Fragonard et les jeux de la signature au XVIIIe siècle

• Autores: Charlotte Guichard
• Localización: Revue de l'art, ISSN 0035-1326, Nº. 177, 2012, págs. 47-55
• Idioma: francés
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• Resumen

  • In Early modern France, the artist's signature was, for the most part, associated with questions of name and reputation, but was never formally described. In the 18th century, the artist's signature was given new importance. In 1750, Johann Friedrich Christ's Dictionnaire des Monogrammes demonstrates a dual interest for the signature, both erudite and economic. It became a detail of the painting in its own right, benefitting from the attention paid to the artist's touch and to the idea of the original in the context of the rising development of the art market. This emphasis on the signature, with its origins in the art market and erudite circles, encouraged contemporary artists to take an interest in it. Jean-Honoré Fragonard thus made it a source of reflection on his practice of painting. These are signatures "with distance" in the sense given to this expression by Carlo Ginzburg. They are endowed with a point of view. Meant for narrow circles of amateurs, they relied on a connivance with their public, who could understand and be amused by the pictorial references displayed by the painter. The concern for reflexivity in Fragonard's signatures demonstrates, in an exemplary manner, the constitution of the signature as a detail in the 18th century and the new -- and closer -- attention given to it by amateurs.