Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Autonomy Of The Artist : The Road To Artistic Independence, Mary Amacher

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In the Renaissance, art was a highly regulated profession anchored within the framework of the guilds. It was integrated into the labor and business aspect of craftmaking, and the artist was not viewed as an independent originator separate from society, but a contractor/craftsman. Nevertheless, there were individual craftsmen whose work stood out above the common masses of master craftsmen. Generally, these new, rather autonomous painters, received some guidance in the planning of their iconographical program with many of their commissions utilizing the assistance of their workshop. This marks the beginning of the conceptual autonomy of the artist, but does not …