{"id":7015,"date":"2021-03-17T10:02:14","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T09:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/doloresherrero.com\/?p=7015"},"modified":"2026-11-05T11:24:41","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T10:24:41","slug":"gargoyles-representing-death-images-of-gargoyles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doloresherrero.com\/en\/gargoyles-representing-death-images-of-gargoyles\/","title":{"rendered":"Gargoyles and the Representation of Death"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

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One of the most evocative and sublime subjects in both literature and art is death.<\/p>\r\n

Macabre imagery exerts a fascination that paradoxically coexists with the aversion it may provoke. Owing to its associations with certain animals and with the demonic, the ugly and the monstrous, such imagery also appears occasionally in gargoyles. Among these representations, we find one of the most characteristic images of death: the human skeleton.<\/p>\r\n

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The Skeleton as a Symbolic Representation of Death<\/h2>\r\n

The human skeleton is used as an emblem of death. According to Chevalier and Gheerbrant's Dictionary of Symbols<\/em>, the skeleton personifies death and may also, on occasion, symbolise the Devil. It is likewise associated with blackness, decomposition and the processes that, in the alchemical tradition, precede transmutation.<\/p>\r\n

In antiquity, seals and small skeletal figurines were used in magical practices, as recorded by Apuleius (second century AD). These images were associated with Mercury, the psychopomp deity who possessed the power to descend into the underworld and return, as well as to guide the souls of the dead.<\/p>\r\n

In Petronius's Satyricon<\/em> (first century AD), a silver skeleton is presented during a banquet as a symbol of death and the brevity of life. Its presence encourages the guests to enjoy life and its fleeting pleasures.<\/p>\r\n

A similar idea underlies the medieval Dance of Death tradition, which reminded viewers of the transitory nature of earthly pleasures and the inevitability of death.<\/p>\r\n

In some representations, the skeleton holds a scythe in one hand, symbolising the brevity of life, and an hourglass in the other, alluding to the inexorable passage of time.<\/p>\r\n

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Death and Its Associations with Animals and the Devil<\/h2>\r\n

Certain animals also possess symbolic associations with death. The eagle<\/a>, for example, appears in the Bible in connection with predation and death. In Job 39:29\u201330, the eagle watches for its prey from afar, while its young feed on blood and gather where the dead are found.<\/p>\r\n

Regarding the serpent<\/a>, Isidore of Seville records in his Etymologies<\/em> a belief attributed to Pythagoras that serpents originate from the spinal marrow of dead men, thereby establishing an association between the serpent and death.<\/p>\r\n

Grivot observes that fifteenth-century representations still include demons of human appearance, with long tails and horns, whereas in the sixteenth century the Devil becomes associated with the theme of death.<\/p>\r\n

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The Monstrous Image of Death in Literary Sources<\/h3>\r\n

In the fifteenth-century Libro de los exemplos por A. B. C.<\/em> (Book of Exempla<\/em>) by Clemente S\u00e1nchez de Vercial, death is identified with a monstrous creature whose appearance combines the features of different animals.<\/p>\r\n

The passage begins by urging the reader to recognise the hideous appearance of death. It then recounts the story of a holy father who, after praying for many days that God would reveal death's appearance to him, heard a human voice calling him.<\/p>\r\n

When he left his cell, he encountered a beast with the body of a donkey, the legs of a deer, the feet of a horse, the face of a lion, two rows of teeth, a very large horn and a human voice. Through this extraordinary creature, he came to understand the various dreadful qualities attributed to death (Vol. LI, Chapter CCXXVII: Mortis imago multum est diformis<\/em>).<\/p>\r\n

Death forms part of our psychological experience and, from an early age, may evoke feelings of fear or aversion. Although representations of human skeletons are relatively uncommon among gargoyles, a number of particularly striking and fascinating examples survive.<\/p>\r\n

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The Representation of Death in Gargoyles and Grotesques<\/h2>\r\n

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