Development of musical satirical iconography: based on foreign caricatures of the XVIII — beginning of the XIX centuries

Abstract

Artistic satire constitutes an extensive part of musical iconography. Good-humored and ironical
pictures of musicians captured the essential elements of their creative image, as well as represented
fights between the music bands. Providing information on prominent performers and composers they
shaped public opinion, imprinted aesthetic senses of epochs and exposed the peculiarities of public
musical perception. Musical satirical iconography has never been the subject of an independent research.
This articles deals with the Italian and English caricatures of the XVIII — beginning of the
XIX centuries that refer to the evolution of satirical musical iconography.