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
We might easily add other examples of similar subjects from the same
sources, such as the scene in our cut No. 73, taken from one of the
stalls of Winchester Cathedral, which seems to be intended to represent
a witch riding away upon her cat, an enormous animal, whose jovial
look is only outdone by that of its mistress. The latter has carried
her distaff with her, and is diligently employed in spinning. A stall
in Sherborne Minster, given in our cut No. 74, represents a scene in a
school, in which an unfortunate scholar is experiencing punishment of
a rather severe description, to the great alarm of his companions, on
whom his disgrace is evidently acting as a warning. The flogging scene
at school appears to have been rather a favourite subject among the
early caricaturists, for the scourge was looked upon in the middle ages
as the grand stimulant to scholarship. In those good old times, when a
man recalled to memory his schoolboy days, he did not say, "When I was
at school," but, "When I was under the rod."
[Illustration: _No. 74. Scholastic Discipline._]
[Illustration: _No. 75. A Point in Dispute._]
An extensive field for the study of this interesting part of our
subject will be found in the architectural gallery in the Kensington
Museum, which contains a large number of calls from stalls and other
sculptures, chiefly selected from the French cathedrals. One of these,
engraved in our cut No. 75, represents a couple of females, seated
before the kitchen fire. The date of this sculpture is stated to be
1382. To judge by their looks and attitude, there is a disagreement
between them, and the object in dispute seems to be a piece of meat,
which one has taken out of the pot and placed on a dish. This lady
wields her ladle as though she were prepared to use it as a weapon,
while her opponent is armed with the bellows. The ale-pot was not
unfrequently the subject of pictures of a turbulent character, and
among the grotesque and monstrous figures in the margins of the noble
manuscript of the fourteenth century, known as the "Luttrell Psalter,"
one represents two personages not only quarrelling over their pots,
which they appear to have emptied, but actually fighting with them. One
of them has literally broken his pot over his companion's head. The
scene is copied in our cut No. 76.
[Illustration: _No. 76. Want of Harmony over the Pot._]
[Illustration: _No. 77. Domestic Strife._]
[Illustration: _No. 78. A Struggle for the Mastery._]
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