The migration of art from museum to market: Consuming Caravaggio

Abstract

This study examines the life and work of the Italian Baroque artist Caravaggio, whose paintings dazzled and shocked the Church and patronage systems 400 years ago. By tracing the reception of his work from its inception in 1600 to its commodification today, the study develops a five-phase model of the migration of art from studio to museum to market. Consisting of Creation, Quotation, Interpretation, Recontextualization, and Consumption, the model applies the work of Bourdieu, McCracken, Schroeder, Baudrillard and Althusser to explain how traditional works of western art are transformed into a system of objects available for contemporary consumption. The model explains how the interaction of particular people, events, and contexts disseminates the meaning of rarefied images into objects of possession and adornment.

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