A cartellino (Italian for "small piece of paper" [1] ) 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 paintings 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 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 , and from the artistic practice at the studio of Francesco Squarcione in Padua, based on the gothic inscriptions seen in medieval paintings.
The cartellino appears in Italian Renaissance painting from the 15th century into the 16th century, and particularly in painting from Venice and the Veneto 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's 1448 painting of St Mark , and Marco Zoppo's Wimborne Madonna of c.1455. Later examples include Carlo Crivelli's c.1480 Lenti Madonna , Giovanni Bellini's 1501–1502 Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan and Jacopo de' Barbari'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 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, 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).
Rawlings documents 412 Italian paintings with cartellini, almost all religious subject or portraits. Early examples are connected with Padua. 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. Rawlings 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 1660s.
The cartellino had a knowing revival in Diego Rivera's 1915 Zapatista Landscape.
Andrea Mantegna was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini.
Filippo Lippi, also known as Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento and a Carmelite priest. He was an early Renaissance master of a painting workshop, who taught many painters. Sandro Botticelli and Francesco di Pesello were among his most distinguished pupils. His son, Filippino Lippi, also studied under him and assisted in some late works.
Alvise or Luigi Vivarini (1442/1453–1503/1505) was an Italian painter, the leading Venetian artist before Giovanni Bellini. Like Bellini, he was part of a dynasty of painters. His father was Antonio Vivarini and his uncle, with whom he may have trained, was Bartolomeo Vivarini. Another uncle, on his mother's side, was the artist known as Giovanni d'Alemagna, who worked with his brother-in-law Antonio. Alvise may have trained Jacopo de' Barbari.
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The decade of the 1490s in art involved some significant events.
The decade of the 1460s in art involved some significant events.
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The Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan is a painting by Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, dating from c. 1501–02. It portrays Leonardo Loredan, the Doge of Venice from 1501 to 1521, in his ceremonial garments with the corno ducale worn over a linen cap, and is signed IOANNES BELLINVS on a cartellino. It is on display in the National Gallery in London.
Francesco Bonsignori, also known as Francesco Monsignori, was an Italian painter and draughtsman, characterized by his excellence in religious subjects, portraits, architectural perspective and animals. He was born in Verona and died in Caldiero, a city near Verona. Bonsignori's style in early period was under the influence of his teacher Liberale da Verona. After becoming the portraitist and court artist to the Gonzaga family of Mantua in 1487, his style was influenced by Andrea Mantegna, who also worked for Francesco Gonzaga from the 1480s. They collaborated to execute several religious paintings, mainly with the theme of Madonna and Child. The attribution of theportrait of a Venetian Senator was debatable until the last century because of the similarity in techniques used by Bonsignori and his teacher Mantegna. During the phase of his career in Mantua, there is an undocumented period between 1495 and July 1506 with no official record regarding his activities by the court of Mantua. Bonsignori's late style was decisively influenced by Lorenzo Costa in terms of form and color. He produced his last monumental altarpiece the Adoration of the Blessed Osanna Andreasi in 1519 shortly before his death.
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The Tomb of Doge Leonardo Loredan is a monumental 16th-century burial site located in the Basilica of Saints John and Paul in Venice, Italy. Interred in it are Leonardo Loredan, 75th Doge of Venice, and his descendant Francesco Loredan, 116th Doge of Venice, both members of the Santo Stefano branch of the House of Loredan.
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