Vincent Carretta argues that the patron, rather than being John Wheatley or Mather Byles is actually the Countess of Huntington, who Wheatley dedicates the volume. Maecenas was the wealthy patron of classical Roman poets Virgil and Horace, whom Wheatley draws on in complex ways. Wheatley’s poem “To Maecenas” opens her collection, which position gives it a powerful significance as she claims the right to speak within this tradition. Like Horace’s Odes to Maecenas, Wheatley’s offers praise to her patron, but does so in ways that are fraught with the equivocalities of being an enslaved African working within the languge and culture of the colonial master. For a deeper reading of “To Maecenas,” see Paula Bennett’s journal article, “Phillis Wheatley’s Vocation and the Paradox of the ‘Afric Muse.'” Following other scholars, Bennett identifies Wheatley’s poet-patron as Mather Byles, one of the signatories verifying her authorship. Multimillion-dollar artworks are tokenised into “asset tokens”.

A generous benefactor; specifically, a patron of literature or art. Manage your investments on our liquid trading exchange with fees as low as 1%. Traditional auction houses charge up to 25% commission on sales, and galleries up to 50%. They – not market participants – dictate the time an auction is held and the price of an artwork. Revolutionise the art market – meet thousands of investors on our secure, transparent platform.

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This includes not only art loss registry checks and physical inspection, but also validating storage certificates, insurance policies, certificates of authenticity and background checks on the chain of owners. Any documentation, either obtained or produced as part of our due diligence process, is stored securely and protected by cryptography to ensure that they are impossible to falsify once the artwork is listed on the platform. ART is a blockchain-based token that is used by the Maecenas platform. Community members can utilise ART to interact directly with our smart contracts in the Ethereum blockchain network. Here, Wheatley blatantly asks why only one, Terence, should be remembered throughout history for his poetic accomplishments.

• Maecenas also wrote literature himself in both prose and verse, which are now lost literary work.
• Community members can utilise ART to interact directly with our smart contracts in the Ethereum blockchain network.
• Auctioneers would charge her a 20% fee in buyer’s premium, which would make the investment considerably more expensive.
• His character as a munificent patron of literature – which has made his name a household word – is gratefully acknowledged by the recipients of it and attested by the regrets of the men of letters of a later age, expressed by Martial and Juvenal.

DXMarkets works with various blockchain platforms to develop custom-made scalable solutions for clients. Maecenas is most famous for his support of young poets; hence his name has become the eponym for a “patron of arts”. It was Virgil, impressed with examples of Horace’s poetry, who introduced Horace to Maecenas.

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He writes, “Religion, indeed, has produced a Phillis Wheatley; but it could not produce a poet. The compositions published under her name are below the dignity of criticism” . Listed artworks are insured and held in secure, purpose-built facilities to protect them from damage or theft.

Maecenas is the first blockchain-based platform that allows anyone to buy, sell, and trade part ownership in masterpieces on a liquid exchange. The most likely scenario would be for the artwork to be stored in a purpose-built art storage facility that provides high-security access. This has the benefits of preserving the artwork in optimal conditions and significantly lowering the risk of https://cryptolisting.org/ damage or theft, which is reflected in the lower premium that would be charged by the insurance company. It is also possible to store the artworks at museums or certain galleries given that they meet our guidelines and are approved by the insurance provider. As part of our due diligence procedures, we arrange for provenance checks to be conducted by reputable and trusted third-parties.

Independence Day (Phyllis Wheatley, “To Maecenas”)

We believe that by lowering the threshold of entry we can make art investment available to a much wider audience who can collectively co-own art all around the globe, effectively democratizing fine art. Expressions in Propertius seem to imply that Maecenas had taken some part in the campaigns of Mutina, Philippi, and Perugia. He prided himself on his ancient Etruscan lineage, and claimed descent from the princely house of the Cilnii, who excited the jealousy of their townsmen by their preponderant wealth and influence at Arretium in the 4th century BC.

By investing via Maecenas in an art-based financial instrument with similar performance, but a drastically lower fee, the client’s portfolio increases in value by more than $1.5m. Purchasing art pieces from Christie’s would incur fees of approximately $2m. In comparison, Maecenas allows her to invest in a number of different art pieces easily, paying only 3% in fees via bank transfer or credit card. If you decide to hold your tokens in your own blockchain wallet, you can use any third-party compatible with ERC20 to check your balance. We recommend using high-security hardware wallets such as Ledger Nano and Trezor. If you hold your tokens in our platform, you can check your balance by simply logging in and going into the Account section where you can see the balances of all the assets and currencies you hold with us.

I was unable to track his ancestry to great-great-great-grandparents, and I’m not sure Horatius could either. Especially since the expression is in plural , I believe it refers to several ancestors in several generations. But it is still possible that Horatius has some specific ancestors in mind instead of his family in general. The famously deistic who is maecenas Jefferson sees Wheatley as the product of over-emotional evangelists who have filled her head with Christ and not with poetry. That Wheatley was one of America’s great literary celebrities must have galled Jefferson. Reading the collection, one is struck by how much Wheatley has mastered European poetic conventions and brought them to America.

