The article analyzes set of normative sources which regulated the exercise of the profession of painters and sculptors in Brno in the 18th century (guilds’ statutes, government’s decrees, civic regulations, judicial sources etc.). The study interprets the decline of the artists’ guild organization in Brno in the 1750s in a wider perspective of economic and administrative reforms in the Habsburg monarchy. These reforms were marked by several particular initiatives made by the artist’s corporation in Brno, who came up with own unsuccessful proposals of various changes of the traditional city’s guild system. The study states that such initiatives should not be explained simply as symptoms of a changing urban society in Central Europe during the Enlightenment era, or as a consequence of the dynamics of proto-industrialization and the establishment of new economic as well educational institutions, but also as a result of the new product market and the demand shifted towards less expensive and more fashionable goods.