Watching the People Below, Amiens Cathedral

 

John Taylor Arms

  1887 - 1953 (biography)

1921 / printed in 1937 

etching 

4 7/8 x 8 1/8" platemark 

pencil, lower right 

75 

pencil dated 1921 after the signature; also inscribed I in the lower left and SP in margin near sheet edge 

Fletcher 102, Gargoyle Series #3; Arms 103; LOC 520 and illustrated on page 34 

antique-white wove Arnold with partial watermark 1934 UNBLEACHED ARNO 

published 

artist 

24551 

$2,750.00 

The UNESCO website offers this description of Amiens cathedral: Located in the Hauts-de-France region, in the Department of the Somme, Amiens Cathedral is one of the largest churches in France and one of the most complete 13th century Gothic churches. The rigorous coherence of its plan, with the perfect symmetry of the nave and choir on either side of the transept, the beauty of its three-tier interior elevation, the audacious lightness of its structure that marks a new stage towards the conquest of luminosity, the wealth of its sculpted decoration and its stained glass makes it one of the most remarkable examples of medieval architecture.

Chimera, also called grotesques, are ornamental and some believe they were place on cathedrals to ward off evil sprints. They are often located above gargoyles. In Watching the People Below, the winged, long-necked chimera guards from his perch looking past three horizontal gargoyles.