Grotesque
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Grotesque (disambiguation).
Renaissance grotesque motifs in assorted formats.
The word grotesque comes from the same Latin root as "grotto", which originated from Greek krypte "hidden place",[1] meaning a small cave or hollow. The original meaning was restricted to an extravagant style of Ancient Roman decorative art rediscovered and then copied in Rome at the end of the 15th century. The "caves" were in fact rooms and corridors of the Domus Aurea, the unfinished palace complex started by Nero after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, which had become overgrown and buried, until they were broken into again, mostly from above. Spreading from Italian to the other European languages, the term was long used largely interchangeably with arabesque and moresque for types of decorative patterns using curving foliage elements.
Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, fantastic, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus is often used to describe weird shapes and distorted forms such as Halloween masks. In art, performance, and literature, grotesque, however, may also refer to something that simultaneously invokes in an audience a feeling of uncomfortable bizarreness as well as empathic pity. More specifically, the grotesque forms on Gothic buildings, when not used as drain-spouts, should not be called gargoyles, but rather referred to simply as grotesques, or chimeras.[2]
Rémi Astruc has argued that although there is an immense variety of motifs and figures, the three main tropes of the grotesque are doubleness, hybridity and metamorphosis.[3] Beyond the current understanding of the grotesque as an aesthetic category, he demonstrated how the grotesque functions as a fundamental existential experience. Moreover, Astruc identifies the grotesque as a crucial, and potentially universal, anthropological device that societies have used to conceptualize alterity and change.[not verified in body]
"this insatiable desire of man sometimes prefers to an ordinary building, with its pillars and doors, one falsely constructed in grotesque style, with pillars formed of children growing out of stalks of flowers, with architraves and cornices of branches of myrtle and doorways of reeds and other things, all seeming impossible and contrary to reason, yet yet it may be really great work if it is performed by a skillful artist."[5]
In architecture the term "grotesque" means a carved stone figure.
Grotesques are often confused with gargoyles, but the distinction is that gargoyles are figures that contain a water spout through the mouth, while grotesques do not. This type of sculpture is also called a chimera. Used correctly, the term gargoyle refers to mostly eerie figures carved specifically as terminations to spouts which convey water away from the sides of buildings. In the Middle Ages, the term babewyn was used to refer to both gargoyles and grotesques.
Grotesques and Other Monsters
"Grotesques are the diverse beasts, hybrid creatures and fantasy scenes involving animals and humans found in various forms of Gothic art. The ultimate source of much of this imagery is in Roman art, some themes came from the combat scenes between men and beast used in the sculpture and decorative initials of the Romanesque period. The late thirteenth and the fourteenth century saw an unprecedented elaboration of this type of fantasy subject, in the borders of manuscripts, and in decorative sculpture and woodwork – especially misericords", small ledge-like projections on the other side of choir stall seats to give support when long standing was required. (T&H 110) Grotesques also frequently appeared on roof bosses, carved projections of stone or wood placed at the intersections of ribs in vaults. After the erection of the Canterbury Cathedral in the thirteenth century they became a usual architectural device. (T&H 207)
In difference to gargoyles, grotesques serve no architectural but purely ornamental functions. Sometimes – and with the very same meaning – also called chimera, their other functions may be similar to those of the gargoyles (see above). The placing of grotesques, obviously secular and even occasionally erotic, in a religious context, is a mixture very characteristic of the later Middle Ages. The popularity of grotesques declined after ca. 1350, though they still occur in the fifteenth century, particularly in sculpture and woodcarving. At that time they were usually called babewyneries (T&H) or babewyns (Benton) (from Italian babunio ‘baboon’), because predominant in many animal scenes were monkeys and apes. (T&H 110; Benton 10) For the symbolism of grotesques, see chapter Gargoyles.
