Consumo d'arte a Firenze in eta' moderna. Le collezioni Martelli, Riccardi e Salviati nel XVII e XVIII secolo

This paper intends to examine the consumption of art by some of the most important aristocratic Florentine families from the seventeenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century. In the last few decades economic and social historians have showed an increasing interest in consumption and material culture. The systematic application of investigations and economic methods to the study of consumption, through model-building and sophisticated quantitative analysis, has led to the discovery that there was a significant increase in the number and types of material goods in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries. Even though this interest has produced many contributions to the field, no systematic and satisfactory interpretations have been made that can be applied as a general model of the phenomenon. The central problem for the historians remains one of explaining the dynamic role of consumption, and the growing urge to own and display some kind of material goods, such as paintings as commodities. Reconstruction of the art collections of the most important Florentine families will be a matter of significant importance towards understanding the art consumption in Florence in the modern age.