Intermediaries and the Market: Hans Rottenhammer’s Use of Networks in the Copper Painting Market

Sophia Quach Mccabe

doi:10.3390/arts8020075

Abstract

In Willem van Haecht’s Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest, The Last Judgment by the German artist Hans Rottenhammer stands prominently in the foreground. Signed and dated 1598, it is one of many copper panel paintings Rottenhammer produced and sent north of the Alps during his decade-long sojourn in Venice. That the work was valued alongside those of Renaissance masters raises questions about Rottenhammer’s artistic status and how the painting reached Antwerp. This essay examines Rottenhammer’s international market as a function of his relationships with artist-friends and agents, especially those in Venice’s German merchant community. By employing digital visualization tools alongside the study of archival documents, the essay attends to the intermediary connections within a social network, and their effects on the art market. It argues for Rottenhammer’s use of—and negotiation with—intermediaries to establish an international career. Through digital platforms, such as ArcGIS and Palladio, the artist’s patronage group is shown to have shifted geographically, from multiple countries around 1600 to Germany and Antwerp after 1606, when he relocated to Augsburg. Yet, the same trusted friends and associates he had established in Italy continued to participate in Rottenhammer’s business of art.

Highlights

As artist and critic Carel van Mander indicated in 1604, to succeed as an artist, one must study the works of ancients and acquire the skills and techniques of Italian masters
In studying Rottenhammer’s use of networks, my project brings social network analysis and intermediation perspectives together with the themes of Northern European artists working in Italy and early modern markets, the literature of which remains vast (Panofsky [1943] 2005; Dacos 1964; Jaffé 1977; Aikema and Brown 2000; Goldthwaite 1993; Fantoni et al 2003; De Marchi and van Miegroet 2006; Spear and Sohm 2010)
Rottenhammer returned to Germany, he continued to maintain working relationships with some of the same key intermediaries

Summary

Introduction

As artist and critic Carel van Mander indicated in 1604, to succeed as an artist, one must study the works of ancients and acquire the skills and techniques of Italian masters. Unlike many of his contemporaries who stayed for one to two years before returning home, Rottenhammer remained in Italy for about seventeen years, from 1589 to 1606 During this period, he opened a successful workshop in Venice, gained a reputation for small-format cabinet paintings on copper panels, and married a Venetian woman named Elisabetha d’ Fabris ( called Isabetta di Fabri), with whom he had five children. He opened a successful workshop in Venice, gained a reputation for small-format cabinet paintings on copper panels, and married a Venetian woman named Elisabetha d’ Fabris ( called Isabetta di Fabri), with whom he had five children He would return to Germany, settling in Augsburg, but maintained the same trusted friends and associates in the network he helped to develop in Italy

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion