Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T09:29:32.952Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Economics of Renaissance Art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2018

Federico Etro
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I analyzed the market of paintings in Florence and Italy (1285–1550). Hedonic regressions on real prices allowed me to advance evidence that the market was competitive and that an important determinant of artistic innovation was driven by economic incentives. Price differentials reflected quality differentials between painters as perceived at the time (whose proxy is the length of the biography of Vasari) and did not depend on regional destinations, as expected under monopolistic competition with free entry. An inverse-U relation between prices and age of execution is consistent with reputational theories of artistic effort, and prices increased since the 1420s.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 78 , Issue 2 , June 2018 , pp. 500 - 538
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 The Economic History Association 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I am extremely grateful to the Editor Ann Carlos and two referees for many suggestions that improved this article, Paolo Malanima for suggestions on data analysis, Paolo Bertoletti, Luciano Canova, David Galenson, Paul Milgrom, and Andrei Shleifer for discussions on the topic and especially Elena Stepanova for outstanding research assistance. The usual disclaimer applies.

References

Antal, Frederick. Florentine Painting and its Social Background. The Bourgeois Republic before Cosimo de’ Medici’s Advent to Power: Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth Centuries. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1944.Google Scholar
Bakker, Gerben. “The Decline and Fall of the European Film Industry: Sunk Costs, Market Size, and Market Structure, 1890–1927.” Economic History Review 58, no. 2 (2005): 310–351.Google Scholar
Baumol, William, and Baumol, Hilda. “On the Economics of Musical Composition in Mozart’s Vienna.” Journal of Cultural Economics 18, no. 3 (1994): 171–198.Google Scholar
Baumol, William, and Mary, Oates. “On the Economics of the Theater in Renaissance London.” Swedish Journal of Economics 74, no. 1 (1972): 136–160.Google Scholar
Baxandall, Michael. Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy: A Primer in the Social History of Pictorial Style. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972.Google Scholar
Berenson, Bernard. The Italian Painters of the Renaissance. New York: Phaidon Press, 1952.Google Scholar
Bertoletti, Paolo, and Federico, Etro. “Preferences, Entry, and Market Structure.” RAND Journal of Economics 47, no. 4 (2016): 792–821.Google Scholar
Bertoletti, Paolo, and Etro, Federico. “Monopolistic Competition when Income Matters.” Economic Journal 127, no. 603 (2017): 1217–1243.Google Scholar
Binaghi Olivari, Maria Teresa. Bernardino Luini. Milano: Electa, 2007.Google Scholar
Borowiecki, Karol J. “Artistic Creativity and Extreme Events: The Heterogeneous Impact of War on Composers’ Production.” Poetics, no. 47 (2014): 83–105.Google Scholar
Borowiecki, Karol J. “Historical Origins of Cultural Supply in Italy.” Oxford Economic Papers 67, no. 3 (2015): 781–805.Google Scholar
Borowiecki, Karol J. “How are you, My Dearest Mozart? Well-being and Creativity of Three Famous Composers Based on Their Letters.” Review of Economics and Statistics, 2016, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Brown, Judith C. “Prosperity or Hard Times in Renaissance Italy?” Renaissance Quarterly 42, no. 4 (1989): 761–780.Google Scholar
Carlos, Ann M. “Principal-agent Problems in Early Trading Companies: A Tale of Two Firms.” American Economic Review 82, no. 2 (1992): 140–145.Google Scholar
Carlos, Ann M., and Nicholas, Stephen. “Agency Problems in Early Chartered Companies: The Case of the Hudson’s Bay Company.” Journal of Economic History 50, no. 4 (1990): 853–875.Google Scholar
