Gargoyles
Gargoyles: Guardians against Malše looming challenges on the ledges of the great Gothic cathedrals. Hellish monsters, grotesque imagery, Dante sneer or animals. Any representation is good if it achieves its purpose: keeping the sacred precinct of the onslaught of evil. Defenders are petrified, depositories of divine commission ... Are gárgolas.La Legend has it that the French oral tradition formóRefiere the existence of a dragon named La Gargouille, described as a being with long neck and reptilíneo, slender snout with strong jaws, heavy brows and membranous wings, who lived in a cave near the river Seine.
The Gargouille was characterized by bad manners swallowed ships, destroying everything that stood in the path of his fiery breath, and spit too much water, so that caused all kinds of flooding. Residents of the nearby
Rouen tried to placate his fits of bad temper with a consistent annual human offering to pay a criminal and their crimes, although the dragon preferred maidens.
In 600 the Christian priest came to Rouen Romanus willing to negotiate with the dragon if the citizens of this town agreed to be baptized and built a church dedicated to Catholic worship. Equipped with the convict
year and attributes necessary for an exorcism-bell, book, candle and cross-Romanus dominated the dragon with the only sign of the cross, turning it into a docile beast who consented to be transferred to the city, tied with a simple string.
The Gargouille was burned at the stake, except for his mouth and neck, used to the hot breath of the beast refused to burn, in view of this, it was decided to mount on the council, as a reminder of the bad times had passed to the locals. Sinks
SagradosEsta curious legend, more delightful than real, is to explain the origin of the word as a synonym for spitting gargoyle water easily, primal intention of the sculptures located in the cornices of medieval churches and cathedrals.
The concept of a decorative projection through which water is ejected from the building was known since antiquity, being used by Egyptians, Greeks, Etruscans and Romans.
While the Greeks had a special fondness for the lion's heads, it was the Romans who used these decorative gutters abundance as evidenced by copies of the city of Pompeii, preserved intact until today thanks to the layer of lava that covered during the eruption of Vesuvius in the first century of our era.
Although decorative and symbolic functions fulfilled its main task is to divert rain water to prevent erosion in buildings.
During the Middle Ages, the gargoyles were used as sewers and drains through which water is expelled from the rain, preventing it from falling by
piedra.Es walls and erode the utility is referred to all European languages, where words devised to describe these architectural additions: Italian Gronda sporgente, precise phrase, architecturally speaking, that means "spout projection", the German wasserspeider, describing what a gargoyle can do, that is, spitting water, the English and French gargoyle gargouille, derived from the Latin Gargula, throat, or the English gargoyle, derived from the previous two. The gargoyles first appear at the beginning of the twelfth century. It is in the Gothic era, specifically during the thirteenth century, when transformed into the drainage system of choice, although not all of them have this utility.
seems that the earliest examples of Gothic gargoyles are those that can be seen in the Cathedral of Lyon, followed that populate the Notre-Dame de Paris. An art terroríficoEs
rare to find a single gargoyle. Can generally be grouped in rows, on top of churches and cathedrals, as a society of people of stone.
The first Gothic gargoyles were hardly developed, but as they were proliferating, the design was becoming increasingly elaborate, transformed into works of art. The distinctive feature is that their expressions were beautiful but never intentionally horrible, grotesque or ironic.
In general, the Gothic is characterized by being more realistic than the Romanesque, with the exception of the gargoyles, which seem to perpetuate the fascination typically Romanesque by the grotesque and monstrous creatures.
From the late thirteenth century gargoyles became more complicated, abandoning the representation of animals, which were replaced by human figures. Grew in size and became more exaggerated figures and demonic connotations caricaturizadas.Las abandoned in the fifteenth century, when strong measures poses and facial expressions, losing its religious significance and become more funny.
The gargoyles were more than a functional decor, but its deeper meaning still remains undetermined. Among the many medieval buildings that people have not been able to find two identical, demonstrating the extraordinary imagination of its builders.
contemporary documentation to its development offers little help in solving the enigma of its meaning derived largely from the medieval custom to create ambiguity, which leads and supports multiple ways.
The great variety, both in meaning ways, goes against the typical medieval use, ie education, if you wanted to show clearly to be understood the message conveyed by the gargoyles. That is why gargoyles are not only in churches and cathedrals, but also in secular buildings and private homes. Guardian
the FeSon many explanations that have sought, over the centuries to explain the hidden meaning of the gargoyles. Have been seen as symbols of the unpredictability of life, they never represent known animal species.
In other cases, it is said that souls are condemned for their sins, which are prevented from entering the house of God. This could be an appropriate interpretation, especially for the most visible and frightening gargoyles, which can serve as moral examples of what can happen to sinners.
Of all possible explanations, the most accepted is that which speaks of them as guardians of the Church, magic signs remain away the devil. This interpretation may explain why so evil and frightening aspects and its location outside the sanctuary.
One theory explains that he created as protectors of the Church.
This line of argument is followed by Fournival Richard, Bishop of Amiens in the thirteenth century, and author of Roman d'Ablandane, which tells how the master mason Flocars made two copper gargoyles that stood at the gateway to the city \u200b\u200bof Amiens, with the intention to evaluate the claims of anyone who would enter it.
If the guy was evil, gargoyles spitting venom on him killing him on the contrary, if it was a good person, the guards were charged with spitting gold and silver.
grotesque figures were also used. Signs
Demon Among the possible interpretations that have been attributed to the gargoyles are those that the treated as representations of the devil, so present in the medieval collective imagination, which reminds Christians of the need to follow religious precepts if you want to escape hell.
Thus, many so-called grotesque gargoyles appear to represent dragons, devils and demons, symbols of evil to the Christian Middle Ages.
The dragon was the most fantastic animal reproduced by medieval art. The dragon comes from the Sanskrit word dric, which means "look", referring to the ability of this animal to destroy your eyes.
While others, like the lion, they could switch their evil nature and beneficial, as the representation is considered, the dragon has always meant, in Western art, evil and destruction. In this way, sometimes the devil is represented as a dragon. Although the medieval
no predetermined fixed representation of the dragon, it can be seen in all the existence of wings like a bat, an animal associated with darkness and chaos. Alas, probably indicate the source angelic demonio.Como is well known, before Lucifer was revealed and was expelled from paradise, was the most beautiful of all angels. But when he fell, all its beauty became ugly, changing his name to Satan, meaning adversary or opponent. "
If you're the devil, Satan, there are many demons, evil spirits of the fallen angel servers. Their representation in medieval iconography includes everything that was nasty and unpleasant nature: if God was the Creator of all things beautiful, his opponent, Satan, could only represent the ugly, sordid and despicable. Some gargoyles
these characteristics, attributable only to the devil and servers. While the external appearance is human, there are many demonic signs, horns, pointy ears, animal, fangs, whiskers, membranous wings, tail, feet, legs shaped cleft and heartbreaking, the bodies devoid of hair and menacing countenance ...
A gargoyle with any of these features, but all was immediately associated with evil, by its medieval audience. Physiognomy polymorphic
these devilish gargoyles was the perfect expression of the ability of the devil to transform, to appear before the unsuspecting Christian under various disguises.
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