CARICATURISTE What is a caricature? A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. Caricatures can be insulting or complimentary and can serve a political purpose or be drawn solely for entertainment. Caricatures of politicians are commonly used in editorial cartoons, while caricatures of movie stars are often found in entertainment . An early definition of the origins of 'caricature', an Italian word meaning 'to load', occurs in the English doctor Sir Thomas Browne's Christian Morals (first pub.1716).
Thus, the word "caricature" essentially means a
"loaded portrait". According to caricature teacher Sam Viviano, who
stressed this definition of the term in the classes he taught at the
School of Visual Arts in New York City, the term refers only to
depictions of real-life people, and not to cartoon fabrications of
fictional characters, which do not possess objective sets of
physiognomic features to draw upon for reference, or to anthropomorphic
depictions of inanimate objects such as automobiles or coffee mugs.
Walt Disney on the other hand, equated his animation to caricature,
saying the hardest thing to do was find the caricature of an animal
that worked best as a human-like character. |
