Not unlike their European forebears, Americans have historically held Italian Renaissance paintings in the highest possible regard, never allowing works by or derived from Raphael, Leonardo, or Titian to fall from favor. The ten essays in A Market for Merchant Princes trace the progression of American collectors' taste for Italian Renaissance masterpieces from the antebellum era, through the Gilded Age, to the later twentieth century.
By focusing variously on issues of supply and demand, reliance on advisers, the role of travel, and the civic-mindedness of American...
Not unlike their European forebears, Americans have historically held Italian Renaissance paintings in the highest possible regard, never allowing ...
