Scrambling for scudi: notes on painters' earnings in early Baroque Rome
Art Bulletin, The, June, 2003 by Richard E. Spear
Continued from page 1.
because of some important works which. . . I was forced to accept out of pure necessity, after having devoted all the summer to the study of art. For I could not furnish and suitably maintain a house with two servants for the period of one year in Rome on the mere 140 crowns [scudi] which I have received from Mantua during my entire absence.
"Therefore," he went on to say, "when the finest and most splendid opportunity in all Rome presented itself, my ambition urged me to avail myself of the chance. It is the high altar of the new church of the Priests of the Oratory, called Sta. Maria in Vallicella," or the Chiesa Nuova. (24)
The fathers of the Chiesa Nuova had been offered 300 scudi by the papal banker Jacomo Serra to help fund the commission, whose total budget was 450 scudi, but Serra made the proviso that Rubens be chosen, or his gift might be withdrawn. Probably to show the padri what he could do, Rubens painted the picture now in Berlin. (25)
Rubens got the job, but with the understanding that he would donate 200 scudi to the church. It was further agreed that he would pay for the materials, and that after the work was completed two experts would decide if he deserved a bonus. As Michael Jaffe noted, Rubens's "readiness to advance toward a contract on such a basis is the measure of his determination to obtain the commission." (26)
The agreement was revised, with Rubens's donation reduced to 50 scudi, so he stood to make 400. But the finished altarpiece, evaluated by the experts at 800 scudi, was rejected for complex reasons. (27) It meant that Rubens had to redo the altarpiece at his own expense and add two lateral paintings. For those he received an additional 200 scudi each, which was lucky, since the new altarpiece was evaluated as being worth only 350 scudi instead of 800, thus deserving no bonus. The artist at least was excused from contributing 50 scudi to the church.
Rubens nevertheless made more money than he had in 1601-2 when, recently arrived in Italy, he painted three pictures for S. Croce in Gerusalemme and was paid no more than 200 scudi. Evidently, by the time of the Chiesa Nuova commission his reputation commanded better pay--or, simply, more money was available. For his contemporaneous altarpiece of 1608 in Fermo, he received 200 scudi. Four years earlier, the much more famous Federico Zuccaro had negotiated a deal with the same congregation. He said that his altarpiece of the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence should cost 600 scudi, but he proposed giving half of his fee as a contribution, although in the end he also settled for 200 scudi. (28)
What can such documents tell us about the financial life of artists in early seicento Rome and their socioeconomic status? What would the 200 scudi that Rubens or Zuccaro earned per picture buy? From what perspective did the twenty-nine-year-old Rubens complain that 140 scudi a year was inadequate for his expenses, which included two servants?
To have a domestic servant (in distinction to studio assistants) was a sign of financial success, as is evident from the testimony at the trial of Agostino Tassi for the rape of Artemisia Gentileschi. Orazio Gentileschi's neighbor told the court, "I know that he never has had a servant, that Gentileschi was truly a poor man [so che non ha tenuto mai servitore che veramenle ii Gentileschi era povera huomo]," in part, it seems, because whenever he had money he spent it lavishly. (29) Fewer than half of the families in Florence in 1551 had any servants at all; 23 percent had one servant; 18 percent had two to five; and 5 percent had more than five. (30) To judge by that measure, Rubens enjoyed an elevated style of living, at a luxurious level for a single man. Artemisia Gentileschi also employed two servants in Rome in 1623, but they were probably more a necessity for a separated, working mother. Two years later one of her servants went to court claiming 30 scudi in back pay, although Artemisia got off with a 20 scudi settlement. (21)
Rent in Italian cities was high in relation to wages, resulting in terrible crowding of the needy. About 15 percent of Rome's population was miserably destitute and dependent on charity for survival. (32) As many as two-thirds of Italian heads of households, including those workers who lived in prosperous cities like Rome, had to resort to charity sometime during their lives. (33) A writer observed in 1601, "In Rome one sees only beggars, and they are so numerous that it is impossible to walk the streets without having them around." (34)
