Scrambling for Scudi: Notes on Painters' Earnings in Early Baroque Rome

This essay compares the earnings of various painters included in the recent exhibition "The Genius of Rome" with wages of common workers, incomes of the middle and wealthy classes, and the cost of living in Rome, particularly the basic expenses of food and rent. The criteria for pricing paintings, which usually were negotiated in scudi, and the cost of making paintings also are discussed. The results suggest that the established painters from the time of Caravaggio and the Carracci until the election of Urban VIII (1623) belonged to a surprisingly lucrative profession.