What is artistic patronage and how important is the patron's input
Patrons exerted a strong influence on the creation and execution of art in Italy between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. Art served specific functions so that artists were paid to produce exactly what the patron wanted. The artist could be creative to the extent of his natural and acquired capacity but always within the conditions imposed by the patron. The system of patronage was a commercial process and artwork therefore reflected both seller and buyer. "The work was viewed as a product of two energies in which the artist articulated, by rendering shapes, the message assigned by the patron. This most often made the patron the more interesting figure" as it was the patron, not the artist, who was seen by contemporaries as the creator of the project.
Wealthy and powerful patrons would commission works of art which were invariably linked to the economical and political structures of the area or in the......
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