Procession of Monstrous Figures 1615

This is Wendel Dietterlin the Younger's "Procession of Monstrous Figures," an early 17th-century pen and brown ink drawing, now at the Metropolitan Museum. The composition immediately strikes us with its frieze-like arrangement. The procession unfolds horizontally, each figure meticulously delineated with sharp, wiry lines. Dietterlin's forms are grotesque, yet there's a precise, almost scientific quality to the rendering. This unsettling combination of the fantastical and the clinical invites a semiotic reading, where each figure becomes a signifier in a broader cultural language of the monstrous. The artist employs hatching to model the figures, creating a textured surface that emphasizes their bizarre anatomy. The contrast between light and shadow exaggerates the forms, enhancing their otherworldly appearance. Dietterlin presents us not just with monsters, but a structured system of monstrosity, playing with ideas of order and disorder. The work challenges the Renaissance ideals of beauty. The procession can be seen as a critique of established aesthetic norms. What meanings are destabilized through this collection of monstrous figures in ritualistic march? Dietterlin's "Procession" invites ongoing re-interpretation, challenging our notions of form, meaning, and cultural value.