Control and Contingency Representing the Rich in Early Modern Art

Abstract

In his stimulating book As Gods Among Men, Guido Alfani argues that the rich were newly accepted during the early modern period (1400–1800), winning an unprecedented measure of approval in many European societies. This article tests Alfani’s idea of wealth consolidation in early modernity from the perspective of the visual arts, paying initial attention to the rise of portraiture as a vehicle through which the rich presented themselves more openly as the worthy leaders of society, appearing to consolidate their position of privilege. Even within this apparently supportive image type, however, indications of monetary ricchezza were often downplayed. Two further sections explore these tendencies towards the semi-concealment and the mediation of monetary wealth in a wider range of image types and media. Taking as my case studies works produced in Italy, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, France, Spain and Germany, I argue that motives of visual deflection and ambiguation regarding the condition of material wealth were more characteristic of early modernity that its open display. My discussion of these works will suggest that they do not straightforwardly reflect the consolidation of the European rich as leading social and cultural players. Much of this imagery suggests instead a developing proto-modern sense that all material advantage and associated high social position is highly contingent and fragile, and always potentially reversible.

Keywords: History of Richness, Early Modern Art, Portraiture and Social Status, History of Ideas of Wealth, Visual Representation of Poverty and Riches