Renaissance Art

The function of artworks has dramatically changed since the Middle Ages. This change is in part due to a shift in the function of the artist and how they are perceived. This transition started during the Renaissance, where a different vision of art was acquired thanks to new philosophical streams and the work of humanist thinkers. As celebrated artists replaced anonymous craftsmen and workshops, the difference between arts and crafts was asserted and the question of the individuality of the artist and its expression in art was raised. Art was finally recognised as 'art ' and as such it gained a whole new function: art was not a way to decorate churches anymore, and became a medium through which artists could express themselves. Works such

A distinction between 'high brow ' and 'low brow ' art appeared, and the creation of academies and art institutions in the eighteenth century, such as the London Royal Acadamy of Art, encouraged this demarcation even further. With the organisation of annual exhibitions and artists ' retrospectives, art became a form of elite entertainment. Connoisseurship was developed amongst amateurs who started large collections of works of art, and . Art therefore acquired a new function with the creation of these institutions. As art became increasingly linked to leisure, art dealers acquired an important role as middlemen in the art world. These men participated in changing the function of art as they made artworks available to the bourgeoisie, at a time where society was incredibely fluid and the urban population was growing richer. One of these men was Edme-François Gersaint, a Parisian art dealer whose shop was depicted in 1721 by Antoine Watteau in his last painting, L 'Enseigne de Gersaint (Fig. 3). The shop 's staff and clients are depicted admiring the antiques and artworks by famous Italian and Flemish painters, or busy packing paintings. Their clothing and stature mark them as being part of the affluent and influential bourgeoisie of Paris. Gersaint and the other art dealers, were despised by a part of their contemporaries and Academy painters did not have the right to sollicitate

This is the result of a change of physical context. As E.H. Gombrich put it, pictures went from the church, to the museum, to the home. As we have already observed whilst analysing the difference between the two artworks from the Victoria & Albert Museum (Fig. 1 and 2), physical context plays a major role in the evolution of an artefact 's or artwork 's function over time. Indeed, if an object is removed from its original setting and put in another place, its function will change, as the function of an object resides in the eye of the viewer. Function is indeed different from use. Whilst use is what the object was created for, in an utilitarian way, function is what think the object is and what we make of it. Therefore, an artefact which was made to be used in everyday life, and whose maker had no intention of making it a work of art, can be considered as art once we discover it, put in an museum case alongside other artworks. The way we perceive this artefact has changed, and thus its function has changed as well. An example of an archaeological artefact which has changed context and therefore function the coiled Jomon pot in the British Museum (Fig. 4). This clay pot was made in Japan around 5,000 BC. It is round, about 15 centimetres high and with a diameter of 17 centimetres. Its outside was pressed with fibres to make the pot look like