XII. IRSEER ARBEITSKREIS FÜR VORINDUSTRIELLE WIRTSCHAFTS- UND SOZIALGESCHICHTE

PRICE FORMATION IN LATE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ART MARKETS

PREISBILDUNG AUF STÄDTISCHEN KUNSTMÄRKTEN DES SPÄTMITTELALTERS UND DER FRÜHEN NEUZEIT

SCHWABENAKADEMIE IRSEE 30 MARCH – 1 APRIL 2012

Works of art are objects of particular interest for analysing procedures of price formation. In the pricing of works of art, the aesthetic value of an art object was increasingly considered to be higher than its material value. This is usually the case when artists and agents start to make a clear distinction between high art and simple craftsmanship. The production process could likewise influence the level of pricing. If a piece of art was commissioned by an individual patron, the size of the object, the materials to be used and the selection of motives were frequently laid down in a written contract. Was the head of a workshop particularly well known, a contract could also stipulate the personal involvement of the master in the final execution of a work of art. Successful artists often employed their signature as a kind of brand name and calculated this bonus into the formation of their price for an art object. In addition to custom-made products, early forms of serial production were introduced in order to serve the growing demand for specific art products, taking into account fashionable trends, as well as specific materials and techniques. Both categories of products – individual commissions and objects made for the art market – were affected by different trends in the designation of price levels. In the course of the centuries, different kinds of art markets developed. In addition to artists selling products from their own shop, specialized art agents established alternative networks for trading in art. With the rise of art galleries and art auctions a new system of price formation was established. In the context of evaluation the aesthetic qualities of a work of art, the expertise of specialists, the knowledge of connoisseurs and the discipline of art criticism were significant factors for the art trade. These topics will be discussed systematically on the base of empirical case studies. The program of the conference combines contributions of an international panel of economic historians, social and cultural historians, art historians and sociologists specialized in the pricing of art.

PROGRAM

FRIDAY, 30 MARCH 2012
14.30–15.00 Markwart Herzog (Irsee):
Welcome by the Director of the Schwabenakademie; Welcome by the organizers
SESSION: OBJECTS OF ART AND THE FORMATION OF PRICES
Chair: Heinrich Lang (Bamberg)
15.00–15.30 Christof Jeggle (Bamberg): Introduction: The formation of prices on art markets
15.30–16.00 Guido Guerzoni (Milan): Social emulation and product imitation: On pricing strategic differentiation in Italian Renaissance applied arts
16.00–16.30 Coffee break
16.30–17.00 Elena Bogdanova (Stockholm): Storytelling and the Valuation of Antiques
17.00–17.45 Discussion
SESSION: PRICES OF THE ARTISTS
17.45–18.15 Ursula Timann (Nuremberg): Everything has its price. What kind of information on pricing can be drawn from the rules of the painters’ guilds?
18.15–18.30 Discussion
Dinner

SATURDAY, 31 MARCH 2012
Chair: Sylvia Heudecker (Irsee)
09.00–09.30 Lorenz Böninger (Florence): Price formation on the Italian market for manuscripts. The example of Lorenzo Guidetti (ca. 1460–1480)
09.30–10.00 Berit Wagner (Frankfurt am Main): The skills of the seller. The formation of prices in the German art trade around 1500
10.00–10.30 Discussion
10.30–10.40 Welcome by Jürgen Reichert, Bezirktagspräsident von Schwaben, Vorsitzender der Schwabenakademie Irsee
10.40–11.00 Coffee break
11.00–11.30 Susanne Kubersky-Piredda (Rome): Courtly splendour and civic self-representation: Alessandro Allori and the Florentine art market after the founding of the Duchy
11.30–12.00 Julia Niewind (Trier): Joseph Heintz the Younger – A German painter and the Venetian art market in the 17th century
12.00–12.30 Discussion
Lunch
Chair: Christof Jeggle (Bamberg)
15.00–15.30 Anja Grebe (Bamberg): Quality, exclusiveness and competition: Criteria for pricing Albrecht Dürer’s works between 1500 and 1650
15.30–16.00 Claudia Denk (Munich): At any price! Jean-Etienne Liotard’s strategies of self-marketing and the « extravagance de son prix »
16.00–16.30 Coffee break
16.30–17.00 Jens Beckert (Cologne) / Jörg Rössel (Zurich): Reputation and price formation in contemporary art markets
17.00–18.00 Discussion
Dinner

SUNDAY, 1 APRIL 2012
SESSION: PRICES OF COLLECTORS, VALUATORS AND OF COMMERCE
Chair: Birgit Ulrike Münch (Trier)
09.00–09.30 Heiner Krellig (Venice): Prices and valuations of paintings in the inventories of the collection of the Field Marshall in Venetian service Matthias Johann von der Schulenburg (1661–1747)
09.30–10.00 Valeria Pinchera (Pisa): The art market in the early modern times: Prices, values and estimates of works of art in Florence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
10.00–10.30 Coffee break
10.30–11.00 Isabella Cecchini (Venice) / Loredana Lorizzo (Salerno): Prices on the market: The account book of an art merchant in Rome in the late 17th century
11.00–11.45 Discussion
11.45–12.30 Christof Jeggle / Heinrich Lang / Birgit Ulrike Münch (Bamberg / Trier): Final discussion
Lunch
End of conference

Contact:
bueroschwabenakademie.de
www.schwabenakademie.de

Registration:
http://www.schwabenakademie.de/programm/thematisch.php?rowid=1781
Conference fee for attending the conference including all meals, accommodation for two nights in a single room (€ 203,–), in a double room (€ 184,–)
Registration fee without accommodation and meals (€ 44,–)
For those who register in advance lunch (16,–) and dinner (14,–) are available.

Sponsored by the Schwabenakademie and the EU-research project artifex

ORGANISATION: DR. MARKWART HERZOG, CHRISTOF JEGGLE M.A., DR. HEINRICH LANG IN COOPERATION WITH PROF. DR. DR. ANDREAS TACKE