The artistic style of decorative frescoes and sculptures found in Roman grottos and underground chambers, characterized by fantastical and bizarre designs.
Italian word meaning 'of or from a grotto.' Directly from 'grotta' (grotto, cave) plus adjectival -esco suffix. This was the original term before English adopted 'grotesque.'
Grottesco literally means 'cave-ish' in Italian—Renaissance artists were so blown away by the weird paintings they found in actual caves that they named an entire art movement after them!
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