De’ Visi Mostruosi and Caricatures

De’ visi mostruosi non parlo, perché senza fatica si tengono a mente (I do not speak of monstrous faces, because they are easily remembered without effort): so we read in Leonardo da Vinci’s notes in the Codex Atlanticus and in the Treatise on Painting. And indeed, the many “caricatured heads” or “grotesques”—distorted faces, exaggerated or caricatured figures created by the great artists active in Northern Italy between the 16th and 18th centuries—are certain to remain impressed in the minds of visitors to the extraordinary exhibition promoted in Venice by the Fondazione Giancarlo Ligabue.

The new and ambitious project by the institution led by Inti Ligabue — held in Venice at Palazzo Loredan, home of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, from January 28 to April 27, 2023 — draws us into a world that is as unsettling as it is fascinating, existing alongside notions of beauty, the sublime, and the ideal that have traditionally been the privileged focus of painting.