Histoire De La Caricature Au Moyen Âge Et Sous La Renaissance

Champfleury mounts an impassioned defense of medieval and Renaissance caricature against critics who dismissed it as mere foolishness. In this 1879 study, he argues that the grotesque gargoyles, satirical marginalia, and mocking figures adorning churches and manuscripts were not frivolous diversions but vital expressions of medieval culture. Through careful analysis of architectural sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, and religious art spanning centuries, he reveals how humor, satire, and the grotesque operated alongside devotion and seriousness as twin voices of the age. This is both a work of cultural history and an impassioned plea to take seriously what long-ignored critics had dismissed: that laughter, mockery, and the absurd were as central to medieval life as prayer itself. A landmark text for anyone interested in art history, the history of humor, or the hidden cultural work performed by images we have long misunderstood.