[waps]

Keep in mind that Italy had 2-3000 artists out of a population of > 5 million. Most artists were rich aristocrats or their proteges. Comparing their lives to today's lower classes ... well yes.

And yes they had time. They had space. That's about all they had though. Sex. With the kids that came of it of course.

What will (eventually) follow the energy glut ? In some ways that's easy to predict and in some ways really hard. 1) cities will operate independently from states 2) there will be some group (ethnic maybe, or religious, or ideological) that will play robbers. Kill and rob, along the roads between cities 3) vast majority of people move back into agriculture 4) at least 80% of the population starve 5) wars about the remaining resources before it runs out, for a century or two before 1-4 start to really happen

Of course this only needs to happen if we do run out of energy, which frankly seems unlikely.

[contingencies]

I'm no expert on European history but I do think your example of Italy in such a period, despite the stupendous romance of the western art world for its painterly accomplishments, should probably be viewed as only one pre-modern human situation. Still earlier on and in proximity I think you would find more interesting situations, for example all of the great steppe metalwork (gold, etc.) preserved from the Slavic lands eastwards, bronze work from the eastern Mediterranean, the great art of Central Asia, Iran and India, Tang China, the Zomian region, etc. These places show not only metal work but textiles, architecture and utilitarian objects of beauty that in many cases strongly suggests a common wealth that truly permeated societies.

Re: end of empire energy failure - yeah, I agree a doomsday situation is far-fetched (but don't tell the deep Americans digging bunkers and stocking up on ammo! We may need them yet! ;). Serious systemic reform, on the other hand, is but a certainty... purely a matter of time.

(PS. I love threads like this!)