What Do These Scary Grotesque Statues Actually Mean?

“Grotesque”; we can see it in art, literature, architecture and even some fonts. This is “weird” art genre Generally; It is characterized by interesting forms that showcase a combination of half-human, half-monster creations, zoomorphic figures and mythological creatures.

in movies from gothic architectures Let’s take a look at the interesting story of the emergence of the grotesque that you may be familiar with, what it means and where we saw it.

It is distracted from reality by exaggerating the extraordinary aspects of beings.

When we look at the past histories, we can see that human and human in Roman art. animal figures We come across unusual and strange shapes made by mixing them together. This ornamental art, which was frequently used in the castles of the period, exaggerates the extraordinary aspects of the assets and distracts them from reality.

Fantastic, creepy, ugly, secret, hidden…

When we look at the origin of the word “grotesque”, which comes from French, in different languages, resembling each other we can find many meanings. For example:

• French: fantastic, creepy, so ugly
• Italian: cavernous, underground passage, cave
• Latin: corridor, cellar
• Ancient Greek: confidential

From the ruins of the house of the Roman emperor, a new style was born.

In the 1480s, when the ruins of the Domus Aurea (Golden House) of the Ancient Roman Emperor Nero were discovered, artists including Raphael descended by ropes underground, where they encountered extraordinary paintings. Here grotesque art emerged with the imitations of these paintings. So grotesque actually underground art meant.

Raphael made this underground art famous in the Vatican palace built by the Pope. Many of the masters of the period, such as Raphael’s master Perugino and Michelangelo’s master Ghirlandaio, copied the underground designs into private properties and to the exterior of buildings they started to implement.

Contemporary meanings of “grotesque” such as “terrible, unpleasant” began to emerge in the 18th century.

In the 18th century, the term grotesque took on a much broader meaning, and particularly the grotesque. by overemphasizing associated. In these periods, strangeness and disorder; was seen as abnormal and contrary to the order of nature. Thus the term grotesque; It came to be used as a general adjective for indecent, unpleasant, disgusting, terrible, and miserable.

The grotesque in modern art was heightened by the real-life horrors of World War I.

The most grotesque images in 20th century art actually appear in works we’ve all seen. For example; Picasso’s bullfights, Dali’s self-eating creaturesfeatures Hans Bellmer’s dismembered dolls and Francis Bacon’s tragic anatomies.

In performance and literature, the grotesque refers to things that simultaneously unleash discomfort and pity in the audience.

When we look at it in detail, we can see the grotesque, in black comedy and absurd theater can also be displayed with characters. In literature, we can give the Odyssey Epic as an example, with strange and frightening characters.

Also includes “Gollum” in the Lord of the Rings series, “Joker” in the Batman movie, and characters from Alice in Wonderland. to grotesque characters Some of the most well-known examples we can give.

For your better understanding, we sculpted an evil city in Midjourney in a grotesque style and this is how it changed: