Latin Inscriptions on Fine Art Works of “Allegory” Genre

Abstract

    The article presents the analysis of the Latin inscriptions on paintings, frescoes and engravings of the allegory genre. The sources of borrowing, functional and semantic load, as well as graphic and linguistic features of Latin inscriptions have been studied. For accompanying inscriptions, artists used phrases from the works of ancient authors, from the Bible, from the works of contemporaries and original phrases, the authorship of which could not be established. Analysis of the linguistic and graphic features of Latin inscriptions on fine art works of allegory genre revealed a number of changes typical of the language practice of the time. The vast majority of them were caused by the processes that took place in late Latin, early medieval Latin and were partly attested by ancient grammars. The inscriptions differ in the form of presentation (poetic and prose) and in the volume (from one word to detailed explanations), which depends on their functional load.