Editing Grotesque

{{Short description|Art style}}
{{Other uses}}

[[File:Michelangelo Buonarroti - Studies - WGA15523.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Grotesque studies, [[Michelangelo]]]]
Since at least the 18th century (in French and German, as well as English), '''grotesque''' has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus is often used to describe weird shapes and distorted forms such as [[Halloween]] masks. In art, performance, and literature, however, ''grotesque'' may also refer to something that simultaneously invokes an audience feeling of uncomfortable bizarreness as well as [[sympathy|sympathetic]] [[pity]].

The English word first appears in the 1560s as a noun borrowed from French, itself originally from the Italian ''grottesca'' (literally "of a cave" from the Italian ''grotta'', 'cave'; see [[grotto]]),<ref name="Online Etymology Dictionary">{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=grotesque |title=OED-Grotesque etymology |publisher=Etymonline.com |access-date=2014-12-15}}</ref> an extravagant style of [[Roman wall painting (200 BC–AD 79)|ancient Roman decorative art]] rediscovered at Rome at the end of the fifteenth century and subsequently imitated. The word was first used of paintings found on the walls of basements of ruins in Rome that were called at that time ''le Grotte'' ('the caves'). These 'caves' were in fact rooms and corridors of the [[Domus Aurea]], the unfinished palace complex started by [[Nero]] after the [[Great Fire of Rome]] in AD 64, which had become overgrown and buried, until they were broken into again, mostly from above. Spreading from Italian to the other European languages, the term was long used largely interchangeably with [[Arabesque (European art)|arabesque]] and [[moresque]] for types of decorative patterns using curving foliage elements.

Rémi Astruc<ref>Rémi Astruc, Le Renouveau du grotesque dans le roman du xxe siècle. Essai d'anthropologie littéraire, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2010, 280 p. (ISBN 978-2-8124-0170-1).</ref> has argued that although there is an immense variety of motifs and figures, the three main tropes of the grotesque are doubleness, [[hybridity]] and metamorphosis.<ref>Astruc R. (2010), Le Renouveau du grotesque dans le roman du XXe siècle, Paris, Classiques Garnier.</ref> Beyond the current understanding of the grotesque as an aesthetic category, he demonstrated how the grotesque functions as a fundamental existential experience. Moreover, Astruc identifies the grotesque as a crucial, and potentially universal, anthropological device that societies have used to conceptualize alterity and change.{{Citation needed lead|date=July 2012}} <!--tags removed: for citations in this summary, see main treatment below-->

==History==
[[File:Domus fresco.jpg|thumb|Roman frescos in Nero's [[Domus Aurea]], [[Rome]], unknown painter, {{circa}} 64–68 AD]]

===Early examples in Roman ornament===
In art, grotesques are ornamental arrangements of [[Arabesque (European art)|arabesque]]s with interlaced garlands and small and fantastic human and animal figures, usually set out in a [[symmetrical]] pattern around some form of architectural framework, though this may be very flimsy. Such designs were fashionable in ancient [[Rome]], especially as fresco wall decoration and floor mosaic. Stylized versions, common in Imperial Roman decoration, were decried by [[Vitruvius]] (c. 30 BC) who, in dismissing them as meaningless and illogical, offered the following description: 
 <blockquote>For example, reeds are substituted for columns, fluted appendages with curly leaves and volutes take the place of pediments, candelabra support representations of shrines, and on top of their roofs grow slender stalks and volutes with human figures senselessly seated upon them.<ref>Vitruvius 7.5.3 ({{cite book |last1=Marcus Vitruvius Pollio |translator1-last=Morgan |translator1-first=Morris Hicky |title=Ten Books on Architecture |date=1914 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge MA |url=https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Ten_Books_on_Architecture/Book_VII}})</ref></blockquote>

Emperor [[Nero]]'s palace in Rome, the [[Domus Aurea]], was rediscovered by chance in the late 15th century, buried in fifteen hundred years of land fill. Access into the palace's remains was from above, requiring visitors to be lowered into it using ropes as in a cave, or ''[[grotto|grotte]]'' in Italian. The palace's wall decorations in [[fresco]] and delicate [[stucco]] were a revelation.

