Who Started The Signature On The Painting
The signatures of paintings
Why do artists sign their works ? Have they ever done so ? How did the proper name carried by this signature become a symbol, a commercial value ?
The signature has taken on unlike meanings throughout the history of art, but it is interesting to notation that it was never fabricated compulsory by the guilds or past the Royal Academy of Painting.
The origins of the signature in Painting
The material traces of "signatures" are fragile and may have disappeared with the modification of the original supports and formats of paintings. For this reason, information technology is difficult to estimate the number of painters who signed their works.
Placing ane's name on a canvas or a wooden panel is a tradition that goes dorsum to artifact, only we notation that most of the painters of the Middle Ages and the Classical Age signed picayune or non at all. It is from the first third of the 18th century that signatures became less rare and gradually became a "visual convention".
The term "signature" to describe the affixing of a proper name at the bottom of a painting only appeared at the beginning of the 19th century with the museographic literature.
During the Renaissance and the Classical Age, the word did not exist in the field of fine art. The treatises and dictionaries speak rather of "mark", "monogram", "figure", "name" and say nil nigh the life of the artists nor their works.
In the 18th century, the signature of painters experienced a great expansion but the Encyclopedia nonetheless defines the term "sign" as the mere fact of putting one'due south proper name at the bottom of an authoritative document.
The inscription of the name in the painting is also due to legal practices. The recognition of copyright and intellectual property for writings was not built-in until the beginning of the 18th century with the end of the accented monarchy. The Regal Academy of Painting and Sculpture recognized at the aforementioned period a first course of copyright by authorizing engravers to reproduce and sign only their works. The proper name becomes the property of the creative person whereas the Majestic Academy previously had a privilege on all productions.
What does the signature mean from Antiquity to the Renaissance ?
Since aboriginal times, the name of the creative person has been a marking of quality. The painters put inscriptions on their paintings which allowed them to be identified as the authors of their works. The "faciebat" ("made by..") of the Middle Ages was followed past the "me fecit" of the Renaissance.
For a long time, the signature in painting remained a workshop marker, a certificate of quality and style of the chief, of the excellence of the technique and the quality of the materials. One learned picayune from the artist himself.
In the Renaissance, information technology was also mutual for a master to put his name on a painting that he had not completed. The signatures did not mention the anonymous hands of the workshops, sometimes only the names of collaborators.
Until the Classical Age, a piece of work was considered original when it was a new creation of the painter. The signature of the workshop master fabricated him responsible for the invention, non necessarily for its realization.
The painters of this period used the new conventions of printing for the design of their signature.
Bellini abandons his known signature in uppercase messages for a new i in cursive letters typical of humanist circles.
The same goes for Dürer, who worked on the signature of his paintings and wrote a book for artists on the codification of press fonts.
The most famous painters' monograms is that of Albrecht Dürer.
In Venice, the signature is clearly visible in the painting. Information technology is no longer but inscribed in the frame, but sometimes appears on a cartel painted in the limerick and becomes a mark of provenance while production explodes.
Titian perpetuates this Venetian usage but he "places" himself in the painting by putting his signature in remarkable places. In the painting of the "Bacchanal of the Adrians" the artist's name tin can be read in the neckline of the female figure.
Cranach's studio marking was handwritten but not autographed. This explains why there is a great diversity of signatures with the ophidian.
At the beginning of the 17th century in Europe, an artistic literature appeared on the attribution and hallmark of works of art and which spoke of the relationship between the original and the copy.
In the inventories made after decease the proper noun of Bruegel appears more than two hundred times, without ever making the difference between Peter the Elder, Peter, Peter the Younger, Jan the Older… between the workshop and the copyists. It is the marker that notwithstanding counts.
Only at the same time, Rubens, in the context of an commutation betwixt antiquarian statues and several of his paintings, notifies in the list of his works those which are past his hand and those executed with the collaboration of another, as well as the paintings made by his most advanced assistants and so retouched by him.
Some examples of "signatures" in the Classical Age
In the 17th century, painters who signed were still rare and essentially Italian or Dutch.
Vermeer signed with messages ready in the manner of a monogram.
Rembrandt, who signed his unabridged work, used a cursive signature. He chose to use his beginning name like the Italians Raphael, Michelangelo and Titian and opted for a clever calligraphy. The letter B in his name written in Gothic font became an chemical element of recognition.
Unlike Rembrandt, Rubens signed just 16 of his paintings, while his workshop, organized like a factory, produced a very large number of works.
Caravaggio could phase his signature every bit he did in "The Beheading of St. John the Baptist" by making it in the red pigment that forms the blood of the martyr.
The practice of signing is rarer among French painters of the 17th century.
However, some of them signed more frequently than their colleagues and signed in cursive letters in the heart of their works, not in the margins.
Le Sueur signed merely one of his paintings, going over it twice, as the traces of repentance show. But it was a work exhibited on the forecourt of Notre Dame and visible to all, at a time when paintings were non in the public space.
Claude Le Lorrain, who saw his paintings multiplying, used his signature intensively to fight against forgers. He wrote a "itemize", preserved in the British Museum, with the drawings and descriptions of his paintings, the sponsors and dates of realization.
De la Tour signed his painting "Saint Thomas" before it was exported to Paris, but the signature was afterwards erased.
The fearfulness of the piece of work'south distance and the loss of its creator, the desire to make himself known to a distant clientele and not only to the Lorraine elites no doubt explain the signature on the works exported by the primary.
Transformation of the art globe and autograph signature
The use of the signature in painting increases from the 18th century and multiplies in the second half. Information technology became an shorthand signature : the proper noun of the artist written by his hand.
This evolution follows the market place of the painters which in Paris widens and leaves the narrow circles of the princely orders and the rich elites.
The globe of art was beingness recomposed. A new market opens for easel paintings, more active with the organization of public exhibitions by the Majestic University, the institutions, the Louvre Salons.
The latter offered the public booklets that made room for proper names written in capital messages. The catalogues raisonnés multiplied. The value of the painting is concentrated in the signature, a real cult of the artist develops.
1 sought autographed paintings that express the artist's functioning in a gesture and know-how that are his own. This form of signature is both a trace of the paw and an artistic gesture, which makes some people say : "Nosotros buy names, not works".
The pieces of reception for the Majestic Academy (works made for the entrance in the institution) follow the same evolution and brainstorm to exist signed only in the middle of the century. It became a convention for painters who stayed at the French Academy in Rome to place their names in awe-inspiring letters in the architectural elements of their paintings. This is the case of Hubert Robert.
With all these evolutions, the signature volition have new forms : disappearance of the Latin inscription preceding the proper noun, affixing the signature on the face (the lining making disappear the back inscriptions), utilize of the cursive writing more personal and more direct than the letters of printing, often in bottom on the right of the painting.
L'exemple de Chardin
In the history of the signature in the 18th century, Jean Siméon Chardin occupies a especially remarkable place.
This painter of the Enlightenment signed a lot, much more than his contemporaries (ii/three of his paintings) with a great awareness of the value of his art, of the fame of his name.
Chardin very speedily plant his signature, which never changed in one case the start years had passed. It is immediately recognizable : the same regular large letters applied, the aforementioned ochre color as the domestic objects represented in his paintings. It evokes his artistic universe.
The signature does not stand up in the margin of the painting but is establish everywhere, sometimes even in the center of the composition and is visible. "It is not read, it is seen".
The name is drawn with a brush merely with light touches of white (a mixture of pigments and chalk powder, a specialty of Chardin) and gives the outcome of an engraving in the rock especially if the signature is found in an entablature, a wall of the composition.
In other of his paintings it is the point of a knife that designates the signature.
Diderot uses the word "griffe" (claw), rarely used in the field of painting, to depict Chardin's manner of painting which is in itself a signature. He writes : "Chardin but needs a pear, a bunch of grapes to sign his proper noun… and woe betide the one who does non know how to recognize the animal by its hook".
Chardin is also at the origin of a vast move of reproduction of his works by the engraving. He took care that each of his reproductions bore his name and thus aroused desire.
Nattier, on the other manus, made copies of his portraits but only signed the first ones that he considered to exist the originals.
Boucher congenital his reputation and shaped his artistic identity similar Chardin by disseminating his piece of work through prints. He created his own style with a pastoral repertoire and tirelessly repeated motifs.
Surprisingly, Watteau, a recognized painter during his lifetime, never signed his works. Known by the very closed circle of his patrons, he undoubtedly intended his paintings for his followers and protectors.
Fragonard who painted for small-scale circles had a very sketchy touch. The manufactures criticizing this particularity of the artist never gave his total name merely shortened information technology. His name was thus "sketched" similar his paintings… which he ended upwardly signing for some "Frago".
Sometimes illegible, his signature merges with the pictorial matter. Fragonard was amused past the image that his contemporaries gave him.
Hubert Robert, like many artists who stayed in Rome, inscribed his name on the architectural elements of his compositions by Italianizing or Latinizing information technology.
A very good Latinist, he could add to his proper noun traditional or invented inscriptions.
