Künstlerhäuser im Mittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit. Artists’ Homes in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era

“Visual artists should dwell like kings and gods: how else are they to build and decorate for kings and gods?” (Goethe, Wilhelm Meister’s Journeyman Years II, 8). – What applies to Goethe himself in a figurative sense, shall be discussed here in respect to the visual artist in Early Modern Europe up to 1800: Exceptional artists – such as Goethe – but also Mantegna, Dürer, Michelangelo, Rubens, Rembrandt or the Asam Brothers, have, now and then, lived in stately homes and almost princely dwellings. But does this observation apply to the European artist of the pre-modern era in general?
This volume takes a fresh look at the artist’s home from varying perspectives. From the perspective of social topography, the first question to be raised is: What factors were the most influential in respect to the choice of the location: The residential era, or neighborhood, the proximity to possible clients, or to prestigious places for sales such as centrally located squares, prominent streets, or significant churches? From the perspective of art history and cultural studies, the architecture and its furnishings, the iconography and iconology of sculptural and pictorial programs of artists’ houses will be discussed.