grotesque, n. and a.
(grəʊˈtɛsk)
Forms: α. 6 crotes(c)que, 7 crotesco, -ko. β. 7–8 grot(t)esc, -k(e, -q, grot(t)esco, -ko, 7– grotesque
[Orig. a. early mod.F. crotesque n. fem., an adaptation (by assimilation to OF. crote = It. grotta) of It. grottesca ‘a kinde of rugged vnpolished painters worke, anticke worke’ (Florio 1598), ‘anticke or landskip worke of Painters’ (Florio 1611), an elliptical use (= opera or pittura grottesca) of the fem. of grottesco adj. f. grotta: see grotto and -esque. (Cf. Sp., Pg. grutesco, an alteration of the It. word after Sp. Pg. gruta = It. grotta.) It is remarkable that Florio in both his Dicts. (1598 and 1611) has crotesca as an It. word, explained as ‘antique, fretted, or carued worke’; this, if genuine, would seem to be a readoption from Fr. Before the end of the 16th c. the Fr. word was occasionally spelt grotesque, after the original It; this form was adopted into Eng. about 1640, and has been the prevailing form ever since. But early in the 17th c. writers acquainted with It. had introduced the masc. form of the adj., crotesco, which occurs as late as 1646; the more usual It. form grotesco appears as Eng. first in the 1632 edition of Florio's transl. of Montaigne, and did not become obsolete until the 18th c.
The etymological sense of grottesca would be ‘painting appropriate to grottos’. The special sense is commonly explained by the statement that grotte, ‘grottoes’, was the popular name in Rome for the chambers of ancient buildings which had been revealed by excavations, and which contained those mural paintings that were the typical examples of ‘grotesque’. (See Voc. della Crusca, s.v. Grotta, §iv.) Although this seems to be only a late conjecture, without any actual evidence, it appears to be intrinsically plausible.]
A. n.
1. a. A kind of decorative painting or sculpture, consisting of representations of portions of human and animal forms, fantastically combined and interwoven with foliage and flowers.
| 1561 Inv. R. Wardrobe (1815) 130 Item, twa paintit broddis the ane of the muses and the uther of crotescque or conceptis. [1624 Wotton Archit. ii. 97 Whether Grotesca (as the Italians) or Antique worke (as wee call it) should be receiued.] 1636 B. Jonson Discov., De progres. picturæ Wks. (1640) 113 He complaines of their painting Chimæras, by the vulgar unaptly called Grottesque. 1645 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 143 The foliage and grotesque about some of the compartments are admirable. 1658 W. Sanderson Graphice 25, I would confine Grotesco only to Borders and Freezes. 1686 W. Aglionby Painting Illustr. Explan. Terms, Grotesk, is properly the Painting that is found under Ground in the Ruines of Rome. 1715 Leoni Palladio's Archit. (1742) I. 59 The Chambers..are all..painted in grotesque of a very fine Invention. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) I. 260 Don Julio Clovio, the celebrated limner, whose neatness and taste in grotesque were exquisite. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. Gloss. 586 Grotesque, the light, gay, and beautiful style of ornament, practised by the antient Romans in the decoration of their palaces, baths, villas, etc. |
| attrib. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) III. 6 'Tis the perfection of certain grotesque-painters, to keep as far from nature as possible. a 1744 Pope Hor. Sat. ii. vi. 192 Grotesco roofs, and Stucco floors. |
b. A work of art in this style. Chiefly
pl., figures or designs in grotesque; in popular language, figures or designs characterized by comic distortion or exaggeration. The Italian form
grottesco (
pl. grotteschi) is sometimes used.
| 1643 Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. i. §15 There are no Grotesques in nature. 1691 tr. Emillianne's Frauds Romish Monks 333 They expose to public view in the Streets..many infamous naked Pictures, and Grotesques, to cause laughter. 1746 W. Horsley Fool (1748) I. 141 The reigning Taste of the Age for Oddities, Monsters, Grotesques, Caricatura's, &c. 1756 Burke Subl. & B. ii. v, All the designs I have chanced to meet of the temptations of St. Anthony were rather a sort of odd, wild grotesques, than any thing capable of producing a serious passion. 1819 Byron Juan i. xlvi, This [missal] all Kinds of grotesques illumined. 1856 Ruskin Mod. Paint. III. iv. viii. §4 A fine grotesque is the expression, in a moment, by a series of symbols thrown together in bold and fearless connection, of truths which it would have taken a long time to express in any verbal way [etc.]. 1865 Lond. Rev. 23 Dec. 668/1 The ornamentalists of that period..revelled in their grotesques. 1893 Leland Mem. II. 248 Adorned with fifteenth century grotesques. 1926 A. Huxley Essays New & Old 180 Very pretty little grotteschi in the Pompeian manner. 1934 Burlington Mag. Apr. 199/1 A certain type of symmetrical grotteschi design. 1958 ‘M. Innes’ Long Farewell 11, I like grotteschi on my walls. All these little nudes like amorous shrimps. |
c. fig.| 1644–7 Cleveland Char. Lond. Diurn. 28 A strange Grottesco this, the Church and States. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 202 ¶2 This indeed is Ambition in Grotesque. 1889 Spectator 21 Dec., To Browning, life is a medley of grotesques, with a glowing horizon beyond it. |
2. A clown, buffoon, or merry-andrew. [So in
mod.Fr. (as
masc. n.).]
