Kings and Connoisseurs: Collecting Art in Seventeenth-Century Europe

A vivid and exciting account of royal collectors, art dealers, connoisseurs, and the rise of old master paintings

Old master paintings are among the most valuable and prestigious of the visual arts, and the best examples command the highest prices of any luxury commodity. In Kings and Connoisseurs, Jonathan Brown tells the story of how painting rose to this exalted status. The transformation of painting from an inexpensive to a costly art form reached a crucial stage in the royal courts of E...