Is there a word which describes something being both beautiful and ugly at the same time?

Few days back, I saw some sculptures and paintings which were beautifully made. The characters which were depicted were ugly. When I inquired about the making of the sculptures and paintings, one of my friend told me that it is made using golden ratio (Now, I have to inquire about what is golden ratio). Those sculptures and paintings were beautifully made, but obviously they had ugly faces.

Is there any word which describes both ugly and beautiful at the same time?

This picture is not real sculptor or painting I saw, it is somewhat similar what I saw in fair. Example:

enter image description here

enter image description here

Now, I want to tell my mom that I saw beautiful but ugly troll sculptures and paintings.


A beautiful caricature may be rendered in a grotesque style in an aesthetically appealing way.

enter image description here - enter image description here - enter image description here

Gnomes as sculptures are purposely created that way, so they are adorably abnormal.

What the OP has mentioned in the comment, trolls:
enter image description here
As mentioned, these trolls are "abnormal" (for a shock-and-thrill effect?), not ugly.


A fitting word could be "grotesque." According to Wikipedia: "Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque (or grottoesque) has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus is often used to describe weird shapes and distorted forms such as Halloween masks" Grotesque.


Are you perhaps looking instead for a word to describe your response to the artwork, which is where the perception of beauty or ugliness in fact lies? And perhaps in that case a word that might help would be 'ambivalence' where you are pulled in two directions at once, feeling two contrasting feelings or thoughts. Or even literally, con-fusion.


The word that you want is an oxymoron. An example of an oxymoron is bittersweet.

Now, if I were to describe something that's aesthetic yet depicts something ghastly or grotesque, then for the lack of an oxymoron, I'd just be more descriptive of the figure's features. But bear in mind that one shouldn't totter into purple prose, for that stultifies the essence of the description.