For the first time, the collections of artists and artisans in Antwerp are investigated systematically. This yields new results about the connection between making and collecting: between innovation and appreciation.

The crucial role of the city of Antwerp in the history of collecting has long been noted in historical and art historical scholarship. However, up to now there has not been a foundational study of the collecting practices of broader social groups in seventeenth-century Antwerp. This present study makes up for the lack in research by focusing on collecting activities of learned artists and artisans – the social groups that, together with the educated merchants, stood at the centre of and shaped the city’s cultural life. In their double roles as makers-collectors, they put a strong mark on the culture of collecting.