Defining our terms
A closer look at terminology helps us to understand how patronage was understood in the renaissance.
The English term “patron” comes from the Latin word patronus, meaning protector of clients or dependents, specifically freedmen.
The term patronus, in turn, is related to pater, meaning father.
Like the father of a family, or the protector of dependents, a patron was responsible for the conception and realization of a work of art.
The relationship of patronage of art and architecture to ideas about fatherhood reflects the patriarchal order of renaissance society.
As the wealthy Florentine banker Giovanni Rucellai once noted: “Men have two roles to perform in life: to procreate and to build.” [1] Just as men held primary social and political power, attitudes towards artistic patronage also saw it as a masculine pursuit.
,
How did patrons influence art?
Patrons often dictated the cost, materials, size, location, and subject matter of works of art.
Gil de Siloé, The Tomb of Juan II of Castile and Isabel of Portugal, 1489–93, alabaster, in the Carthusian Monastery of Miraflores, near Burgos, Spain (photo:
Ecelan CC BY-SA 4.0). ,
How do we study patronage?
To study patronage we have to consider the broader context for the creation of art.
Economics, politics, social and cultural formations, and psychology—these areas (among others) all inform the way we understand why people hired artists to make specific types of images and structures.
,
How do we study patronage?
To study patronage we have to consider the broader context for the creation of art.
Economics, politics, social and cultural formations, and psychology—these areas (among others) all inform the way we understand why people hired artists to make specific types of images and structures.
To study these choices we look at two main types of evidence: written and visual.
Written documents might include contracts, letters, diary entries, and inventories.
Visual documentation includes donor portraits (images where the features of the patron are included in the work), inscriptions, coats of arms, and other imagery that represents the family or the community of the person or people paying.
,
Overview
By Dr.
Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr.
Heather Graham
,
What are the different types of patronage?
Other types of patrons included rulers, nobles, members of the clergy, merchants, confraternities, nuns, and monks.
It is important for us to keep in mind these different types of patronage because they help us understand the motivations of the patron as well as the possible functions of the artwork itself.
,
What is Renaissance patronage?
We can roughly break renaissance patronage into two main categories:
Public:Although the boundaries between public and private were fluid in general a public work of art was intended for display outside the home to a broad public audience. ,
Why is it important to know about patrons?
While today we often focus on the artist who made an artwork, in the renaissance it was the patron—the person or group of people paying for the image—who was considered the primary force behind a work’s creation.
We often forget that for most of history artists did not simply create art for art’s sake.
Information about patrons provides a window into the complex process involved in the production of art and architecture.
Patrons often dictated the cost, materials, size, location, and subject matter of works of art.
