Prof Caroline van Eck (University of Cambridge) will hold the Belvedere Lecture 2023 about ‘Architectural Grotesques in 16th-century Florence’ In her lecture, Prof Van Eck will discuss the grotesque designs by Michelangelo in Florence, to move on to grotesques in façades and window frames, as well as fountains and hybrid objects in that city by his followers Buontalenti and Ammanati.

Prof Van Eck will consider the relation of grotesque architectural ornament to contemporary armour and the suggestion of a second skin, as well as the duplication and sometimes triplication of masque features in one grotesque in the light of anthropological work on masks by Franz Boas and Philippe Descola.