The goldsmith's debt: conceptions of property in early modern art

Abstract

"Urban centers of the Holy Roman Empire stored wealth in the form of precious metal vessels. The city of Nuremberg, for example, annually commissioned its goldsmiths to transform revenue into goblets that could be given as diplomatic gifts or reconverted into currency in times of war. Courts, too, stockpiled serving implements, displaying pieces at official ceremonies as promises of credit. This book argues that German goldsmiths of the sixteenth century-through the conjunction of artisanal production, sculptural form, and a new inflection to the model-book tradition-played a unique role in articulating proprietary claims. Focusing on the Nuremberg goldsmith Christoph Jamnitzer (1563-1618), art historian Shira Brisman explores what it meant for works of art to make proprietary claims in a time when the extraction of precious metals and stones by colonized peoples was an essential source of the goldsmith's materials. Transforming our understanding of the global entanglements of early modern art, this unprecedented study considers what Jamnitzer's etchings and gilded silver goblets reveal about how goldsmiths publicly shared ideas and how the patrons who commissioned their work sought to legitimate claims to the possession of land and rights over others"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Introduction -- Bids for recognition. From the New book of grotesques ; "The Germanic scroll-like tree" and "Preamble and salutation" ; An offering ; Property of skill ; The mold of the master ; Dürer's other legacy -- The language of legitimacy. From the New book of grotesques ; "The bug-bauble market" ; Designs for a new world ; Alienating devices ; Shaping history -- Proposals for redistribution. From the New book of grotesques ; "The antique temple" -- Conclusion. The grotesque law of property.