Caricature
The word caricature comes from the Italian verb caricare, which means to charge or load. An early definition appears in the English doctor Thomas Browne's Christian Morals, published posthumously in 1716. A footnote in that text states the word essentially means a loaded portrait. In the eighteenth century, the term described any image using exaggerated or distorted features. This included comic portraits of specific people and general social illustrations like the satires of James Gillray. The title of the British Caricature Magazine from 1807 to 1819 exemplifies this broad usage. Modern usage reserves the word for a portrait of a recognizable individual. The more recent term cartoon gained popularity in the nineteenth century through Punch magazine. Today cartoon describes any other form of comic image including political satire.
Some of the earliest examples appear in the works of Leonardo da Vinci who actively sought people with deformities as models. He aimed to offer an impression of the original that was more striking than a standard portrait. Pier Leone Ghezzi popularized caricatura as an art form in eighteenth-century Italy among aristocratic circles. These portraits passed around for mutual enjoyment spread to Britain via visitors returning from the Grand Tour. England possessed much greater freedom of the press which allowed biting political satire. William Hogarth elevated satirical art into an accepted form between 1697 and 1764. James Gillray worked as a hired gun during the 1784 Westminster election alongside Thomas Rowlandson. Their skills remained in high demand during the turbulent period of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. London became a hotbed for modern forms of caricature due to liberal political traditions. Published from 1868 to 1914, the London weekly magazine Vanity Fair featured famous society figures.
Sir Max Beerbohm created single-figure caricatures in formalized groupings established by 1896. His published works include Caricatures of Twenty-five Gentlemen released in 1896 and The Poets' Corner in 1904. Honoré Daumier created over four thousand lithographs on political social and everyday themes. They appeared in daily French newspapers like Le Charivari and La Caricature. Al Hirschfeld produced simple black and white renditions using flowing contour lines over heavy rendering. He was commissioned by the United States Postal Service to provide art for stamps. Permanent collections appear at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Alex Gard drew more than seven hundred caricatures of show business celebrities for Sardi's Restaurant walls. These images now belong to the Billy Rose Theater Collection of The New York Public Library. David Levine contributed hundreds of pen-and-ink drawings to The New York Review of Books starting in 1963. Carlo Pellegrini worked under the pseudonym Ape as a leading artist for Vanity Fair between 1868 and 1914.
A milestone in formally defining caricature occurred in Susan Brennan's master thesis from 1982 at MIT Media Lab. Her system formalized caricature as exaggerating differences from an average face. If Charles III had more prominent ears than average, his caricature would feature much larger ears. The operator inputted a frontal drawing with standardized topology while obtaining a corresponding average male face. Then the particular face was caricatured by subtracting points on the mean face and scaling the difference. Mo refined this idea by noting population variance should be taken into account. Liang argued that caricature varies depending on the artist and cannot be captured in a single definition. Their system uses machine learning techniques to automatically learn styles given training data. Most systems remain restricted to exactly frontal poses whereas many manual works choose off-center three-quarters views. Computer graphic systems produce finer coloring textures but arguably lack the quality of human artists.
Most contemporary caricatures serve as gifts or souvenirs drawn quickly by street vendors. For a small fee a patron receives a specific humorous result often at street fairs or carnivals. Caricature artists appear as popular attractions at oceanfront boardwalks frequented by tourists. Vacationers can have a sketch completed in minutes for a modest payment. Artists sometimes get hired for parties where they draw guests for entertainment purposes. Museums dedicated to the art exist throughout the world including the Museo de la Caricatura in Mexico City. The Muzeum Karykatury operates in Warsaw while the Caricatura Museum Frankfurt serves Germany. The Wilhelm Busch Museum resides in Hanover and the Cartoonmuseum in Basel also exists. The first museum of caricature in the Arab world opened in March 2009 at Fayoum Egypt.
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Common questions
What is the origin of the word caricature?
The word caricature comes from the Italian verb caricare, which means to charge or load. An early definition appears in the English doctor Thomas Browne's Christian Morals published posthumously in 1716 stating the word essentially means a loaded portrait.
Who popularized caricatura as an art form in eighteenth-century Italy?
Pier Leone Ghezzi popularized caricatura as an art form in eighteenth-century Italy among aristocratic circles. These portraits passed around for mutual enjoyment spread to Britain via visitors returning from the Grand Tour.
When did the London weekly magazine Vanity Fair publish famous society figures?
Published from 1868 to 1914 the London weekly magazine Vanity Fair featured famous society figures. Carlo Pellegrini worked under the pseudonym Ape as a leading artist for Vanity Fair between 1868 and 1914.
How was caricature formally defined in Susan Brennan's master thesis from 1982 at MIT Media Lab?
A milestone in formally defining caricature occurred in Susan Brennan's master thesis from 1982 at MIT Media Lab. Her system formalized caricature as exaggerating differences from an average face by subtracting points on the mean face and scaling the difference.
Where is the first museum of caricature in the Arab world located?
The first museum of caricature in the Arab world opened in March 2009 at Fayoum Egypt. Museums dedicated to the art exist throughout the world including the Museo de la Caricatura in Mexico City and the Muzeum Karykatury operating in Warsaw.