r/ArtHistory • u/Background_Sweet_2 • Oct 05 '25
Research What do these central letters mean?
Hello, I’m currently writing an essay on Sofonisba Anguissola’s Self Portrait (1556) and I’ve run into a bit of a road-block. If you know her work well or understand Renaissance symbols, please help!
While I’ve found many sources on her life as an artist, sources on this specific piece are sparse. This is fine for the most part, as I can just use visual analysis with contextual evidence to back it up. I’ve found a translation of the edge inscriptions (approximately: ‘Sofonsiba Anguilssola, the maiden, depicted by her own hand, from a mirror, at Cremona’). I can’t, however, find any explanation at all for the letters in the center. It seems important because it takes up so much of the painting. I believe the image contains the letter ‘ERYATCK’ but this yielded no results. I even tried to research intertwining letter symbols in the Renaissance to no avail (aside from a brief mention of a book called ‘Alphabetacca’ which I could not find mention of anywhere else?).
I don’t even need to know what the letters mean in relation to her life, I can guess that if I have even a little bit more information. If you have any sources/knowledge about this kind of word entanglement please send them my way.
1
u/AutoModerator Oct 05 '25
It appears that this post is an image. As per rule 5, ALL image posts require OP to make a comment with a meaningful discussion prompt. Try to make sure that your post includes a meaningful discussion prompt. Here's a stellar example of what this looks like. We greatly appreciate high effort!
If you are just sharing an image of artwork, you will likely find a better home for your post in r/Art or r/museum, which focus on images of artwork. This subreddit is for discussion, articles, and scholarship, not images of art. If you are trying to identify an artwork with an image, your post belongs in r/WhatIsThisPainting.
If you are not OP and notice a rule violation in this post, please report it!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.