===Etymology in Renaissance===
[[File:Biblioteca Duomo Siena-2 Apr 2008.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Ceiling of the [[Piccolomini Library]], [[Siena Cathedral]], [[Siena]], Italy, by [[Pinturicchio]] and his assistants, 1502–1503]]
The first appearance of the word ''grottesche'' appears in a contract of 1502 for the [[Piccolomini Library]] attached to the [[duomo]] of [[Siena]]. They were introduced by [[Raphael Sanzio]] and his team of decorative painters, who developed ''grottesche'' into a complete system of ornament in the [[Loggias]] that are part of the series of [[Raphael's Rooms]] in the [[Vatican Palace]], Rome. "The decorations astonished and charmed a generation of artists that was familiar with the grammar of the [[classical orders]] but had not guessed till then that in their private houses the Romans had often disregarded those rules and had adopted instead a more fanciful and informal style that was all lightness, elegance and grace."<ref>Peter Ward-Jackson, "The Grotesque" in "Some main streams and tributaries in European ornament from 1500 to 1750: part 1" ''The Victoria and Albert Museum Bulletin'' (June 1967, pp 58–70) p 75.</ref> In these grotesque decorations a tablet or candelabrum might provide a focus; frames were extended into scrolls that formed part of the surrounding designs as a kind of scaffold, as Peter Ward-Jackson noted. Light scrolling grotesques could be ordered by confining them within the framing of a pilaster to give them more structure. [[Giovanni da Udine]] took up the theme of grotesques in decorating the [[Villa Madama]], the most influential of the new Roman villas.

In the 16th century, such artistic license and irrationality was controversial matter. [[Francisco de Holanda]] puts a defense in the mouth of [[Michelangelo]] in his third dialogue of ''Da Pintura Antiga'', 1548:
<blockquote>"this insatiable desire of man sometimes prefers to an ordinary building, with its pillars and doors, one falsely constructed in grotesque style, with pillars formed of children growing out of stalks of flowers, with [[architrave]]s and [[Cornice (architecture)|cornice]]s of branches of myrtle and doorways of reeds and other things, all seeming impossible and contrary to reason, yet it may be really great work if it is performed by a skillful artist."<ref>Quoted in David Summers, "Michelangelo on Architecture", ''The Art Bulletin'' '''54'''.2 (June 1972:146–157) p. 151.</ref></blockquote>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="170px">
BLW Pilgrim Bottle, about 1560-1570.jpg|Pilgrim bottle, by the [[Fontana workshop]] from [[Urbino]], Italy, {{circa}} 1560–1570, tin glazed earthenware ([[majolica]]), [[Victoria and Albert Museum]], London
Ceiling of Uffizi Gallery.jpg|Ceiling decorated with arabesques in the [[Uffizi]] Gallery, [[Florence]], Italy, by various architects, including [[Giorgio Vasari]], {{circa}} 1560–1581<ref>{{cite book |last=Greenhalgh |first=Paul |title=Ceramic - Art and Civilization |date=2019 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |page=189 |isbn=978-1-4742-3970-7 |oclc=1154118123 }}</ref>
The Sistine Hall of the Vatican Library (2994335291).jpg|Ceilings decorated with grotesques in the [[Vatican Library]], [[Vatican City]], by [[Domenico Fontana]], 1587–1588<ref>{{cite book|last1=Listri|first1=Massimo|title=The World's Most Beautiful Libraries|date=2020|publisher=Taschen|isbn=978-3-8365-3524-3|page=52|url=|language=}}</ref>
File:Fresco room Nobility in Villa d'Este (Tivoli).jpg|[[Mother Nature]] is surrounded by ''grottesche'' in this fresco detail from [[Villa d'Este]].
File:Renaissance Grotesques Composition.jpg|Renaissance grotesque motifs in assorted formats
</gallery>

===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>

===Engravings, woodwork, book illustration, decorations===
[[File:Italia del nord, maschere con ornati, 1590-1610 ca..JPG|thumb|200px|Decorative panel showing the two separable elements of ''Grotesque'': the elaborate acanthus leaf and candelabra type design and the hideous mask or face]]
In the meantime, through the medium of [[engraving]]s the grotesque mode of surface ornament passed into the European artistic repertory of the 16th century, from Spain to Poland. A classic suite was that attributed to [[Enea Vico]], published in 1540–41 under an evocative explanatory title, ''Leviores et extemporaneae picturae quas grotteschas vulgo vocant'', "Light and extemporaneous pictures that are vulgarly called grotesques". Later [[Mannerist]] versions, especially in engraving, tended to lose that initial lightness and be much more densely filled than the airy well-spaced style used by the Romans and Raphael.

