‘Bad and Old’: The Rise and Fall of Popular Painting Ownership in Amsterdam, 1630-1780
Why did paintings go out of fashion after the end of the Dutch Golden Age? Was the dramatic decline in output a result of reduced purchasing power or rather of changing tastes?
And what was the role of social distinction and conspicuous consumption? Leaning on a dataset of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century probate inventories from Amsterdam’s notarial archives and civilian orphanage, Bas Spliet examines the role of demand in the rise and fall of the mass production and consumption of paintings. The estimated monetary value of artworks and other (decorative) objects, in particular, enables new insights into whether paintings were outcompeted in the interior decoration budget, gradually became unaffordable for the middle classes, or simply went out of fashion.
Bas Spliet is a PhD candidate History at the University of Antwerp and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He obtained his Master in History summa cum laude from the University of Ghent, where he also attained a Bachelor in History and a Bachelor in Arabic and Islamic Studies. In 2021, he received the André Schaepdrijver prize for best master’s thesis from the Oud-Studenten Geschiedenis Universiteit Gent, and in 2023, he was granted the Matthieu et al. scholarship for promising researchers by the Research Council of Antwerp University. He sits on the editorial board of Stadsgeschiedenis.
Praktisch
Date: 13 februari
Time: 16:00
Place: IISG, Cruquiusweg 31, Amsterdam
Entrance: Free entrance, but please register at secretar@iisg.nl
