The wealthy and influential, trying to distinguish themselves by being patrons of the arts, invested massively in all forms of art, creating a widespread appreciation of it in all the social classes.A. The wealthy and influential, trying to distinguish themselves by being patrons of the arts, invested massively in all forms of art, creating a widespread appreciation of it in all the social classes.
B. The wealthy and influencing personalities, trying to distinguish themselves by being patrons of the arts, invested massively in all forms of art and created a widespread appreciation of it in all the social classes.
C. The wealthy and influential, trying to distinguish themselves as the patrons of the arts, invested massively in all forms of art, creating a widespread appreciation of them in all the social classes.
D. The wealthy and influential, trying to distinguish themselves by being patrons of the arts, made massive investment in all forms of art by creating a widespread appreciation of it in all the social classes.
E. The wealthy and influential, trying to distinguish themselves by being patrons of the arts, made massive investment in all forms of art and created a widespread appreciation of it in all the social classes
A comma + verb+ ing modifier describes either an extension, an impact or the result of the main action. This is what we want in this context. Therefore A fits in well.
B, on the contrary, uses a finite verb for describing a result. This criticism holds good also for E.
Art is a singular noun and therefore its pronoun should be 'it' and not 'them'--- Remove C.
D and E are stylistically flawed because of V -A -N) (the verb first, the adjective the second, and the noun finally)