Medieval illuminations grotesque12/10/2023 ![]() ![]() The most persistent forms of the grotesque can be identified in the Greek and Roman caves – grottos – such as Apollo’s oracles at Delphi, Corinth and Clarus (figure 0). The origins of the grotesque in architecture can be traced back to primitive cultures and societal systems. “A fine grotesque is the expression, in a moment, by a series of symbols thrown together in bold and fearless connection ” (Ruskin, 1856) From the outset of his investigation, Freud qualifies the uncanny as an aesthetic experience, one that can be identified as a recurring phenomenon in various mediums, including architecture. He reinforces this theory with an example given by Jentsch: the possibility of an inanimate object to be alive, or an object that seems to be alive to be an automaton. Hence, the uncanny effect is achieved by removing the distinctions between reality and imagination. Inspired by Ernst Jentsch’s essay “On the Psychology of the Uncanny”, Freud believes the uncanny situates the strangeness in the ordinary. Situated in the context of the grotesque as an anthropological device, Sigmund Freud’s theory of the uncanny contours an interpretation of the grotesque as a psychological experience located between the blurred lines of ordinary and extra-ordinary. Moreover, he identifies the grotesque as “ the place where the impossible finds an actual occurrence ” (Astruc, 2010), therefore as a potentially universal and anthropological device that societies use in order to explain and conceptualize the notions of alterity and change. Beyond the current understanding of it as an aesthetic category, Astruc argues that the grotesque functions as a fundamental existential experience. He argues that the concept is based on the representation of duplication and metamorphosis. French professor and critic Remi Astruc explains that although there are a variety of motifs and figures, the grotesque duplicates the existing world by showing an altered reflection of it. The grotesque merges heterogeneous elements, organized according to a logic that opposes nature itself and defies the laws of both gravity and perspective.īeyond its aesthetic nature, the grotesque attains a metaphysical dimension, debated by many art critics and theoreticians. ![]() Hence, it deviates from the aesthetic norms in favor of a composite artistic mode, due to its deformity and hybridity. It its most popular sense, the term designates a type of decorative and ornamental art that combines human and fantastic features, a style initially developed in Ancient Rome and imitated by a series of Renaissance artists.Īs a form constructed outside the boundaries of a fixed set of rules, the grotesque is defined by its departure from norm. ![]() The grotesque represents a phenomenon older than history, although the term itself has a relatively recent origin, having been formulated in Renaissance Italy in order to describe a variety of unearthly decorations found in the underground rooms and corridors of Nero’s House of Gold ( figure 0), which were mistakenly taken for caverns or grottos. “ the grotesque would affirm itself in order to better challenge and question its own nature, leading to a conception of the term which takes into account both its polymorphous and its evolutionary aspect.”(Bocianowski, 2016) From paintings in caves to modern art and design, the transmutations of aesthetics have made their progress constantly changing with the world-views of the cultures that generated them, yet still maintaining the imperative qualities by which they can be assigned to the field of the grotesque. The psychic reasons for this tendency are far from clear, but the concept has left its mark on a variety of cultures, from prehistoric ones to the present ones, from the most primitive forms of society to the more elaborate ones. The source of the grotesque in art and architecture is a reflection of man’s ability to find a unique fascination in the bizarre. ‘’It is no accident that the grotesque mode in art and literature tends to be prevalent in societies and eras marked by strife, radical changes or disorientation ” (Thomson, 1972). ![]()
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