A History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and ArtWright, Thomas
History
A History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art
Wright, Thomas
Caricature -- History
102, representing drunkenness under the form of another monk, who has
obtained the keys and found his way into the cellar of his monastery,
and is there indulging his love for good ale in similar secrecy. It
is to be remarked that here, again, the vices are laid to the charge
of the clergy. Our cut No. 103, from a bas-relief in Ely Cathedral,
given in Carter's "Specimens of Ancient Sculpture," represents a man
drinking from a horn, and evidently enjoying his employment, but his
costume is not sufficiently characteristic to betray his quality.
[Illustration: _No. 101. Monkish Gluttony._]
[Illustration: _No. 102. The Monastic Cellarer._]
[Illustration: _No. 103. Drunkenness._]
[Illustration: _No. 104. A Strange Monster._]
The subject of grotesque faces and heads naturally leads us to
that of monstrous and grotesque bodies and groups of bodies, which
has already been partly treated in a former chapter, where we have
noticed the great love shown in the middle ages for monstrous animated
figures, not only monsters of one nature, but, and that especially,
of figures formed by joining together the parts of different, and
entirely dissimilar, animals, of similar mixtures between animals and
men. This, as stated above, was often effected by joining the body
of some nondescript animal to a human head and face; so that, by the
disproportionate size of the latter, the body, as a secondary part
of the picture, became only an adjunct to set off still further the
grotesque character of the human face. More importance was sometimes
given to the body combined with fantastic forms, which baffle any
attempt at giving an intelligible description. The accompanying cut,
No. 104, represents a winged monster of this kind; it is taken from
one of the casts from French churches exhibited in the Kensington
Museum.
[Illustration: _No. 105. Rolling Topsy Turvy._]
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