Abstract
This article focuses on a motif that is frequently used in the oeuvre of Paolo Piazza, that of spectacles dangling from the wearer's ear. Some researchers believe that this may have been a kind of signature or self-portrait of Piazza.
From surviving accounting records we know that Piazza wore spectacles. However, it is also interesting that Venice, where he came from, was for a long time the only place where spectacles were manufactured.
Could Paolo Piazza have linked this personal sign of his with his place of origin? In most of the occurrences of spectacles in Piazza's works they are worn by the Figure of an older man without a beard and with thinning hair. As we know, Paolo Piazza was a member of the order of Capuchins, for whom beards were obligatory.
Why, then, would he have depicted himself in his self-portrait without one? The answer can be found in his signature. The religious name of this painter was Cosma da Castelfranco, but he mostly signed his works with the monogram of his civil name P.P.P., i.e.
Paolo Piazza Pinxit, and so he could have represented himself in his paintings without the signs of the Capuchin order as well. The motif of the spectacles in the works of Paolo Piazza may therefore have been not only a signature or personal sign, but the Figure with spectacles may also have been his self-portrait.