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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsAny old coin enthusiasts here? I have a question about the Italian Scudi.
Does anybody know what 125 Scudi was worth in the mid 16th Century Italy? I'm trying to assess what an altarpiece by Veronese was paid for a work he painted for a Confraternity in Pesaro.
bucolic_frolic
(43,511 posts)A Google user.
https://www.wordnik.com/words/scudo
Once scudi, says this post, is worth about 96 cents. But inflation, inflation. probably bought a nice dinner, 3 days' rent, and a bottle of wine.
CTyankee
(63,926 posts)bucolic_frolic
(43,511 posts)CTyankee
(63,926 posts)I'm not a big fan of Venice but I'd love to go back to the Gallerie to see the art again.
Donkees
(31,537 posts)https://www.frick.org/press/veronese_murano_two_venetian_renaissance_masterpieces_restored
For at least a decade after his passing Veronese's family used sketches and drawings to complete more works from the studio signed under the name "Heirs of Paolo" while prints of Veronese's work were in high demand even during his own lifetime; something highly unusual for a living artist at that time.
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/veronese-paolo/
CTyankee
(63,926 posts)Donkees
(31,537 posts)Ceteris paribus, each additional square metre increases the price of the average painting by 9%. Other relevant explanatory variables include the placement of religious paintings in the churches (demand was more rigid for altarpieces, commanding higher prices, and more elastic for paintings on the nave, which could be substituted with different decorations), or the institutional nature of the commissioner (the Ducal Palace in Venice or St Peters in Rome wanted and obtained more quality by paying artists a little more than the ordinary market a sort of efficiency wage mechanism).
... 1 Prices were in silver coins in each town and their value was approximately equal. In the empirical analysis all the prices were normalized for the cost of living, expressed through the price of wheat.
https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/titian-veronese-caravaggio-and-their-rivals-evidence-competition-market-altarpieces
CTyankee
(63,926 posts)I am less familiar with coinage and that is why information such as what you have given me is so important. I thank you so much, very good info!
DFW
(54,506 posts)Here you have a scudo di oro from Reggio Emilia, year 1552 (front and back sides).
One of these could buy you food for months, probably a horse, and ten of them could probably have bought you a modest residence. A sum of 125 of these things was considered quite a stash in those days.
CTyankee
(63,926 posts)on its placement in its revered museum space....