Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T11:13:07.867Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Taste Endures! The Rankings of Roger de Piles (†1709) and Three Centuries of Art Prices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Kathryn Graddy
Kathryn Graddy*
Affiliation:
Fred and Rita Richman Distinguished Professor of Economics, Brandeis University, MS 021, 425 South Street, Waltham, MA 02454. E-mail: kgraddy@brandeis.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Roger de Piles (1635–1709) was a French art critic who decomposed the style and ability of 58 different artists into areas of composition, drawing, color, and expression, rating each artist on a 20-point scale in each category. Based on evidence from two data sets that together span from the mid-eighteenth century to the present, this article shows that De Piles' overall ratings have withstood the test of a very long period of time, with estimates indicating that the works of his higher-rated artists achieved both greater returns and higher critical acclaim than the works of his lower-rated artists.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 73 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 766 - 791
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author would like to thank audiences at Brandeis, Suffolk, and the 2011 North American ACEI conference for helpful comments on this project. She would especially like to thank Alex Appleby, Denise Chisholm, Victor Ginsburgh, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, and Jonathan Unglaub for comments on this article. She is very grateful to Traci Gordon and Elona Rika for research assistance.

References

REFERENCES

Ashenfelter, Orley, and Graddy, Kathryn. “Auctions and the Price of Art.” Journal of Economic Literature 41, no. 3 (2003): 763–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashenfelter, Orley, and Graddy, Kathryn. “Art Auctions.” In Handbook on the Economics of Art and Culture, edited by Ginsburgh, Victor and Throsby, David, 909–45. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2006.Google Scholar
Ashenfelter, Orley, and Jones, Gregory. “The Demand for Expert Opinions: Bordeaux Wine.” Cahier Scientifique del'Observatoire des Conjonctures Viticoles Européennes, no. 3 (2000): 1–17.Google Scholar
Baumol, William J. “Unnatural Value: or Art Investment as a Floating Crap Game.” American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings 76, no. 2 (1986): 10–14.Google Scholar
Benezit Dictionary of Artists in Oxford Art Online. http://www.oxfordartonline.com (accessed 12 December 2012).Google Scholar
Davenport, Michael, and Studdert-Kennedy, G.. “The Statistical Analysis of Aesthetic Judgment: An Exploration.” Applied Statistics 21, no. 3 (1972): 324–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De la Barre, Madeleine, Docclo, Sophie, and Ginsburgh, Victor. “Returns of Impressionist, Modern, and Contemporary European Painters, 1962–1991.” Annales d'Economie et de Statistique, no. 35 (1994): 143–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Marchi, Neil, and van Miegroet, Hans J.. “The History of Art Markets.” In Handbook on the Economics of Art and Culture, edited by Ginsburgh, Victor and Throsby, David, 69–122. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2006.Google Scholar
De Piles, Roger. Dialogue sur le Coloris, Paris: 1673. English edition, A Dialogue Upon Coloring, London: 1711.Google Scholar
De Piles, Roger. Cours de Peinture par Principes, Paris: 1708. English edition, The Principles of Painting: London 1743.Google Scholar
De Piles, Roger. Abrégé de la Vie des Peintres, Paris: 1699. English edition, The Art of Painting with the Lives and Characters of Above 300 of the Most Eminent Painters, second edition. London: 1744.Google Scholar
Etro, Federico, and Pagani, Laura. “The Market for Paintings in Italy During the Seventeenth Century.” The Journal of Economic History 72, no. 2 (2012): 423–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galenson, David W.Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Galenson, David W., and Bruce, A. Weinberg. “Age and the Quality of Work: The Case of Modern American Painters.” Journal of Political Economy 108, no. 4 (2000): 761–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galenson, David W., and Bruce, A. Weinberg. “Creating Modern Art: The Changing Careers of Painters in France from Impressionism to Cubism.” American Economic Review 91, no. 4 (2001): 1063–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginsburgh, Victor. “Awards, Success, and Aesthetic Quality in the Arts.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 17, no. 2 (2003): 99–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginsburgh, Victor, and Jeanfils, Philippe. “Long-Term Co-Movements in International Markets for Paintings.” European Economic Review 39, no. 3–4 (1995): 538–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginsburgh, Victor, and Van Ours, Jan. “Expert Opinion and Compensation: Evidence from a Musical Competition.” American Economic Review 93, no. 1 (2003): 289–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginsburgh, Victor, and Weyers, Sheila. “On the Contemporaneousness of Roger de Piles Balance des Peintres.” In Sublime Economy: On the Intersection of Art and Economics, edited by Cullenberg, Stephen E., Childers, Joseph W., and Amariglio, Jack, 112–23. London: Routledge, 2008.Google Scholar
Ginsburgh, Victor, and Weyers, Sheila. “On the Formation of Canons: The Dynamics of Narratives in Art History.” Empirical Studies of the Arts 28 (2010): 37–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goetzmann, William. N. “Accounting for Taste: Art and Financial Markets over Three Centuries.” American Economic Review 83, no. 5 (1993): 1370–76.Google Scholar
Goetzmann, William. N. “How Costly is the Fall from Fashion? Survivorship Bias in the Painting Market.” In Economics of the Arts: Selected Essays, edited by Ginsburgh, Victor and Menger, Pierre-Michel, 71–84. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1996.Google Scholar
Gombrich, Ernst. Norm and Form: Studies in the Art of the Renaissance. London: Phaidon, 1966.Google Scholar
Gordon's Blouin Art Sales Index, http://artsalesindex.artinfo.com (accessed 12 December 2012).Google Scholar
Grove Art Online, http://www.oup.com/online/us/groveart/?view=usa (accessed 12 December 2012).Google Scholar
Holt, David K. “An Example for Art-Critical Instruction: Roger de Piles.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 28, no. 2 (1994): 95–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleiner, Fred S.Gardner's Art Through the Ages: A Global History. 13th Edition. Boston: Wadsworth, 2011.Google Scholar
Landes, William M. “The Test of Time: Does Twentieth Century American Art Survive.” In The Economics of Art and Culture, edited by Ginsburgh, Victor A., 143–64. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2004.Google Scholar
Lichtenstein, Jacqueline. The Eloquence of Color: Rhetoric and Painting in the French Classical Age. Translated by McVarish, Emily. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1993.Google Scholar
Mei, Jianping, and Moses, Michael. “Art as an Investment and the Underperformance of Masterpieces.” American Economic Review 92, no. 5 (December 2002): 1656–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monthias, John M.Art at Auction in Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ormrod, David. “Art and Its Markets.” Economic History Review 52, no. 3 (1999): 544–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pesando, James E. “Art as an Investment: The Market for Modern Prints.” American Economic Review 83, no. 5 (1993): 1075–89.Google Scholar
Phelps Brown, E. H., and Hopkins, Sheila. “Seven Centuries of the Prices of Consumables, Compared with Builders' Wage-Rates.” Economica 23, no. 92 (1956): 296–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Puttfarken, Thomas. Roger de Piles' Theory of Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Reitlinger, Gerald. The Economics of Taste. Vol. 1. London: Barrie and Rockcliff, 1961; Vol. 2, 1963; Vol. 3, 1971.Google Scholar
Rosand, David. Painting in Cinquecento Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Spear, Richard E., and Sohm, Philip L.. Painting for Profit: The Economic Lives of Seventeenth-Century Italian Painters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Studdert-Kennedy, Gerald, and Davenport, Michael. “The Balance of Roger de Piles: A Statistical Analysis.” Journals of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 32, no. 4 (1974): 493–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar