A Board with Letters, Quill Knife, and Quill Pen behind Red Straps
Wallerant Vaillant Flemish
Not on view
Vaillant pioneered the letter rack, a type of word-and-image counterfeit that prompts reflection on authenticity. The partially revealed letters, all originally secured by red sealing wax, invite the viewer to interpret messages ostensibly written by the hands of others. The inky script is painted not penned, despite the misleading quill, which raises further doubts: are the letters fake or faithful facsimiles? In a novel form of self-promotion, the correspondence bears the names and autographs of Vaillant’s princely patrons or those he aimed to impress. The crumpled letter at lower left is a version of the cartellino, a trompe l’oeil device invented in the Renaissance that presents the artist’s signature on a slip of paper seemingly appended to the painting’s surface.
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