Design for a Leonine Grotesque Head 16th - 17th century

This is an anonymous drawing of a leonine grotesque head on a small sheet of paper. The grotesque, as a style, emerged from the rediscovery of ancient Roman decorations during the Renaissance. These designs often featured fantastical, hybrid creatures, blending human and animal forms. While we don't know who created this drawing, or when, the grotesque style was widely adopted in decorative arts and architecture. It offered a space to explore the boundaries of identity and the grotesque itself became a way to visualize fears, desires, and the blurring of established categories. Consider the lion: traditionally a symbol of strength and courage, but here, it’s rendered with a disturbing, almost mocking expression. What does it mean to take symbols of power and twist them into something unsettling? The grotesque invites us to confront uncomfortable aspects of ourselves and society, challenging the neat and tidy categories we often rely on.