Painters' Playbooks in the Art Market of Early Modern Amsterdam

The art market in seventeenth-century Amsterdam is renowned as a competitive, multi-layered arena where diverse artists catered to a broad and varied clientele. How did this intricate market function? How did individual painters navigate this system, making business and artistic decisions that eventually gave shape to the so-called 'Golden Age' of Dutch art? Existing economic and art historical methodologies have fallen short of providing holistic explanations. Painters' Playbooks introduces an innovative socio-spatial approach, using digital methods to examine the art market, shedding light on the artistic development in seventeenth-century Amsterdam. By synthesizing various historical sources digitally, this book delves into artists' collective behaviours - or the 'playbooks' - discernible in their location choices, social relations, and use of house interiors. Analysing historical data through a socio-spatial lens, this book illustrates how the changes in artists' playbooks not only shaped the multi-layered market structure but also influenced artistic innovation in seventeenth-century Amsterdam.

Dr. Weixuan Li is a postdoctoral researcher at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society and lecturer at the University of Amsterdam. She published various articles examining 17th-century Dutch art and the art market using digital methods.

Acknowledgements, List of Figures, Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Painters at Home Chapter 3: 1585-1610 Chapter 4: 1610-1630 Chapter 5: 1630-1650 Chapter 6: 1650-1670 Chapter 7: 1670-1700 Conclusion The early modern art market as a socio-spatial phenomenon, Appendix I: Data and sources Appendix II: Deep mapping methodology, Appendix III: Spatial arrangement of art dealers' homes, Cumulative Bibliography, Index.