From the Crippled Devil to the Spectacular House: The Visual Representation of Intimacy in Painting, Comics, Film, and Television

Abstract

This work expands the literary topic of the interior of the home to its corresponding visual manifestations. Its main reference, the crippled devil, dates back to seventeenth century picaresque literature. It is the same century as the first visual representations of common, everyday life in Dutch painting. This study focuses on the visual and reflective evolution that is born with these paintings and takes the form of panoramic views in the graphic structure of the mid-nineteenth century vignette. A century later it evolves in comics, and then in cinema and television, emulating the structure of the literary movement. The content—the integration of characters in the same location—updates a satirical exhibition of the comedy of manners. However, television registers hilarious situations between its characters, which explains the success of the emblematic series, Aquí no hay quien viva, where the snooping of the characters is subrogated to the viewer, as Hitchcock did in Rear Window. Its protagonist, a revived crippled devil, goes beyond playful snooping. Thus, the representation of the interior of the home connotes vigilance if one thinks of the last of the houses built ad hoc: those of Big Brother. There, those who see can also take action, but it is a house designed to be looked at.