Ugliness and the Beauty in Leonardo Da Vinci's Drawings

Beauty is of value, not only in Aesthetic Medicine. But our memory, which is imperfect, distorted, and influenced by the world's suffering-can barely hold onto the fragility of the transitory physical beauty, as well as the idea of beauty that lies beyond the transience of life and time. Ugliness has been theorized as a category of aesthetic value in opposition to beauty. It has been associated with qualities such as incoherence, disorder, disunity, deformity, and is said to cause negative feelings such as uneasiness, distaste, dislike, revulsion, but also fascination. Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519), an Italian Master of the Renaissance, is well known for his beautiful paintings. He was most interested in anatomy and physiognomic expressions. His drawings The Grotesques from the 1470s to the 1490s, however, seem to contradict his attempt for beauty. They represent a collection of types that comprise the antithesis to the idealized paintings and drawings. Various interpretations are discussed in the literature - from extended physiognomic expression to satire. We discuss in more detail two of his drawings, Five Grotesque Heads (c. 1493) and Grotesque Head (about 1480-1510). The ugliness can be understood as a necessary counterpoint to beauty. We suggest that Leonardo has aestheticized the ugly by his drawings The Grotesques.