The art market in Renaissance Spain: From Flanders to Castile

The art historian Max Friedlander in 1935 noted, the Iberian peninsula was, by the beginning of the period under study, a destination for Netherlandish paintings. Throughout the period 1474–1530, Northern merchandise, including sculpture, books, tapestries, and altarpieces, went to established markets and fairs found throughout Castile.; Documenting the organization of the art market in Castile from the last quarter of the fifteenth century through the sixteenth, the dissertation addresses Isabella's establishment of duty-free markets and fairs along previously established trade and pilgrimage routes. Key to the exchange and spread of Flemish art, these fairs and markets, established throughout Castile, assured the continual movement of merchandise, including art objects. The ability of merchants and prosperous townspeople of Castile to purchase works, such as paintings and sculptures, at duty-free fairs resulted in the growth of art production and an enormous demand for early Netherlandish art by Spanish patrons.; This study also examines foreign merchants and artists, who settled in Spain, not only because of the lucrative markets and fairs, but also because of tax benefits granted by the crown. Saturated with foreign travelers from areas such as the Germanic and Burgundian territories, Spain became responsive to the new stylistic traditions brought by northern artists.