The art snob appears to be a fairly recent creation dating from about the turn of the 18th/19th century, with little precedent prior to then, except for Italians who were mostly finding an excuse to squabble.
My hypothesis.
This was the age of the antiquarian, the cabinets of curiosities, and the gentlemen scientists.
But what do you do if you are an aristocrat in 1800 and are as dumb as a Kardashian?
Your attempts at pretending to be smart left Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace pointing and laughing at you.
So you become an expert in something that doesn’t matter but you pretend that it matters greatly and if other people don’t understand it, they just aren’t as special as you.
Thus was born the art snob.
The Dark Herald 