GaRgOyLeS
GaRgOyLeS
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This section is a place for publishing discussions on various topics about gargoyles, including the mind of the Medieval builder, Medieval attitudes, specific types of gargoyle, and so on. I'll gradually add to it as time goes on. It's as factual as I can make it. Currently there is:
There are also snippets in:
"When looking at a building, in all its aspects, we should look not to the name of the builder or sponsor, but to the society and its beliefs, i.e to the context in which the building was made. For the buildings themselves we should also look at the tools and materials available, though this is much less relevant for the carvings on them since those have changed little over the centuries."
I quote this from a fascinating little book on English buildings, "The Englishman Builds" by Ralph Tubbs, Penguin, 1945. It's over 50 years old, so I assume copyright is no longer an issue.
I can't include the whole book, so the following are selected quotes which I think help give an insight into the mind of the Medieval builder.
Mediaeval thought ranges from the finest to the crudest. In the church, the loftiest thought soared into the realms of spiritual passion : in the secular world, where ignorance and superstition abounded, thought often fell into the lowest level of coarseness and brutality. (p14 para1)
In the seclusion of the monasteries they strove for spiritual certitude, they contemplated eternity and cried out for salvation. For it was the need for salvation which made men Christians : they knew they could not save themselves, but Christ was the one and sufficient mediator. Hope of eternal life was their greatest comfort, fear of hell their greatest torture. (p14 para2 part)
But the intellectual basis of mediaeval thought was in some ways less important than the emotional basis ; the Crucified, the Weeping Mother, the martyred saints, were sublime objects of human compassion. The religious mind became a well of emotion. (p15 para2)
The doctrine of the Church seeped down through all strata of lay society. Everyone believed in a supernatural religion and performed the basic rites of adoration, mass and the taking of holy bread. But the high plane of monastic devotion was, in the secular world, frequently reduced to the lower level of superstition : spirituality gave place to relic-worship, belief in witchcraft and the fear of evil spirits. (p15 para5)
On mediaeval poverty: Perhaps the least admirable side of mediaeval life was the acceptance of very low conditions of life for the poor; this criticism might, however, be directed against any society in the past. (We are not altogether innocent ourselves.) 'Straw bed is no bed, and on mine lieth naught but straw.... No man will ever know mine abode, so poor it is', cried a poor man in the thirteenth century. Hereditary serfdom was enforced; in 1391 the Commons [the English government] required that 'no serf or villein henceforward put his children to school'. Shortly beforethe Peasants' rising in 1381, a member of the upper middle class, complaining of the attempts of the workers to better their conditions, wrote 'The world goeth fast from bad to worse ..... Labourers of old were not wont to eat of wheaten bread; their meat was of beans or coarser grain, and their drink of water alone. Cheese and milk were a feast to them... their dress was of hodden grey; then was the world ordered aright for folk of this sort'! (p15 para6)
The power of the church: Like a rock amidst flowing waters, the Church dominated the centuries of social change, not participating in the changes, but yet causing them to flow around her. Powerful economically (in the thirteenth century, the Church owned one fifth of the land), but more powerful spiritually, for knight and peasant alike walked in dread of unseen powers, she was the greatest social force and, as cathedrals and churches still witness today, the greatest builder. (p16 para5)
The impact on architecture: Architecture neither before nor since has reached such a peak of symbolism ; nor, perhaps, has it ever been so fired with emotion. (p18 para4)
My Comment: In summary of all this, the intense spiritual nature of medieval life and profound belief in the devil and evil things, coupled with the extreme poverty and especially the enforced ban on education for the common people, let to fertile ground for belief in strange and weird creatures such as those carved as gargoyles. Hardly surprising then that we see so many weird carvings, and although some (like the hairy men, screwed up human faces) may seem naive to us who have had so much exposure to modern science fiction, with aliens, horror film creatures and so on, they would have been seriously frightening at a profound level to the medieval common people.
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These are that peculiar type of gargoyle, quite rare, whose bare bottom sticks out and (strictly speaking) provides a conduit for gushing rain water, thus sh*tting on the people below. I haven't actually seen any in the flesh as it were but I've seen pictures of ones in France and Germany (sorry, these are copyright, so I can't publish them). Both these have the person's head turned out from the wall to look behind them and is visible to onlookers, so there's no symbolic hiding in shame involved. I gather there's another in Lincoln on the Angel and Royal Hotel in Grantham which I long to see; from the front of the hotel it looks innocuous but from the side it's definitely mooning. I've now heard (thanks Eric/a) of others in West Yorkshire too.
I gather that the technical term is "defaecating gargoyles" (or in American: "defecating gargoyles") rather than "mooning", which gives a hint as to why they're there, but mooning's good enough for me. In a way it's a better term as it doesn't make value judgements as to what they're doing.
The "Holy Terrors" book has a bit to say about them and on medieval attitudes towards nudity, urination, vomiting:
---Quote---
"On occasion water exits through an orifice other than the mouth. An extraordinary gargoyle in the form of a defecating man appears on the Cathedral of Saint-Lazare in Autun, France. Is he intended to drive evil from the church? Or is this merely a bit of medieval mischief? Rather than being prominently positioned, he is tucked away, high on the south side of the cathedral, as far as possible from the center of town. Autun's excreting gargoyle is not unique; there are examples in Germany, England, France and possibly elsewhere. The Autun gargoyle, believed to date from the end of the thirteenth century, seems to have a descendant on the Munster of Freiburg, where a defecating gargoyle was carved in the fifteenth century."
(..... the author then mentions those of Grantham and of Musee National du Moyen Age in Paris .....)
"That many human gargoyles are nude or nearly nude is notable because the nude was rarely depicted in medieval art - only when required by a subject, such as Christ crucified." (..... mention of Adam & Eve .....) "...according to biblical tradition, nakedness is a symbol of shame and absence of virtue."
"It is curious that nude gargoyles are not shown to urinate, which would seem to be a natural function for them. Propriety obviously cannot be the explanation, nor was the Middle Ages without urinating sculptures." (... mention of several such ...)
"...suggests that there was no later aversion to this subject that might have caused such figures to be removed. It seems most likely that urinating gargoyles did once exist but have not survived."
"Human gargoyles that appear to drool, spit, vomit, or defecate from above when it rains may produce a sense of alarm in the person passing below, but it is likely to be followed quickly by one of amusement. Many gargoyles must have been as entertaining during a medieval rainstorm as they are today."
---UnQuote---
The following is a contribution from a group discussion on medieval things mentioning one and giving a possible reason for it (note this is the same Freiburg gargoyle that is referred to in the "Holy Terrors" book) :