Artists' Art in the Renaissance

Some years ago, Marilyn Aronberg Lavin noticed that certain Italian works of art had remained in the possession of their makers throughout their lives. They came from a time, the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, when paintings and sculptures were regularly commissioned, had a particular destination, and were contracted for at a set price of which a portion was paid before work began. They all were finished, and in some cases attempts at purchase had been refused; a number were in the artist's studio after his death. All seemed to have been made, kept, and cherished for personal reasons.

Marilyn Aronberg Lavin is best known for her work on Piero della Francesca. She has also been recognized with national awards as a pioneer in the field now called "collectionism," (Seventeenth-Century Barberini Documents and Inventories of Art, New York, 1975) and in the use of computer technology for art historical scholarship. She lives with her husband of more than half a century in Princeton, New Jersey.