Neophilia and Old Master paintings: changes in consumer choice and the evolution of art auctions in the eighteenth century

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-389
Author(s):  
BRUNO BLONDÉ ◽  
DRIES LYNA
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Consumer Choice ◽  
Export Market ◽  
Art Auctions ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Old Masters ◽  
Abundant Supply ◽  
Artistic Legacy

abstractOver the course of the eighteenth century the Austrian Netherlands witnessed the emergence of specialised art auctions. In this article we argue that both the evolution of the auctions and of the prices paid for works of art at the auctions can only be understood as a response to changes in consumer culture during the eighteenth century. Although auctions rapidly gained in importance as a commercial arena through which Old Masters could be resold in Antwerp and Brussels, the prices paid for art saw only modest movement during the 1700s, but then collapsed at the end of the century. By analysing both how local demand for art in Austrian Netherlands failed to absorb the abundant supply of paintings during this period, and how this created a flourishing export market, the study reported here maps the mechanisms that ensured the – often permanent – movement of Flanders’ artistic legacy to collections and museums abroad.

Mechanisms for Unity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Black Death ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Church

This chapter investigates changes in mentalities after the Black Death, comparing practices never before analysed in this context—funerary and labour laws and processions to calm God’s anger. While processions were rare or conflictual as in Catania and Messina in 1348, these rituals during later plagues bound communities together in the face of disaster. The chapter then turns to another trend yet to be noticed by historians. Among the multitude of saints and blessed ones canonized from 1348 to the eighteenth century, the Church was deeply reluctant to honour, even name, any of the thousands who sacrificed their lives to succour plague victims, physically or spiritually, especially in 1348: the Church recognized no Black Death martyrs. By the sixteenth century, however, city-wide processions and other communal rituals bound communities together with charity for the poor, works of art, and charitable displays of thanksgiving to long-dead holy men and women.

Decoration and Demon Traps: The Meanings of Geometric Borders in Roman Mosaics

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Manley
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Wave Pattern ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Overall Design ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
Small Stone

The thousands of mosaics that survive from the Greek and especially Roman worlds are taken by many to be one of the great surviving artistic hallmarks of these two classical civilizations. The decorative variety of the floors, made usually and mostly from small stone tesserae, strikes a chord with those who view them as works of art (Neal and Cosh 2002: 9). They appear testimony to the erudition of the patrons who commissioned them, to the skilled artists who composed and executed the designs, and to the knowledge of those ancients who walked over them and who were able to interpret knowingly what was beneath their feet. Viewing them in a museum context, many of us judge them as we would an eighteenth-century watercolour or an early Picasso—the end product of inspirational artistic endeavour. The near complete absence of written references from the ancient world regarding mosaics means that we are forced to generate meanings from the floors themselves. What I want to suggest in this chapter is an alternative way of looking at mosaics. I am going to draw on ethnographic and anthropological research to provide additional insights to the archaeological study of mosaics. I want to argue that there is something to be explained in the sheer constancy of some of the geometric borders on mosaics through the Hellenistic and Roman periods—a period of some seven centuries. This constancy is also apparent in overall design in large areas of the Roman Empire. For instance in the northwest provinces, including Britain, the enduring emphasis is on the pattern, and the picture-panels are fitted within this pattern, often in a series of more or less equally weighted panels. These kinds of stability need their explanations just as much as change does. I particularly want to focus on the abstract and geometric borders—for example the meander, the guilloche, the wave-pattern—and seek to understand why these motifs were utilized across the length and breadth of the Roman Empire. I want to take a different approach to that taken by scholarly interpreters who seek to find layers of meaning in figurative representations and then ascribe them to erudite ancient patrons (pace Perring 2003).

A modern business

Erard ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 24-45
Author(s):  
Robert Adelson
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Modern Approach ◽  
Dual Identity ◽  
Modern Business ◽  
Time And Energy ◽  
New Consumer

In these early years, the Erard firm adopted a surprisingly modern approach to marketing their square pianos and piano organs. Numerous contemporary business concepts are already present, at least in nascent form. The Erards were keen to inspire brand loyalty among their customers, through the wooing of successful musicians, teachers, and dealers, and by offering substantial volume discounts. They also displayed a clear notion of customer service, providing their customers with a sort of mail-order catalogue and reassuring their clients on every detail, from the efficiency of the packing and transport to the quality of their products. The Erards even seemed to subscribe to today’s ‘the customer is always right’ attitude, complying with special requests from musicians. The amount of time and energy the Erards devoted to resolving such problems with their customers demonstrates that the notion of the instrument maker as a solitary artisan, toiling alone in his workshop oblivious to commercial concerns, is a romantic image born in the nineteenth century. The Erards were both artisans and merchants, a dual identity that was necessary in late eighteenth-century Paris, when a new consumer culture coalesced around the hundreds of boutiques of the capital.

scholarly journals Lacan's Sade: The Politics of Happiness

Paragraph ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-401
Author(s):  
Colin Wright
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Sexual Pleasure ◽  
Sexual Freedom ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
Politics Of Happiness

This article assesses the contemporary relevance of Sade's work and thought by returning to Jacques Lacan's interpretation of it. It is argued that if the Sadean emphasis on sexual freedom has been co-opted by neoliberal capitalism, this is in part thanks to avant-garde intellectuals of the twentieth century who approached Sade through a simplistically libidinal reading of Freud. By contrast, the article argues that Lacan's more sophisticated reading of Freud enables him in turn to situate Sade amidst eighteenth-century philosophical and political debates regarding, not sexual pleasure or revolutionary desire, but happiness. Lacan shows that Sade was already challenging the modern, and today market-based, notion of a ‘right to happiness’ with the ‘maxim for jouissance’ he asserted in La Philosophie dans le boudoir. This more troubling Sade, it is claimed, opens up the possibility of a perverse ethic distinct from the ‘polymorphous perversity’ characteristic of contemporary consumer culture and its related conceptions of happiness.

