Chimera of Notre-Dame de Paris

A close-up, black-and-white photograph shows a weathered stone chimera from the gallery of Notre-Dame. The creature is depicted in profile, facing right, with pointed ears, a single prominent horn, and wide, hollow-looking eyes. Its body is hunched in a resting pose, with textured, wing-like formations visible on its back and defined muscles along its forelimbs. Below the sculpture, the blurred rooftops of the Parisian urban landscape extend toward the horizon.

These sculptures, often misidentified as gargoyles (as they lack water-spouting functions), were part of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc's 19th-century Gothic Revival restoration, embodying the Romantic fascination with medieval grotesque motifs.