Grotesques. This article in the Dictionary is excellent; I need add only a passage from Vitruvius describing the grotesques of antiquity. His own words merit inclusion: pro columnis statuuntur calami, pro fastigiis harpaginetuli; striati cum crispis foliis & volutis supra fastigia earum surgentes ex racidibus, cum volutis cauliculis, teneri plures, habentes in se sine ratione sedentia sigilla, non minùs etiam è cauliculis flores dimidiata habentes ex se, exeuntia sigilla, a'ia humanis, alia bestiarum capitibus similia. That is to say:

Notes

1. The Latin passage from Vitruvius is more commonly translated into English as follows: "Instead of columns they paint fluted stems with oddly shaped leaves and volutes, and instead of pediments arabesques, the same with candelabra and painted edicules, on the pediments of which grow dainty flowers unrolling out of roots and topped, without rhyme or reason, by figurines. The little stems, finally, support half-figures crowned by human or animal heads." See, for example, Wolfgang Kayser, The Grotesque in Art and Literature , trans. Ulrich Weisstein, New York:McGraw-Hill, 1966, p.20. This common translation, however, does not reflect accurately the French translation of Vitruvius' passage given in the Encyclopédie .