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31 Monsters!
When I was thinking about this monstrous countdown, I thought I'd maybe dedicate one night to gargoyles, even though they aren't traditional grr argh type monsters. Then when I realized I had no idea where gargoyles originated (other than on cathedrals in the High Middle Ages), I said, "Aha! I must have a night of gargoyles for my own learning!"
I did, in fact, learn something today. Gargoyles are not the creatures we see on building; their technical name is grotesques. The gargoyle is the actual waterspout, and it comes from the French gargouille, originally "throat" or "gullet" which comes from the Latin gurgulio, gula, gargula ("gullet" or "throat").
So gargoyles (the waterspouts) have been around for a long, long time. But why are there so many grotesques on medieval cathedrals? There doesn't seem to be one certain explanation.
According to North Star Gallery's gargoyle page:
In the Middle ages, the populace, for the most part, could not read and write. Churches used visual images to spread the scriptures and reinforce biblical stories. These included; paintings, frescoes, stained glass, figures, sculpture and gargoyles. Some believe that gargoyles were inspired directly via a passage in the Bible. Others believe that gargoyles and grotesques do not come from the Bible, but were inspired by the skeletal remains of prehistoric beasts. Others will argue that they are the expression of man's subconscious fears or, that they may be vestiges of paganism from an age when god would be perceived in trees and river plains. The churches of Europe carried them further into time; maybe to remind the masses that "even if god is at hand, evil is never far away" and to act as guardians of their church to keep the evil spirits at bay.
I have a feeling they were more a result of fanciful sculptors, who were creative artists, and they caught on as an architectural design.
Not everyone loved their presence on religious buildings.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux-the 12th Century A.D. observed: "What are these fantastic monsters doing in the cloisters under the very eyes of the brothers as they read? What is the meaning of these unclean monkeys, strange savage lions and monsters? To what purpose are here placed these creatures, half beast, half man? I see several bodies with one head and several heads with one body. Here is a quadruped with a serpent's head, there a fish with a quadruped's head, then again an animal half horse, half goat... Surely if we do not blush for such absurdities we should at least regret what we have spent on them."
Everyone's a critic.
This image of grotesques on the Ulm Münster cathedral in Ulm, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany is large, but I love the detail.
I did, in fact, learn something today. Gargoyles are not the creatures we see on building; their technical name is grotesques. The gargoyle is the actual waterspout, and it comes from the French gargouille, originally "throat" or "gullet" which comes from the Latin gurgulio, gula, gargula ("gullet" or "throat").
So gargoyles (the waterspouts) have been around for a long, long time. But why are there so many grotesques on medieval cathedrals? There doesn't seem to be one certain explanation.
According to North Star Gallery's gargoyle page:
In the Middle ages, the populace, for the most part, could not read and write. Churches used visual images to spread the scriptures and reinforce biblical stories. These included; paintings, frescoes, stained glass, figures, sculpture and gargoyles. Some believe that gargoyles were inspired directly via a passage in the Bible. Others believe that gargoyles and grotesques do not come from the Bible, but were inspired by the skeletal remains of prehistoric beasts. Others will argue that they are the expression of man's subconscious fears or, that they may be vestiges of paganism from an age when god would be perceived in trees and river plains. The churches of Europe carried them further into time; maybe to remind the masses that "even if god is at hand, evil is never far away" and to act as guardians of their church to keep the evil spirits at bay.
I have a feeling they were more a result of fanciful sculptors, who were creative artists, and they caught on as an architectural design.
Not everyone loved their presence on religious buildings.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux-the 12th Century A.D. observed: "What are these fantastic monsters doing in the cloisters under the very eyes of the brothers as they read? What is the meaning of these unclean monkeys, strange savage lions and monsters? To what purpose are here placed these creatures, half beast, half man? I see several bodies with one head and several heads with one body. Here is a quadruped with a serpent's head, there a fish with a quadruped's head, then again an animal half horse, half goat... Surely if we do not blush for such absurdities we should at least regret what we have spent on them."
Everyone's a critic.
This image of grotesques on the Ulm Münster cathedral in Ulm, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany is large, but I love the detail.