rulers, they emphasized their right to rule by engaging with Persian poets to write them into history and commissioning artists to illustrate these narratives. Similarly, European monarchs like Louis XIV used classicizing art styles and established institutions like the Royal Academy of Fine Arts to control and disseminate art in support of monarchy. The use of art and architecture for asserting power can also be seen in the propaganda images of leaders like Stalin, who carried on a tradition of using monumental statuary for propaganda, reminiscent of Roman emperors.
By creating grandeur in their public works, from the Great Mosque's mosaics asserting Islamic supremacy to Louis XIV's Palace of Versailles exemplifying absolute monarchy, leaders throughout history have effectively used the visual medium to establish and reinforce their legitimacy.