By
the end of the Gothic period, the carving of gargoyles
grew more elaborate. Human figures appeared alongside fantastic beasts,
as lighthearted comic relief more often than as guardians. Humor is a
major feature of the Gothic grotesque.
Many sculptural series depict characters from the margins of society,
not simply as diverting ornamentation, but as characters in a topsy-turvy
world on edge. Nineteenth-century Romantics were attracted to the instability
and irrationality this carnivalesque atmosphere evoked. Joseph Trompette’s photographs (left, detail) present a series of grotesques temporarily removed from Reims cathedral during restoration. The exterior of the cathedral at Reims is covered with over three hundred grotesque heads, many of which depict humans. The heads are so lifelike that scholars have asserted that they are portraits of the stone carvers or possibly even representations of psychological states.
At
Wells, England, a series of capitals in the cathedral depicts a series
of amusing grotesqueries: a “mouth puller” (possibly a toothache
sufferer) contorts his face, mocking worshippers inside the section of
church where the lay congregates worshipped. In another series, vineyard
robbers wrestle in humorous, yet violent episodes.