Art and Architecture

Being able to buy a rembrandt still signals wealth. Fine rembrandts are in limited supply, and everyone knows they are expensive. A modern painter with rembrandt's skill set wouldn't be able to make it big. Their talents are no longer in short supply. Why does this matter? Partly because art is nice, and we should try to understand where our beautiful things come from. exploring these questions can shed light on broader questions of class signalling. It seems like pre modern artistic elites and commoners were on the same page, then something happened to put them on different pages. How does that relate to the formation of classes in general? Is society better off if elites successfully