@Andrej: "professional artists" --- Yes, there were and there are such artists in contemporary authoritarian regimes, having more or less the same use as in the Middle Ages.

However, we should not be 'primed' to misjudge their condition. The great artists of the Renaissance were serving the rich people in power. The Popes, Kings, Dukes of the Middle Ages were fierce despots, even if cultivated, warriors, sanguinary tyrants etc.

Many of the artists we admire now, Da Vinci, Rafael, Michelangelo included, were paid by someone rich or in power.

Louis XIV, le roi soleil, used official painters like Charles le Brun, or Pierre Mignard. David was the official painter of Napoleon, and many other used their talents to paint in flattering ways his big family, brother, sisters etc. Goya was the court painter for king Charles IV. The list can go on.

On the contrary, the penmen who disapproved or criticized the kings and emperors had big problems. See the exile of Voltaire or Victor Hugo, for example.

The Easter European authoritarian regimes were not very original, after all.

Source author: Petru Dumitriu PetruD@diplomacy.edu