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The Renaissance
New Markets
The final element in the development of Renaissance art, or at least the final element I shall emphasize here, was the changed relationship between artist and society. The artist acquired new customers and new markets and, in the process, acquired a new social standing. The new markets and new social condition permitted the artist to use the new techniques to create the new themes.
The Artist in the Middle Ages
We are accustomed to thinking of an artist as an independent figure, creating works and then trying to sell them. We distinguish strongly between a craftsman and an artist. But in the Middle Ages, artists were in fact craftsmen like any other. They belonged to a guild, they worked only on contract and created what they were told to create. There was little social or economic difference between the craftsman who built an altar and the craftsman who painted it.
A painter was a guildsman, as I've said. He had a shop, with journeymen and apprentices, and he made his living by painting on contract. His principal customers were religious institutions-- monasteries and churches and cathedrals. Painting was done on plaster (frescoes) or on wood (altar pieces and the like). The abbot or bishop would specify the theme of the painting, its size and location, who should appear in it, the colors to be used, even the ratio of blue to gold to other colors. This was all set down in a contract with a deadline.
The master did the primary work, assisted by apprentices. The master might do the principal figures in the work, and did the initial composition, while the apprentices filled in background and details. The master also submitted the original bid, rather like how companies bid on building projects. It was up to the master to see to it that the creation of the painting both satisfied the customer and turned a profit for the shop.
Persistence into the Renaissance
This method of work persisted into the Renaissance. Many Renaissance artists worked in a shop, or at least started there, and we have numerous contracts that survive to remind us that the old ways of doing business long survived.
In the 15th century, however, something new began to develop. Artists began to break free from the guild system, and began to value that freedom. They found new customers, outside the Church. Cities, princes and wealthy merchants began to commission paintings. Armed with new techniques and working in new media, these artists were able to be, in effect, independent contractors.
They worked alone, or with one or two paid assistants. They belonged to no guild and were not constrained by guild regulations. They created works that expressed their own view of the world, and their reputation was such that they found ready buyers.
This transformation took place first and foremost in Italy, during the 15th century. By the 16th century, the situation had so changed that Michelangelo was to state forcefully that he was an artist, not a craftsman, and took pains to conceal that he had ever been an apprentice in a shop. And, we get a King Francis I of France, who writes a letter in which he states his desire to have a painting by Michelangelo--the subject matter and all details he left to the artist. He simply wanted to own a Michelangelo.