Harpham: The Grotesque

SHELDON
NODELMAN
 from
 E.
D’Ambra,
ed.,
Roman
Art
in
Context.
NY:
Prentice
Hall.
1993
pp.
10‐20
 Like all works of art. the portrait is a system of signs; it is often an ideogram of “public’ meanings condensed into the image of a human face. Roman portrait sculpture from the Republic through the late Empire-the second century BCE. to the sixth CE -constitutes what is surely the most remarkable body of portrait art ever created. Its shifting montage of abstractions from human appearance and character forms a language in which the history of a whole society can be read. Beginning in the first century B.C., Roman artists invented a new kind of portraiture, as unlike that of the great tradition of Greek

This essay aims to investigate two different time periods in the history of art. It will scrutinize the influence that the respective societal contexts had on the different artists, which in turn, caused them to arrange the formal elements in a specific way. I will be examining an Egyptian sculpture of the god Isis nursing Horus, her son, as well as the Vladimir Virgin icon, which dates from the Byzantine era. Experts vary on the precise ‘lifetime’ of the Ancient Egyptian civilization, but according to Mason (2007:10) it existed from 3100 BCE up to 30 BCE. The Byzantine era, which

“As monstrous races faded from popularity, the increased focus on unnatural or monstrous individuals added new interest in the long-standing philosophical and theological debates about whether or not monsters could be human and where monsters fit within God’s ordered universe […] philosophers and theologians in both the medieval period and the Renaissance often interpreted these monstrous individuals as carrying a specific meaning for the community into which they were born (Wright 6).”

Most people when asked to describe what the word grotesque means they might refer to the dictionary’s definition of the word, which according to The American Heritage Dictionary the meaning of grotesque is “characterized by ludicrous, repulsive, or incongruous distortion, as of appearance or manner.” Not only can one be grotesque with one’s appearance but also their behavior. Sherwood Anderson in his book Winesburg Ohio mentions that “the grotesques were not all horrible. Some were amusing, some almost beautiful”. Anderson lets the reader know that a grotesque is not so just because of their physical appearance but, “was the truths that made the people grotesque.” People in Andersons book “took one of these truths to himself, called it his truth, and tried to live his life by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood.” (Anderson 8). Elizabeth Willard by this definition is the “worst” grotesque in this book. She has been transformed by her beliefs into a sad, ugly & dangerous grotesque. Her appearance, beliefs, and actions are all contributing factors to her

Alienation is a product of society’s inherently discriminatory bias, catalyzed by our fear of the unknown in the realm of interpersonal conduct. Mary Shelley, in her novel, Frankenstein, dissects society’s unmerited demonization of individuals who defy—voluntarily or involuntarily—conventional norms. Furthermore, through her detailed parallel development of Frankenstein and his monster, Shelley personifies the tendency to alienate on the basis of physical deformity, thereby illustrating the role of the visual in the obfuscation of morality.

In analyzing the freigthning or sinister parts of four artistic works introducing us to darkness there we many things to point out, as there obviously is limitation to analyzing within a research of a text,

I exclaimed in agony ‘Accursed creature! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even YOU turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image, but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance” “Unfeeling, heartless creator! You endowed me with perceptions and passions and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind.” 133

The topic of appearance and judgment is greatly exemplified in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as it becomes apparent that

The reading claims that nudes throughout artistic history have been an important source of beauty and controversy. Nudes began to spike during the Baroque period as they were used for the more expressive and emotional arts of the time. In the nineteenth century, nudes became more common, yet became more sensitive. Artists would train by drawing nudes of ancient Greek statues and figures from myth. However, many artists would then move on to create works depicting prostitutes or peasant naked women. This would not please patrons as they were extremely societally taboo. However, this did not start artists from making them, as they moved into the twentieth and twenty-first century. This shows the importance of artistic nudes and their impact

During Thanksgiving, the dining table is always set up very nicely, with matching plates, silverware, and even elegant decorations like beautiful flowers in colorful vases. Most of the time, these wonderful setups are inspired by something - weather it be a past Thanksgiving meal, or the very sophisticated “model dinner table” that is displayed so artfully in a cooking magazine. Either way, the setup of the dinner table strives to replicate and relive a certain image, just like how the ideals of the Renaissance mimicked those of the Ancient Greek and Roman times. Architecture, sculptures, and even paintings from the Renaissance certainly mimic the Ancient Greek’s appreciation of the human body, and even the characteristics of humanism and individualism that were rediscovered in the Renaissance.

For the context of this paper, a monster is “something extraordinary or unnatural, any imaginary creature that is large, ugly, and frightening” (OED). A faun is described as,“one of a class of rural deities; at first represented like men with horns and the tail of a goat, afterwards with goats' legs like the Satyrs, to whom they were assimilated in lustful character” (OED). Another important term is a labyrinth. A labyrinth is defined as “ a structure formed by paths bordered by high hedges, typically as a feature in a garden” (OED).

Greek Mythology has influenced many “monsters” we reference in various works of current literature. Anywhere from 3 headed dogs to women with snakes for locks of hair, all of these deformed common things originated from Mythology. Not only do we still reference the monsters themselves in all forms of art today but also we implement the qualities the monsters posses unto characters in our stories.

I was drawn to this time period as well as these two sculptures. As I researched both sculptures I was fascinated by how much respect the people of that time had for their women. Not only for what they could do for them, but also for what they looked like. They didn’t see the weight and size as a grotesque thing; but more as a thing of beauty. In

What is a grotesque character? In literature, a character or location that is irregular, extravagant or fantastic in form. When used as a device, the purpose is often in the style of expressionism, making the grotesque a parody of human qualities or a distorted reflection of a familiar place. In many ways grotesque characters have some kind of problem in society, and example would be a veteran who lost a limb in war and trying to fit back into society, or anything that we see as not normal in our society. Characters in this particular subject can be deformed, obsessed, or in our terms just not normal or right. Another definition of a grotesque

As a brief introduction to Gothic, the label ‘Gothic’ was coined in Italy. It was during Renaissance, “as a derogatory reference to the art and architecture of these earlier centuries” (Introduction: