gargoyles

I have been researching into different types of gargoyles realting to the time they were built and the place. In particular i have been researching to French gargoyles, as one of the key scenes of "In Extremis" is during the construction of Notre Dame.Despite the original gargoyles becoming eroded by time, descriptions of them still exist, and have been inspiring my ideas for the final sculptures:

"What is that ridiculous monstrosity doing, an amazing kind of deformed and and yet a beautiful deformity? What are the filthy apes doing here?n The fierce lions? The monstrous centaurs? The creatures, part man and part beast? the striped tigers? The fighting soldiers? The hunters blowing horns? You may see many bodies under one head, and conversely many heads on one body. On one side of the tail of a serpent is seen on a the other side of the head of a quadraped is on the body of a fish. Over there an animal has a horse for the front half and a goat for the back. Here a creature which is horned in front is equine behind." Bernard of Clairvaux, 1125

As this histrocial descriptions shows, gargoyles came in many combinations, shapes and manifestations. They were ugly, grotesque, humourous or intimidating. Around the 12th century, gargoyles sculping was in its heyday, and these crude impressions of beasts became more refined and appreciated as works of art.