Signatures: Inscribing Identity in Italian Renaissance Art

"Signatures: Inscribing Identity in Italian Renaissance Art," A signature announces an artist's responsibility for the work, even when it is a collaborative effort, The name is understood as a trademark announcing that the conception but not necessarily the execution is by the master. A signature may be an injunction enjoining the beholder's approbation or a prayer for divine favor or, starting with Michelangelo's Pietà, a shorthand reference to the ancient masters praised by Pliny for signing with faciebat. Whereas other signatures indicate completion, signatures using this imperfect verb suggest that the creation of a work of art is never complete. Not only what artists write but where they write is significant. Some signatures are incorporated within the image, whereas a signature on a fictive paper or cartellino (similar to the tituli used by Paolo Giovio for his portrait collection) is perceived as something added to the work, reminding the beholder of its origins as fabrication. In their illusionism, cartellini presage the development of trompe l'oeil painting as an independent genre.