CAEICATURE, THE FANTASTIC, 

 THE GROTESQUE 



I 



CARICATURE is a distinct species of characterisation, in 

 which the salient features of a person or an object have been 

 emphasised with the view of rendering them ridiculous. The 

 derivation of this word justifies my definition. It comes from 

 the Italian caricare, to charge with a burden, or to surcharge, 

 Thus caricare un ritratto means to exaggerate what is already 

 prominent in the model, and in this way to produce a likeness 

 which misrepresents the person, while it remains recog- 

 nisable. Instead of emphasis, simple distortion may be used 

 to secure the effect of caricature. For example, the hints 

 suggested by reflection in a spoon are amplified into an 

 absurd portrait. Some faces and figures lend themselves 

 better to the concave, others to the convex surface of the 

 spoon. Or a fairly accurate image of a man or woman, 

 modelled in gutta-percha, may be pulled about in various 

 directions, with the result of producing a series of burlesque 

 portraits, in which the likeness of the individual is never 

 wholly lost. 



The most effective kind of caricature does not proceed by 

 such distortion. It renders its victim ludicrous or vile by 

 exaggerating what is defective, mean, ignoble in his person, 

 indicating at the same time that some corresponding flaws 

 in his spiritual nature are revealed by them. The master- 

 pieces of this art are those in which truth has been 

 accentuated by slight but deft and telling emphasis. Nothing, 

 as Aretino once remarked, is more cruel than malevolent 



