The Market for Paintings in the Venetian Republic From Renaissance to Rococò

We study the art market in the Venetian Republic from 1550 to 1750 analyzing the determinants of the prices (adjusted for the cost of living measured by the cost of wheat) of figurative paintings. Reputation of the painters, size of the paintings and other quantifiable factors affect prices as expected. Other relevant factors include the placement of the paintings (on the altar, on the ceiling or on the walls), whose impact reflects differences in demand elasticities. We find evidence of the law of one price confirming price equalization between high and low demand destinations and between different subjects. Finally we relate the temporal trend of the price of a representative painting with waves of artistic innovations, whose peaks were in the Mannerist and Rococò periods with a dark Baroque age in the intermediate period