User:Jahsonic/The 'I was here'-style graffiti scratched on the walls of Nero's Golden House  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

One plate from the album Leviores et (ut videtur) extemporaneae picturae

Two weeks ago[1], I reported that the earliest sketches made of the Domus Aurea, the birthplace of the grotesque, were published in the Codex Escurialensis. I do not know its spread and circulation.

Perhaps the album Leviores et (ut videtur) extemporaneae picturae perhaps got a wider circulation and helped spread the fashion of the grotesque?

In my research, I stumbled upon these two Daniel Hopfer (ca 1470-1536) prints: Pair of ornamental fillets with grotesques[2] and Two ornamental fillets with trophies[3].

One thing that fascinates me, and which is still under-documented, are the 'I was here' graffiti scratched on the walls of Nero's Golden House. It seems to be common knowledge (though I've never seen the pictures) that beside the graffiti signatures of later tourists, like Casanova and the Marquis de Sade who supposedly scratched into a fresco inches apart (British Archaeology June 1999), there are the autographs of Domenico Ghirlandaio, Martin van Heemskerck, and Filippino Lippi. (Underground Rome, in The Atlantic, 1997).

Today, I also found that Nicoletto da Modena also scratched his name on the wall. Apparently, on one wall can be read "Nicholeto da Modena/Ferrara 1507." This info is attributed to Nicole Dacos, author of La découverte de la Domus Aurea et la formation des grotesques à la Renaissance.

See Nicoletto da Modena's grotesque engraving[4].

PS: It would appear that it's time to clean out the WikiCommons grotesque category[5] and separate the photos from the prints.