Soon ''grottesche'' appeared in [[marquetry]] (fine woodwork), in [[maiolica]] produced above all at [[Urbino]] from the late 1520s, then in book illustration and in other decorative uses. At [[Château de Fontainebleau|Fontainebleau]] [[Rosso Fiorentino]] and his team enriched the vocabulary of grotesques by combining them with the decorative form of [[strapwork]], the portrayal of leather straps in plaster or wood moldings, which forms an element in grotesques.

===From Baroque to Victorian era===
In the 17th and 18th centuries the grotesque encompasses a wide field of [[teratology]] (science of monsters) and artistic experimentation. The monstrous, for instance, often occurs as the notion of ''play''. The sportiveness of the grotesque category can be seen in the notion of the preternatural category of the ''lusus naturae'', in natural history writings and in cabinets of curiosities.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mauries|first=Patrick|title=Cabinets of Curiosities|year=2002|publisher=Thames and Hudson}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park|title=Wonders and the Order of Nature|year=1998|publisher=Zone Books|location=USA: New York}}</ref> The last vestiges of romance, such as the marvellous also provide opportunities for the presentation of the grotesque in, for instance, operatic spectacle. The mixed form of the novel was commonly described as grotesque – see for instance Fielding's "comic epic poem in prose" (''Joseph Andrews'' and ''Tom Jones'').

Grotesque ornament received a further impetus from new discoveries of original Roman frescoes and stucchi at [[Pompeii]] and the other buried sites round [[Mount Vesuvius]] from the middle of the century. It continued in use, becoming increasingly heavy, in the [[Empire Style]] and then in the [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] period, when designs often became as densely packed as in 16th-century engravings, and the elegance and fancy of the style tended to be lost.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="170px">
Groteskmask i guldtråd på schabrak, 1600-1650 - Skoklosters slott - 102320.tif|[[Baroque]] – grotesque on a saddle pad, 1600–1650, gold thread
Parlement de Bretagne - Grande Chambre porte.jpg|[[Baroque architecture|Baroque]] – grotesques on a door in the [[Palais du Parlement de Bretagne]], [[Rennes]], France, unknown architect, sculptor and painter, 17th century ([[Louis XIV]] era)
Hôtel Colbert de Villacerf 1.jpg|Baroque – grotesques on the [[boiserie]] of a room from the [[Hôtel Colbert de Villacerf]], now in the [[Musée Carnavalet]], Paris, unknown architect, sculptor and painter, {{circa}} 1650<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.carnavalet.paris.fr/collections/lambris-du-cabinet-de-lhotel-colbert-de-villacerf|website=carnavalet.paris.fr|title=LAMBRIS DU CABINET DE L'HÔTEL COLBERT DE VILLACERF|author=|access-date=31 August 2023}}</ref>
Detail of the Galerie d'Apollon (14).jpg|Baroque – grotesques on a door in the [[Galerie d'Apollon]], [[Louvre Palace]], Paris, by [[Louis Le Vau]] and [[Charles Le Brun]], after 1661<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sharman|first1=Ruth|title=Yves Saint Laurent & Art|date=2022|publisher=Thames & Hudson|isbn=978-0-500-02544-4|page=147|url=|language=en}}</ref>
Boudoir de la reine, Château de Fontainebleau.jpg|[[Louis XVI style]] – the Boudoir of Marie-Antoinette, [[Palace of Fontainebleau]], [[Fontainebleau]], France, decorated with arabesques in the Pompeiian Style, by the Rousseau brothers, 1785
Pierre Rousseau - Double-Leaf Doors - 1942.2.12 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|[[Neoclassicism#Architecture and the decorative arts|Neoclassical]] – door, by [[Pierre Rousseau (architect)|Pierre Rousseau]], 1790s, oil on panel, [[Cleveland Museum of Art]], [[Cleveland]], US
Vase with scenes of storm on land MET DP335261 (cropped).jpg|Neoclassical – vase with scenes of storm on land and grotesques, by the [[Dihl and Guérhard porcelain|Duc d'Angoulême's porcelain factory]], {{circa}} 1797–1798, hard-paste porcelain, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York
Boulevard du Temple (Paris), numéro 42, portail 06 grille en fonte.jpg|[[Renaissance Revival architecture|Renaissance Revival]] – [[cast iron]] door window grill of a building on the [[Boulevard du Temple]] no. 42, Paris, unknown architect, {{circa}} 1850
File:Paris 7e 34 rue du Bac 27.JPG|Renaissance Revival – cast iron door window grill of [[Rue du Bac, Paris|Rue du Bac]] no. 34, Paris, unknown architect, {{circa}} 1850
File:Paris Palais Royal Restaurant Grand Véfour Säulen 1.jpg|Neoclassical – interior of [[Le Grand Véfour]], Paris, by M.L. Viguet, 1852<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/merimee/PA00085851|website=pop.culture.gouv.fr|title=Immeuble en bordure du Palais-Royal, restaurant Le Grand Véfour|access-date=15 October 2023}}</ref>
File:Paris Palais Royal Restaurant Grand Véfour Säulen 2.jpg|Neoclassical – interior of [[Le Grand Véfour]], Paris, by M.L. Viguet, 1852<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/merimee/PA00085851|website=pop.culture.gouv.fr|title=Immeuble en bordure du Palais-Royal, restaurant Le Grand Véfour|access-date=15 October 2023}}</ref>
File:Paris Palais Royal Restaurant Grand Véfour Säulen 3.jpg|Neoclassical – interior of [[Le Grand Véfour]], Paris, by M.L. Viguet, 1852<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/merimee/PA00085851|website=pop.culture.gouv.fr|title=Immeuble en bordure du Palais-Royal, restaurant Le Grand Véfour|access-date=15 October 2023}}</ref>
Decorative arts in the Louvre - Room 545 (06).jpg|Eclectic – grotesques panel in the [[Napoleon III]] Apartments of the Louvre Palace, unknown painted and designer, {{circa}} 1860
</gallery>

==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]].

==In literature==
One of the first uses of the term grotesque to denote a literary genre is in [[Essays (Montaigne)|Montaigne's ''Essays'']].<ref>Kayser (1957) I.2 ''Ce discours est bien grotesue''</ref> The Grotesque is often linked with [[satire]] and [[tragicomedy]].<ref name="Clark91p20">Clark (1991) [https://books.google.com/books?id=LOeLRDzui_wC&pg=PR20 pp. 20–1]</ref> It is an effective artistic means to convey grief and pain to the audience, and for this has been labeled by [[Thomas Mann]] as the "genuine antibourgeois style".<ref name="Clark91p20"/>

Some of the earliest written texts describe grotesque happenings and monstrous creatures. The literature of myth has been a rich source of monsters; from the one-eyed [[Cyclopes|Cyclops]] from [[Hesiod]]'s ''[[Theogony]]'' to Homer's [[Polyphemus]] in the ''[[Odyssey]]''. [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' is another rich source for grotesque transformations and hybrid creatures of myth. [[Horace]]'s ''[[Ars Poetica (Horace)|Art of Poetry]]'' also provides a formal introduction to classical values and to the dangers of grotesque or mixed form. Indeed, the departure from classical models of order, reason, harmony, balance and form opens up the risk of entry into grotesque worlds. Accordingly, British literature abounds with native grotesquerie, from the strange worlds of [[Edmund Spenser|Spenser]]'s allegory in ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'' to the tragi-comic modes of 16th-century drama. (Grotesque comic elements can be found in major works such as ''[[King Lear]]''.)

