Candelabra Grotesque with a Vase with Fruit and an Amazon Shield 1540 - 1570

This drawing of a candelabra grotesque with vase, fruit and Amazon shield was made with pen and brown ink, and gray wash over black chalk. The composition, characterized by a complex assembly of decorative motifs, draws the eye from the bottom up. Note how the visual language here seems to operate by disrupting any stable meaning. What we are looking at is actually a playful take on classical forms. The Amazon figure, for instance, does not stand on solid ground but rises from a candelabra, and instead of weapons she holds symbols of decoration. The various elements that conform the grotesque, from the Amazon to the fruit vase, appear as if they were building blocks, or signs, in an elaborate semiotic system designed to challenge the boundaries of taste, order, and established artistic conventions. The artist seems to be inviting us to reconsider the established meanings associated with classical imagery. The drawing offers a space for the free play of imagination and reinterpretation.