Painters’ Playbooks in the Art Market of Early Modern Amsterdam

Abstract

The art market in seventeenth-century Amsterdam is renowned as a competitive, multi-layered arena where diverse artists catered to a broad and varied clientele. How did this intricate market function? How did individual painters navigate this system, making business and artistic decisions that eventually gave shape to the so-called ‘Golden Age’ of Dutch art? Existing economic and art historical methodologies have fallen short of providing holistic explanations. Painters’ Playbooks introduces an innovative socio-spatial approach, using digital methods to examine the art market, shedding light on the artistic development in seventeenth-century Amsterdam. By synthesizing various historical sources digitally, this book delves into artists’ collective behaviours – or the ‘playbooks’ – discernible in their location choices, social relations, and use of house interiors. Analysing historical data through a socio-spatial lens, this book illustrates how the changes in artists’ playbooks not only shaped the multi-layered market structure but also influenced artistic innovation in seventeenth-century Amsterdam.