Grotesque
The grotesque (from Italian to Grotta grottesco, Cave ' ) refers to visual arts and literary modes of representation, in which opposites such as horror and comedy, ridicule and threats, delicacy and monstrosity are brought into a single unit. Established as a name for certain ancient and derived from modern forms of ornament, the term is now used in many art forms and also for more mundane means of expression. A distinction is on the one hand the grotesque, an aesthetic property, a stylistic device, and on the other hand, the grotesque, an artistic genre and applicable only to specific groups of ornaments, stories or songs generic term.
- 5.1 seal
- Opera 5.2
- 5.3 movie
- 6.1 history of ornament
- 6.2 seal
- 6.3 Music
Fine Arts
Ornament History: The Grotesque
In the history of art is meant by the grotesque (also: Grotteske ) may involve a form of ornament gracefully built, light and airy tendrils arranged, the next plant forms also fantastic hybrid creatures, vases designs, architectural elements and other.
The (first proven for 1502) term originated in the Renaissance, soon after it was discovered around 1479 in the Domus Aurea of Emperor Nero ornamental been painted halls of Roman antiquity, whose peculiarity with the description of wall decorations in the 7th book of the Architectura of Vitruvius covered. Because these had been found in buried, so supposedly underground rooms, they were referred to with the of Grotta (it.: cave ) derived adjective grottesco (it.: cave moderately, wild, fantastic ), which has since not only to antique wall decorations, but was also on their modern derivatives and then applied in addition to other distorted exaggerated portrayals in the visual arts and literature.
In early imitations of the ancient frescoes ( around 1500, Ghirlandaio, Pinturicchio ) the motives are still pushed together tightly and show by acanthus leaves a rather heavy ductus. In contrast, from 1515 Giovanni da Udine painted from the workshop of Raphael in the Vatican loggias of loose composed garlands and pendants, which are considered prominent and vorbildhafteste examples of the Grotesque Renaissance painting. Murals in the Villa Madama (Rome, 1518/27 ), the Villa d' Este (Rome, 1560/72 ), the Villa Farnese ( Carracci ) (Rome 1579/1600 ) close to you until these ornaments in Italy at the end Mannerist after 1600 go out of fashion. North of the Alps, however, they are mediated, enhanced and modified by ornamental engravings.
The engraver Hans Sebald Beham, Daniel Hopfer and Peter Flötner Southern German representative of a Roman-inspired ornament style. Candelabras are a popular main motive here. The North, however, was only developed to the so-called Floris style, then the strapwork, the roll, the tail and ear work completely independent variants of the grotesque. They went from the copper engraving from production in the Dutch publishing centers and showed sustained effects even in the North German architecture from the mid-16th to the mid 17th century.
An even more continuous development can be observed in French art: The grotesque stitches of you Derceau, (1550 /66) still directed by Italian models. Curly ribbons and swinging vines are for Étienne Delaunes Leaves ( 1560/80 ) is typical. In the 17th century the vines heavy and vegetable, the modification and mixing with other ornamental motifs (eg, the arabesque ) brings here a conceptual blur with it. With the strapwork (1680-1720) and the Rocaille (1730-1800) in the 18th century, the French ornament again elegant and light, and the visual context of the Rococo Shell plant the idea of the cave is approaching again. Was left here during the anti- ish background and significance term extent of the grotesque in the narrow sense, engages in the decades around 1800, the classicism consciously back to original grotesque elements, the Roman imperial origin was very well perceived back. England and Northern Germany also take early ( 1760 /70) this " Pompeian " motifs.
In historicism, and particularly since the Vienna World Exhibition of 1873, the recourse emphasis on the Renaissance and revived once more the use of the grotesque ornaments in arts and crafts (furniture, metal, pottery, wall decoration ), in book art and architecture.
Grotesque as ornament form: fresco of the 16th century at the Villa d' Este
Villa Medici, Rome, frescoes around 1670
Italian ornamental prints with grotesques, Nicoletto da Modena, about 1500 - about 1520.
Two grotesque door panels by Daniel Hopfer
Stylistic devices: The grotesque in the visual arts
Grotesque proportions as artistic means can be found in ancient mythological themes in the late Middle Ages as a book decoration in the drolleries of the edge strips (Cicero: De amicitia Bibliotheca Palatina ). Later examples of grotesque image elements contain the works of Hieronymus Bosch, Francisco de Goya and George Grosz.
Hieronymus Bosch: Hell in: " Garden of Earthly Delights "
History of Literature
In periods in which seemed to be lost in an ideal world of faith, for instance in Romanticism, she played a special role. A grotesque figure should simultaneously excite disgust and pity. Outstanding examples are the Hunchback of Notre -Dame, Frankenstein's Monster, the Phantom of the Opera and Gollum. Well-known author of the grotesque are about Harry Hermann Schmitz, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Fritz von Herzmanovsky Orlando, Oskar Panizza and Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland ), or in the period after 1945, for example, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Max Frisch, Edgar Hilsenrath, Ror Wolf and Eugen Egner.
Franz Kafka is now often referred to as the " master of the grotesque " because the grotesque is his preferred genre and as the grotesque shapes its extraordinarily own narrative style in all his works.
Music
Here the concept of the grotesque, especially in connection with the music of the fin de siècle occurs and is also increasingly used in the function of a generic concept during the early 20th century. Especially in the German-speaking area we can observe this tendency, such as Erwin Schulhoff, Josef Matthias Hauer, Stefan Wolpe and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Gustav Mahler uses the concept of the grotesque not as a generic term, but his music is regularly used as a prime example of grotesque music or grotesque composition process. The same applies to Franz Schreker. More often called a representative of a grotesque style of composition are György Ligeti, Schoenberg and Shostakovich Shostakovich.
Theatre and dance
In the theater of the Renaissance to the French Revolution, the grotesque is equivalent to representations which do not belong to the world of the nobility, so are somewhat coarser and more realistic than the ideal figures of the tragedy (see items clause). This meaning of the grotesque is increasingly in the 19th century on the name of character about how in the compositions of character dance and character role.
In the 20th century the grotesque loses on stage sometimes its original connection with the comedy and its importance as a sign of lower social position. It may include the Distorted also in the tragic sense with ruler and figures characterize as Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry.
Grotesque Humor
When " serif " a special variety of humor is called.
Seal
Wilhelm Busch demonstrates a sense of grotesque humor, for example, in the Tobias Knopp trilogy when, in the introduction ( "Adventures of a bachelor ) " writes:
( Between the two last-mentioned line is installed a drawing with a grotesquely oversized teardrop front of an empty park bench. )
Opera
Examples of grotesque humor in the opera are, for example, the figures of the mayor of Zaandam in Albert Lortzings comic opera Zar und Zimmermann, the figure of the schoolmaster in his " poacher " and the figure of Falstaff in the plays of William Shakespeare.
Film
Monty Python's Flying Circus, The great feast, the stairs and Tanguy characterized by grotesque humor of thanks to the use of coarse - and coarse -erotic comic caricatures.