Religious Opposition to Grotesque Statuary
Gargoyles and grotesques were very expensive compared to their lack of functional use in religious ceremony. They caused arguments because most of them are too far away to see them properly, but were carved with high concern about details. And if they could be seen properly, they also were reasons for criticism, as for example voiced by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) of the Cistercian order:
"What are these fantastic monsters doing in the cloisters under the very eyes of the brothers as they read? What is the meaning of these unclean monkeys, strange savage lions and monsters? To what purpose are here placed these creatures, half beast, half man? I see several bodies with one head and several heads with one body. Here is a quadriped with a serpent’s head, there a fish with a quadruped’s head, then again an animal half horse, half goat … Surely if we do not blush for such absurdities we should at least regret what we have spent on them."
(Online 1)
Clairvaux thought the monks to be distracted by gargoyles. But critics like Clairvaux were in the minority. Most of the clergy was convinced of the use or at least "beauty" of gargoyles and grotesques.
It seems, that in Gothic grotesque sculpture most depictions were connected with the temptations, and with sins and sinners. After all, a warning can be interpreted into almost all gargoyles and grotesques. But for all this, one should never forget that with gargoyles everything is possible: they could also be simple devices for drainage, allowing the sculptors to have a little fun, to caricature their contemporaries. Sometimes it even seems as if there was a competition to create the most implausible gargoyle. Today this, or a competition with a similar aim, is more certainly the case. (Benton 122) So the popularity of gargoyles never really declined. Did they in medieval times maybe frighten the people, today they amuse them.
The most beautiful is the Vieille Bourse, the old stock exchange. It was built by Julien Destrée in 1653 whose commission was to build an exchange to ‘rival that of any great city’. It was also a commission motivated greatly by the persistent ill-health of the Lillois bankers and merchants. Trading had always taken place in the unprotected open air at the Fontaine-au-Change on the Place du Vieux-Marché in all types of weather. As a result the bankers endured regular bouts of flu and colds. By 1651 they had had enough and took their wheezy deputation to the Magistrate. The Magistrate, in sympathy with their cause, put in an application to Philip IV, King of Spain and the Count of Flanders, for a more suitable stock exchange. The result is a quandrangle of 24 privately purchased, ornately decorated yet identical houses surrounding an interior rectangular courtyard where trading could take place. Access into the courtyard is through any one of the four arches located at each of the four sides.
Grand Place home to Vieille Bourse
There are three levels to the houses. The ground floor was reserved for and tenanted by stylish shops chosen for their ability to complement the overall beauty of the decor. The wealth of Flemish Renaissance style decoration includes cute chubby cherubs, garlands and marks that frame the windows.
The four entrances are marked with cornucopias, symbolic of wealth and happiness; Turkish turbanned heads tell of their Eastern markets and the Lions of Flanders signify that Lille once belonged to the Netherlands. Under the arcades there are medallions and tablets in honour of great men of science.
Unfortunately with the passage of time, the Bourse became dilapidated and had to undergo serious restoration. The task was undertaken by two dozen big enterprises including Auchan, La Redoute and Le Crédit du Nord. This was the biggest restoration project of private sponsorship ever known in France. Below the windows on the second floor are the colourful emblems of these sponsors.
1853 : Visite de Napoléon III à la Bourse
Le 23 septembre 1853, la chambre de commerce de Lille inaugure la pose de la première pierre d’une statue de Napoléon 1er dans l’immeuble qui sera appelé plus tard "Vielle Bourse" et organise une réception en la présence de Napoléon III. C’est le début d’un chantier de rénovation des portes et de la galerie qui est confié à Charles Benvignat, architecte de la ville. Frédéric Kuhlmann, président de la chambre de commerce de Lille, y fait un discours remarqué sur l’essor de l’industrie nationale. La Bourse de Lille accueille alors un groupe de mines de charbon en forte expansion.
