![]() Set relics there, and let them become temples of the true God. Augustine regarding the conversion of the pagan peoples to Christianity: You can detect the answer in Pope Gregory's instructions to St. Surely if we do not blush for such absurdities we should at least regret what we have spent on them." 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. ![]() "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. Bernard of Clairvaux, living in 12th-century France, made some interesting (and not wholly complimentary) observations on the gargoyle carvings he saw around him: Most were carved between the 10th and 15th centuries in Western Europe. ![]() Gargoyles later became more ornamental in character and assumed many forms - often humourous and very inventive. One of the earliest recorded gargoyles is a Classical Greek lion mask on the Acropolis in Athens dating from the 4th century BC. ![]() They were also used as educational devices for a largely illiterate population, and were believed to ward off evil spirits with their own grotesqueness. Gargoyles - grotesquely carved heads of animal or human origin, with or without bodies - originally had a practical use as waterspouts (generally) on sacred buildings, throwing rainwater clear of walls. Gargoyle: (word origin: Old French gargouille, or 'throat') The York Minster Visual Introduction to GrotesquesSome of the following information is from ,Īn Introduction to Gargoyles compiled as a Class Project for the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill by Jack Westerhoff and Beth Stevens. ![]()
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