Nord Gallery

LUXURY AND ART

Turned-ivory, enameled silver, tapestries, illuminated codices, ephemeral courtly spectacles, and polychromed sculpture are all examples of Medieval and Renaissance luxuries. Today, many people think of functional luxury objects—known as the “decorative arts”—as a “minor” art form and hold painting, sculpture, and architecture in higher esteem. This dismissive hierarchical distinction between “luxury” and “art,” however, is a modern inclination that did not exist for early modern audiences.

In most Medieval and Renaissance buildings—whether a palace, church, or civic structure—painting, sculpture, and decorative arts often occupied the same space. These artworks worked together as multisensorial ensembles. To isolate and rank one art form above another, is to misunderstand the function of early modern art.

Throughout Europe, wealthy patrons used luxury arts as symbols of their magnificenza (an Aristotelian virtue and a noble expression of a ruler’s power and generosity through the commissioning of art, architecture, and ephemeral spectacles). Luxury was far from superfluous. These art forms were used to establish political allegiances and reinforce social order.