Risks in Renaissance Art
Production, Purchase, and Reception
Published on 13. March 2024
106 pages
978-1-009-40252-1 (ISBN)
Description
This Element represents the first systematic study of the risks borne by those who produced, commissioned, and purchased art, across Renaissance Europe. It employs a new methodology, built around concepts from risk analysis and decision theory. The Element classifies scores of documented examples of losses into 'production risks', which arise from the conception of a work of art until its final placement, and 'reception risks', when a patron, a buyer, or viewer finds a work displeasing, inappropriate, or offensive. Significant risks must be tamed before players undertake transactions. The Element discusses risk-taming mechanisms operating society-wide: extensive communication flows, social capital, and trust, and the measures individual participants took to reduce the likelihood and consequences of losses. Those mechanisms were employed in both the patronage-based system and the modern open markets, which predominated respectively in Southern and Northern Europe.
Reviews / Votes
'This book prompts new thinking about Renaissance failure and loss ... that risk was a significant factor in Renaissance art-making becomes abundantly clear. Indeed, it is impressive that painters succeeded at all, given the many obstacles that they faced before they had even picked up a brush. Ultimately, this book raises important questions about the structures that underline artmaking in the early modern period, and how risk in equal measures motivated and deterred artists.' Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Renaissance QuarterlyMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
File size
8,41 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-009-40252-1 (9781009402521)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Jonathan K. Nelson | Richard J. Zeckhauser
Risks in Renaissance Art
Production, Purchase, and Reception
Book
03/2024
Cambridge University Press
€78.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Jonathan K. Nelson | Richard J. Zeckhauser
Risks in Renaissance Art
Production, Purchase, and Reception
Book
03/2024
Cambridge University Press
€24.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Persons
Content
1. Understanding risks in the renaissance; 2. Production risks: sources and their control; 3. Reception risks: inappropriate iconography and substandard skill; 4. Risky business: northern images after the reformation, by Larry Silver; 5. Three tales of trust and risk reduction; References.
