Brown, Jonathan, 1939-2022.

Kings & connoisseurs : collecting art in seventeenth-century Europe / Jonathan Brown.

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, ©1995.

264 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 30 cm.

The A.W. Mellon lectures in the fine arts ; 1994
Bollingen series ; XXXV, 43

Old master paintings are now considered to be the most valuable and prestigious of the visual arts, and the best examples command the highest prices of any luxury commodity. In this series of lectures Jonathan Brown tells in vivid detail the story of the rise of painting to this exalted status. The result is an exciting narrative of greed and passion, played out against a background of international politics and intrigue. This book, which is an essay in cultural and art history, is completed by a postscript showing why important old master paintings have now virtually disappeared from the art market. The transformation of painting from an inexpensive to a costly art form reached a crucial stage in the royal courts of Europe in the seventeenth century, where rulers and aristocrats assembled huge collections, often in short periods of time. Brown traces this process in Madrid, Paris, London, and Brussels, beginning with the dispersal of the great English collections in the aftermath of the Civil War, including those of Charles I, the Earl of Arundel, and the Dukes of Buckingham and Hamilton. Hundreds of great pictures were all at once available to continental collectors and were acquired by Cardinal Jules Mazarin, Louis XIV of France, Archduke Leopold William of Austria, and Philip IV of Spain, as well as lesser-known collectors, including Everhard Jabach and Luis de Haro. Through comparative analysis of collecting and collectors at these courts, Brown explains the formation of new attitudes toward pictures, as well as the mechanisms that supported the enterprise of collecting, including the emergence of the art dealer, the development of connoisseurship, and the publication of sumptuous picture books of various collections.

069104497X (alk. paper)
9780691044972 (alk. paper)

Hof, ...
Europa
Painting Collectors and collecting Europe History 17th century.
Painting Private collections Europe History 17th century.
Peinture Collectionneurs et collections Europe Histoire 17e siècle.
Peinture Collections privées Europe Histoire 17e siècle.
Painting Collectors and collecting.
Painting Private collections.
Kunst
Sammlung
Hof
Schilderijen.
Kunstverzamelaars.
Malerei
Sammler
Painting Collectors and collecting Europe 17th century.
Painting Private collections Europe 17th century.
Painting, European.
Peinture Collections privées Europe 17e siècle.
Art Collectionneurs et collections Europe 17e siècle.
Rois et souverains Europe Collections d'art 17e siècle.
Mécénat Europe 17e siècle.
Peinture Collectionneurs et collections Europe 17e siècle.
Maisons royales Collections d'art.
Peinture
17e siècle
collection
Europe.
Geschichte 1600-1700
Painting Collectors and collecting History 17th century Europe
Painting Private collections History 17th century Europe

History.

A.W. Mellon lectures in the fine arts ; 1994.
Bollingen series ; 35, 43.

Kings and connoisseurs

Location: Library main 110550
Call No.: N5240.B7 (ID:96-B1743)
Status: Available