Abstract:

Because the vast majority of visual artists signed in Greek especially in the late republic as well as in the early and middle imperial period in central and northern Italy, it is considered as communis opinio in modern research that this is a sign for their ethnic origin. However, the fact that, at least in Italy, Greek names and cognomina of slaves and freedmen do not always indicate their region of birth, urges us to be cautious. Furthermore, there are numerous testimonies demonstrating that it was common in some professional groups (e.g. athletes, gladiators, charioteers, doctors and stage artists) to acquire Latin or Greek pseudonyms. The reason for this is that one wanted to join a long and positively connoted tradition. The same should apply to visual artists. In this respect, it has already been noticed in research for a long time that younger representatives apparently occupied the name of a famous predecessor in some cases. The name can by all means indicate also family relationships, but this is not always convincing in each case due to dating back hundreds of years. The choice of pseudonyms can be illustrated by three examples from the imperial period (two grave inscriptions and one donor inscription). The reason for the adoption of the pseudonym might lie in the art form, the theme or the style which their role models represented. But not only the names of well-known representatives could be chosen; apparently a fictitious Greek name and/or a signature in this language were sufficient as a positive statement of advertising character. This can apply not only to sculpture, but can also be applied to toreutics and stone cutting. These are the genres in which many famous names survived in the art-historical literature of antiquity. Accordingly, there are no Greek mosaicist signatures from central and northern Italy - with the exception of two justifiable cases- because, apart from one exception, apparently no representatives of this technique were mentioned in an¬cient art history. The surprising conclusion in view of this situation is that every Greek signature does not necessarily stand for a Greek. Regrettably, it is not possible to differentiate certainly if the mentioning of the artist indicates his homeland or not. In the meanwhile, there has been a comparable phenomenon with some Italian painter signatures since the early modern period, implying that there has been continuity in this phenomenon. However, the problem of pseudonyms can be more easily solved here, since the situation of the historical sources is incomparably more favorable.

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