One of the most important and frequently represented typologies in gargoyle iconography is the anthropomorphic figure.
Anthropomorphic figures are animals endowed with human characteristics. They are semi-human beings that either possess human physical features or display attributes identifying them as male or female, such as clothing. In this first part, we shall examine their origins and some of the principal textual and iconographic sources that contributed to the development of this typology.
Origins and Sources of the Anthropomorphic Figure in Gargoyles
The most frequently represented anthropomorphic figure is the one combining a human head with an animal body, or vice versa. The origins of human-animal hybrids can be traced back to ancient Egypt, with deities such as Anubis, the jackal-headed god; Amun, represented with a ram's head; and Horus, depicted with the head of a falcon. Within Mesopotamian and Persian iconography, noteworthy examples include the Achaemenid reliefs and the glazed bricks of Susa and Persepolis, where the lamassu—a winged bull with a human head—is prominently represented.
The Greco-Roman world offers another well-known example in the Minotaur. Likewise, within Christian iconography, mention should be made of certain representations of the Four Evangelists and of saints such as Saint Christopher, who appears with a dog's head in a twelfth-century manuscript and in later icons.
The monster is intrinsically linked to mythology, which since Antiquity has bequeathed an extensive repertoire of monstrous beings that became firmly established in different cultures and endured within the collective imagination. Among them is the anthropomorphic figure, together with such well-known mythological beings as the siren, the centaur, and the Minotaur.
The image of India known in the West originated with the Greeks. The earliest accounts are found in Herodotus' Histories (fifth century BC). During the fourth century BC, India came to be regarded as a land of marvels and prodigies, largely through the writings of Ctesias of Cnidus, one of the first authors to describe fabulous creatures. His work refers to the manticore, pygmies, cynocephali, the griffin, and numerous other monstrous beings. Ctesias maintained that his account was based both on what he had personally observed and on information provided by eyewitnesses. Interest in, and knowledge of, India subsequently expanded following the campaigns of Alexander the Great in 326 BC.
Julius Obsequens—placed by some scholars in the second century and by others between the fourth and fifth centuries—left the Liber Prodigiorum, a work later compiled by the sixteenth-century scholar Conrad Lycosthenes. It contains an extensive catalogue of prodigies and monstrous births reported from different places, including that of a child born with an elephant's head.
Another fundamental written source for the study of anthropomorphic figures is travel literature: Homer's Odyssey, with its extraordinary contribution to the monsters of Greek mythology, including the Cyclops, the centaur, and the siren; Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica; and Virgil's Aeneid. Through the journeys of Odysseus, the Argonauts, and Aeneas, we encounter a world inhabited by monsters closely associated with mythological tradition.
Pausanias, the second-century traveller and geographer, describes in his Description of Greece the satyrs who inhabited the Satyrides Islands as red-coloured beings with tails as long as those of horses and a monstrous sexual appetite that drove them to assault women. Some of the characteristics attributed to satyrs would later become incorporated into demonic iconography.
Among the hagiographical sources, special mention should be made of The Golden Legend (thirteenth century), Jacobus de Voragine's celebrated compilation of saints' lives. This work also constitutes an important source for the iconography of anthropomorphic beings. Among the examples it records is the birth, in twelfth-century Spain, of a monster that was half man and half dog (vol. II, p. 469). It also recounts the case of a sow that gave birth to a piglet with a human face in Liège (vol. II, p. 469).
The fifteenth century produced works such as Pierre d'Ailly's Ymago Mundi (1410) and Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle (1493). In the latter, Schedel describes the birth of a monstrous being with two bodies: human at the front and canine at the rear.
Ambroise Paré and the Study of Monstrous Beings
One of the principal sources for the study of the anthropomorphic figure is the work of Ambroise Paré, the self-taught Renaissance physician who devoted considerable attention to the mystery of monstrous beings. In the introduction to his On Monsters and Marvels, first published in 1575 and a work that provoked the indignation of the Faculty of Medicine, Malaxecheverría writes: “…for I believe, together with Debidour, that God bestowed upon Adam—and upon Paré—all unreal monsters, since He granted him the power to imagine them”.
Among the creatures illustrated in Paré's work are a foal with a human head, a child with a frog's face, another child with the body of a dog, and a man with the hindquarters of a pig. He also refers to ancient sources describing sirens and tritons, as well as a sea monster with a monk's head.
The sources presented here represent only a small selection of the vast body of material relating to the anthropomorphic figure, which, as may be imagined, is virtually inexhaustible.
