Painting for Profit

How did economic conditions influence painters in seventeenth-century Italy? How much did they earn? What is known about their socio-economic status and their aspirations? How did they maximize profits? Did they adjust their prices in response to market pressures, to the costs of production, and to the rise and fall of their reputations? Did prices vary with time and place? In this highly original book, five leading art historians team up with two distinguished economic and social historians to investigate the financial worlds of painters in Baroque Italy. Exploring the many variables that determined the prices asked or received by painters – including the status of their patrons, the size of works and time spent making them, their subject matter, and their number of figures – the authors offer major insights into the social lives, psychological disposition, and economic circumstances of a wide range of major and minor artists.