Portrait of an artist

The December 17th issue of The Economist has an article about renaissance artist Albrecht Durer that focuses not only on his exceptional talent as an artist, but on his ground-breaking entrepreneurship as an artist; fueling his income with multiple-print woodcuts that he could crank on demand, give away as loss-leaders, or barter with as currency.  

His preference for that medium also made it easier to share his expertise with distant artist and patrons, create more access to his work across an economic spectrum, and exercise independence from the traditional, patron-bound world of the arts. Of course, the wider his work spread, the easier it was for it to be pirated. Hence the conspicuous incorporation of his AD "logo" in much of his work to help preserve the integrity of his brand.

The analogies throughout the article to current methods of entrepreneurship are not hard to miss, but are nicely understated. Great historical context, insightful analysis, and strong links to current perspectives. A good classroom read.

P.S. 

I would also add two other articles from this issue to this suite of pieces that rethink and link historical events to what we see in our current world.

First, "The company that ruled the world," compares the advantages and pitfalls experienced by the state-run East India Company of yore with the burly state-backed companies that are snowballing the economies of China, Russia, and Brazil. And, "How Luther went viral," which draws the similarities between Martin Luther's use of emerging technology and social networks to create an "overwhelming tide" of opinion - foreshadowing the use of digital techniology and social media used in this past year's Arab Spring.