Wealth and the Demand for Art in Italy, 1300-1600

by Richard A. Goldthwaite

Overview

Wealth and the Demand for Art in Italy represents a departure from previous studies, both in its focus on demand and in its emphasis on the history of the material culture of the West. By demonstrating that the roots of modern consumer society can be found in Renaissance Italy, Richard Goldthwaite offers a significant contribution to the growing body of literature on the history of modern consumerism—a movement which he regards as a positive force for the formation of new attitudes about things that is a defining characteristic of modern culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801852350
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	10/01/1995
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Richard A. Goldthwaite is professor emeritus of history at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of The Building of Renaissance Florence: An Economic and Social History and Wealth and the Demand for Art in Italy, 1300–1600, both also published by Johns Hopkins.

Editorial Reviews

Will surely elicit much discussion and reexamination of older theses about the connection between Italian economic, social and political life and the amazing culture we know as the Renaissance.
—American Historical Review

A remarkable achievement.
—Art History

From the Publisher

A remarkable achievement.

Art History

Will surely elicit much discussion and reexamination of older theses about the connection between Italian economic, social and political life and the amazing culture we know as the Renaissance.

American Historical Review

Goldthwaite (history, Johns Hopkins U.) argues that Italy's special place in the economic world of late medieval Europe led to the massing of excess wealth by merchant and noble families and religious houses. Art was separated out from the rest of material culture, as no where else in Europe, because it was in practical demand to decorate the newly constructed religious houses, and to place in private houses and public spaces as symbols of the merchants' new status. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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