Corner Gargoyle T-shirt
$15.95
This gargoyle has been looking down on Boston for over 85 years. Some believe that placing gargoyles on this building may have been meant as a joke to the owner of the building across the street. Others believe that this gargoyle holds his hands over his ears in order to block from hearing the sounds of the despairing city.
Gargoyles originally served a very practical purpose on the Medieval cathedrals that they decorated - they were water spouts, designed to draw the flow of drain water away from the masonry. Why this form of decoration was chosen is a completely different issue. We have heard that they were placed there to protect from evil spirits, or many of the other things that the Medieval imagination dreamed up. Vampires, incubus, sucubus, werewolves and demons of all sorts were right around any dark corner. So why not protect churches and other important buildings with strong and fearful looking creatures like this one? It's one possibility. Another possibility is that early Christians were very gifted at getting Pagans to convert to the new religion. One method, was to take existing Pagan shrines and build cathedrals on those sites. Westminster and Chartres are built on sites that were known to have Pagan shrines on them. If the idea was to get non-believers to come to the new cathedral to celebrate their ceremonies, it would also stand to reason that they would pick images that would make the Pagans feel more at home. This means that the true symbolic meaning of these fascinating creatures may have been lost when the old religions died out.
This remarkably detailed design is available in a wide variety of sizes and nothing is lost when silk screened onto 100% cotton shirts. To see this design in greater detail, click on the T-shirt image to zoom in.
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