SECTION 05
The Patron
Most of this art was made for a room its patrons stood in every week. Confraternities, guilds, families and communes commissioned for a specific wall, a specific altar, a specific need — and the object left that room only later.
- Patronage Was Local Before It Was Anything ElseConfraternities, guilds and families commissioning for a chapel they used. Most of this art was made for a room its patrons stood in every week.
- A Burial Chapel, Walls and Altar TogetherCommissioning a whole space rather than an object, and what that does to the programme.
- A Patron Saint for a Shared PillarSmall commissions in shared spaces — the ordinary end of the market that rarely reaches a museum.
- The Refectory WallWhy so many Last Suppers are in dining halls, and what the subject was doing in that room.
- How They Left the RoomSuppression, sale and relocation — the routes by which an altarpiece became a museum object.
Other sections
The register runs across five of them.