Using the example of Vasari’s Ragionamenti – the first pioneering text by an artist who intended to explain his own painted oeuvre – the author takes a look at a special phenomenon. He concludes that art historical interpretations of images are frequently based on key historical texts. However, more than just the texts that serve to prepare a painting undergo reinterpretation during the process of artistic creation. Books presenting suggestions for interpretation were already being produced on works of art in the early modern period, and later these were often misunderstood to be authentic instructions for reading those works.