Content area
Abstract
This dissertation traces the use of the cartellino—an illusionistic paper label—in the Venetian Empire from the middle of the fifteenth century to the first quarter of the sixteenth century, when the motif enjoyed its greatest popularity. The small body of existing scholarship on the cartellino generally focuses the motif as a vehicle for signatures. Building on these studies, I contextualize the cartellino as one of the most conspicuous signs of Venetian painters’ assertion of identity during the early Renaissance period. Confusion about the cartellino’s origins has persisted in published studies, and only in a few brief discussions has its iconographic significance been evaluated. This dissertation addresses this gap in the scholarship and explains the limited popularity of the cartellino by placing it in the context of various cultural and economic factors that were particularly relevant in Venice and its terraferma empire during the early Renaissance period.
My dissertation presents the first comprehensive study of a large group of signatures of a particular visual type, addressing the often overlooked importance of the specific form of the signature, its content, and the placement of the artist’s name in interpretations of the paintings on which they appear.