A Material Renaissance for Artisans? Pious Material Goods in the Artisan Homes of Renaissance Florence

Recent scholarship on the early modern Italian home has argued for a growing abundance of goods in wealthy residences, inspiring scholars to posit an emergent consumer culture, sometimes termed the “material Renaissance.” Scholars have postulated a similar proliferation of objects in artisan households, including pious goods. Using unpublished inventories, this study tests this argument by examining the devotional objects in artisan homes in late fifteenth-century Florence. It demonstrates that most artisans possessed few devotional goods, and only affluent artisans owned luxury pious objects. Artisans experienced a “material Renaissance” only with respect to images of the Madonna, as reflected in the mass market that developed to provide them. Artisans were not part of any protoconsumer culture regarding other religious representations. Finally, the twenty-five years covered by the inventories show no changes occurring over time in the display of religious representations, as might be expected if the material Renaissance was spreading into lower-status homes.