What is grotesque? This term refers to a certain type of artistic imagery, based on a combination of fiction and reality, ugly and beautiful, tragic and comic. The main factor that determines what is grotesque is the contrast of these images. This method can be seen in both ancient and modern art, whether it be music, literature, architecture.
What is grotesque and where did this term come from? The name itself is taken from the painting. This name was painted on the walls, which was found in the so-called "grottoes". During the excavations of Rome in the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries, on the site where the baths of the Roman emperor Titus used to be, the famous Italian master Rafael and his students found an interesting painting, which they later called the term “grotesque”.
This term later spread to music, architecture, and literature. What is grotesque by definition? This is a type of imagery based on meaningful contrasting images (fantastic and real, comic and tragic, beautiful and terrible). Such images cannot be interpreted literally.
It was Rafael and his students who began to use this type of artistic imagery for decorating the lodges in the Vatican, for painting ceilings, palaces and walls. However, let us clarify what is grotesque in the understanding of the ancients, and was it even before the emergence of this term? In mythology, such aesthetics are often found. For example, antique motifs of sirens or harpies. We can say with absolute certainty that the authors of such myths and works did not set themselves the task of impressing readers or listeners with grotesque images.
What is grotesque as a technique in literature? This is some way of combining and composing the terrible and the ridiculous, the sublime and the disgusting, the nightmare and the beautiful. This is one method of combining incongruous. Its main difference from irony, humor and sarcasm is that in grotesque literature, funny and funny are inseparable from the terrible and sinister. This style is saturated with hyperbolas and illogisms, sometimes with elements of the absurd. It is hyperbolas as stylistic figures of intentional exaggeration that are an integral part of this artistic style.
What is grotesque in the issue of its meaningfulness? Very often, such images are quite tragic and dramatic. Behind the pronounced outward fantasticness and implausibility, one can find the deepest artistic generalizations and studies of the most important life phenomena and realities. For example, such moments are very vividly traced in Gogol’s novel “The Nose”, in such a work as “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober” by Hoffmann.
What is grotesque in music? In earlier times, this technique was often used during the production of operettas or operas as an element of theatrical performance. To some extent, some works of avant-garde artists can be called grotesque. In modern music, it can be seen as a performance.
Speaking of the grotesque, it is necessary to mention the architecture. For example, images of chimeras or gargoyles are a good example of grotesque art.