Synopses & Reviews
Most of the seven million people who visit the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris each year probably do not realize that the legendary gargoyles adorning this medieval masterpiece were not constructed until the nineteenth century. The first comprehensive history of these world-famous monsters,
The Gargoyles of Notre-Dame argues that they transformed the iconic thirteenth-century cathedral into a modern monument.
Michael Camille begins his long-awaited study by recounting architect Eugand#232;ne Viollet-le-Ducand#8217;s ambitious restoration of the structure from 1843 to 1864, when the gargoyles were designed, sculpted by the little-known Victor Pyanet, and installed. These gargoyles, Camille contends, were not mere avatars of the Middle Ages, but rather fresh creationsand#8212;symbolizing an imagined pastand#8212;whose modernity lay precisely in their nostalgia. He goes on to map the critical reception and many-layered afterlives of these chimeras, notably in the works of such artists and writers as Charles Mand#233;ryon, Victor Hugo, and photographer Henri Le Secq. Tracing their eventual evolution into icons of high kitsch, Camille ultimately locates the gargoylesand#8217; place in the twentieth-century imagination, exploring interpretations by everyone from Winslow Homer to the Walt Disney Company.
Lavishly illustrated with more than three hundred images of its monumental yet whimsical subjects, The Gargoyles of Notre-Dame is a must-read for historians of art and architecture and anyone whose imagination has been sparked by the lovable monsters gazing out over Paris from one of the worldand#8217;s most renowned vantage points.
Review
and#8220;The and#8216;restorationand#8217; of Notre Dame de Paris has always been controversial. Viollet-le-Duc and Jean Baptiste Lassus have long been cast as the handmaidens of nineteenth-century positivism, instilling a vision of rational structure and historical development on the cathedral only recently purged of its Revolutionary years as a Temple of Reason.and#160;Writing a history of the cathedraland#8217;s bevy of gargoyles, Michael Camille brilliantly confirms Viollet-le-Ducand#8217;s definition of and#8216;restorationand#8217; as both a word and thing of modern coinage. This last work of one of our timeand#8217;s great medievalists is, like Victor Hugoand#8217;s
Notre Dame de Paris, at once monumental and wide ranging, yet always focused on a demonic protagonist. Provocative, at times profoundly insightful, Michael Camille unveils the fantasies and anxieties of both Viollet-le-Duc and all the restorations since in the veils of meaning and emotions of Franceand#8217;s most visited cathedral.and#8221;
Review
"Camille contextualizes the social dimension of this 19th-century restoration project by expanding it into a cultural digest to demonstrate that, rather than restoring a medieval bestiary, Viollet-le-Duc's passionate imagination shaped creatures expressive of social anxieties resounding today."and#8212;Choice
Review
and#8220;The celebrated medievalist Michael Camille takes on the modern era in this sweeping and brave bookand#8212;with staggeringly original results. Exploring the indispensability of the monstrous to the modern,
The Gargoyles of Notre Dame is at once a meditation on the valences of modernity and a rumination on the meanings attributed to the Middle Ages and the cathedral itself in the later nineteenth century.and#8221;
Review
andquot;Extraordinary, comprehensively illustrated and cogently argued. . . . The illustrations alone are amazing . . . and the whole monumental, provocative, finished volume is a tribute to scholarship as well as to the protagonists of one of the most spectacular works of controversial restoration ever undertaken. The book investigates the monstrous and its influence on the modern . . . as well as providing thoughtful asides on 19th-century interpretations of the meanings given to medievalism and to a revived medieval artefact.andquot;
Review
“An ingenious and highly readable book.” Choice
Review
andldquo;An ingenious and highly readable book.andrdquo;
About the Author
Michael Camille (1958and#8211;2002) was professor of art history at the University of Chicago. His many books include
The Medieval Art of Love and
Mirror in Parchment.
and#160;
Table of Contents
Preface
Abbreviations of Locations and Sources of Illustrations
and#160;
Part I: Restoration
and#160;
1. Monsters of Reason: The Gargoyles of Viollet-le-Duc
I. The 1843 Project and Its Transformation
II. Drawings by Viollet-le-Duc and Lassus
III. Viollet-le-Ducand#8217;s Anti-iconographic Imagination
and#160;
2. Monsters of Stone: The Gargoyles of Victor Joseph Pyanet
I. The Sculptor of Ornament
II. The Myth of the Medieval Craftsman
III. Life and Death on the Building Site
and#160;
3. Monsters of Romanticism: The Gargoyles of Victor Hugo
I. Quasimodoand#8217;s Grimace and the Craze for Gargoyles
II. The Book Will Kill the Building
III. The View from Notre-Dame
IV. Michelet and the Deviland#8217;s Ogival Eye
and#160;
4. Monsters of Race: The Gargoyles of Science
I. The Spirit of Evil: Physiognomy
II. The Wandering Jew: Aryanism
III. The Hairy Ape: Evolution
IV. The Cretin Unicorn: Degeneration
V. Stones and Bones: Paleontology
and#160;
5. Monsters of Revolution: The Gargoyles of Politics
I. Political Animals on the Left and Right
II. The Brute and the Bourgeois
III. The Wild Beast and the Revolutionary Worker
IV. Shrouded Birds and Murdered Bishops
V. The Eagle and the Emperor
and#160;
Epilogue to Part I: The Gargoyles Restored (1864)
and#160;
Part II: Reproduction
and#160;
6. Monsters of Melancholy: The Gargoyles of Charles Mand#233;ryon
I. The Strygeand#8217;s Sex
II. The Self and the Squatting Ape
III. The Suicidal Stare
and#160;
7. Monsters of Light: The Gargoyles of Photographers
I. The Dandy as Beholder: Charles Nand#232;gre and Henri Le Secq
II. The Worker as Beholder: Henri Le Secq and Viollet-le-Duc
III. The Beast as Beholder: From Marville to Mieusement
and#160;
8. Monsters of Sex: The Gargoyles of Gender
I. Love among the Gargoyles
II. Freud, Hysteria, and the Gynecologic Gargoyle
III. Huysmansand#8217;s Chimera: The Cathedral as Whore
IV. Lulu Makes the Gargoyles Speak
V. Gay Gargoyles of the Nineties
and#160;
9. Monsters of the Media: The Gargoyles in the Twentieth Century
I. The Chimerical Postcard
II. Dark Gargoyles: Surrealism, Fascism and the Occult
III. White Gargoyles: American Gothic from Winslow Homer to Disney
IV. Global Gargoyles on the Internet
and#160;
Epilogue to Part II: The Gargoyles Restored Again (2000)
and#160;
Appendix: The Chimeras (a List and Photographic Survey)
Notes
Bibliography
Index