Maritime Trade, Art Circulation and Urban Identities in the Early Modern Era

Abstract

With a focus on the iconography and representation of the two key social groups of the early modern period, merchants and artistic corporations, this introductory essay to the book Shipping Arts and Art Materials explains the reasons behind the research project that led to this publication, the first on the interaction between merchants and artists in six ports of the early modern period between Genoa and Lisbon. Connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, this essay provides an understanding of the state of the question, the usefulness of the volume and the impact on future studies of market and economic historians, and art historians, with particular emphasis on the history of port cities in the modern era.