Home > Grotesque
When commonly used grotesque means strange, fantastic, ugly or bizarre and thus is often used to describe shapes and distorted forms such as Halloween masks or gargoyles on churches. More specifically, the grotesque forms on buildings which are not used as drainspouts should not be called gargoyles, but rather referred to simply as grotesques. See also: Sheela Na Gig, Hunky Punk, mask, mummers play, pumpkin
1 In art history
In art, grotesques are a decorative form of arabesques with interlaced garlands and strange animal figures which were fashionable in ancient Rome (as wall decoration, mosaics, etc.) and in Renaissance art as wall decoration, in marquetry (fine woodwork), in book illustration and in other decorative uses. It should not be confused with the decorative form of strapwork (the portrayal of leather straps in plaster or wood moldings).
2 In typography
Grotesque (generally with an upper-case G) is the style of the sans serif types of the 19th century. The name was coined by William Thorowgood, the first to produce a san serif type with lower case, in 1832. ( Capital-only faces of this style were available from 1816.) Examples of Grotesque designs are:
- Akzidenz Grotesk (1898)
- Franklin Gothic (1905), Morris Benton
- Univers (1957), Adrian FrutigerAdrian Frutiger (born 1928) is a Swiss typographer whose designs include: Meridien (1955) Egyptienne (1956) Univers (1957), a Grotesque or san serif type Serifa (1967) OCR-B (1968) Iridium (1975) Frutiger (designed 1975 for Charles de Gaulle Airport, issu
- HelveticaHelvetica is a typeface developed by Max Miedinger in 1957 for the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei type foundry of Switzerland. Its name is derived from Helvetia, the Roman name for Switzerland. The font is based on the earlier Akzidenz Grotesk typeface from a (1958), Max Miedinger , based on Akzidenz Grotesk
The later designs are sometimes classified as neo-grotesque (see: typefaceIn typography, a typeface is a co-ordinated set of character designs, which usually comprises an alphabet of letters, a set of numerals and a set of punctuation marks. There are also typefaces of Ideograms and symbols (e. mathematical or map making) In it).
3 Etymology
The word grotesque comes from the same LatinAlternative meanings: See Latin (disambiguation Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages are descended from Latin, and ma root as " grottoA Grotto is a small cave, usually near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide. Associated with spirits, mermaids, pirates, smugglers, treasure. The word comes from Italian grotta, Vulgar Latin grupta, Latin crypta, (a crypt). It is relate", meaning a small cave or hollow. The expression comes from the unearthing and rediscovery of ancient Roman decorations in caves and buried sites in the 15th cenutry.
Visual arts FolkloreFolklore is the ethnographic concept of the tales, legends, or superstitions current among a particular ethnic population, a part of the oral history of a particular culture. The academic study of folklore is known as folkloristics. The concept of folklor SociolinguisticsSociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used. It also studies how lects differ between groups separated by certain social variables, e. Stock characters
