Unidentified artists

• In art history, a Notname, "necessity-name" or "contingency-name" is an invented name given to an artist whose identity has been lost.
• The practice arose from the need to give such artists and their typically untitled, or generically titled works, an acceptable if unsatisfactory grouping, avoiding confusion when cataloging.
• The phrases provisional name, name of convenience and emergency names are sometimes used to describe anonymous masters; nonce name was at one time used.
• In the case of 14th and early 15th-century Netherlandish, French and German painters and illuminators, the problem is particularly acute and stems from a number of factors.

• Primarily, the practice of signing and dating works is rarely seen in the region until the 1420s, and the inventories of collectors were uninterested in the artist's names.

• Many of the unidentified late 14th and early 15th-century northern artists have not been attached to any historical person, have suffered from academic neglect.

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