Volume 8–4 (Low Res).pdf - U&lc

We have an unfortunate tendency to think of portraiture as
high art-serious, sober and with a long respectable history-
while caricature, which makes us smile a lot, is passed off
as a lightweight art form. Not fair, friends. The art of
caricature also has a long, respectable history. The word
itself, adopted from the French,refers to the art of pictorial
ridicule of any subject, and it derives from the Italian
earicatura l which pertains to portraiture in particular.Its
history goes back to the ancients. In an anecdote reported
by Pliny, two Greek sculptors, by way of poking fun at a very
ugly poet, Hipponax by name, exhibited his portrait for
public ridicule. In retaliation, he wrote a satirical poem
that was so devastating, the two sculptors hanged themselves
in despair. (So said Pliny.)
Well we do not expect that any of the characters depicted
in William Bramhall's Literary Calendar for 1982 will take
the rope to him or themselves. For one thing, most of them
are dead. For another, he has already survived one literary
calendar, a musical engagement calendar and has lived to
carry on with this latest contribution.
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