You may have expected me to start with Parisian gargoyles, possibly the most extravagant and famous, but I thought it made more sense to start with Eastern Europe, where the functional purpose of the gargoyle is more obvious.
These metal gargoyles demonstrate a neat range from almost abstract beasties into "realistic" dragons. I like them a lot.
They're some way away from the closely-packed gargoyles seen on French churches.
But here's a neat illustration of proto-gargoyles and the plumbing that replaced them, all in one French church: the older buildings in the foreground have traditional jutting water-spouts, the sort that in posher and later buildings would be gargoyles. The younger (rebuilt) bulk of the church dispenses with them in favour of "modern" metal down-pipes:
Enough of that; back to the gargoyles:
Dragons are the dominant form, but there can be all sorts of very interesting alternatives -- like this stunning Spanish example:
More modern examples are often less fanciful, like this bat-iform:
Here's a rather fine heraldic winged Lion:
And this is one of my favourite gargoyles, a delightful corner piece on Pisa cathedral (this is also one of my own photos. Half the photos on here are mine, the other half obviously being other people's work. Care to guess which is which?):
Here's a rather troubling bird in Nimes, distracting attention from the moralistic Bible stories:
While here's a very late example from Toulouse:
And a close-up...
This is even later, from Javier in Spain, and the gargoyles have been reduced to simple jutting stone projections holding the down pipes:
Not a patch, I think we can all agree, on these delightful johnnies in Uzès:
And, to finish, a hint of even greater antiquity -- here on a rebuilt Roman palazzo in Toulouse (though I have no idea how much of it is reconstruction and, hence, anachronistic):
I am none the wiser about why my lovely friends wanted gargoyles, but I hope this has hit the spot.
8 comments:
Fantastic! You are most obliging.
As you so rightly said: "simple and easy".
Actually, I think that's going on my tombstone.
A masterpiece. Just what I wanted to see!! Thank you Le Duc.
Now, any chance of getting a few more naked ginger hotties? ;-)
One day you must tell me why you wanted that.
Naked ginger hotties are so hard to find. In fact, gingers generally are rare (reminds me of Victoria Wood's joke, about the most expensive wig in the world, woven from the hair of ginger nuns). I understand that, genetically, they are heading for extinction at rather a fast pace. Very sad.
I'll keep my eyes peeled.
You have an extraordinary capacity to make anything look phallic, Le Duc! Check out those gargoyle standing proud off the sides of ancient buildings. Or is it just me...
No, it's just you.
After all, it's not my fault if you have a filthy phallocentric mind...
Half of us have phallocentric minds; half have testocentric mimds. The other half have phallotestocentric minds: all filthy. Fun, isn't it?
As bits of male-generated engineering, gargoyles beat the hell out of the huge bits of red or yellow steel pointing pointlessly to the sky that one finds as 'public art' on Australian freeways. Art, my foot! They're simply the product of a bloke with a tiny winkie complex. Give me a gargoyle any day. At least they come with a sense of humour (or is it the absurd ... or both).
Gargoyles??? Nothing phallic about those examples, but I do prefer phallic art.
LeDuc, how about providing us a gallery of statuary where winkies are providing the irrigation? Would be much more pleasing don't you think?
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