Gargoyles and Grotesques

 

Gargoyle on Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

Gargoyle on Amiens Cathedral, the tallest Gothic church and largest cathedral in France. 

The only difference between a gargoyle sculpture and a grotesque sculpture is that gargoyles are designed to carry away water through their mouth as in a waterspout.

In modern terminology the term gargoyle has come to be used for both functional and non-functional forms of this whimsical, sometimes nightmarish, form of sculpture.

Examples of Gargoyles are here at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.

Characteristics

Gothic gargoyles are 

• often creatures 
• sometimes human with creature type features. 

• sometimes they are more creature with some human feature.
• sometimes more than one type of creature is depicted in a gargoyle.  
• an expression of the imagination of their sculptor.  
• less grotesque, more whimsical gargoyles are found in more recent gargoyles.