Monstrous Faces and Caricatures

Discover the exhibition: De’ Visi Mostruosi e Caricature – “Of Monstrous Faces and Caricatures“. Starting with Leonardo’s “monstrous faces” and the “ridiculous paintings” of the Lombards, the art of caricature flourished in the Venetian lagoon in the first half of the 18th century.

This extraordinary and alienating exhibition presents more than 75 works depicting deformed faces, anatomical exaggerations, physiognomic investigations, caricature figures and galleries of human characters created by the great artists active in northern Italy between the 16th and 18th centuries. Also on display are 18 drawings by Leonardo da Vinci including – for the first time in Italy – some sheets from the Collection of the Duke of Devonshire.

A fascinating itinerary, which identifies a line of “northern” continuity from Leonardo’s charged and grotesque heads to the caricatures of Anton Maria Zanetti and Giambattista Tiepolo, passing through Francesco Melzi, Paolo Lomazzo, Aurelio Luini, Donato Creti, Arcimboldo, but also Carracci and Parmigianino.