Caricature as an Art: What is it all about?

A caricature of myself via
Caricature Make Pro application

I spent one afternoon whiling away the time creating an artistic portrait of myself using a caricature-maker application in my smartphone device. But what exactly is caricature and how it started?

Caricature, is a portrait of a person that exaggerates certain features in order to "express the essence of that person and still make the subject easily identifiable." It came from the Italian word, caricare which means "to load." Thus, caricature was "loading" the subject with much meaning as possible - it is not a distortion but rather an exaggeration.


Though caricature emerged as an art form for political and entertainment purposes, its history can be traced back in ancient monument in Pompeii wherein crude drawings that resemble to a caricature were found.

"Pompeii caricature"
photo from cruzine.com

 
Even Leonardo da Vinci produced drawings with unusual features that were also similar to caricatures. It is said that da Vinci was fascinated by people with unusual faces and he would follow them around the street in order to memorize their features.

"Leonardo da Vinci's
caricatures"
photo from cruzine.com

But many artists give credit to Annibale Carraci, a 17th century Bolognese painter, who made caricature an independent art form. She created portraits that were labeled as the "anti theses of beauty."
In early 19th-century France, caricatures became a method of derision and mockery to politicians as political cartoons appeared in journals and dailies.

After the World War I, this art form reached its peak as it became more common and popular in celebrity magazines than actual photographs.
Today, we still see caricatures in editorials and celebrity magazines. But you can even have a caricature of your best shot or a photo of your parents as caricaturists are now found in malls and other public places. The advent of internet and mobile phones also paved way for "computerized or automatic caricatures" where you can personally create your own "exaggerated portrait" --- just like what I did.


References:
http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Brief-History-of-Caricatures&id=455238
http://www.salon.com/2011/09/14/caricatures_slide_show/
http://www.aboutfacesentertainers.com/caricature/about_caricature.htm