Table of Contents

Preface • Origins: The Roman Period • The Classical Conception of Art • Precursors to the Grotesque • The Domus Aurea • Spread of the Grotesque: Evolution and Variation • The ‘Fantastic’ in the Middle Ages • Medieval Grotesques: Monsters in Art • Classicizing Features • Miniatures: Themes and Decorations • The Discovery of the Domus Aurea • The Fascination of ‘Grottoes’ • Between Rome and Florence: The Spread of Grotesques Iconography and Iconology of Grotesques • Contaminations: Hieroglyphs and Heraldic Emblems • Spread of Grotesques in Italy • Raphael and his School: Rise and Spread of Grotesques in the Early 16th Century • Raphael’s Promotion of the Genre: The Renaissance of Grotesques • Propagation and Interpretation of a Model: Raphael’s Pupils and Grotesques • Legacies and Developments in Italy • The New Canons. Styles, Themes and Iconographies • Critical Reflection • Decorative Programmes • Specialization of Artists Applications in the Minor Arts • Prints and Engravings • Reception in Europe • The 17th Century: Dialectic Between Efflorescence and Classicism • Tradition, Innovation, Variation on the Theme • The Inventions and Innovations of Jan Bérain • The 18th century and the Rococo: Singeries, Arabesques and Chinoiseries • The Naturalist Dimension: Arabesques TheLudicDimension:Singeries• TheExoticDimension:Chinoiseries•TheMagical Dimension: Porcelain • The Mirror of a World • Neoclassicism: The Ancients and Raphael Ancient Forms and New Thoughts • Diversification and Dilution of Grotesques • The Revival in the 19th Century

Promotional Information

Reveals the key periods and influences that shaped grotesque ornament, from its origins in Roman art to Art Nouveau in the late 19th century

About the Author

Alessandra Zamperini completed her doctorate at the University of Verona. She has written widely on Italian art history from the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. Zamperini is the author of Ornament and the Grotesque: Fantastical Decoration from Antiquity to Art Nouveau, also published by Thames & Hudson.

Reviews

'Quite beautiful … a valuable contribution to the subject' - The Art Newspaper

'A lucid, eloquent and interesting survey … a book that both teaches and delights, inviting us to consider seriously imagery that has conventionally been overlooked as ‘mere’ decoration' - The Art Book