The collector library. A training for the artistic 'taste'?

The paper argues that art collectors leveraged their library as one of the formative places of artistic taste. Acquiring knowledge through books may have helped shaping one’s artistic judgment, usually a mix of both intellective and emotional processes. Based on the Venetian case study of 17th-18th centuries patrician libraries, the paper explores the works used by art collectors in order to increase their discernment and artistic judgment: emblem, hieroglyphic and exempla books served as database of both pictorial and textual symbols which helped decipher paintings’ symbols and scenes. The Venetian libraries’ inventories and catalogues reveal the existence of two distinct phenomena: the inclusion of generic emblem printed books (with rare manuscript exceptions) in almost all surveyed libraries and the presence of rare and sometimes costly emblem books, specifically tailored to the collector’s field of interest in several libraries. Moreover, the more professional art collectors shared knowledge and titles in order to cut on expenses, relying on the fact that at least one copy was to be found in Venice.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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