From Grotesque to Caricature

“Can we wonder that we find it hard to decide whether the grotesques are meant as jokes or as monsters?” asked Ernst Gombrich of Leonardo’s drawings. The question underscores the polysemy of the term grotesque, which is now used to denote the many forms and representations of ridiculous ugliness, ranging from physical and physiognomic deformation to Mikhail Bakthin's aesthetic principle of the "corporeal and material low". In the Renaissance, the grotesque was still closely linked to its recent etymology, which referred to the fanciful, extravagant decorations that defied the laws of nature and were discovered in the “grottoes” of Nero's Domus Aurea towards the end of the fifteenth century. The seminar will explore the comic and creative principles of these different categories of the grotesque in the early modern period and investigate how they contributed to the official birth of caricature with the Carracci. Students will be responsible for the summary and introduction of the seminar’s weekly readings for discussion. They will have the opportunity to explore New York’s drawings and prints collections and to participate in the conception of a small ephemeral exhibition.