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An Artist's Mark: Dive into the world of artists’ monograms at artarchive.net’s database. Notice how letters are used to form unique yet recognizable designs. Then design your own monogram for signing works of art that you create. Choose a letter or letters from your first, middle, and last names. Try different letter styles and play with the arrangement. Add your own touches to make your monogram distinctive.
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Rolling It Out: With some clay and a dowel you can create your own cylinder seal. Begin by rolling the clay into a cylindrical shape. Press a small dowel through it lengthwise. This will make a hole so your seal can be strung onto a string. Use small pointed tools to carve a design and perhaps your name into the clay. You must carve your design in reverse; otherwise, the prints made with your seal will be backwards. Fire the clay in a kiln. Then roll it over a rectangle of fresh clay to see what the seal has to say.
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Art Collector: Use the Art Collector feature of ArtsConnectEd to see other artworks with unique signatures and identifying marks. Can you spot the signatures? Add to the collection by finding other works that have artists’ signatures, symbols, and monograms on them. Click here to access the collection. Click here to learn more about Art Collector. |
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An Eye for Advertising: Like the artists whose signatures are highlighted here, businesses and other organizations use designs that quickly convey their identity without the use of words. Such designs are called logos. Think of stores you visit or products you see on television that advertise with logos. List the names of these companies or products and draw their logos. What makes a logo successful? Why do you think logos are so widely used?
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Exploration Station: Visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s online learning sites to learn more about Chinese painting and seal stamps at A Look at Chinese Painting. Take a closer look at Mesopotamian and other early civilizations on the Met’s Art of the First Cities Web site. |
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Your Own Coat of Arms: Design your own coat of arms at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s interactive Web site, Design a Coat of Arms. Learn about the symbols, colors, and other features used in coats of arms.
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November 2009
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Signed and Sealed | |
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In ancient times, stone cylinder seals were used to mark personal property and official documents, much as we use signatures and official stamps today. Often the owner’s name and rank or occupation were carved on these seals, along with images of people, animals, and gods. This seal has two human figures, one riding a horse. The seal could be fastened to the owner’s necklace or wristband by a cord or metal pin passed through a hole made lengthwise through the center. The first cylinder seals were made about 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). They were closely linked with the invention of an early form of writing on clay, called cuneiform (kyu-NEE-uh-form). As the influence of Mesopotamian culture spread, other civilizations began using cylinder seals. In Mesopotamia and the surrounding region, most personal possessions were stored in jars or baskets. These were covered with a cloth secured with string, and a slab of clay was pressed over the string. The cylinder seal was rolled over the moist clay, leaving an imprint that identified the owner. Once the clay dried, anyone tampering with the contents would have to break the seal. Such seals were also used on warehouse doors and to verify accounting records. |
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November 2009
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Armed with an Identity | |
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A coat of arms is a design, usually in a shield shape, that identifies an individual or a family. In medieval Europe, knights in armor going into battle or jousting in tournaments carried shields and banners displaying their coats of arms or other heraldic emblems. (Heraldry is the system of designing and assigning coats of arms.) These vivid symbols in bold colors helped soldiers tell friend from foe. Coats of arms were granted by kings and queens to their knights and nobles. This Italian coat of arms belonged to the Borghese family of Rome. It can be traced to Cardinal Scipione Borghese, a great patron of the arts. This high-ranking churchman had one of the largest art collections in all of Europe, and his support helped the sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini become 17th-century Italy’s leader in the baroque style of art. The coat of arms has a crowned eagle above a dragon, three cherubs just above the shield, and, at the very top, the Borghese family’s princely crown. At first knights and nobles were free to chose their own symbols. But as more and more coats of arms were granted—and used as seals on legal documents as well as battlefield emblems—the imagery became strictly regulated. Today coats of arms are still used around the world for various purposes. But they are now granted to highly esteemed people whatever their social status. To see a portrait of Cardinal Scipione Borghese by Bernini from the J. Paul Getty Museum, click here. |
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November 2009
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Initial Impressions | |
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Many artists sign their finished works with their full signature, but some use a design called a monogram, made from their initials. In a monogram, letters are combined in a unique way—often overlapping or intertwined—that identifies an artwork’s maker. The German artist Albrecht Dürer formed his initials A and D into the most famous of all artists’ monograms. In the engraving Knight, Death, and the Devil, one of Dürer’s best-known works, his monogram is in the lower left corner on a plaque, along with the year, 1513. Dürer always placed the monogram carefully within his compositions. He used it so successfully and it became so widely recognized that other German artists followed suit and started using monograms on their own artwork. Dürer was the first great artist in Europe to work mainly as a printmaker rather than a painter or sculptor. His technical skill was unmatched, and artists across Europe copied his prints. The Italian printmaker Marcantonio Raimondi made replicas that even included Dürer’s monogram. When Dürer found out, he went to Italy and took Marcantonio to court. Copying the images was judged legal, but reproducing the monogram was considered against the law. |
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November 2009
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All Sealed Up | |
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Red designs like the small squares on this picture of plum blossoms are often seen on Chinese paintings. They are seals belonging to the artist and to collectors and important viewers of the artwork. The seal’s design (usually a person’s name) was carved into a piece of some hard material like stone or ivory to make a stamp that could be used over and over. The carved stamp was then covered with red ink and pressed onto the painting. Artists were careful to place the seal where it would look good in the composition. Some famous Chinese paintings are almost covered in seals. Seals added by collectors and distinguished admirers are considered a mark of honor and add value to the art. Like the artist, these people took great care in the placement of their seals. The seals also help art historians trace the ownership of important paintings. The plum branch in Wang Ch’ien's painting wraps around a poem about friendship. The three seals near the corners of the poem are the artist’s. At the painting’s lower left, the personal seal of the scholar and collector P’ang Yüan-chi states, “Examined and approved by Hsu-chai.” The two seals at the lower right are the artist’s and another of P’ang Yüan-chi’s, “Approved and collected by Lai-ch’en, a genuine work.” |
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November 2009
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Signed with a Symbol | |
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The English painter Albert Joseph Moore belonged to a group of artists who believed in “art for art sake.” They wanted to get away from social or moral themes and create art for the sole purpose of making something beautiful. The Aesthetic Movement, as it was called, was important in England and America in the 1860s and 1870s. Moore was greatly influenced by ancient Greek art, especially some sculptures known as the Elgin Marbles. These masterpieces had been brought to England and put on display in the British Museum. Moore’s admiration for their idealized human forms and natural poses can be seen in his painting Battledore (a battledore is a badminton racket). The woman’s clothing is gathered and draped like the garments depicted by Greek sculptors. Moore decided to sign his artwork with a fanlike flower shape called an anthemion (Greek for “flower”)-a motif used in Greek art and architecture. In Battledore he placed the anthemion in the background. It fits in with other decorative designs so well that we almost don’t realize we’re seeing the artist’s signature. |
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November 2009
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