Caves, Richard. Creative Industries. Contracts between Art and Commerce. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Cecchini, Isabella. Quadri e Commercio a Venezia durante il Seicento. Venice: Cini Foundation, 2000.Google Scholar
Chamberlin, Edward H. The Theory of Monopolistic Competition: A Re-orientation of the Theory of Value. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1933.Google Scholar
Coltrinari, Francesca, and Delpriori, Alessandro. Vittore Crivelli. Venezia: Marsilio Editore, 2011.Google Scholar
Cowen, Tyler. In Praise of Commercial Culture. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
De Marchi, Neil, and van Miegroet, Hans J.. “The History of Art Markets.” In Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, edited by Victor, Ginsburgh and David, Thorsby, Vol. 1, 69–122. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2006.Google Scholar
Dixit, Avinash, and Stiglitz, Joseph. “Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity.” American Economic Review 67, no. 3 (1977): 297–308.Google Scholar
Epstein, Stephan. “Craft Guilds, Apprenticeship, and Technological Change in Preindustrial Europe.” Journal of Economic History 58, no. 3 (1998): 684–713.Google Scholar
Etro, Federico, and Pagani, Laura. “The Market for Paintings in Italy during the Seventeenth Century.” Journal of Economic History 72, no. 2 (2012): 423–447.Google Scholar
Etro, Federico, and Pagani, Laura. “The Market for Paintings in the Venetian Republic from Renaissance to Rococo.” Journal of Cultural Economics 37, no. 4 (2013): 391–415.Google Scholar
Etro, Federico, Marchesi, Silvia, and Pagani, Laura. “The Labor Market in the Art Sector of Baroque Rome.” Economic Inquiry 53, no. 1 (2015): 365–387.Google Scholar
Etro, Federico, and Stepanova, Elena. “The Market for Paintings in Paris between Rococo and Romanticism.” Kyklos 68, no. 1 (2015): 28–50.Google Scholar
Etro, Federico, and Stepanova, Elena. “Entry of Painters in the Amsterdam Market of the Golden Age.” Journal of Evolutionary Economics 26, no. 2 (2016): 317–348.Google Scholar
Etro, Federico, and Stepanova, Elena. “Art Collections and Taste in the Spanish Siglo de Oro.” Journal of Cultural Economics 41, no. 3 (2017a): 309–335.Google Scholar
Etro, Federico, and Stepanova, Elena. “Art Auctions and Art Investment in the Golden Age of British Painting.” Scottish Journal of Political Economy 64, no. 2 (2017b): 191–225.Google Scholar
Galenson, David. Painting outside the Lines Patterns of Creativity in Modern Art. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Galenson, David. Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Goldthwaite, Richard A. The Building of Renaissance Florence: An Economic and Social History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Goldthwaite, Richard A. Wealth and the Demand for Art in Italy, 1300–1600. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Goldthwaite, Richard A. The Economy of Renaissance Florence. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Greenstein, Jack M. “Leonardo, Mona Lisa, and ‘La Gioconda.’ Reviewing the Evidence.” Artibus et Historiae 25, no. 50 (2004): 17–38.Google Scholar
Haskell, Francis. Patrons and Painters: Art and Society in Baroque Italy. New York: Alfred N. Knopf, 1982.Google Scholar
Hauser, Arnold. The Social History of Art. London: Routledge, 1951.Google Scholar
Heilbrun, James, and Gray, Charles M.. The Economics of Art and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Holmstrom, Bengt. “Moral Hazard and Observability.” Bell Journal of Economics 10, no. 1 (1979): 74–91.Google Scholar
Jensen, Robert. “Anticipating Artistic Behavior.” Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History 37, no. 4 (2004): 137–154.Google Scholar
Klein, Benjamin, and Leffler, Keith. “The Role of Market Forces in Assuring Contractual Performance.” Journal of Political Economy 89, no. 4 (1981): 615–641.Google Scholar
