De’ visi mostruosi: Caricatures from Leonardo da Vinci to Bacon

The fabled art of Italian caricature, across centuries and mediums

Compiling nearly 100 caricature drawings, engravings, etchings, watercolors and printed books from Milan, Bologna and Venice, De’ visi mostruosi documents the “Northern Italian” caricature tradition, tracing its evolution. Established by Leonardo, this regional style of caricature was further developed by his followers (Giovanni Agostino da Lodi, Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, Ambrogio Figino, Giuseppe Arcimboldi), became intertwined with the naturalism of the Carracci (Annibale and Agostino) and then experienced a triumphant resurgence among the Venetian painters of the first half of the 18th century (Marco Ricci, Giovan Battista Tiepolo, Anton Maria Zanetti, Carlo Lasinio). A disquieting triptych by Francis Bacon closes the catalog, illuminating the thematic thrust of the book: the disfiguration of physical features as an investigation of the human psyche.