Cf. antic.
| 1864 Sala in Daily Tel. 18 Nov., The great grotesque himself will be in the grave. 1871 Morley Voltaire iii. (1872) 120 Some men of true genius seem only to make sure of fame by straining themselves into grotesques. |
3. Printing. A square-cut letter without ceriph, THUS; formerly called
stone-letter.
| 1875 Southward Dict. Typogr., Grotesque, the name of a peculiar fancy jobbing type. |
B. adj. 1. Arch. Having the character of the work described in A. 1. (In some of the early instances the word may be the
n. used
attrib.)
| 1603 Florio Montaigne i. xxvii. 89 Antike Boscage or Crotesko [so also ed. 1613; ed. 1632 has Grotesko] works, which are fantastical pictures, having no grace, but in the variety and strangenes of them. 1610 W. Folkingham Art of Survey ii. vi. 58 Compartiments are Blankes or Figures bordered with Anticke Boscage or Crotesko-woorke. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xxiv. 170 As for Sea-horses..they are but Crotesco deliniations. 1664 Evelyn tr. Freart's Parall. Archit. 128 There are also Voluta's in the Corinthian and Compounded Capitels, but they consist rather of certain large Stalkes after a more Grotesco designe. a 1668 Davenant Masque Wks. (1673) 360 And in the midst was placed a large compartiment composed of Groteske work. 1687 Burnet Trav. ii. (1750) 100 They have built great Vaults and Porticos along the Rock, which are all made Grotesque. 1695 Dryden Paral. Poet. & Paint. 26 Grotesque painting is the just resemblance of this. 1841–4 Emerson Ess., Manners Wks. (Bohn) I. 215 Let there be grotesque sculpture about the gates and offices of temples. |
2. a. In a wider sense, of designs or forms: Characterized by distortion or unnatural combinations; fantastically extravagant; bizarre,
† quaint. Also
transf. of immaterial things,
esp. of literary style.
| 1653 J. Hall Paradoxes 45 They..ought to bee accounted one of those Grotesco Maximes..that doe so disfigure and misguide the life of man. 1687 Dryden Hind & P. iii. 1044 An hideous figure of their foes they drew, Nor lines, nor looks, nor shades, nor colours true; And this grotesque design expos'd to public view. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 118 ¶6 You have employed your self more in Grotesque Figures, than in Beauties. 1718 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Lady Rich 10 Oct., These grotesque daubers give me a still higher esteem of..natural charms. 1728 Morgan Algiers I. Pref. 25 Matters of so peregrine and grotesk a Nature as this [History]. 1762–5 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (ed. 2) I. 118 Those Grotesque monsters..with which the spouts..of ancient buildings are decorated. 1820 Hazlitt Lect. Dram. Lit. 36 Our literature..is Gothic and grotesque. |
| absol. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas xi. v. (Rtldg.) 404 He preferred the stately, or rather the grotesque in writing. 1851 Ruskin Stones Ven. (1874) I. App. 367 The Northern love of what is called the Grotesque. 1888 Pall Mall G. 4 Apr. 11/1 The grotesque is a branch of the fantastic. |
† b. Of landscape: Romantic, picturesquely irregular.
Obs.| 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 136 A steep wilderness, whose hairie sides With thicket overgrown, grottesque and wilde, Access deni'd. c 1764 R. Dodsley Leasowes, in Shenstone's Wks. II. (1777) 296 The more pleasing parts of this grotesque and hilly country. |
3. Ludicrous from incongruity; fantastically absurd.
| 1747 Gentl. Mag. 374 A woman with her head peeping out of a sack, could hardly..make a more Grotesque figure. 1829 Lytton Devereux ii. v. 46 O'Carroll gave a grotesque sort of signal between a wink and a beckon. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop iii, But what added most to the grotesque expression of his face, was a ghastly smile. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 163 These peculiarities appeared far more grotesque in a faction which ruled a great empire. 1863 F. A. Kemble Resid. in Georgia 58 You can conceive nothing more grotesque than the Sunday trim of the poor people. 1866 G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. ix. (1878) 154 The most grotesque machine I ever saw that did something. 1870 R. W. Dale Week-day Serm. xii. 246 The grotesque doctrine that it is good for trade. |
4. Comb., as
grotesque-minded adj.| 1822 Moore Mem. (1853) III. 347 Found there Beresford..a grotesque-minded person, very amusing. |
Hence
groˈtesque v. trans., to give a grotesque form or appearance to; to caricature, travesty.
| 1875 Browning Aristoph. Apol. 432 After obscenity grotesqued so much It slunk away, revolted at itself. 1891 Sat. Rev. 19 Dec. 707/2 This is to grotesque Dante, not to translate him. |