The Accademia Del Disegno and the Art Industry

Abstract

During the Italian renaissance the art industry underwent a major change. Although it seems, in hindsight, to rank among the technically and organizationally most progressive industries, it failed to develop further in this direction and increasingly defined itself as being intrinsically different from other industries. This paper attempts to show how this change can be described in terms of a change of selection systems dominating the domain, from an early dominance of market selection to a later dominance of a mix of expert and peer selection. Changing patterns of demand are seen to have been a precondition for this transformation. However, the cornerstone of the new system appears to have been the new institution of the academy which came to control the certification of artists and artistic education.