02-07-2006, 12:03 AM
I was at the Met this weekend and saw the object in question in person. The information provided on the wall noted that the inscription had been partially (deliberately) erased. Additionally, "what seems to be the same word ["I signed" or "I confirmed"] appears on one other portrait, so it most probably makes some reference to acceptance of the portrait by the one who commissioned it." I can post a close-up a little later.
Dan Diffendale
Ph.D. candidate, University of Michigan
Ph.D. candidate, University of Michigan