Painters and Communities in Seventeenth-Century Brussels: A Social History of Art in a Digital Framework

This dissertation describes in two parts the importance of social structures on the artistic production of seventeenth-century Brussels painters. The first part is quantitative and uses the custom-built Cornelia database to analyse a vast amount and wide array of serial archival data about the (social) lives and careers of all 349 master painters who were registered in Brussels Guild of Painters, Goldbeaters, and Stained-Glass Makers between 1599 and 1706. The second part is qualitative and links the results of part one to the artistic production of a select number of painters with remarkable profiles. The Court of Brussels, the local art market and the city's celebrated tapestry industry are amply discussed.