A speech scroll, also called a banderole or phylactery in art history, is an illustrative device denoting speech, song, or, in rarer cases, other types of sound.
Developed independently on two continents, the device was in use by European painters during the Medieval and Renaissance periods as well as by artists within Mesoamerican cultures from as early as 650 BC until after the 16th century Spanish conquest.
While European speech scrolls were drawn as if they were an actual unfurled scroll, Mesoamerican speech scrolls are merely scroll-shaped, looking much like a question mark.
Read more about Speech Scroll: Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, European Banderoles, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words speech and/or scroll:
“It is clear that not in one thing alone, but in many ways equality and freedom of speech are a good thing.”
—Herodotus (c. 484–424 B.C.)
“I am the scroll of the poet behind which samurai swords are being sharpened.”
—Lester Cole, U.S. screenwriter, Nathaniel Curtis, and Frank Lloyd. Prince Tatsugi (Frank Puglia)