The 15th and 16th centuries saw a marked increase in the number of publications and works of art focusing on the influence of the stars on human life. The leading courts in Europe used astrology for propaganda and promotion, sponsoring figurative cycles of enormous complexity and outstanding beauty. The theme of the "children of the planets" was especially popular, fuelling a vast pictorial output on the influence that the heavenly bodies exert on individuals at the time of birth, determining both their intellectual and practical aptitudes and their character. The rebirth of interest in Hermetism and Pythagoreanism prompted the production of texts and illustrations highlighting mathematical and musical harmony as a feature of both macrocosm and microcosm.