A ''cartellino'' (Italian for "small piece of paper"In modern Italian, ''carta'' means "paper", the diminutive ''cartello'' means "sign", and the double diminutive ''cartellino'' means "tag".) is an illusionistic portrayal of a written note included in painting, mostly from the with a legend that records the name of the artist, the date, the subject, or some other relevant information about the work. About 500

Renaissance painting Renaissance art (1350 – 1620 AD) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occ ...

s include a ''cartellino'', but the device has been adopted by some later artists. It usually takes the form of a fictive rectangular scrap of parchment or paper – sometimes with frayed edges, creased or torn – which is depicted as being attached with a pin or wax to a surface that lies parallel to the picture plane, perhaps a foreground parapet or a background wall. Often the ''cartellino'' gives the impression of the note being attached to the surface of the painting rather than being part of the artwork itself. This ''

trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...

'' effect may reflect an earlier artistic practice of real notes being physically attached to paintings. Other suggestions of the origins include the inscriptions included in the Early Netherlandish paintings works of Jan van Eyck, such as his 1432 ''

Léal Souvenir ''Léal Souvenir'' (also known as ''Timotheus'' or ''Portrait of a Man'') is a small oil-on-oak panel portrait by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck, dated 1432. The sitter has not been identified, but his highly individual featur ...

'', and from the artistic practice at the studio of Francesco Squarcione in

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

, based on the gothic inscriptions seen in medieval paintings.

History

The ''cartellino'' appears in

Italian Renaissance painting Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian Peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political stat ...

from the 15th century into the 16th century, and particularly in painting from

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

and the

Veneto it, Veneto (man) it, Veneta (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...

from the 1470s to the 1520s. One of the first ''cartellini'' appears on the '' Tarquinia Madonna'' by Filippo Lippi, painted in 1437. Other early examples include

Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna (, , ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in orde ...

's 1448 painting of '' St Mark'', and Marco Zoppo's '' Wimborne Madonna'' of c.1455. Later examples include

Carlo Crivelli Carlo Crivelli (Venice, c. 1430 – Ascoli Piceno, c. 1495) was an Italian Renaissance painter of conservative Late Gothic decorative sensibility, who spent his early years in the Veneto, where he absorbed influences from the Vivari ...

's c.1480 '' Lenti Madonna'', Giovanni Bellini's 1501–1502 ''

Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan The ''Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan'' ( it, Ritratto del doge Leonardo Loredan) is a painting by Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, dating from . It portrays Leonardo Loredan, the Doge of Venice from 1501 to 1521, in his ceremonial ...

'' and

Jacopo de' Barbari Jacopo de' Barbari, sometimes known or referred to as de'Barbari, de Barberi, de Barbari, Barbaro, Barberino, Barbarigo or Barberigo (c. 1460/70 – before 1516), was an Italian painter, printmaker and miniaturist with a highly individual style. H ...

's 1504 '' Still-Life with Partridge and Gauntlets''. The ''cartellino'' fell out of fashion as artists desired to be known directly from the virtuosic quality of their work, not as craftsmen with a workshop whose work was identified by their name on a label. By 1548, a character in Paolo Pino's ''Dialogo di pittura'' was describing the ''cartellino'' as a laughable thing. However, there are several ''cartellini'' in Hans Holbein the Younger's '' Portrait of Georg Giese'' from 1532, and

Francisco de Zurbarán Francisco de Zurbarán ( , ; baptized 7 November 1598 – 27 August 1664) was a Spanish painter. He is known primarily for his religious paintings depicting monks, nuns, and martyrs, and for his still-lifes. Zurbarán gained the nickname "Spanish ...

included ''cartellini'' in about a fifth of his autograph works, including his 1628 painting of '' Saint Serapion''. In her 2009 PhD thesis, Kandice Rawlings distinguishes the ''cartellino'' from other written element including in a painting, such as depictions of inscriptions in stone or on wooden plaques, or writing in books held by subjects, or on streamers or banderoles. Other contemporary terms that were used for the same device include ''letterina'', ''cartucce'', and ''bolletta'' – that is, small letter,

cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the f ...

, or label. Despite the similarity of the word, there is little evidence of any connection with the ''cardellino'' ( goldfinch, a symbol of

Christ's Passion In Christianity, the Passion (from the Latin verb ''patior, passus sum''; "to suffer, bear, endure", from which also "patience, patient", etc.) is the short final period in the life of Jesus Christ. Depending on one's views, the "Passion" m ...

). Rawlings documents 412 Italian paintings with ''cartellini'', almost all religious subject or portraits. Early examples are connected with

, but about three quarters were painted by artists trained or active in Venice and the Veneto. About three quarters were painted between 1470 and 1530, with the largest number in the first decade of the 16th century. About four fifths contain the artist's signature; a third include a date, often alongside a signature. In addition, Rawlinges identifies another 74 paintings from outside Italy that include ''cartellini'', principally from Germany (mainly Albrecht Dürer in the early 16th century), England (mainly Holbein in the mid-1500s), and Spain (mainly El Greco in the late 16th and early 17th century, Velázquez in the 1630s, and Zurbarán as late as the 1660). The ''cartellino'' had a knowing revival in

Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...

's 1915 '' Zapatista Landscape''. Lippi Madonna di tarquinia.jpg, Filippo Lippi, '' Madonna of Tarquinia'', 1437 Andrea Mantegna 087.jpg,

, '' St Mark'', 1448 Marco zoppo, madonna col bambino, louvre.jpg, Marco Zoppo, '' Wimborne Madonna'', c.1455 Carlo Crivelli 068.jpg,

a, '' Lenti Madonna'', c.1480 Giovanni Bellini, portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan.jpg, Giovanni Bellini, ''

'', 1501-2 Jacopo de' Barbari 001.jpg,

, '' Still-Life with Partridge and Gauntlets'', 1504 San Serapio, por Francisco de Zurbarán.jpg,

, '' Saint Serapion'', 1628 Diego Rivera - Zapata-style Landscape - Google Art Project.jpg,

, '' Zapatista Landscape'', 1915

Notes

References

Cartellino
Glossary, National Gallery * * {{cite thesis , type=PhD , last=Rawlings , first=Kandice , date=2009 , title=Liminal Messages: the ''cartellino'' in Italian Renaissance painting , location=New Brunswick , publisher=Rutgers University , url=https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/25887/ Visual motifs

History

See also

Notes

References