Chapter 2 | WORKS OF ART

Stories about people, animals and objects that have grown or shrunk are often scary because shrinking makes someone very vulnerable. In the science fiction film The Incredible Shrinking Man from 1957, the main character ends up in all kinds of threatening situations, such as confronting a cat or a spider.

Gulliver’s Travels is a famous story by the Irish writer Jonathan Swift from 1726. In this beautiful drawing by Thomas Morten you see how Gulliver ended up in the land of miniature people. His gigantic figure leans relaxed against one of the towers of their city wall.

Another example of a giant and miniature people in art is the drawing of the head of the sleeping giant ‘Gran Colos0’, while he is being stormed by miniature people (Fransisco Goya, ca. 1825). A teeming crowd climbs his head with ladders and raises the flag as a sign of victory.

Also nowadays there are drawings, stories and films about animals, people and objects that have grown or shrunk enormously , such as the beautiful Japanese animation film Arrietty from 2010.