grotesque Oxford

Whilst in Oxford, I also took quite a lot of photos of various grotesques that lurk on the buildings (no gargoyles, though, 'cos I didn't see any I liked the look of as much — it seems as though the artistic endeavour was most often ploughed into the grotesques rather than the gargoyles). Of course, there ldings nearby, are so many that I couldn't take photos of them all, and I can't really remember exactly where most of my photos were taken (so my geotagging on Flickr is probably not 100% accurate).

They all have their own distinct character, and it made me wonder about all the stories behind them. Some of them look like they must be caricatures of famous personalities of the time (usually not at all flattering!), some of them are obviously the product of fevered imagination, and some just seem to pop up in the most unlikely locations.

These satyric corbels, with their eyecatchingly ostentatious gilding, prop up the porch of a house right next to one of Oxford's most famous churches.

The door between them is rather striking, too.

These two chaps at the Bodliean Library are both obviously of great significance, given their prominent positioning over doorways, rather than near the top of the walls, but the second one looks like he comes from more recent times, which made him stand out because all the other faces over the doors look more like the first one.

The Bodliean is covered in a wide variety of funny faces, although I'm not sure if these ones come from there or one of the other because almost all of those are covered in faces, too.

(More pics here.)

Wondering about all their stories also made me wonder whether there was a good website which could tell me more about them, but so far I've not found one. Pity.