Literary works of ''mixed'' genre are occasionally termed grotesque, as are "low" or non-literary genres such as pantomime and farce.<ref>{{cite book|last=Harham|first=Geoffrey Galt|title=On the Grotesque|year=1982|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=US}}</ref> [[Gothic Literature|Gothic writings]] often have grotesque components in terms of character, style and location. In other cases, the environment described may be grotesque – whether urban ([[Charles Dickens]]), or the literature of the American south which has sometimes been termed "[[Southern Gothic]]". Sometimes the grotesque in literature has been explored in terms of social and cultural formations such as the carnival(-esque) in [[François Rabelais]] and [[Mikhail Bakhtin]]. [[Terry Castle]] has written on the relationship between metamorphosis, literary writings and masquerade.<ref>{{cite book|last=Castle|first=Terry|title=Masquerade and Civilization|year=1986|publisher=Methuen}}</ref>

Another major source of the grotesque is in satirical writings of the 18th century. [[Jonathan Swift]]'s ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' provides a variety of approaches to grotesque representation. Corporeal hybridity is an essential marker in Swift. In poetry, the works of [[Alexander Pope]] provide many examples of the grotesque.

In fiction, characters are usually considered ''grotesque'' if they induce both empathy and disgust. (A character who inspires disgust alone is simply a villain or a [[monster]].) Obvious examples would include the physically deformed and the mentally deficient, but people with cringe-worthy social traits are also included. The reader becomes piqued by the grotesque's positive side, and continues reading to see if the character can conquer their darker side. In Shakespeare's ''[[The Tempest]]'', the figure of [[Caliban (character)|Caliban]] has inspired more nuanced reactions than simple scorn and disgust. Also, in [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', the character of [[Gollum]] may be considered to have both disgusting and empathetic qualities, which fit the grotesque template.

[[Victor Hugo]]'s ''[[The Hunchback of Notre-Dame]]'' is one of the most celebrated grotesques in literature. [[Frankenstein's monster|Dr. Frankenstein's monster]] from [[Mary Shelley]]'s 1818 novel ''[[Frankenstein|Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus]]'' can also be considered a grotesque, as well as the title character, [[Erik (The Phantom of the Opera)|Erik]], in ''[[The Phantom of the Opera (novel)|The Phantom of the Opera]]'' and the Beast in ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]''. Other instances of the romantic grotesque are also to be found in [[Edgar Allan Poe]], [[E. T. A. Hoffmann]], in ''[[Sturm und Drang]]'' literature or in Sterne's ''[[The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman|Tristram Shandy]]''. The romantic grotesque is far more terrible and sombre than the medieval grotesque, which celebrated laughter and fertility. It is at this point that a grotesque creature such as Frankenstein's monster begins to be presented more sympathetically as the outsider who is the victim of society.<ref>See Jeanne M. Britton, 'Novelistic Sympathy in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" ' ''Studies in Romanticism'' Vol. 48, No. 1 (Spring, 2009)3–22, p. 3.</ref> But the novel also makes the issue of sympathy problematic in an unkind society. This means that society becomes the generator of the grotesque, by a process of alienation.<ref>Hanis McLaren Caldwell, ''Literature and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Britain: from Mary Shelley to George Eliot'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 42.</ref> In fact, the grotesque monster in ''Frankenstein'' tends to be described as "the creature".

The grotesque received a new shape with ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' by [[Lewis Carroll]], when a girl meets fantastic grotesque figures in her fantasy world. Carroll manages to make the figures seem less frightful and fit for [[children's literature]], but still utterly strange. Another comic grotesque writer who played on the relationship between sense and nonsense was [[Edward Lear]]. Humorous or festive nonsense of this kind has its roots in the seventeenth-century traditions of fustian, bombastic and satirical writing.<ref>See Noel Malcolm, ''The Origins of English Nonsense'' (Fontana, 1997). {{ISBN|0006388442}}</ref>

During the nineteenth-century category of grotesque body was increasingly displaced by the notion of congenital deformity or medical anomaly.<ref>See George M. Gould and Walter M. Pyle's ''Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine'' (1896).</ref> Building on this context, the grotesque begins to be understood more as deformity and disability, especially after the [[World War I|First World War]], 1914–18. In these terms, the art historian [[Leah Dickerman]] has argued that "The sight of horrendously shattered bodies of veterans returned to the home front became commonplace. The accompanying growth in the prosthetic industry struck contemporaries as creating a race of half-mechanical men and became an important theme in [[Dada|dadaist]] work.'<ref>Leah Dickerman, ''Dada'', National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2005, pp. 3–4.</ref> The poetry of [[Wilfred Owen]] displays a poetic and realistic sense of the grotesque horror of war and the human cost of brutal conflict. Poems such as ''Spring Offensive'' and ''Greater Love'' combined images of beauty with shocking brutality and violence in order to produce a sense of the grotesque clash of opposites. In a similar fashion, [[Ernst Friedrich]] (1894–1967), founder of the Berlin Peace Museum, an anarchist and a pacifist, was the author of ''War Against War'' (1924) which used grotesque photographs of mutilated victims of the First World War in order to campaign for peace.

[[Southern Gothic]] is a genre frequently identified with grotesques and [[William Faulkner]] is often cited as the leading exponent. [[Flannery O'Connor]] wrote, "Whenever I'm asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one" (''Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction'', 1960). In O'Connor's often-anthologized [[short story]] ''[[A Good Man is Hard to Find (short story)|A Good Man Is Hard to Find]]'', the Misfit, a serial killer, is clearly a maimed soul, utterly callous to human life, but driven to seek the truth. The less obvious grotesque is the polite, doting grandmother who is unaware of her own astonishing selfishness. Another oft-cited example of the grotesque from O'Connor's work is her short story entitled ''[[A Temple of the Holy Ghost]]''. The American novelist [[Raymond Kennedy (novelist)|Raymond Kennedy]] is another author associated with the literary tradition of the grotesque.

==Contemporary writers==

Contemporary writers of literary grotesque fiction include [[Ian McEwan]], [[Katherine Dunn]], [[Alasdair Gray]], [[Angela Carter]], [[Jeanette Winterson]], [[Umberto Eco]], [[Patrick McGrath (novelist)|Patrick McGrath]], [[Jessica Anthony]], [[Natsuo Kirino]], [[Paul G. Tremblay|Paul Tremblay]], [[Matt Bell (author)|Matt Bell]], [[Chuck Palahniuk]], [[Brian Evenson]], [[Caleb J. Ross]] (who writes domestic grotesque fiction),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.calebjross.com/study/what-is-domestic-grotesque-fiction-and-why-do-i-write-it/ |title=What is Domestic Grotesque Fiction and Why Do I Write It? |publisher=Calebjross.com |date=2012-01-21 |access-date=2013-03-06}}</ref> [[Richard Thomas (author)|Richard Thomas]] and many authors who write in the [[bizarro fiction|bizarro genre of fiction]].

== Pop culture ==
Other contemporary writers who have explored the grotesque in pop-culture are [https://books.google.com/books?id=n8cmPNEJk98C&dq=grotesque+pop+culture&pg=PA182 John Docker], in the context of postmodernism; [https://books.google.com/books?id=wgTYAAAAMAAJ&q=grotesque+pop+culture Cintra Wilson], who analyzes celebrity; and [https://www.amazon.com/The-Infantile-Grotesque-Pathology-Sexuality/dp/1934542490 Francis Sanzaro], who discusses its relation to childbirth and obscenity.<ref>Sanzaro, Francis. The Infantile Grotesque: Pathology, Sexuality, and a Theory of Religion. Davies Group Publishers, 2016.</ref> 

''[[Alien Resurrection]]'' (1997) is the only film rated by the [[Motion Picture Association film rating system|MPAA]] to have "grotesque images" in its rating description,<ref>[https://www.filmratings.com/Search?filmTitle=alien+resurrection&x=0&y=0 Alien Resurrection] Film Ratings.com. Retrieved 13 February 2024.</ref> mainly due to its depiction of the Newborn [[xenomorph]] and the failed clones of [[Ellen Ripley]], who all featured grotesque human–alien ([[Hybrid (biology)|hybrid]]) characteristics.<ref>{{cite book | chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-21828-7_9 | doi=10.1007/978-3-030-21828-7_9 | chapter=Hybrid Creatures and Monstrous Reproduction: The Multifunctional Grotesque in Alien: Resurrection | title=Art, Excess, and Education | date=2019 | last1=Huunan-Seppälä | first1=Henriikka | pages=147–160 | isbn=978-3-030-21827-0 }}</ref>

Grotesque manner also can be found at Disney's famous ride, [[The Haunted Mansion]] at Disneyland, Walt Disney World and other theme parks, where some of its details may contain a symbolism of [[Memento Mori]], [[Saṃsāra|Samsara's]] circle or themes describing the fragility of human existence, passions that baffle and how they could be avoided or find a "way out".

