I love gargoyles, and I know a lot of other people do too. Talking to gargoyle enthusiasts, I’ve come to realize that the origins, terminology, and interpretation of gargoyles can be confusing, and there’s not a lot of good information out there. In an effort to encourage greater appreciation of these quirky little creatures, I’ve decided to spend a few posts addressing the questions of many novice gargoyle trackers.
Welcome to the Field Guide to Gargoyles! In this first installment, let’s identify the gargoyle and its close cousin, the grotesque.
What exactly is a gargoyle, anyway?
- A gargoyle on Amiens Cathedral in France. Photo by Vassil (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Technically speaking, a gargoyle is a fancy drain spout – something that diverts rain water off of a roof and away from a building. More specifically, gargoyles are usually carved or shaped to resemble some sort of being, such as a person, animal, hybrid, or imaginary creature. They are often made of stone. We usually think of gargoyles as medieval, dragon-like inhabitants of churches. While Gothic and Gothic Revival gargoyles are clearly the best known, there are also gargoyles from many other time periods, styles, and cultures. We’ll talk about this more in a later post.
“Gargoyle” is a strange-sounding word. It comes from the Latin word “gurguilio” and the French word “gargouille“, both of which mean “throat”. This is quite fitting, considering that most gargoyles conduct water out of their mouths. There’s also an old French legend of a fearsome dragon named La Gargouille, who became Rouen’s resident gargoyle after being defeated by a saint.
So, what’s a grotesque and how’s it different from a gargoyle?
Not just architectural features, grotesques also appear in other art forms, particularly carvings and illuminated manuscripts. Some other words you may hear in conjunction with grotesques are: “marginalia” (decorations around the margins of illuminated manuscripts), “green man” (a little face accompanied by foliage that are carved on buildings), and “chimera” (a mythological beast that’s sometimes another name for a grotesque). The word grotesque is defined as “departing markedly from the natural, the expected, or the typical”.(*)
Read the rest of the Field Guide to Gargoyles here!
In the meantime, I want to hear from you! What interests you most about gargoyles and grotesques? What confuses you most about them? Do you agree with what I’ve said so far? If you send me your questions and pictures of your favorite gargoyles, I’ll do my best to feature them in future posts.
A Scholarly Skater 
I did not know the difference between a gargoyle and a grotesque! I feel a bit more educated today. Thank you for this post.
I’m so glad you like it. Check back next week for part two.
how very interesting, I really didn’t realize there was any difference, I do look forward to reading more.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the post! I don’t know if you found the rest of the Field Guide to Gargoyles, but I just updated this post with the link to the others. It’s near the bottom of this post below the last photo. Thanks for stopping by.
Now that I know a gargoyle is a very fan drain spout, I’m trying to figure out how to put them on the house. We could have the only 1974 raised ranch with gargoyles on the corners.
I love that idea! Sadly, I have no idea how you would go about that. I think there are sculptors who make gargoyles, though. You can probably find them online.
I’m doing a research paper on grotesques and gargoyles for my art history course, and so far I’ve really enjoyed reading your posts about them, but I need some sources to cite. Besides the linked images, would you recommend any books or articles I could read? I’ve already looked into Form In Gothic, but any help would be appreciated since you seem to be very well versed in this topic. Thanks in advance, and I do enjoy your posts!
Hi Grace! Thanks so much for stopping by! I’m always happy to hear from people who are studying art history.
It can be difficult to find sources about gargoyles, because not a lot of scholars deal with them. My go-to author is Janetta Rebold Benton. She’s one of the few who has written quite a lot about them. Her main book on the subject is called Holy Terrors: Gargoyles on Medieval Buildings, but she also has several other related works. You can see a list of all her published work here: http://www.janettareboldbenton.com/
Another author you will want to look at is Michael Camille. His book Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art is classic in medieval studies. I can’t remember how specifically it deals with gargoyles, but it definitely covers a lot of related ideas about grotesques and how they might be interpreted, so it’s definitely worth a look. Camille also wrote The Gargoyles of Notre-Dame: Medievalism and the Monsters of Modernity. I haven’t managed to get my hands on a copy thus far, but I have no doubt it will be useful to you.
