The Gargoyle Book: 572 Examples from Gothic Architecture (Dover Architecture)
Product ID: 29628759
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Amid the soaring grandeur of arches and spires lurks a more down-to-earth architectural flourish: the grinning head of a gargoyle. Singly and clustered, these intriguing creatures form as distinctive an element of Gothic architecture as the flying buttress. Nowhere are they more prominent than along the walls of French cathedrals, and this magnificently illustrated volume prowls the ramparts of those medieval buildings to discover hundreds of authentic gargoyle carvings. According to tradition, the gargoyles were posted as sentries, to ward off malevolent spirits and to remind parishioners of the evil beyond the church doors. Author Lester Burbank Bridaham takes a more optimistic view. Noting the stone guardians' whimsical nature, he discusses the artisanal ingenuity involved in their creation. He also points out how they represented a rare sense of freedom in the Middle Ages, in terms of public satire and unbridled artistic enthusiasm. As this book reveals, the timeless appeal of the gargoyle — whether symbolic, spiritual, decorative, or fanciful — continues to captivate the imagination.
| Dimensions | 8.25 x 0.5 x 10.75 inches |
| Isbn 10 | 0486447545 |
| Isbn 13 | 978-0486447544 |
| Item Weight | 1.34 pounds |
| Language | English |
| Print Length | 224 pages |
| Publication Date | August 4, 2006 |
| Publisher | Dover Publications |
User
Great Book! lots of pictures and info
There are lots of pictures of Gothic Gargoyles and it is interesting to learn about what they are used for. If you are in college and have an art history course, I recommend this book! It can be helpful if you have a research paper on the Gothic times if you need some information or a picture of a gargoyle.
User
Good reference for any level of information.
Everyone needs a good gargoyle reference book either for design or touring Europe.
User
lots of middling quality pictures of gargoyles presented with little context or information
Before I go on to give what might seem like a bad review, I want to say that I like this book for what it is. If you want a book with a lot of old, black and white pictures, then this is the book for you. The pictures aren't particularly good (framing, contrast, clarity) and there is very little information about the pictures or what they contain, aside from about 50% of the pics having location information, some (10%?) even have a brief comment about what the picture is of. I had hoped for a little more context or information about what we're looking at, but there is a little text in the beginning talking about the different categories. It does have A LOT of pictures, around 572, I'd imagine. Not a stunning book, but exhaustive in terms of black and white gargoyles.
User
Cool Book
Gave this as a gift to a gargoyle enthusiast, and he said it's an excellent book with really nice photographs.
User
Great book
We really enjoyed the entire book
User
Cheap awful book!
Cheap!! I'm trying to return it but having a difficult time. The photos are faded and hard to tell what some are. Plus they're printed on cheap news print paper like little kids use to color on. The description was inaccurate. Amazon needs to let people see pages in the books like they used too. Buying them with as little description as they give is a mistake. Not worth the 20 some odd dollars I spent. Don't bother with this book. Plus its not all gargoyles.p
User
A' BOOK THAT'S GOT THE MOST PICTURES!
Looked at several but it was this one that SURPASSED in many ways ... the number of pictures for one! The cost of the book was very reasonable compared to a few others. 'Enuf said!
User
It came on time and is very nicely illustrated.
I ordered this for Christmas. It came on time and is very nicely illustrated.
User
Lots and lots of Gargoyles
I like the vast amount of photos which are all described as to their location
User
Súper interesante
Muy interesante libro. Con fotos. Recomendable
User
Gargoyles glamour
Wonderful reference book. Good size pictures which were detail and easy to work,
User
Informative
Comprehensive details of gargoyles but mainly those from abroad rather than examples in UK, which was a little disappointing. Lots of images (black and white) of gargoyles in France.
User
Lots of Gargoyles!
Great overview of Gargoyles around the world. Eight page introduction on gargoyles followed by about 200 pages with multiple pictures on each page in black and white.
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