Market price and value of paintings in baroque Florence

This paper analyses the price of paintings in Florence's art market in the XVII-XVIII century. Although in the last decades recent studies have added an extensive body of information on prices, income, markets and sales techniques in the main Italian art centers in 17th and 18th centuries, the issue of prices of painting and the art market still remains a puzzling and tricky question. The reason is twofold: on the one hand the analysis of paintings’ prices is considered outside the context of the overall economy of the time and on the other the empirical investigation is mainly focused on the primary market: the commissions for paintings, setting aside the secondary market also for the complexity in sources collecting