Economic Engagements With Art: Annual Supplement to Volume 31, History of Political Economy

by De Marchi, Neil; Goodwin, Craufurd D. W.

• ISBN13: 9780822324898
• ISBN10: 082232489X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-09-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

Historically, economists have had very little to say about art: in the latter half of this century, that has begun to change. Difficult issues, like pricing and art valuation, the influence on pricing by what is fashionable in art, and the nature of the auction, have recently been tackled by economists in spite of elusive answers.Economic Engagements with Artsuggests that taste and fashion in art need not be mysterious or outside rational discourse, and that they can be studied by economists to the great benefit of the discipline. This volume, which deals mostly with painting, is divided into three sections that consider the interplay between art and economics from different perspectives. In the first section,Art and Economic Theory, economists clarify the need to construct a framework for understanding the roles of taste and fashion in art valuation. A historical view is considered in a piece about the teacher of Velasquez and artistic adviser to the Inquisition in Seville, who took into account not only market factors, like demand, but also the "truth" and the nobility of the artistrs"s profession and of the painting itself. Also in this section is an essay on Rousseaurs"s perspective on the worth of a painting based on its envy value in social circles; other contributions focus on William Stanley Jevons, a nineteenth century British political economist, whose problems with art stemmed from the uniqueness of each work, rendering definitive market and economic terms irrelevant. The second section of the book,Art and Economic Policy, looks at broader policy issues with regard to the historical role of art. Essays consider policy with respect to art exports and imports and federal patronage of the arts during theDepression; Lionel Robbins and the political economy of art; and the interplay among economy, architecture, and politics as shown in certain postwar Hilton hotels. In the final section,The Business of Art, a variety of perspectives are considered: the economics of art in early modern times, discussed in the context of both humanist and scholastic approaches; the pricing of pictures based on a study of the Smith-Reynolds connection; and the relationships between Otto Nuerath, graphic art, and the social order. The first collaborative and historical treatment of the connection between art and economics,Economic Engagements with Artwill appeal to people across, from history and economics to art history. Contributors. Maacute;rcia Balisciano, William J. Barber, Neil de Marchi, Bertil Frideacute;n, Crauford D. Goodwin, Guido Guerzoni, Robert J. Leonard, Harro Maas, Ernest Mathijs, Steven G. Medema, Bert Mosselmans, Zarineacute;s Negroacute;n, Marcia Pointon, Helen Rees, Toon van Houdt, Annabel Wharton, Sara Zablotney

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(32)
Neil De Marchi
Part 1. Art and Economic Theory
Francisco Pacheco: Economist for the Art World	33	(8)
Zarines Negron
The Problem of Unique Goods as Factors of Production: Rousseau on Art and the Economy	41	(16)
Bertil Friden
Obscure Objects of Desire? Nineteenth-Century British Economists and the Price(s) of ``Rare Art''	57	(28)
Michael V. White
Pacifying the Workman: Ruskin and Jevons on Labor and Popular Culture	85	(36)
Harro Maas
Jevons's Music Manuscript and the Political Economy of Music	121	(36)
Bert Mosselmans
Ernest Mathijs
The Economics of Art through Art Critics' Eyes	157	(30)
Craufurd D. W. Goodwin
Part 2. Art and Economic Policy
Art Exports and the Construction of National Heritage in Late-Victorian and Edwardian Great Britain	187	(22)
Helen Rees
International Commerce in the Fine Arts and American Political Economy, 1789-1913	209	(26)
William J. Barber
``Sweet Are the Uses of Adversity'': Federal Patronage of the Arts in the Great Depression	235	(21)
William J. Barber
Positive Science, Normative Man: Lionel Robbins and the Political Economy of Art	256	(29)
Marcia L. Balisciano
Steven G. Medema
Economy, Architecture, and Politics: Colonialist and Cold War Hotels	285	(18)
Annabel Wharton
Part 3. The Business of Art
The Economics of Art in Early Modern Times: Some Humanist and Scholastic Approaches	303	(29)
Toon Van Houdt
Liberalitas, Magnificentia, Splendor: The Classic Origins of Italian Renaissance Lifestyles	332	(47)
Guido Guerzoni
Ingenuity, Preference, and the Pricing of Pictures: The Smith-Reynolds Connection	379	(34)
Neil De Marchi
Hans J. Van Miegroet
Production and Reproduction: Commerce in Images in Late-Eighteenth-Century London	413	(10)
Sara Zablotney
Dealer in Magic: James Cox's Jewelry Museum and the Economics of Luxurious Spectacle in Late-Eighteenth-Century London	423	(29)
Marcia Pointon
``Seeing Is Believing'': Otto Neurath, Graphic Art, and the Social Order	452	(27)
Robert J. Leonard
Contributors	479	(3)
Index	482