| P3 has note
| - The appliquéd hybrid figures that dominate this bed head are a characteristic element of the grotesque, based on monsters derived from classical mythology and antique reliefs. Those shown in this bed head are some of the most favoured: griffons and harpies; animals such as hounds and owls; and anthropomorphs including satyrs, centaurs, sphinx-like figures and phytomorphs.
Elements of these grotesques have been sourced from the engraved works of Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, whose <i>Livre de Grotesques</i> was published in Paris in 1566. The plates were designed to serve as models for artists and craftsmen, du Cerceau directing they should be used 'to awaken their minds and so that each may apply what he finds appropriate to his craft'.(quoted in Brugerolles and Guillet, Paris, 1995, p.58.)
Recent scholarship by Phillipe Morel has encouraged a shift in the traditional art historical reading of the grotesque. Grotesques have long been seen as fantastical and nonsensical products of the artist's imagination, removed from all constraints of a specific iconographical programme. Morel argues that grotesques adhere strictly to antique models and follow a delineated set of principles and rules derived from burlesque literature and other sources, demonstrating an order that would seem at odds with their classification as whimsical caprices. That grotesques proliferated across all forms of the fine and decorative arts during the Renaissance, suggests that their significance has as yet been underestimated and their interpretation in art historical literature still leaves much to be explored.
Morel also draws attention to the 'wunderkammer' effect produced by Renaissance grotesques, and indeed those depicted in this bed head, with its assortment of curious beasts compartmentalised within the strapwork, are reminiscent of a cabinet of curiosities.(Morel, Flammarion, 1997)
Morel, Philippe, <i>Les Grotesques</i>, Paris:Flammarion, 1997.
Brugerolles, Emanuelle and David Guillet. <i>The Renaissance in France:Drawings from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris</i>. Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard University Art Museums, 1995. (en)
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