Walkabout with Montrose: In the Throat of Terror

The word gargoyle is from the French word gargouille, which means throat. A real gargoyle is a waterspout, projecting from a gutter, which throws water out away from the wall and foundations of a building.

Technically speaking, any other carved figure not a waterspout is a grotesque. Like many of the architectural features we take for granted today, these have their origins in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome.

Ancient Egyptian architecture features the first grotesques, in the form of figures of gods with human bodies and animal heads, and gargoyle water spouts were found in the ruins of Pompeii.

Of course, our most familiar association with gargoyles is with medieval architecture, and the most famous, and some of the best gargoyles are on the Cathedral of Notre Dame, in Paris.

The fantastic and often terrifying creatures that lurk on our buildings here in Brooklyn are the many times great-grandchildren of those creatures of the middle Ages. Why would anyone put such terrifying creatures on a building, especially a church?

Scholars have theorized that because so many medieval people were illiterate, the great cathedrals were a sermon in stone, instructions to a populace that didn’t need much proof beyond every day living, that they were living in the last days: with hard, short lives, endless war, plague and disease, and evil everywhere.

The carvings on churches illustrated the lives of Jesus, the apostles and saints, as well as the Last Judgment, and the horrors of a hell filled with demons and monsters, as depicted by the ferocious gargoyles, grotesques and chimera, which were frightening creatures that were part human, part animal, or the joining of several different animals, like griffins, harpies and fantastical demons.

It is thought that the idea was to have even scarier creatures than real demons guarding God’s house, to protect it from evil, or to literally scare the hell out of those who saw them, sending them to the
Church for protection.

The anonymous medieval stone carvers who created this frightening world were able to use their imaginations to create creatures that would not be allowed otherwise. These artists created amazing creatures that stay in our imagination still.

As the centuries passed, and as these same traditions passed to the New World, the tradition of using fantastic creatures as ornament continued, especially in the Victorian age. Many of our best churches are greatly inspired by the medieval masterpieces, from the flying buttresses, down to the gargoyles.

The tradition of protective and slightly terrifying guardian creatures continued in the row houses, apartment buildings, mansions, schools, colleges, and commercial buildings of New York, from the mid 1800’s through the Art Deco period of the 1930’s.

Here in Brooklyn, there are plenty of examples, both sacred and secular, of creatures that may make us jump when approached unawares, but are there for our amusement, wonder, and protection.

Today, gargoyles and grotesques are the subjects of books, movies, comics and art. Everyone loves to be scared by the looming, watching, stone creatures that look as if they just MIGHT come to life and POUNCE!

Happy Halloween!

[Photos by Suzanne Spellen]