Editing Grotesque (section)

==Extensions of the term in art==
Artists began to give the tiny faces of the figures in grotesque decorations strange [[caricature]]d expressions, in a direct continuation of the medieval traditions of the [[drolleries]] in the border decorations or initials in [[illuminated manuscript]]s. From this the term began to be applied to larger caricatures, such as those of [[Leonardo da Vinci]], and the modern sense began to develop. It is first recorded in English in 1646 from Sir [[Thomas Browne]]: "In nature there are no grotesques".<ref>[[OED]], "Grotesque"</ref> By extension backwards in time, the term became also used for the medieval originals, and in modern terminology medieval drolleries, half-human thumbnail vignettes drawn in the margins, and carved figures on buildings (that are not also waterspouts, and so [[gargoyle]]s) are also called "grotesques".

A boom in the production of works of art in the grotesque genre characterized the 1920–1933 period of [[German art]]. In contemporary illustration art, the "grotesque" figures, in the ordinary conversational sense, commonly appear in the genre ''grotesque art'', also known as [[fantastic art]].