Growing Taste for Paintings of Secular Subjects in Carniola and Styria in the late 17th and early 18th Century
Growing Taste for Paintings of Secular Subjects in Carniola and Styria in the late 17th and early 18th Century

Summary/Abstract: Influenced by humanistic thought, technical innovations and changes in material culture, from the 16th century onwards, a number of independent subject matters gradually developed in European painting. A growing popularity of landscapes, genre scenes and still lifes among private commissioners caused a transformation of collecting trends first in the art producing centres, and subsequently in Central European regions, including Habsburg Austria. This article sheds light on the growing taste for paintings of secular subjects, by comparing Carniola and Styria in the late 17th and early 18th century, based on an analysis of a dataset of probate inventories, and the study of supply of the artworks and the influence of art dealers and of immigrant Dutch painters settled in Ljubljana, Vienna and Graz, who by the beginning of the 18th century contributed to the prevailing of the secular subjects as collecting items and furnishings of noble residences in the region.

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