A major shift in the art world has been the supplanting of Pablo Picasso as THE artist of the 20th century by Marcel Duchamp. This displacement yielded the "Duchamp effect." A similar shift (the "Caravaggio effect"?) puts that artist ahead of Michelangelo among the Italian masters. Once upon a time, Vermeer and El Greco were shrouded in obscurity. Then they too experienced their effect-epiphany. 

 

To what extent is this model applicable in other fields?   http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/duchamp-effect