Question for the art historians...

[painandgreed]

I don't know much about Boissonnade, but point one is a little bit odd. There were periods and elements of the church that might have been considered overly apocalyptic, but a substantial portion of the church's energies were dedicated to producing new art.

Well, I'm paraphrasing what he said to mean "consumer goods" and from that I'm extrapolating "non-church related art". It's an 80 year old book on medieval economics that I'm using to talk about art, so don't try too hard to prove me wrong because I'll go ahead and concede the point now. I don't think there's any arguement that the church created lots of art which is the trouble because they are the main market. The only other market would be nobles and most of the half remembered cases I can come up with mostly dealt with one noble showing another his neat new thing, and the other noble deciding he must own it and offering way more than it was worth to make it his neat new thing. I would also wager that the manufacture of these neat things was probably done by the church or people in their hire to begin with. Books being the main thing that I can think of.

 

[Gez]

Remember that the "Middle-Age" is a millenia-long period, so customs varied from time to time and from place to place.

Anyway, yes, Art was highly valued; and no, it wasn't always religious. Look at Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, for example.

http://humanities.uchicago.edu/images/heures/heures.html

Artists in the middle-age worked for a patron that wanted to have art. The patron was usually a noble, because they were the ones with money, but could also be the Church, or a wealthy bourgeois (like a merchant or a banker).

"The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry" were made, surprise, for the Duke of Berry.

Also, art wasn't necessarily an end in itself. Monks artistically illustrated the books they copied, noble women woved artistic tapestries, etc.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Well, I'm paraphrasing what he said to mean "consumer goods" and from that I'm extrapolating "non-church related art". It's an 80 year old book on medieval economics that I'm using to talk about art, so don't try too hard to prove me wrong because I'll go ahead and concede the point now. I don't think there's any arguement that the church created lots of art which is the trouble because they are the main market. The only other market would be nobles and most of the half remembered cases I can come up with mostly dealt with one noble showing another his neat new thing, and the other noble deciding he must own it and offering way more than it was worth to make it his neat new thing. I would also wager that the manufacture of these neat things was probably done by the church or people in their hire to begin with. Books being the main thing that I can think of.

Ah, the age explains it. All the actual main points, no market for art in its own right and so forth, seem all right it's the explanations I find odd.

Books are actually more or less a special exception. A lot of monastic life is devoted to their care and in order to be as insanely useful as the best medieval manuscripts are supposed to be you need a good education. Most artisans probably have some association with the church, but that's not at all a special case for the time period. Otherwise anyone with the money and will can hire them, though for most people I imagine it works out better to simply invest the money in a good church or icon or make it at home.

The medieval fascination with religion is hard for us to imagine. It wasn't just that the church was imposing these things from above, it was that paying for religious art was one of the primary ways you participated in the community.

But for the original question, as I seem to have gone off topic, I would guess that an artist could be the subject of an adventure easily. A piece of art might be as well, but not for its own sake it would have to have some other significance. Doesn't necessarilly have to be religious. There were plenty of good political and personal artistic artifacts running around.

And there are always collectors...