Open Culture: The caricature was once a highly-regarded art form, before it was cornered on the upper end by the New York Review of Books and on the more pedestrian side by boardwalk and street fair artists. During the European Renaissance and the ensuing centuries of artistic development, nearly every artist had a caricature side project—if only in the margins of their sketchbooks—and some, like Leonardo da Vinci, were widely known and appreciated for their skill in the art.
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I’ve never seen these drawings by da Vinci before! These “Gargoyles” are so interesting, and it’s also interesting how they aren’t really pushed towards the general public despite being impeccable. Leonardo da Vinci was so well known for his love of beauty and the natural human form, and even though these caricatures don’t seem beautiful, they really do appreciate natural human-ness. In order to appreciate beauty, you have to be able to accept and appreciate the imperfect as well. I think these caricatures are not really associated with da Vinci because of the elegant and intellectual image that’s been made of him in today’s society, but it’s really cool that they were appreciated at some point in time! I think these drawings are full of so much expression and movement, and there’s an energy in them that just isn’t present in the Mona Lisa or his other, more famous works.
I love this look into an unusual part of Leonardo da Vinci's work! I think that this idea of an artist's "side project" is really interesting because is it not so true? We all doodle when we need a break from our "real" artwork, and I think it is so fascinating to look at those "doodles" from someone as brilliant and well-known as da Vinci. I have always associated the word "caricature" with the drawings you get done of you and your friends on a trip to Disneyland, but these drawings of da Vinci's are quite the opposite. These are in-depth looks of the human figure, and particularly the face, and the emotions that they hold. These expression-filled works of art really make me think about what it means to look like a human, and I wish that there were more studies done on this side of Leonardo da Vinci's work.
As someone who habitually doodles, it is interesting and gratifying to see the doodles of Da Vinci, one of the greatest artists in our history. It goes to show that visual creativity is refined not through intense focus on one area, but a habitual and constant exploration of ideas through drawing and other forms of visual expression. I hope to refine my own art and design through a similar practice, and I'm sure many of my past instructors can attest to my incessant doodling on notes, assignments, hall passes, or anything honestly. A lot of my best work has started out as a doodle, so the importance of this practice cannot be understated. Da Vinci's work showcased in this article is interesting as it shows a different approach than is found in his most famous works, but still contains links to his larger pieces. This connectivity portrays the work of an artist as a comprehensive body, rather than several individual great works.
I love that he used his doodles as a place to let creativity flow freely and play with how he sees people especially at a time when art was still extremely realistic, rather than impressionistic. I also like these drawings because of his attention to detail and renderings look as though they could pop off the page. The idea that “he found odd-looking people of all kinds fascinating” reminds me of the humans of New York blog. Often the people aren’t beautiful in a conventional sense, but have or interesting features which make them unique looking. I like that philosophy as an artist. These drawings indicate that he sees the world in a completely different way. To me the drawings almost portray people in the way a child would see adults: as big grotesque figures.
I can't help but agree with the closing sentiments of this article, "Though the caricatures may not go as far as the horrifying hodgepodge in this description, they do portray human beings with rather less classical equanimity than the serene Mona Lisa or the very composed Christ. But due to the Leonardo's skill and seemingly irrepressible love for the human form—even if he had a jaundiced view of human nature—the caricatures continue to be inspiring pieces of work." These caricatures made me smile-they might not be composed or serene, but they have a life and vitality to them that is enticing and make you look twice to see what the artist is saying. The fact that this style still remains is telling; often times caricatures are ways to reduce people down into basic categories, but it really serves well in terms of satire or even those drawings you get at fairs-we can be boiled down to a few exaggerated characteristics-while it doesn't encompass all of who we are, it can certainly capture often what others first perceive.
Leonardo da Vinci is an artist, scientist, and engineer I have looked up to since I was 9. I read a magazine focused entirely on his work and life and it drew me in and blew me away. His creations are ahead of his time and his art is brilliant. He even did scenic and mechanical work for theatre. I think these "gargoyles" are just as amazing. Like the article and Beck pointed out, even though they are meant to be exaggerations, they still have such an accurate human-ness to them. They are incredibly detailed and beautiful. The pure curiosity to explore the human form like this illustrates da Vinci's passion towards the work he did. These little doodles are little beautiful pieces of art on their own. Based on Vasari's description of da Vinci's character, perhaps that was his intention. Just because the piece is small and off to the side of the page, it does not mean it isn't a piece of art. I love getting to see this side of da Vinci's work, something we don't always see, and it continues to inspire me to work hard and practice to be able to create art that is just as beautiful as this.
The 'gargoyles' are almost more human than his other drawings because it is based on actual human beings with a little bit of exaggeration. Every human on the paintings in the old days and on the television these days look 'normal'. But the standard for normal is actually not what we see in real lives. People are not as tall, symmetrical, fit, photogenic or well dressed as the people on the television. It takes one more step to recognize and acknowledge that people in real life does not look like what we think they look like. And I believe that Leonardo da Vinci must have been aware of this and that's why he followed and observed real people with unique traits. Because that's what real humans look like. The gargoyles could be caricatures, but with the exaggerated traits, he must have studied the real human beings, collected data in his brain and used it in his other art works.
I have loved Leonardo da Vinci's art since I was a child and I was truly surprised that out of all his many talents I hadn't heard about his caricatures before this article. I suppose compared to his other contributions to the world of art and science they aren't as riveting but there is something still quite passionate about the way they have been drawn that shows their importance to the artist himself. They are incredibly evocative and beautifully rendered "grotesques" that speak to such character in a way that his more traditionally "beautiful" sketches do not. While his "beautiful" creations seem to explore ideals, spirit, and goals at the heart of humanity as a whole, these sketches seem to pare down his focus to the individual. They seek to explore what it is that a single person presents to world both physically and spiritually. Also, that bit about him stalking people just to draw them later does not surprise me at all when you consider the tenacity with which he approached the rest of his work.
I have always loved Leonardo Da Vinci's work, especially his doodles and 'Grotesques', as they're called. They have always spoken to me as someone who not only doodles but loves creating unusual stories, worlds, and characters, and remind me of something that may in the modern world be concept art for a film or a character design! I also love his caricature pieces because they remind us that even the most fine artist, one of the most respected and revered creators in history, drew cartoons!
Cartooning and caricature is so often overlooked and seen as a lesser art form, fit only for starving artists trying to make an extra buck or hired vendors at amusement parks. But here we see it taken at a another level, even respected for its art form rather than ridiculed, because they were done by someone famous instead of someone unknown. That juxtaposition in respect for the craft has always bugged me - if Da Vinci did it, and everyone thinks it's great, why does anyone else doing it make it cheap or 'not real art'?
I always find it really intriguing what other people fixate on when rendering humans, faces or bodies. All artists have a different style, and this peeks through their work almost always, even if they are rendering something realistically. Da Vinci had a very definite style, exaggerated in his somewhat disturbing caricatures. These little “doodles” say a lot about how Da Vinci saw the world, as all doodles do. I’m constantly doodling and drawing the things that I see in my mind, expressing the ideas that have been floating around in my mind recently. This proves that there was something in Da Vinci’s life that made him think of distorted human faces, ones that were so impactful that he would draw them over and over. Artists have similar brains in this way.
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