Crossword Genius

Painter's sign crossing over a road (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

leonardo

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'painter's' is the definition.
(Leonardo is an example)

'sign crossing over a road' is the wordplay.
'sign' becomes 'leo' (star sign).
'crossing' becomes 'no' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'over' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'road' becomes 'rd' (abbreviation for road).
'a'+'rd'='ard'
'no' going around 'ard' is 'nardo'.
'leo'+'nardo'='LEONARDO'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for leonardo that I've seen before include "Great painter of the Mona Lisa, . . . . . . . . da Vinci" , "So-called code" , "The Mona Lisa was painted by . . . . . . . . da Vinci" , "First name of da Vinci, great artist" , "Da Vinci's name" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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