دانلود کتاب gothic gargoyles

In the great great cities of Europe, the home of
our Western classical sculptural heritage,
people marvel at floodlit Donatellos, splen-
didly exhibited Michelangelos, and the wonderful
statues that adorn the majestic (gothic) cathedrals. But as the
sun sets, another breed of beast, the product of the
hand of a different sort of sculptor, comes into its
hour. They are beasts which sit as they have for as
long as eight centuries, peering down upon the sleep-
ing European cities and towns. They are the Gothic
gargoyles. They are of a breed of creatures which
frighten us with their appearance, while intriguing us
with their mystery.

Art historian John Stocking once said that a
Gothic cathedral is like a cave — rich in stalagmites
and stalactites — turned inside out. And just as the
formations within caves often have the appearance of
being living things, so too do the surfaces of the
cathedrals and the gargoyles that live amid the intri-
cate details of those surfaces. The texture
of the cathedral’s surface is intricately and deliberate-
ly carved by human hands, yet when the gothic cathedral is
observed from a distance, it has the appearance of
being a natural or organic environment. It seems
almost alive. When the light is fading, one may
often be fooled by the illusion of a flicker of move-
ment in the midst of that archtectural detail.

This book is the story of these little known
beasts that inhabit those caves turned inside out, and
a tribute to the anonymous craftsmen who created
them. As the lights go out across Europe tonight,
the gargoyles will stretch their stony necks, slance
about and stare down at lively cities and sleeping vil-
lages as they have for eight centuries or so, their ori-
gins still comfortably obscure and forever mysterious.