Cleveland Museum of Art
Five Grotesque Heads
Gaetano Gandolfi
- Date
- 1750–1800
- Medium
- pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over black chalk
- Culture
- Italy, 18th century
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
From an early age, Gaetano Gandolfi was admired for his drawings, many of which were created as independent works of art and avidly collected by Italian and British patrons. This drawing is one of Gandolfi’s so-called teste pittoriche, or pictorial heads. Devised by the artist in the 1770s, this genre is based on contemporary academic theories that proposed that human emotions could be scientifically classified by facial expressions. The term "grotesque" derives from the Italian word "grotteschi," which refers to the grottoes found in ancient Roman houses that were rediscovered around 1500.
The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Cleveland Museum of Art and other institutions.
Five Grotesque Heads
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Four Sketches: Griffin, Grotesque Head, Head of Satyr, Bent Leg
Art Institute of Chicago
Grotesques, including the Head of a Man Wearing a Wreath
Harvard Art Museums
Grotesques, including the Head of a Man Wearing a Wig
Harvard Art Museums
Small Grotesque Head
Harvard Art Museums
Grotesque with a Satyr Feeding a Dragon (recto); Grotesque with a Leaping Centaur (verso)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Grotesque with a Leaping Centaur (verso)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Ornament with Two Winged Female Half-Length Figures
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Head of a Grotesque Male Head (facing right)
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Grotesque with a Satyr Feeding a Dragon (recto)
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Adoration of the Magi (Virgin of the Grotto)
Art Institute of Chicago
Sketch of a Head (verso)
Cleveland Museum of Art