Thomas Rosell remarked after yesterday’s post that there is a difference between gargoyles and grotesques, namely that gargoyles serve a function as a downspout, while grotesques are, well, I guess “ornamental” may not be the best term, but mainly their purpose is to peak over the parapet and seem as if they might be about to lob a tomato or something over onto passersby.
That distinction sent me back to my computer where I have all of my digital photos (mostly) organized and (somewhat) tagged, to see how many of the photos I had tagged as “gargoyle” were actually “grotesques.” The results are in, and it appears I’ve been getting it wrong all these years, with only a few images of downspout gargoyles. Most are grotesques, apparently, but I think I’m just going to make a unilateral decision and call them all gargoyles. “Grotesque” has a judgmental quality to it, and these guys are just too much fun to be judgmental about.
Since I spent my evening wandering down memory lane and didn’t have time to actually write, like, you know, a post, I thought I would just post my best gargoyle shots. As you can see, our Lamar Life gargoyles are pretty young things compared to some old grizzled gargoyles from other parts of the world. The Lamar Life gargoyles are my only gargoyles from Mississippi. Maybe I just haven’t been paying attention, or maybe we’re more serious about our Gothic buildings or maybe we’re easily frightened, who knows?
Categories: Architectural Research, Cool Old Places
I recognized that little guy from Avignon! This was a fun posting!
Could we call them Tomato Lobbers? :-)