Hubert Robert put his name everywhere on his paintings just besides placed "a draftsman" in the middle of his compositions thus marking his paintings with his presence.
Information technology is amusing to annotation that the artist, during his stay in Italian republic, left his name off his canvases. There are at least two graffiti left by the painter in the vicinity of Rome : on the walls of the Farnese Palace and on the ancient vault of the library of Hadrian's villa in the Colosseum of Rome !
Hubert Robert, similar many artists who stayed in Rome, inscribed his name on the architectural elements of his compositions past Italianizing or Latinizing information technology.
A very good Latinist, he could add to his name traditional or invented inscriptions.
Hubert Robert put his proper name everywhere on his paintings but also placed "a draftsman" in the eye of his compositions thus marking his paintings with his presence.
Information technology is agreeable to note that the artist, during his stay in Italy, left his proper noun off his canvases. There are at least two graffiti left past the painter in the vicinity of Rome : on the walls of the Farnese Palace and on the aboriginal vault of the library of Hadrian'south villa in the Colosseum of Rome !
The name of the women
Female careers in painting were non uncommon in the Modern Age although information technology was particularly difficult for a woman painter in the 18th century to make a name for herself.
Women were legally minors with the exception of single women over 25 and widows who could only sign their paintings in their own name. The signature of married women painters was subject field to that of their husbands, because when they got married they lost their legal capacity.
Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun was reminded of this minority condition when she presented herself to the Majestic Academy. She could not be admitted because she was the wife of a painting merchant. Only her condition as a protégé of the queen and her talent worked in her favor.
Notwithstanding, these women developed strategies to consolidate their careers.
Elizabeth Sophie Cheron signed her engravings by keeping her surname and reducing her married name to initials.
At the cease of the following century, Anne Vallayer-Coster signed her paintings, flowers and miniatures, co-ordinate to the changes in her marital condition. She affixed her single name for her outset works and added her husband's name subsequently her marriage.
The female signatures too conduct witness to political developments.
Subsequently the Revolution and during the get-go republic, aloof marks in front of names were removed, women became citizens and appeared under their married name.
For example, Marie Guilhelmine-Benoist (1768-1824) who was called successively : Mlle Leroux de Laville, Mlle Laville, Citoyenne Laville femme Benoist, Citoyenne Benoist née Laville, pupil of David, Madame Benoist educatee of M. David.
It is hard to impose oneself with a proper noun that keeps irresolute !
Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, who, like all married women without legal capacity, did not receive any dividends from her work, consistently noted her name at the bottom of all her works. Her signature, often engraved with the tip of a penknife every bit if scratched, and the care taken with the calligraphy, which testifies to her education, were peculiarly important marks at a time when women were often suspected of not having created the paintings bearing their signatures themselves.
The suspicion in the art world was that they were oftentimes daughters, sisters or wives of painters, and that their paintings were of autograph quality. It concerned all women upwards to the reception pieces at the University.
Women painters oft used the conventional formula "painted past Mrs…" from the classical pinxit or faciebat but only the performance of the gesture could make them be recognized equally artists.
Diderot wrote: "to believe in a woman's talent, ane must take seen it" !
In social club to reply this suspicion, several women candidates for admission to the Academy used strategy past painting several of their time to come judges on the spot and thus demonstrated their talent.
As these examples from the 18th century and many others from Artifact to the Classical Historic period bear witness, artists were able to accept liberties in signing their works, sometimes circumventing and playing with the conventions of their time. For all that, the signature remains a marking of its fourth dimension, of the interest given to the Painting. It tells u.s.a. a lot near works, artists and societies in Europe…
To go farther...
La griffe du peintre: la valeur de l'art (1730-1820) , volume past Charlotte Guichard, the main source of our commodity, just only avalaible in french…
"Annotate le nom de l'artiste est-il devenu united nations élément clef de la valeur symbolique et commerciale des œuvres ? Pourquoi les peintres signent-ils leurs tableaux ? C'est à Paris, entre les années 1730 et 1820, que se déploie cette enquête novatrice et richement illustrée. Salons et expositions publiques, ventes aux enchères, musées : les institutions artistiques modernes imposent le nom de 50'artiste au cœur des mondes de fifty'art. Critiques, catalogues, cartouches et cartels lui accordent désormais une identify essentielle. Un contemporain constate, avec dépit, que les amateurs achètent "des noms, et non plus des œuvres ?""–Page iv of the encompass
Who Started The Signature On The Painting,
Source: https://www.muses-et-art.org/en/the-signature-of-paintings/
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