Horace makes reference to this in his address to Maecenas at the opening of his first books of Odes with the expression “atavis edite regibus” . Tacitus refers to him as “Cilnius Maecenas”; it is possible that “Cilnius” was his mother’s nomen – or that Maecenas was in fact a cognomen. He was also an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil. During the reign of Augustus, Maecenas served as a quasi-culture minister to the Roman emperor but in spite of his wealth and power he chose not to enter the Senate, remaining of equestrian rank. The leaves of the bay laurel tree were a conventional symbol of poetic fame and acheivement originating in the mythological tale of Daphne and Apollo.

His great wealth may have been in part hereditary, but he owed his position and influence to his close connection with the emperor Augustus. He first appears in history in 40 BC, when he was employed by Octavian in arranging his marriage with Scribonia, and afterwards in assisting to negotiate the Treaty of Brundisium and the reconciliation with Mark Antony. As a close friend and advisor he had even acted as deputy for Augustus when he was abroad. Publius Terentius Afer, better known as Terence, is a famous Roman comic playwright, born in northern Africa. As the Encylopedia Britannicanotes, Terence was enslaved and later freed by a Roman senator. Wheatley suggests a connection between herself and Terence, both of African origin; yet, Terence is “happier”–both in his poetic skill, and perhaps also in having been freed.

Artworks are carefully curated for significance, quality, and investment value. By pushing these key functions into a blockchain platform, we not only increase security and visibility of our processes but also we significantly reduce costs, which are passed into the community so that everyone benefits. In an exclusive interview with Fintechnews.sg, Casil shares the story behind Maecenas, his vision for the company, the long-term goals, and what’s to expect to the near future. Maecenas is planning to run a crowdsale of its ART token, a clearing and settlement token to be used for all transactions on the platform. The platform promises to allow both sides of a traditional art deal to substantially reduce the commissions paid.

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Mantua is a city in Italy, and the home of Virgil; the Mantuan sage is the poet Virgil. The nine muses in Greco-Roman mythology are goddesses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne who inspire those in the arts and sciences. Homer is the ancient Greek poet of The Oddyssey and The Illiad.

Thankfully, while Wheatley was enslaved, her owners did educate her, and as John Wheatley notes in the letter that opens Poems on Various Subjects that Phillis, “in sixteen Months Time from her arrival, attained the English language, to which she was an utter stranger before” . All enslaved individuals did not have the same opportunities as Wheatley, and even though she showed her intellect and the Wheatley’s freed her, she died in poverty at 31 years of age, three years before Jefferson’s comments on her writing. Prior to Maecenas, CEO and co-founder Marcelo García Casil founded DXMarkets, a startup that’s applying blockchain technology to financial markets to increase efficiency and reduce infrastructure costs.

These digital certificates are issued as ERC20-compatible tokens on the Ethereum network. Each artwork that is tokenised by Maecenas is represented by a different type of Asset Token and it has a unique code. As an example, the 14 Small Electric Chairs Reversal Series artwork by Andy Warhol is represented by the code WRHL1. Having WRHL1 tokens in your digital wallet means you are part-owner of the Warhol artwork. VIRGIL READING AT THE HOUSE OF MAECENAS, JALABERIn spite of his significant contributions to the new political order in Rome, Maecenas is still best known for being a patron of the arts. He supported and promoted the careers of such Latin literary greats as Virgil, Horace, and Propertius.

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The image included here is a portrait of the 18th century poet Alexander Pope, wearing a crown of laurel. The portrait (c.1737), by Jonathan Richardson, is housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London. The entire sale is fully transparent and executed on our secure blockchain based platform. Instead of getting a 3-year art-secured loan at a 13.5% annual interest, it can raise funds from Maecenas investors by listing some of their artwork at a 8% one-off fee. Art owners can list artworks on Maecenas and sell the Asset Tokens to investors. Investors can view the painting’s details, history, condition report, high resolution images of the artwork, and its full provenance before registering their interest to bid.

The testimony of Horace and Maecenas’s own literary tastes imply that he had profited from the highest education of his time. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title.

Similarly to how professional auction houses and some galleries operate, we obtain third-party valuation from experts in the particular artwork (taking into account the artist, their time period, medium, etc.). At this stage we remain focused solely on tokenising blue-chip artworks. However, in future we may expand our catalogue to include other related asset types. Manage your Fine Art investment portfolio in an active, real-time trading environment. Maecenas is a legitimate fintech startup that has 3.5 years of history, has been vetted and selected by Fintech Fusion, a Swiss accelerator run by Polytech Ventures which is an early-stage VC also based in Switzerland. We have a large board of advisors who are all highly experienced and reputable, and trust our team fully.

Each asset token represents a share of the beneficial interest in the underlying artwork and can be traded instantly on a global exchange. Multimillion-dollar artworks are broken up into “asset tokens” – digital units that can be bought and sold easily – literally at a fraction of the cost. Ownership of your holdings is protected by cryptographic keys which are virtually impossible to crack.