Kreps, David, and Wilson, Robert. “Reputation and Imperfect Information.” Journal of Economic Theory 27 (1982): 253–279.Google Scholar
Kris, Ernst, and Kurz, Otto. Legend, Myth, and Magic in the Image of the Artist: A Historical Experiment. Vienna: Krystall Verlag, 1934.Google Scholar
Levin, Jon. “Relational Incentive Contracts.” American Economic Review 93, no. 3 (2003): 835–857.Google Scholar
Longhi, Roberto. Breve ma Veridica Storia della Pittura Italiana. Firenze: Sansoni, 1914.Google Scholar
Lopez, Robert S. Hard Times and Investment in Culture. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1953.Google Scholar
MacLeod, W. Bentley, and Malcomson, Jim. “Reputation and Hierarchy in Dynamic Models of Employment.” Journal of Political Economy 96, no. 4 (1988): 832–855.Google Scholar
Maginnis, Hayden. The World of the Early Sienese Painters. Philadelphia: Penn State Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Mailath, George, and Samuelson, Larry. “Who Wants a Good Reputation?” Review of Economic Studies 68, no. 2 (2001): 415–441.Google Scholar
Mailath, George, and Samuelson, Larry. Repeated Games and Reputations. Long-run relationships. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Melitz, Marc. “The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity.” Econometrica 71, no. 6 (2003): 1695–1725.Google Scholar
Nelson, Jonathan, and Zeckhauser, Richard. The Patron’s Payoff. Conspicuous Commission in Italian Renaissance Art. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Ogilvie, Sheilagh. “Guilds, Efficiency, and Social Capital: Evidence from German Proto-industry.” Economic History Review 57, no. 2 (2004): 286–333.Google Scholar
O’Malley, Michelle. The Business of Art. Contracts and the Commissioning Process in Renaissance Italy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
O’Malley, Michelle. Painting under Pressure: Fame, Reputation and Demand in Renaissance Florence. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
O’Malley, Michelle, and Welch, Evelyn. The Material Renaissance. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Padoa Rizzo, Anna. Benozzo Gozzoli. Milan: Silvana Editore, 2003.Google Scholar
Panofsky, Erwin. Die Perspektive als symbolische Form. Vortrage der Bibliothek Warburg, 1927.Google Scholar
Pinchera, Valeria. “The Art Market in the Early Modern Florence (1600–1700): Buying Paintings in Seventeenth Century.” Mimeograph, University of Pisa, 2014.Google Scholar
Scarpellini, Pietro, and Silvestrelli, Maria Rita. Pintoricchio. Milan: Federico Motta Editore, 2003.Google Scholar
Settis, Salvatore. “Artisti e Committenti fra quattro e Cinquecento.” In Annali della Storia d’Italia, IV. Intellettuali e potere, 701–761. Torino: Einaudi, 1981.Google Scholar
Spear, Richard E., and Sohm, Philip. Painting for Profit. The Economic Lives of Seventeenth-Century Italian Painters. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Sutton, John. Sunk Costs and Market Structure: Price Competition, Advertising, and the Evolution of Concentration. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Vasari, Giorgio. Le Vite de’ più Eccellenti Pittori, Scultori e Architettori. Florence, 1568.Google Scholar
Wackernagel, Martin. Der Lebensraum des Künstlers in der florentinischen Renaissance. Berlin: E.A. Seemann, 1938.Google Scholar
Warburg, Aby. Gesammelte Schriften. Die Erneuerung der heidnischen Antike. Kulturwissenschaftliche Beiträge zur Geschichte der europäischen Renaissance. Leipzig-Berlin: B.G. Teubner, 1932.Google Scholar
Wittkower, Rudolf, and Wittkower, Margot, Born under Saturn. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1963.Google Scholar
White, John. The Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space. New York: Thomas yoseloff, 1958.Google Scholar
Wölfflin, Heinrich. Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe. Bruckmann, München, 1915.Google Scholar
Zöllner, Frank. Leonardo da Vinci: 1452–1519: The Complete Paintings and Drawings. Colone: Taschen, 2015.Google Scholar