The Marketing and Standardization of South Netherlandish Carved Altarpieces: Limits on the Role of the Patron

Abstract

It has traditionally been held that patrons exerted a strong influence on the creation and execution of late Gothic art. The present study shows that patrons played a more limited role in the production of South Netherlandish carved altarpieces. Many retables were made without commissions and sold on the open market. And even works that were commissioned were variations on standard formulae, not pieces designed to individual specifications. Carved altarpieces, though, are not the unique product of this system of marketing and standardization, as tapestries, manuscripts, and panel paintings in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries also contravene the traditional patronage model.

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