Artists and their economic context. A comparison of payments to painters Caravaggio and Luca Giordano at the Pio Monte della Misericordia in seventeenth-century Naples

Abstract

ABSTRACT Catholic confraternities in early modern Europe adopted detailed accounting practices which reveal their social context. This study applies an accounting [in] history approach to the creative industries. We argue that confraternities' accounting books can help better appreciate prices paid to famous masters by contrasting them with payments to lesser-known artists and skilled craftsmen. After analysing 1118 payments related to a construction project at the Pio Monte della Misericordia (1659–1679), a Catholic confraternity in Naples, we focus on the contemporary acquisition of an altarpiece by the painter Luca Giordano. The analysis shows that its purchase accounted for a minor share of the expenses for the construction project, and that the main contribution of the Pio Monte to the creative industries was the cumulative payments to skilled craftsmen. Nonetheless, the value of Giordano's painting was significantly higher than unitary payments to minor artists. We then make a comparison with the price paid by the Pio Monte in 1606–1607 to Caravaggio for a similar painting, showing that payments to Giordano and Caravaggio were in line with both artists' market rates and those of similar painters in Naples and Rome. The study thus discusses how accounting sources situate artists within the creative industries of the past.