Before concluding, it is worth emphasising that Classical mythology, from which so many anthropomorphic beings derive, was itself profoundly influenced by the cultures of the East. One example may be found in Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days, works that, according to Pérez Jiménez, display clear parallels with a number of Eastern texts. Anthropomorphic beings also appear in Arabic manuscripts, such as al-Qazwini's Cosmography—its author often referred to as the “Arab Pliny” of the thirteenth century—where some figures bear a striking resemblance to Western models, including the cynocephalus, which is likewise closely related to the figure of Anubis in ancient Egypt.
Throughout this blog we have repeatedly explored, either directly or indirectly, the close relationship between art and history. We would like to conclude this entry by highlighting another equally fascinating connection: that between East and West. Over the centuries, these two worlds have remained closely intertwined, giving rise to a continuous exchange of influences of extraordinary richness across every artistic and intellectual discipline. It is a relationship that has endured through time and continues to shape our cultural heritage. The extraordinary iconography of gargoyles, populated by monsters and anthropomorphic beings, evokes the world of Classical mythology, Gothic architecture, castles, and medieval knights, yet it is equally capable of transporting us to the enchanting universe of The Thousand and One Nights.
Gallery of Anthropomorphic Gargoyles
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- Palma de Mallorca Cathedral (Spain)
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- Guarda Cathedral (Portugal)
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- Guarda Cathedral (Portugal)
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- Batalha Monastery (Portugal)
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- León Cathedral (Spain)
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- Segovia Cathedral (Spain)
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- Sevilla Cathedral (Spain)
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- Mirepoix Cathedral (France)
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- House of Shells (Salamanca, Spain)
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- Tours Cathedral (France)
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- Bruges City Hall (Belgium)
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- Batalha Monastery (Portugal)
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- Church of Nossa Senhora do Pópulo, Coto e São Gregório in Caldas da Rainha (Portugal)
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- Catedral de Palma de Mallorca
Palma de Mallorca Cathedral (Spain)
Bibliography
CTÉSIAS, Histoires de l´Orient, traduit et commenté par J. Auberger, preface de C. Malamoud, Paris, Société d´édition Les Belles Lettres, 1991.
DE LA VORÁGINE, S., La leyenda dorada, I y II, Madrid, Alianza Editorial, S. A., 1982.
HESÍODO, Teogonía. Trabajos y días, introducción, traducción y notas de A. Pérez Jiménez, Barcelona, Editorial Bruguera, S. A., 1981.
KAPPLER, C., Monstruos, demonios y maravillas a fines de la Edad Media, Madrid, Ediciones Akal, S. A., 1986.
LINK, L., El Diablo. Una máscara sin rostro, Madrid, Editorial Síntesis, S. A., 2002.
OBSECUENTE, J., Libro de los Prodigios (restituido a su integridad, en beneficio de la Historia, por Conrado Licóstenes), introducción, traducción y notas de A. Moure Casas, Madrid, Ediciones Clásicas, S. A (Colección de Autores Latinos, dtor.: J. J. Caerols Pérez), 1990.
PARÉ, A., Monstruos y prodigios, introducción, traducción y notas de I. Malaxecheverría, Madrid, Ediciones Siruela, S. A., 2000.
RESSOT, J. P., Apología de lo monstruoso. Una lectura de la obra de Ramón J. Sender, Huesca, Instituto de Estudios Altoaragonses (Diputación de Huesca), 2003.
WITTKOWER, R., La alegoría y la migración de los símbolos, Madrid, Ediciones Siruela, S. A. Biblioteca de Ensayo 53 (Serie Mayor, dtor.: I. Gómez de Liaño), 2006.
This entry was originally published in October 2019 and updated in July 2026.
Doctor of Art History and researcher specializing in the study of gargoyles.
I am Dolores Herrero Ferrio, and my thesis, “An Approach to the Study of Gargoyles of Gothic Cathedrals in Castilla and León”, is dedicated to the study of these fascinating figures.
If you like gargoyles and art history, you will also enjoy my book, “The Gargoyle and Its Iconography,” a book I have written with great care for those interested in the world of gargoyles.
I have created my own Encyclopedia of Gargoyles, a Gargopedia to share with you, where you will discover all the secrets and wonders of these enigmatic sculptures.
I hope you enjoy this Gargopedia as much as I have enjoyed creating it, and remember that each gargoyle has a story to tell, and here you will discover them all.
