The Affect of Images: Signorelli, Morto da Feltro, and Moving Creativity in the Art of Grotesques c. 1500

Abstract

This article discusses the affect of images, focusing on a notion prevalent in the art and theory of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: that movement in paintings corresponds with (emotional) movement in the spectator and with the imagination or creativity of the artist. It addresses the work of Signorelli, Morto da Feltre, Pinturicchio, and Sodoma (c. 1500) and, in particular, their grotesques. This art form, which became remarkably prolific in fresco decorations of sixteenth century villas and palaces, was appreciated as a figuration of movement, understood both literally, in terms of the grotesques’ formal qualities of figure serpentinate (spiraling, turning shapes); and metaphorically, as generated by the turbulent imagination of the artist. Through their marginality, the grotesques constituted a distinct field within the visual culture of their time, investigating metamorphosis and monstrosity. Here, the creative power of the artist could be explored, and the boundaries between image and spectator challenged.