On the basis of representations of the artist’s studio from the Renaissance onwards this paper introduces the central questions with which the Max Planck Research Group „Art and Knowledge in Pre-Modern Europe“ is concerned: how did artists invent and appropriate knowledge, conceive and categorize knowledge, and transmit and circulate knowledge in the visual and decorative arts in the pre-modern period? Another question is what kind of knowledge did they consider within their remit? The representations of the artis’s studio show how the epistemic requirements for artists changed between 1400 and 1700. Increasingly, the studium of art extended beyond the craft practices in to such fields as perspective, anatomy and alchemy. The workshop was not a solitary space. The representations of the artist’s studio show that it was a place of labour division (from the preparation of materials to the finished works of art), as well as a a place of knowledge exchange (an ‘academy’ where the master taught his apprentices as well as a meeting space where collectors judged works of art). How did these processes of knowledge exchange take place in the workshop? Which role did collections of drawings, three-dimensional objects, recipes and books play in the transmission of knowledge in the artist’s studio ?
