Found an interesting article on gargoyles in NY in the
NYTimes of Friday:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/19/arts/design/19GARG.html?pagewanted=1
Thought the terminology was a bit skewed - so I
checked my visual dictionary of architecture:
gargoyle: a grotesquely carved figure of a human or
animal, esp. one with an open mouth that serves as a
spout and projects from a gutter to throw rainwater
clear of a building
grotesque: a decorative style characterized by the
fantastic shaping and combining of incongruous human
and animal forms with foliage or similar figures,
often distorting the natural into caricature or
absurdity.
Of course, I should have just checked this site:
http://www.stonecarver.com/gargoyle.html
Sorry Walter - I forgot about this wonderful reference
source!
Don't know what this means with regard to one of the
features I discovered on the south side of the
cathedral in Autun, France. Amongst a row of
gargoyles projecting from the buttresses, there was
one which looked strange. Inspection through the zoom
lens of the camera revealed a figure shaped like a
human body with the feet in the wall and body bent
double so that the head was over the feet ... meaning
that in colloquial terms, the bloke was chucking a
browneye!
Tried to find a photo on the web, but couldn't. Have
a photo somewhere myself, but not sure where to find
it. Did manage to turn up a very academic treatise
that suggested the following:
from page 11 of Envoi 6.1 (Spring 1997)
"In 'Gargoyles: Animal Imagery and Artistic
Individuality in Medieval Art', the art historian
Janetta Rebold Benton elaborates on the notionalready
found in her Medieval Menagerie that because of their
high location 'gargoyles constitute one of the few
areas of medieval art inwhich artistic license was not
severely restricted'(5758). These water-spouts which
direct the rainwater away from the walls where it
might do damage to the structure of the building are
often beautifully carved but also raise several
questions. Benton addresses three of these: the images
used for gargoyles, their medieval significance, and
their original audience. Although people, like the
nude man who appears to be defecating on the south
side of the cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun,
occasionally appear as gargoyles, animals, and
especially exotic and bizarre creatures,are
particularly common: the monstrous races and some
composite creatures like the siren and harpy are rare.
Opinion as to the meaning ofgargoyles is sharply
divided: gargoyles have been linked to the popular
unconsciousness, ancient reside tales, monsters
carried in street processions, grotesque gures used in
the mystery plays, the Bible, prehistoric animals, and
constellations. They have been said to ward off evil
or to symbolize sins or devils which needed to be kept
out of the church. Benton notes with discrimination
that gargoyles need not all have had the same symbolic
significance: many were no doubt intended to
intimidate the viewer but others offered delightful
entertainment. At Toul the gargoyles surrounding the
cloister appear to eavesdrop on the monks or read over
their shoulders, while another empties a barrel, and
on the facade of the church of Notre-Dame,
Semur-en-Auxois, a gargoyle holding its abdomen
appears to vomit. It is this great variety which makes
it so difficult to establish for whom these carvings
were meant. On the basis of this variety and the fact
that they do not often appear to have a symbolic
function Benton rules out the possibility that they
were used as didactic devices, nor does she believe
that they were 'intended solely for a select educated
group within the church hierarchy'(161) since they are
also found on domestic buildings. Benton takes issue
with those who consider gargoyles examples of
'marginal art' - different from official
ecclesiastical art - and notes that most of the
carving will have been done at ground level and that
the suggestion that 'gargoyles ... were created
without the knowledge or supervision of ecclesiastics
and patrons of the church seems to be a facile
explanation based upon traditional conceptions of
medieval religious iconography'(161), but she concedes
that a medieval craftsman's artistic license may well
have been less restricted when illuminating the
margins of medieval manuscripts, or carving gargoyles
and misericords. Gargoyles may even be thought of as a
kind of symbol with which the artist 'signs' his own
work, a work which, for once, could be 'profoundly
personal'(163). Whatever the precise function of
gargoyles may have been they provide an impressive
reminder of the skills and talents of medieval
craftsmen."
Happy gargoyle spotting!!
Cheers
david
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