==Theatre of the Grotesque==
The term "[[Theatre of the Grotesque]]" refers to an anti-[[Naturalism (theatre)|naturalistic]] school of Italian dramatists, writing in the 1910s and 1920s, who are often seen as precursors of the [[Theatre of the Absurd]].
Characterized by ironic and macabre themes of daily life in the World War 1 era, Theatre of the Grotesque was named after the play 'The Mask and the Face' by Luigi Chiarelli, which was described as 'a grotesque in three acts.'

[[Friedrich Dürrenmatt]] is a major author of contemporary grotesque comedy plays.

==In architecture==
{{Main|Grotesque (architecture)}}
[[File:Greyfriars grotesques.JPG|thumb|Detail from the [[John Mylne (died 1667)|John Mylne Monument]] in [[Greyfriars Kirkyard]]. The text reads ...''Aetatis Suae 56'', because he died at age 56.]]
In architecture the term "grotesque" means a carved stone figure.

Grotesques are often confused with [[gargoyle]]s, but the distinction is that gargoyles are figures that contain a water spout through the mouth, while grotesques do not. Without a water spout, this type of sculpture is also known as a chimera when it depicts fantastical creatures. In the Middle Ages, the term ''babewyn'' was used to refer to both gargoyles and grotesques.<ref>{{cite book|author=Janetta Rebold Benton|title=Holy Terrors: Gargoyles on Medieval Buildings|publisher=Abbeville Press|year=1997|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/holyterrorsgargo00bent/page/8 8–10]|url=https://archive.org/details/holyterrorsgargo00bent/page/8|isbn=0-7892-0182-8|url-access=registration}}</ref> This word is derived from the [[Italian language|Italian]] word ''babbuino'', which means "[[baboon]]".

==In typography==
{{Main|Grotesque (typeface classification)}}
The word "grotesque", or "Grotesk" in German, is also frequently used as a synonym for [[sans-serif]] in [[typography]]. At other times, it is used (along with "neo-grotesque", "humanist", "[[Lineal typeface#Lineal|lineal]]", and "geometric") to describe a particular style or subset of sans-serif typefaces. The origin of this association can be traced back to English typefounder [[William Thorowgood]], who introduced the term "grotesque" and in 1835 produced ''7-line pica grotesque''—the first sans-serif typeface containing actual lowercase letters. An alternate etymology is possibly based on the original reaction of other typographers to such a strikingly featureless typeface.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://typenstuff.com/help/4_22%20status%20books.pdf |title=Linéale Grotesques |publisher=Rabbit Moon Press |year=2009 |access-date=2010-09-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102201041/http://typenstuff.com/help/4_22%20status%20books.pdf |archive-date=January 2, 2014 }}</ref>

Popular grotesque typefaces include [[Franklin Gothic]], [[News Gothic]], [[Haettenschweiler]], and [[Lucida Sans]] (although the latter lacks the [[G#Typographic_variants|spurred]] "G"{{clarify|date=April 2022}}), whereas popular neo-grotesque typefaces include [[Arial]], [[Helvetica]], and [[Verdana]].

==See also==
* [[Ero guro]]
* [[Fractal]]
* [[Grotesque (architecture)]]
* [[Hunky punk]]
* [[Mask]]
* [[Mummers' play]]
* ''[[Rigoletto]]'', an opera by Giuseppe Verdi
* [[Sheela na Gig]]

==Notes==
<!--This article uses the Cite.php citation mechanism. If you would like more information on how to add references to this article, please see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cite/Cite.php -->
{{Reflist}}
<!--a report on the published application of "grotesque" to Thomas Mann stories would be encyclopedic:Some of Thomas Mann's early short story characters ("Tobias Minderninkel", "The Little Herr Friedmannn", "Little Louise"--and others--surely fall into this category as well.-->

==References==
* Astruc, Rémi (2010) Le Renouveau du grotesque dans le roman du XXe siècle, essai d'anthropologie littéraire, Paris, Classiques Garnier
* Clark, John R. (1991) [https://books.google.com/books?id=LOeLRDzui_wC ''The modern satiric grotesque and its traditions'']

