Search

The article examines the expression of imperfections and human emotions in 17th-century rhyparographic tronies, or portrait-like type of painting that show image of people of low social standing and questionable repute. Topics discussed include esthetic value of tronies, representation of the ugly and the grotesque, pain and suffering in the paintings by Adriaen Brouwer, grisaille paintings by Adriaen van de Venne, and pictorial allegory represented in tronies.

Copyright of Il Capitale Culturale: Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage is the property of Il Capitale Culturale Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Between 1903 and 1905 reviews of Aubrey Beardsley's art - and body - appeared throughout the contemporary press in fin-de-siècle Vienna. Within this critical reception, Beardsley's 'wretched hand' was posthumously viewed as the literal instrument of his grotesque drawings, as well as a synecdoche for his 'destroyed' body. Through an examination of the contemporary literature, this essay investigates the extent to which Beardsley's repertoire of erotic and grotesque figures was in dialogue with similarly 'grotesque' images created by the Austrian artists Gustav Klimt and Julius Klinger. This study additionally builds upon the current scholarship examining the proliferation of the pathological body in turn-of the- century Viennese art. The fact that critics were responding to Beardsley's body and oeuvre at precisely the same moment that detractors were disparaging the 'diseased' and pornographic figures in Klimt's Faculty Paintings suggests that the grotesque body had become synonymous with modernism in Vienna by 1905. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper conservation-restoration works on wall paintings discovered in SNG Opera and Ballet Theatre in Ljubljana will be presented, focusing on the project preparation and preliminary research of the materials found in the original murals. The restoration methodology was determined according to the results of several researches. Technological procedures used for restoring wall paintings in oil with playful grotesque motifs and painted wall marmorino in the technique of stucco-lustro are the central point of restoration interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The puppets of Silvan Omerzu problematise life by staging death. In his 20 years of making puppet shows for adults, the puppet has travelled from the grotesque image, rapid movement and playful violence to the ascetic minimalistic world, both in its image and its movement. Omerzu's latest show, Salto mortale, depicts the immortality of puppets. This complex puppet world can be described by Das Unheimliche, which best captures the staging of death no matter whether it is carried out in a playful, mysterious or anxious atmosphere. Silvan Omerzu's puppets show the victory of death or the victory of puppets over death, thus staging our captivity within life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prospects of ruins feature frequently within the grotesques or ornamental frescoes of sixteenth-century Italy. What is at stake in the representations of ruins seems to be at stake on a more general level in the grotesques seen as a compositional device: the visualisation of passages between a form and the formless, or between culture and nature, with change and movement as key concepts. The article addresses how the exploration of transformation, which is fundamental to the representation of ruins in grotesques, is manifested in subject matter, composition, and spatial relations; and how all three are aspects of the telling of time. It is suggested that the prevalence of ruins in grotesques highlights the preoccupation with temporality as a major theme in the visual culture of the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study analyzes the grotesque discourse, as an aesthetic/political countercultural discourse, in some of the works of the artists José Alberto Hernández from Costa Rica y Regina José Galindo from Guatemala. As representatives of the Latin American conceptual art, these two contemporary artists explore elements of the human reality not only from a universal perspective, but also from a regional one. By means of the grotesque aesthetic, Hernández and Galindo break with the artistic standards of the mainstream, exploring different means, techniques, and even subject matters that horrify and disgust the viewers, but also attract and fascinate them, by showing them an opposing perspective from the traditional aesthetic of the western art, and giving the Latin American art a voice of its own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the uses to which Ford Madox Brown put teeth and mouths in his pictures. His penchant for these features is considered as an example of his grotesquery and realism. The larger question of oral representations in Western art is addressed to get some purchase upon the issue of their significance. Returning to Brown, the article suggests that while certainly a sign of realism, teeth and mouths in Brown also function as means through which the essential properties of historical painting were continued in his art. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The grotesque is the territory where reality and fantasy are intrinsically interwoven. In Mervyn Peake's short story, 'Danse Macabre', the weird play of crossing the boundaries between life and death is enhanced by objects (here, clothes) developing a life of their own. The matter-of-fact tone of narration lulls the reader's mounting anxiety, while maintaining a contradictory sense of repulsion and attraction as the story line proceeds. Objects taking on independent life and the fusion of organic and inorganic (characteristic motifs of the grotesque according to Kayser) are the two main elements in this tale, in which the clothes provide a most weird image of death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medieval archaeology as a discipline is usually defined in relation to written sources and history, while other kinds of sources and scholarly traditions studying the same period are overlooked. With a small group of 14th-century crescent moon pendants of bronze from Finland as its focal point, the present article analyses the way in which archaeology connects with the visual arts and the discipline specialized in studying them, art history. Instead of some shared methodology, the inquiry proceeds along the tensions between the material and the visual. After the artefact and its technical qualities are examined in the framework of medieval material culture, the object is reduced, first, to an iconographical motif and, second, into a represented object. Third, the anthropomorphic features applied on the pendant are extracted and considered against the body of medieval grotesque art. This reveals how the visual is also an effective force in the sphere of material culture and human interaction. In the interdisciplinary work between archaeology and art history, the visual and the material emerge as travelling concepts destabilizing traditional approaches and inspiring new insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the roles of satire and the carnivalesque in the paintings of artist Paul Cadmus, with a particular focus on his paintings "Coney Island," "Greenwich Village Cafeteria," and "The Fleet's In!". According to the author, the controversy surrounding Cadmus' work stemmed from his use of the carnivalesque to challenge social norms. It is suggested that the paintings critiqued the views of their audiences rather than their humorously grotesque subjects. Details on the role of Cadmus' identity as a gay man in his social critique are presented. Other topics include moralism, social class, and alcohol.

The article discusses the use of grotesque, gigantic, and monstrous imagery in Italian Renaissance landscape design, especially in grottoes. The author responds to the ideas proposed by Russian scholar Mikhail Bakhtin in his book "Rabelais and His World," translated by Hélène Iswolsky. Some of the gardens considered include the Park of Monsters at Bomarzo, Italy designed by Pirro Ligorio, the Villa Medici at Pratolino, Italy, the Villa d'Este garden at Tivoli, Italy, and the Boboli Gardens in Florence, Italy. A discussion of possible inspiration for grotesque and imaginary figures used in Renaissance design is presented.

Grotesque aesthetics is a phenomenon, very powerful in its visual presence yet evasive and ambiguous in definition. Characteristics of the grotesque are frequently visible in many fields of contemporary culture. The grotesque is surfacing and influencing many visual aspects through the use and promotion of alternative and borderline aesthetics that incorporate; exaggerated modes of popular culture, extremity, absurdity, obesity, disproportions and undefined physical borders. These have changed contemporary objects' design, visuality and symbolic function. Much of contemporary designs' activities and the designer's emphasis today are concerned with the symbolic function of objects. In the symbolic function of objects, the aesthetic and critical aspects of a design have become more significant, continuously adding to a reflexive discourse of design activity. With this, an internally orientated and an externally orientated design critique have flourished that has furthered and enriched the development of a heterogenic design discourse. The question raised; are there visible aspects of grotesque aesthetic in contemporary design practice? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the uses and effects of grotesque imagety in the antislavery and antiabortion movements and cons ideis implications for theories of movement framing and mobilization. Grotesque images can produce strong emotions that may increase the resonance of movement flames and provide physiological "evidence" of immorality. Such images may also produce confusion and ambiguity that deeply engages readers or viewers and potentially breaks frames. But grotesque images can also be counterproductive for activists. They can cause readers or viewers to turn away in disgust, and their use can taint activists as prurient, irrational, uncivil, or manipulative. Finally, the effects of grotesque images are likely to vary across audiences, social contexts, and the skill o/the activists that deploy them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Katharsis is the property of Institucion Universitaria de Envigado and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A curve is called self-anamorphic if it is the same shape as its reflection in a curved mirror except for rotation and rescaling. We show here that self-anamorphic curves exist for images seen in conical mirrors viewed from above. This is perhaps surprising because reflections seen in cones are typically so deformed that they have been used in the past to reveal images concealed in anamorphic art. Fourier analysis is used to find a general solution for self-anamorphic curves and four examples are illustrated. One of them is the familiar heart shape. Its unexpected appearance where it seems not to belong is reminiscent of the unexpected appearance of lifelike forms in the style of design known to art historians as the Grotesque. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the argument that John Ruskin's autobiography titled "Praeterita" is a different piece of life writing as compared to John Henry Newman's "Apologia." It offers an illustration of Ruskin's aesthetic mode of the grotesque that provides an object of fetishism, subjectivism and realism. The author mentions that Ruskin's style of composition illustrates a gateway to reality rather than a mirror of a memory.

The article discusses the grotesque political body of late-eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Spain in the etching "Disparate claro," by Francisco Goya. It asserts that the etching shows an assembly of people who have gathered in a public forum for the purpose of a celebration. Moreover, the resemblance of the artwork with baroque theater in Spain and the fondness of the artist for the spectacle of the theater are also addressed.

The article discusses the matrimonial theme in the etching "Disparate matrimonial," by Francisco José Goya y Lucientes. Due to the importance of the grotesque in the etching, it applies the theory of the carnivalesque by Mikhail Bakhtin. Moreover, it argues that the feminine half of the hybrid figure is a display of the maternal body that concretizes the abstract principal of carnival.

This article discusses the artistic connection between spiritualism and the grotesque and provides the biographical history of a 16th century goldsmith named David Altensteter from Augsburg, Germany. The author explains that Altensteter worked to reconstruct many aspects of his economic and social standing in his work. The author also discusses the relationship between history and art, and the role which art plays in the interpretation of historical events. It is noted that it is necessary for one to consider the capabilities, desires, expectations, and weaknesses of different people and social groups when seeking to analyze history through art.

The article presents a study which examines the sociology of art and culture circulations, the grotesque and grotesque circulations. It mentions three approaches that has been adopted by the sociology of art, which include structural, sociogenetic and functional. Three key theses regarding the functioning of the grotesque as a form of art are also examined including the grotesque being ubiquitous, its existence in every circulation of culture, and the circulation of such items.

The female torso appears often in Surrealist photography. This article examines images by Man Ray and others in terms of their relation to classical form. It explores ways in which torsos appear as fragments, as body doubling corsets and mannequins, and as examples of the formless grotesque in Surrealist art and literature. It concludes by positioning the Surrealist appropriation of classical antiquity in the context of Surrealism's revolutionary exploration of the uncanny nature of meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explains the provisional distinction between the terms monstrous and grotesque in contemporary artistic practice. Platonic metaphysics of monstrosity; Phenomenological understanding of grotesque phenomena; Existence of the feeling of contradiction.

Takes an in depth look at Pierre Puvis de Chavannes's caricatures, satirical drawings, and grotesques, produced throughout his career (1848-98). His deliberate choice of themes and general aesthetic; Puvis' early scatological caricatural drawings; Mordant caricatural portraits and self-portraits that document his relationships with other artists and friends; Caricatures as a vehicle for the articulation of an aesthetic position.

The article focuses on the drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci of grotesque heads and the breaking of the physiognomic mould. The author states that Leonardo believed that truthfulness, particularly with regard to facial physiognomy, should take account of age, type of complexion and prevailing disposition which could be interpreted in medical terms as either melancholic or sanguine. Furthermore, Leonardo believed that a diversity of complexions and faces would enhance the expressiveness of the depicted figures because of the enhanced realism.

The grotesque a symbolic category of art that expresses psychic currents from below the surface of life, such as nameless fears, complexes, nightmares, Angst. It is a dimension of intense and exaggerated emotions and intense and exaggerated forms. The main thrust of this paper is that in genuine grotesques there must be a congruity between subject matter, mood, and the visual forms in which they are cast. The famous Isenheim altarpiece, by Matthias Grunewald, contains the most tragic, lacerated, and distorted crucifixion ever painted. Although exaggerated to the extreme, the painter expressed but one concept, the physical death of the body of Christ. It cannot be grotesque, technically speaking, in spite of the power of Grunewald's genius to depict graphically the extents of human suffering. In other words, grotesque form without a grotesque concept to match it (the self-sacrifice of Christ is not a grotesque concept) does not constitute that unity between concept and form which characterizes grotesque art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including essays on the connection between noise and civilisation, an exhibition of grotesqueries in a small Tasmania museum, and the modes of identification in digital gaming and pornography.