Monstrous Inventions: Caricature and the Grotesque in Early Modern Art

Abstract

The introduction outlines the relationship between the grotesque and caricature. Initially inspired by the fashion for grotesque ornament, grotesque heads make frequent appearance in paintings, drawings, and prints over the course of the sixteenth century. Grotesque heads gave way to caricature, a graphic practice that flourished in the following century. As related forms of graphic representation that exaggerate physical features such as large noses, the practice of disfiguration raises questions about contemporary discourse on fantasy, invention and decorum in art.