==Further reading==
* [[Per Bäckström|Bäckström, Per]]. ''Enhet i mångfalden. Henri Michaux och det groteska'' (Unity in the Plenitude. Henri Michaux and the Grotesque), Lund: Ellerström, 2005.
* [[Per Bäckström|Bäckström, Per]]. ''[https://www.editions-harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=livre&no=25305 Le Grotesque dans l’œuvre d’Henri Michaux. Qui cache son fou, meurt sans voix]'', Paris: L’Harmattan, 2007.
* {{cite book
 |last        = Sheinberg
 |first       = Esti
 |date        = 2000-12-29
 |title       = Irony, satire, parody and the grotesque in the music of Shostakovich
 |publisher   = Ashgate
 |location    = UK
 |page        = 378
 |url         = http://www.dschjournal.com/journal15/books15.htm
 |isbn        = 0-7546-0226-5
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20071017042212/http://www.dschjournal.com/journal15/books15.htm
 |archive-date = 2007-10-17
}}
* Kayser, Wolfgang (1957) The grotesque in Art and Literature, New York, Columbia University Press
* Lee Byron Jennings (1963) The ludicrous demon: aspects of the grotesque in German post-Romantic prose, Berkeley, University of California Press
* {{cite book
 | last = Bakhtin
 | first = Mikhail
 | author-link = Mikhail Bakhtin
 | year=1941
 | title = Rabelais and His World
 | publisher = Indiana University Press
 | location= Bloomington
 | title-link = Rabelais and His World
 }}
* [[Geoffrey Galt Harpham|Harpham, Geoffrey Galt]] (1982, 2006), On the Grotesque:  Strategies of Contradiction in Art and Literature (Princeton:  Princeton University Press)
* [http://davidlavery.net/Grotesque/Major_Artists_Theorists/theorists/thomson/thomsonbibliography.html Selected bibliography] by Philip Thomson, ''The Grotesque'', Methuen Critical Idiom Series, 1972.
* Dacos, N. ''La découverte de la Domus Aurea et la formation des grotesques à la Renaissance'' (London) 1969.
* {{cite book
 |last        = Kort
 |first       = Pamela
 |date        = 2004-10-30
 |title       = Comic Grotesque: Wit And Mockery In German Art, 1870–1940
 |publisher   = PRESTEL
 |page        = 208
 |url         = http://www.frontlist.com/detail/3791331957
 |isbn        = 978-3-7913-3195-9
 |url-status     = usurped
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080304075511/http://www.frontlist.com/detail/3791331957
 |archive-date = 2008-03-04
}}
* {{cite web |author=FS Connelly |title=Modern art and the grotesque |year=2003 |publisher=Assets.cambridge.org |url=http://assets.cambridge.org/052181/8842/sample/0521818842WS.pdf }}
* {{cite book
 | last = Zamperini
 | first = Alessandra
 | year = 2008
 | title = Ornament and the Grotesque: Fantastical Decoration from Antiquity to Art Nouveau
 | publisher = Thames and Hudson
 | pages = 320, 11" x 13", 250 color illustrations
 | url = http://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/new/fall08/523856.htm
 | isbn = 978-0-500-23856-1
 | access-date = 2010-02-02
 | archive-date = 2012-02-27
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120227031038/http://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/new/fall08/523856.htm
 | url-status = dead
 }}
* {{cite book
 | last = Hansen
 | first = Maria Fabricius
 | year=2018
 | title = The Art of Transformation. Grotesques in Sixteenth-Century Italy
 | publisher = Edizioni Quasar
 | pages=476, 9"1/2 x 11", 400 color illustrations
 | url = http://www.edizioniquasar.it/sku.php?id_libro=2312
 | isbn = 978-88-7140-864-4
}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{wiktionary}}
{{NIE Poster|year=1906}}
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-876878383503213708&q=vivid Video tour of the most vivid examples of medieval Parisian stone carving - the grotesques of Notre Dame] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311040948/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-876878383503213708&q=vivid |date=2007-03-11 }}
* [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/259716213 The Grotesque: Bloom's Literary Themes edited by Harold Bloom and Blake Hobby]
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Grotesque |short=x}}

{{Ornaments}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Grotesque| ]]
[[Category:Visual arts genres]]
[[Category:Folklore]]
[[Category:Literary genres]]
[[Category:Stock characters]]
[[Category:Grotesques]]