Crossroads

This volume examines the role that Frankfurt am Main played in the rise of the commercial art market in general and in particular of painting and printmaking during the early modern period from 1500-1800. Although the Frankfurt Book Fair remains a major publishing event, art historians have not yet focused sufficiently on its precursor, the Frankfurt fair, an important location for the trade in paintings and prints. What figures and what motives brought artists to Frankfurt and where did they come from? Who intersected with the art market in such areas as commerce or book and intaglio printing? What did elite culture in the city look like, and how did it tie Frankfurt to wider intellectual and artistic circles? How did the change of the place of coronation of the emperors from Aachen to Frankfurt in 1562 with all visitors, coronation feasts and ephemeral art influence the art market?