I hope this helps. Good luck with your paper!
Alexandra
P.S. If you find any interesting sources I have overlooked, please let me know. 🙂
Thank you so much! After looking into the books you mentioned, I did manage to find a digital copy of the second Camille book you mentioned, and if you’re at all interested in it I’d be happy to share where I found it. I also came across a manuscript translated into Modern Engilsh called The stone missal: A grimoire on the magick of the gargoyles, which is more focused on the occult and summoning rituals for gargoyles, which I don’t personally subscribe to but do find to be very interesting.
Thank you again for the help!
Grace
Grace:
I’m so glad I was able to help! I would love to know where you found the Camille book. Thanks so much!
And I wouldn’t put much stock in the occult book either. It was probably written very recently and made to seem like it’s old. People weren’t actually trying to summon gargoyles or anything like that in the Middle Ages. (But I guess some people do today, which I do find interesting.)
Best of luck on your project, and please stop by again soon.
Alexandra
Here’s the link to the Camille book: https://b-ok.cc/book/842915/1c0d0b
I checked my university’s library, and as soon as I send this I’m on my way to check out several of the books you recommended. I’m very glad to have found your site, it’s been very helpful! Enjoy the ebook!
Grace
Thank you so much! Enjoy your project. 🙂
With respect, because we dont talk about excrement, is it possible that gargoyles also were conduits for removing human waste? The idea that they were solely to drain rainfall has a very narrow horizon. Because rare indeed is reference to how the residents kept water sweet.
That’s a colorful thought, but it’s unlikely unless medieval people were in the habit of climbing onto church roofs to do their business. People often don’t realize from photographs that gargoyles are really high up on these buildings.
I have been doing some research on gargoyles & grotesques for a post I am working on and I have a question that I am hoping you might be able to direct me on where to research further. Specifically when it comes to the oldest “known” gargoyle is often stated as one from Turkey that dates back to the 13th century. I am not disputing this but question why Mesoamerican ones seem to be excluded, such as Teotinuacan in Mexico. There are a ton of other Mayan sculptures and depictions that I would think would qualify, as well. I am not an art history person or anything like that but the example would be much older than the one from Turkey. So I am trying to wrap my mind around the criteria that are being used to make this reference. If I had to guess, I would think this might have been the oldest at that time until we uncovered more of the Mayan/Aztech empires? Or perhaps Mesoamericans are excluded but if so then why? These are the types of questions I am hoping to answer with further research.
Hi there! Thank you so much for stopping by and for asking such thoughtful questions about one of my favorite topics. My understanding was that the oldest known gargoyles came from ancient Greece. However, I’m not sure if they still survive, and it sounds like you’re talking about the oldest gargoyle to still exist today.
I am not familiar with this Turkish example, but when I researched it, I kept finding sources saying that it is 13,000 years old, not that it is from the 13th century CE. If correct, this would certainly explain why it beats out Mesoamerican examples. However, I have not yet found anything to substantiate this claim beyond a whole bunch of websites repeating it essentially verbatum. This might be a case of questionable information being passed from source to source without anyone stopping to verify it or dig deeper. I am cautious about this, since very little survives from 11,000 BCE.
I wouldn’t put too much stock in claims of the first or oldest gargoyles. We are going much too far back in history to know with any degree of certainty. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about gargoyles, and I wouldn’t trust most of the websites reporting on the topic.
I’m sorry I can’t give you a definitive answer. But thank you so much for making the connection with Mesoamerican art, since most people overlook that one. Would you please send me a link to your post when it’s ready? I would love to read it!
Alexandra
I will send a copy. I did also find I missed the Turkey ones age. I thank you very much for your candid response. I will warn tough after running across your field guides I am steering more towards the “hunting” you suggest and less of the academic. Again thank you for your time and thank you for all you do!
Here is a link to my post. look-up-look-up-at-the-gargoyles
Your link doesn’t work, but no worries, because I got it from the automatic pingback when you linked to my post in yours. It’s a great piece, so congratulations on it! 🙂 I, too, have a collection of little grotesque figurines. They’re so much fun, aren’t they?
They are. Love them. Thank you for the kind words still new to blogging. 🤗