Von Eulen und Affenhintern – Popularisierung und vulgärer Humor in den Porträts des Heidelberger ‚Hofzwergen‘ Perkeo
In: Das Populäre der AnderenSearch for other papers by Lisa Hecht in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Abstract
Perkeo (1702–1735?) was and still is an illustrious personality of the Heidelberg court and a popular figure of the Palatinate carnival. At the same time, he was one of the last known ‚court dwarfs‘ at a pre-modern European court. In the surviving portraits of the little man, vulgar humour is often recognisable, which characterises the sitter as a fool and ‚outsider‘, but at the same time raises questions about the power relations of seeing and being seen. While a large-format gallery painting presents Perkeo together with a monkey as an ‚exotic‘ and exclusive oddity of the princely Wunderkammer, the history of another far smaller portrait goes far beyond elite courtly curiosity. Numerous copies and variants of the latter painting, some of which are shown here for the first time, document a peculiar process of Perkeo’s popularisation. The case study makes it clear that at the end of the early modern period, the vulgarity of the ‚other‘ (the non-normative body) seems to have turned into a modern concept of popularity.