The Changing Status of the Artist (Art and Its Histories) - Hardcover

After an introductory discussion of some of the fundamental assumptions in modern Western culture about the artist as genius, the book investigates artists in Renaissance Italy, the various claims for status that they made, and the claims made on their behalf. The book then expands traditional art history's, focus on Italy and examines artists and art production in Germany and the Netherlands during the later fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In two concluding case studies of Northern European artists of slightly later periods -- Vermeer and Watteau -- the authors consider factors that influence the status and reputation of artists during their lifetimes and after their death.