Page History

June Shin

1) Corporate patrons included city governments, religious orders, and brotherhoods. Private ones were merchants, humanists, aristocrats, rulers, and sometimes artists but only few are known. The goals of private patrons often overlapped those of corporate patrons because it was more than common that individual patrons were not only representing himself but also certain groups (family, brotherhood, clan, guild, etc.). All these patrons are the principals in the principal-agent relationship they form with artists. As principals, patrons played a significant role in the commissioning game because all commissions started with them. They were responsible for deciding the kind of art they wanted, its purpose, and sometimes even media to be used and details of the work. They also controlled the displaying of the artwork. 

2) In the commissioning game, the principals, or the patrons, have to pay their agents, or the artists, so there is financial cost on their part (but this is only a small portion of the total cost in commissioning art). Social costs may incur when the commission work fails to produce the desired effects or even receives a bad response from the audience. This is called the "negative reception cost." The benefits of the patrons are social, political and even financial. The social benefit is that the commissioned work can elevate or secure the status of the patrons. When this major aim of the patrons is achieved, political and economic advantages are likely to follow due to the high esteem they hold in the community. Francesco Medici's marriage to the Holy Roman Emperor's sister is a good example for the political benefit. Socially and politically powerful patron may well then win a lucrative official position, which will bring him wealth.

As for the agents, or the artists, they receive money in exchange for the work they produce. Apart from this financial benefit, the artist can also achieve fame if his product is successful and praised, and this will attract more commissions in the future. However, if the patron rejects the artist's end product or it is ridiculed or hated by the audience, not only is the artist faced with financial loss, as the patron will refuse to pay all of the promised fee or pay him at all, but he also suffers from bad reputation as an artist. Bad reputation does a lot of damage, for potential patrons will now turn away and seek another artist.

3) The incentives for art patronage were fame, prestige, virtue and status. In some regions of Italy, social status was more flexible than in others. Also, the old elite class had been thrown out by the new government. This provided for the possibility of social mobility, which led people to claim their status through patronage of extravagant art projects. Moreover, because the pope was not succeeded by someone from his clan, respectable cardinals commissioned numerous religious works of art that showed his piety to God in hopes of getting elected as the next pope.

4) There are numerous avenues for conspicuous consumption: gardens, tapestries, metalwork, antiquities, clothing, banquets, processions, and spectacles. Three of the most talked about conspicuous commissions are paintings, architecture, and sculpture. All three were used to convey the patron's status, wealth, and power.

5) Like a degree from a prestigious college indicates the person's level of education and, by inference, overall quality, a work of art was to signal the patron's characteristics such as his wealth, status, and piety. Wealth was well demonstrated by such large expenditures as architectural structures, and religious works were used to convey one's devotion to God.

Sign-posting is basically selective signaling. It discloses specific information about the patron but passes over others that he does not want communicated. For example, the façade of Leone Leoni's home in Milan reveals his intellect but says nothing about how he acquired the wealth with which he was able to commission the work, because an artist, which he was, was considered a humble profession at the time.

Stretching is when some qualities are exaggerated as to render the patron as better than he really is. For example, Francesco Gonzaga commissioned paintings, coinage, medals and celebrations depicting his battle against the French, which was not exactly his victory but he wanted to make it appear as one.

Because sign-posting and stretching probably required considerable input of the patrons, employment of such devices in certain works sometimes reveals the relationship between the patron and the artist in production of the particular works of art.

6) There are three major types of audience: contemporary, divine, and future. Contemporary audiences included rulers, aristocrats, and laypeople, whom the patrons sought to "impress, influence, and inspire." The patrons also commissioned works that glorified God and showed his piety to Him in hopes of attaining divine salvation. The future was also a big concern as the patrons wished to leave long lasting legacies such as buildings and paintings. Tomb is a good example of this because it does nothing for the deceased but brings fame and status for the surviving members of the family as long as the tomb is preserved.

7) According to Burke, families commissioned such things as palaces and portraits to demonstrate "magnificence." For a patron to be magnificent, he should not only project his own greatness but also seek to create something that does civic good. For example, large and extravagant architecture can glorify the name of the patron's family and the whole community at the same time. Also, religious commissions like altarpieces could inspire the believers to be more pious. It was obvious that only those who could afford all these expenditures made them, and thus patronage of extravagant projects was an exclusive virtue of the rich. Therefore, a work of art could signal its patron's magnificence, which entailed his wealth, status, and decorum.Joo Shin