Un panorama historique des figures de l’industrialisation en France et à Lille est inclus dans le discours3 de Frédéric Kuhlmann lors de cet événement, correspondant aux tableaux en l’honneur des savants et inventeurs qui ont rendu les services les plus éminents4, apposés l’année suivante sur les murs de la cour intérieure de la Vielle Bourse. Y est fait référence au décret de Bois-le-Duc du 12 mai 1810 « qui accorde un prix d’un million de francs à l’inventeur de la meilleure machine propre à filer le lin » (Philippe de Girard), encourageant la création d’usines de filature mécanique du lin, et les décrets des 25 mars 1811 et 15 janvier 1812, promouvant la fabrication de sucre de betterave (Louis-François-Xavier Crespel-Delisse). « En encouragent par des récompenses nationales la création en France de la filature mécanique du lin et de la fabrication du sucre de betterave, comme il l’avait fait pour la filature de coton et le tissage, Napoléon avait pressenti toute l’influence que les industries nouvelles pouvaient exercer (…) Napoléon Ier pouvait-il espérer qu’en moins d’un demi-siècle, la filature mécanique de lin compterait 60 établissements dans la seule ville de Lille; qu’un seul département, faisant mouvoir 250 000 broches, occuperait à ce travail 12 000 ouvriers ? (…) Nos chemins de fer, nos canaux, nos ports, tous ces auxiliaires de l’activité humaine ont attiré simultanément votre attention. (…) Il n’est pas d’homme aux idées plus abstraites qu’Ampère, et certes on ne saurait, au premier aperçu, à quel titre il prendrait place dans ce Panthéon de l’industrie, et cependant ses travaux ont donné ouverture à la télégraphie électrique (et aux) applications industrielles de l’électricité. (…) Déjà ne voyez-vous pas la chaîne du métier à la Jacquard s’animer sous le courant électrique, sans le secours des cartons dus à l’invention de l’immortel artisan ? Demain, oui demain, ce ne sera plus la pensée seulement qui se transmettra instantanément à des distances infinies, c’est Liszt qui, de son cabinet, fera entendre les prodiges de ses notes sonores sur le théâtre de Londres ou de Saint-Pétersbourg. (…) glorification vivante des génies qui ont concouru à l’édification de notre prospérité agricole et manufacturière (…) Il y verra Leblanc affranchir le pays d’un lourd tribut payé à l’étranger (…) ». Parmi une quinzaine de savants et inventeurs français cités par Frédéric Kuhlmann, sont mis en exergue Philippe de Girard, inventeur de la machine à filer le lin, réintroduite à Lille par Antoine Scrive-Labbe, Jacquard pour le tissage, Oberkampf, François Richard-Lenoir et Liévin Bauwens pour l’industrie du coton, et en chimie Berthollet, Leblanc, Achard, Vauquelin, Brongniart, Conté, Chaptal, Gay-Lussac, et aussi Arago, Ampère et Monge.
Est annexée au document support du discours de Kuhlmann et remis à Napoléon III une liste de patrons lillois et leurs domaines d’activités industrielles en 1853, particulièrement dans les domaines de la construction de machines et mécanique, du tissage et filature mécanique du lin et du coton, la teinturerie, apprêts, rouissage, la fabrication de produits chimiques, noir animal et colorants, soude artificielle, savonnerie, l’agroalimentaire avec la raffinerie du sucre et la fabrication de chicorée. Le débat sur le protectionnisme et le libre échange est déjà en gestation dans les discours de 1853, prélude au Traité Cobden-Chevalier de libre échange franco-anglais applicable de 1860 à 1892 et qui accroît la concurrence, nécessitant des ingénieurs pour mettre en œuvre les meilleures pratiques industrielles.
À la fin de ce discours, Napoléon III délègue au sénateur Jean-Baptiste Dumas, ancien ministre et cofondateur de l’École centrale des arts et manufactures, le soin de venir à Lille le 9 octobre 1853 pour des échanges avec Frédéric Kuhlmann sur l’établissement d’une école supérieure industrielle, qui est aujourd’hui devenue l’École centrale de Lille.
La statue de l’Empereur Napoléon, protecteur de l’industrie, dont la première pierre a été posée en 1853, a été transférée au Palais des beaux-arts de Lille en 1976.
Posted by bernawy hugues kossi huo on 2013-12-20 17:07:14
Tagged: , grotesques , visual , minster , babbuino , baboon , hidden , place , strange , fantastic , ugly , incongruous , unpleasant , distorded , pillars , carved , stone , figure , skillful , artist , monster , hybrid , creature , fantasy , animals , human , imagery , romanesque , ornemental , function , chimera , lille , france , charles , de , gaulle
