Editing Grotesque (section)

===Mannerism===
[[Image:Grotesqueengraving.jpg|thumb|250px|Grotesque engraving on paper, about 1500–1512, by [[Nicoletto da Modena]]]]
The delight of [[Mannerism|Mannerist]] artists and their patrons in arcane iconographic programs available only to the erudite could be embodied in schemes of ''grottesche'',<ref>An example, the vaulted arcade in the Palazzo del Governatore, Assisi, which was frescoed with grotesques in 1556, has been examined in the monograph by Ezio Genovesi, ''Le grottesche della 'Volta Pinta' in Assisi'' (Assisi, 1995): Genovesi explores the role of the local Accademia del Monte.</ref> [[Andrea Alciato]]'s ''[[Emblemata]]'' (1522) offered ready-made iconographic shorthand for vignettes. More familiar material for grotesques could be drawn from [[Metamorphoses|Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'']].<ref>Victor Kommerell, ''Metamorphosed Margins: The Case for a Visual Rhetoric of the Renaissance 'Grottesche' under the Influence of Ovid's Metamorphoses'' (Hildesheim, 2008).</ref>

The [[Vatican loggias]], a [[loggia]] corridor space in the [[Apostolic Palace]] open to the elements on one side, were decorated around 1519 by [[Raphael]]'s large team of artists, with [[Giovanni da Udine]] the main hand involved.  Because of the relative unimportance of the space, and a desire to copy the Domus Aurea style, no large paintings were used, and the surfaces were mostly covered with grotesque designs on a white background, with paintings imitating sculptures in niches, and small figurative subjects in a revival of Ancient Roman style. This large array provided a repertoire of elements that were the basis for later artists across Europe.<ref name="Wilson, 152">Wilson, 152</ref>

In Michelangelo's [[Medici Chapel (Michelangelo)|Medici Chapel]] Giovanni da Udine composed during 1532–1533 "most beautiful sprays of foliage, rosettes and other ornaments in stucco and gold" in the coffers and "sprays of foliage, birds, masks and figures", with a result that did not please [[Pope Clement VII|Pope Clement VII Medici]], however, nor [[Giorgio Vasari]], who whitewashed the grotesque decor in 1556.<ref>"''bellissimi fogliami, rosoni ed altri ornamenti di stuccho e d'oro''" and "''fogliami, uccelli, maschere e figure''", quoted by Summers 1972:151 and note 30.</ref> [[Counter Reformation]] writers on the arts, notably Cardinal [[Gabriele Paleotti]], bishop of Bologna,<ref>Paleotti, ''Discorso intorno alle imagini sacre e profane'' (printed at Bologna, 1582)</ref> turned upon ''grottesche'' with a righteous vengeance.<ref>Noted by Summers 1972:152.</ref>

Vasari, echoing Vitruvius, described the style as follows:<ref name="Wilson, 152"/><blockquote>"Grotesques are a type of extremely licentious and absurd painting done by the ancients ... without any logic, so that a weight is attached to a thin thread which could not support it, a horse is given legs made of leaves, a man has crane's legs, with countless other impossible absurdities; and the bizarrer the painter's imagination, the higher he was rated".</blockquote>

Vasari recorded that [[Francesco Bacchiacca|Francesco Ubertini, called "Bacchiacca"]], delighted in inventing ''grotteschi'', and (about 1545) painted for Duke [[Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany|Cosimo de' Medici]] a ''[[studiolo]]'' in a mezzanine at the [[Palazzo Vecchio]] "full of animals and rare plants".<ref>"Dilettossi il Bacchiacca di far grottesche; onde al Sig. duca Cosimo fece uno studiolo pieno d'animali e d'erbe rare ritratte dalle naturali, che sono tenute bellissime": quoted in Francesco Vossilla, "Cosimo I, lo scrittoio del Bachiacca, una carcassa di capodoglio e la filosofia naturale", ''Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz'', '''37.'''.2/3 (1993:381–395) p. 383; only fragments survive of the decor.</ref> Other 16th-century writers on ''grottesche'' included [[Daniele Barbaro]], [[Pirro Ligorio]] and [[Gian Paolo Lomazzo]].<ref>All mentioned by Ezio Genovesi 1995, in providing explanation of the genre in the context of the painted vaulting at Assisi.</ref>