Specialization and the firm in Renaissance Italian art

Abstract

Renaissance Italian painters are among the most innovative and consequential artists in human history. They were also successful managers and business owners, always in search of commissions for their workshops. Indeed, their ability as managers and entrepreneurs was just as important as their talent for painting. This paper develops a framework to understand the organization of the production of paintings—frescoes and altarpieces—during the Italian Renaissance. We argue that Renaissance artists faced a trade-off between costly delegation and the sacrifice of gains from specialization in the performance of those tasks necessary for executing a painting. Applied to the historical record, our framework accounts for several features of the organization of this industry: why Renaissance artists dabbled as entrepreneurs; why they performed several duties that did not require any artistic talent; and why they set up firms to aid them in the execution of some tasks while delegating other tasks to independent contractors.