It is not known how much Rubens paid for rent, but the cost of living in Rome probably justified his complaint. Around the time of his letters, the Gentileschi's tenant and faithless chaperon of Artemisia, Tuzia, with her husband spent 18 scudi a year for just two rooms upstairs in the house where the Gentileschi lived in the parish of S. Spirito in Sassia. (35) In 1609, Adam Elsheimer signed a lease for lodgings in the Campo Marzio that cost 60 scudi annually. (36) A few years later, the Borghese gave Guido Reni, in addition to his monthly stipend of 9 scudi plus bread, wine, and firewood, an allowance of 50 scudi a year for rent. (37)
These figures correspond well with summaries based on notarial data. They indicate that rent in the cheaper quarters of Rome was about 12 scudi a year, a bit more in the Via Giulia, from 25 to 30 scudi in the area of the Via della Scrofa, and in the fancy zone--then as now, the streets near the Trinita dei Monti (Condotti, Frattina, Babuino, the Corso), where many artists lived--rents were about 35 to 40 scudi a year, peaking at 100.38
Like rent, food was not cheap in Rome. (39) In 1613 a thirty-eight-year-old merchant spent 70 scudi a year to eat. (40) Around 1600, wheat cost more in the papal city than almost anywhere else in Europe, 4 to 5 baiocchi per kilogram. Adult wheat consumption was about a rubbio (roughly eight bushels) a year, meaning that an adult's annual expense on bread alone came to about 10 scudi. (41) Pasta was a luxury food, costing three times as much as ordinary bread. (42) Eggs fetched a baiocco a dozen in 1600. Ordinary wine was priced at 3 to 4 baiocchi a liter, the equivalent of 20 percent of a field worker's daily wage, and due to scarcity during Jubilee years its price, like that of hotel rooms and bread, skyrocketed. Nonetheless, per capita wine consumption in Rome was high, about two hundred liters a year. (43) In 1613 a pair of shoes cost 50 baiocchi, or two days' earnings for a worker. Fish could be expensive: 24 baiocchi a kilo in 1615, the same price as for a pair of cocks. Beef and lamb were cheaper, rough ly 9 baiocchi a kilo in the mid-1620s, (44) maybe because, as Michel de Montaigne complained, in Rome "their mutton is no good and is held in scant esteem," whereas "fish are less abundant than in France... pike especially is no good at all, and they leave it for the people," while barbel and dorados were excellent and costly. (45)
Such prices were dauntingly high for the great majority of Romans. (46) During 1605-7, a field worker made between 15 and 22 baiocchi a day, or about 50 scudi a year; a muratore, or skilled mason, earned 35 baiocchi a day in 1624, that is, about 85 scudi annually; in 1627 a tailor made half as much; a soldier at Castel Sant'Angelo, like a Swiss guard, made 48 scudi a year, though an extra 15 to 20 percent should be added onto laborers' wages to take into account their supplemental food rations. (47)
Thus, an ordinary worker spent roughly three-quarters of his income on food, of which a third was for bread, leaving little for rent, clothing, and heat. (48) To buy an easel painting by a contemporary artist of standing was beyond consideration, for it would have cost more than a year's income.
For the rich, on the other hand, housing, food, and clothing, like art, were traditional signs of status. In 1576-77, 34 percent of the Odescalchi family's expenditures on consumer goods went for food, 27 percent for housing, 10 percent for servants' wages, and 8 percent for clothing. Strikingly, despite their high style of living, they were able to save 80 percent of their income. (49)
During the years represented by The Genius of Rome, the leading cardinal-patrons of art were very wealthy. Odoardo Farnese, for example, in 1593 had an income of 60,000 scudi; in 1600 Pietro Aldobrandini, from his annual income of 40,000 scudi, spent 5,000 scudi on one banquet for fifteen hundred guests; as soprintendente dello stato ecclesiastico, Scipione Borghese was paid 405 scudi a month, and that was just the start of what he could reap as papal nephew. In 1612 he earned 140,000 scudi; from 1605 to 1633 he acquired an astonishing 6.5 million scudi. Paul V gave his family more than a million scudi simply as gifts. (50)
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