Introduction

The database and visualization applications offered on this website originated in the programme Art Markets in Europe 1300-1800, Emergence, Development, Networks, funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) from 2008 to 2012. This programme, managed by scholars of the Université de Lille, in close collaboration with Duke University (NC) scholars, brought together an international interdisciplinary team of researchers in art history, economic and social history, or economics, coming from twelve institutions or research organizations, both European and American.

Two lines of research are priviledged. The first one studies the role of Flemish dealers in the development and further structuring of artistic markets in Europe, during the 16^th and 17^th centuries : what commercial strategies did they favour, what methods of production did they use, what were their distribution channels, professional and kinship networks, or their impact on local visual cultures ? We limited our study to an area encompassing the Ancient Low Countries, Northern France, Paris and Italy.

The second line surveys the structural transformations that markets underwent during the 18^th century. Matters of specialization and professionalization of dealers, the internationalization of exchanges, the implementation of networks of agents and go-betweens, and the development of information market are studied more specifically using the examples of London, Paris and Brussels.

The outcome of this research gave way to the publication of a collective work on the one hand, and on the other hand, to the implementation of a database and an experimental data visualization program to which this website is devoted.

The database and the visualization application want to provide a synthetic visual form for results obtained by the team members as part of their own case study, while providing new tools of analysis meant to renew approaches and foster new research. They should be seen as an experimental work likely to evolve as research moves forward, and by no means a definite or exhaustive project. Their conception required new kinds of collaborative work connecting computer scientists, graphic designers, and specialists in communication sciences.