scholarly journals ASCENSÃO E DECLINIO DA ARTE DA CANTARIA ESTUDO DE CASO: PONTE DA CADEIA

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcos Aurélio Todorov Silva ◽  
Thiago Bomjardim Porto
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Effective Action ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Getting Lost ◽  
The City ◽  
Technological Products

ResumoA arte de lavrar a rocha em variadas formas geométricas e figurativas foi amplamente usada no século XVIII, tinha como finalidade ornamentar e estruturar edificações de diversos usos e formas. Mas esta arte foi se tornando cada vez menos usual, devido ao surgimento de materiais que possibilitavam agilidade na construção e por serem economicamente mais viáveis. Assim com o desuso da cantaria, as técnicas e seus executores foram diminuindo e se perdendo no adentrar do século XX. A origem da arte da cantaria torna-se vulgar quando comparados com os atuais produtos tecnológicos, neste contexto mercadológico e modista é preciso resgatar o reconhecimento da obra de arte, e esse resgate se dá através da comunidade em que ela se insere, o envolvimento efetivo, tanto através do conhecimento técnico como cultural dos elementos pétreos, trará o empoderamento necessário para o surgimento de uma ação mais efetiva na conservação da matéria e restauração das obras de arte. O objeto tomado como referência de estudo é a Ponte da Cadeia, localizada na cidade de São João del Rei/MG, datada do ano de 1798, em pedra e cal, com cantaria miúda de picão em todas suas faces e lados. Palavras Chave: Ponte da Cadeia, cantaria, empoderamento, comunidade, projeto de restauraçãoAbstractASCENSION AND DECLINE OF STONEWORK ART. CASE STUDY: PONTE DA CADEIA. The art of plowing a rock in various geometric and figurative forms was widely used in the eighteenth century, its purpose was to decorate and structure buildings of various uses and shapes. But this art became less and less usual, due to the appearance of materials that allowed agility in construction and because they were economically more feasible. Thus with the disuse of the Stone work, the techniques and their executors were diminishing and getting lost in the entering of XX century. The origin of the stonework art becomes vulgar when compared with the current technological products, in this marketing and modiste context it is necessary to rescue the recognition of a work of art, and this rescue takes place through the community in which it is inserted, either an effective involvement throught he technical and cultural knowledge of the Stone elements, will bring a necessary empowerment to the emergence of a more effective action in a matter conservation and restoration works of art. The Bridge of the Chain is the object taken as reference, located in the city of São João del Rei / MG, dated from 1798, in stone and lime, with a little of abrasión Stone work on all its faces and sides.Keywords: Chain Bridge, masonry, stonework, empowerment, community

Bach and Material Culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 11-36
Author(s):  
Stephen Rose
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
Material Agency ◽  
Material Goods ◽  
Working Practices ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Material Artifacts

Bach’s music is often interpreted as transcending the material conditions of everyday life. This chapter, by contrast, argues that Bach scholarship could be enriched via approaches taken from the study of material culture. It places Bach within the vibrant consumer culture of early-eighteenth-century Leipzig, exploring his postmortem inventory and his keyboard publications in the context of how the town’s bourgeoisie used material goods to show their status and identity. It investigates Bach’s printed and manuscript music in terms of the social practices surrounding these material artifacts. Finally, the chapter relates Bach’s working practices to debates about the interplay of human and material agency. It discusses how he experimented with the material characteristics of instruments such as organs, and analyzes his compositional practice as an interaction between player-composer and contrapuntal materials.

Women, China, and Consumer Culture in Eighteenth-Century England

1995 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Kowaleski-Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Consumer Culture

scholarly journals FROM HUME’S “DELICACY” TO CONTEMPORARY ART

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (54) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Sejten
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Art Criticism ◽  
Major Step ◽  
Close Inspection ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Vital Component ◽  
Standard Of Taste ◽  
Better Than

David Hume’s essay “Of the Standard of Taste” (1757)—which represents a major step towards clarifying eighteenth-century philosophy’s dawning aesthetics in terms of taste—also relates closely to literal, physical taste. From the analogy between gustatory and critical taste, Hume, apt at judging works of art, puts together a contradictory argument of subjectivism (taste is individual and varies from person to person) and the normativity of common sense (the test of time shows that some works of art are better than others). However, a careful reading of the text unveils a way of appealing to art criticism as a vital component in edifying a philosophically more solid standard of taste. Hume’s emphatic references to a requisite “delicacy” complicate the picture, for it is not clear what this delicacy is, but a close inspection of how Hume frames the criterion of delicacy by means of “practice” and the absence of “prejudice” might perhaps challenge us to address issues of contemporary art.

Jews and Trade in the Estate Economy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Teller
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
International Market ◽  
Export Market ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Indirect Taxation ◽  
Local Markets ◽  
Revenue Generation ◽  
The Family

Jewish merchants were, with Radziwiłł encouragement, the dominant force in local markets. They were particularly important in allowing the estate administration to take advantage of new opportunities in the eighteenth century, which its established systems were unable to do. Trade served the estate economy in three ways: distribution, supply, and revenue generation. The arendarze boosted grain sales in the new economic conditions and Jewish merchants enabled the family to penetrate the new export market in flax and hemp. Jews were extremely important in supplying estate society. This mercantile activity also generated huge revenues in the form of indirect taxation. The importance of Jews in revenue generation is seen in the family’s expanding river trade to Königsberg starting in the 1720s. The freight payments Jewish merchants made to ship their goods on family rafts made this newly flourishing trade viable for the Radziwiłłs, giving them easy access to the international market.

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