Mousson / Château de Mousson

CC-BY-SA-NC-ND 4.0 = Licence Ouverte / CC-BY-SA-4.0

Results: 13 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

New Testament - public life of Christ - Christ blessing the children

Scene Description: Matthew 19: 14: "But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." [KJV]

Image Source: digital image of a B&W photograph by Camille Enlart, reproduced in Cartes de France [https://www.cartes-2-france.com/villes/54390-mousson.php] [accessed 3 February 2023]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-NC-ND 4.0 = Licence Ouverte / CC-BY-SA-4.0

New Testament - public life of Christ - baptism of Christ - in the Jordan - angel holding censer - angel holding clothes - dove present

Image Source: digital image of a B&W photograph by Camille Enlart, reproduced in Cartes de France [https://www.cartes-2-france.com/villes/54390-mousson.php] [accessed 3 February 2023]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-NC-ND 4.0 = Licence Ouverte / CC-BY-SA-4.0

animal - mammal - lion

Scene Description: one of the twelve protomes of the base [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital image of a B&W photograph [MH0029883] by Camille Enlart, in Mémoire [ref.: APMH00029883] [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Eglise_-_Fonts_baptismaux_-_Mousson_-_Médiathèque_de_l'architecture_et_du_patrimoine_-_APMH00029883.jpg] [accessed 3 February 2023]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-NC-ND 4.0 = Licence Ouverte / CC-BY-SA-4.0

animal - mammal - ox

Scene Description: one of the twelve protomes of the base [cf. FontNotes]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-NC-ND 4.0 = Licence Ouverte / CC-BY-SA-4.0

animal - mammal - ram

Scene Description: one of the twelve protomes of the base [cf. FontNotes]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-NC-ND 4.0 = Licence Ouverte / CC-BY-SA-4.0

design element - architectural - column - columns with capitals and bases - 4

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-NC-ND 4.0 = Licence Ouverte / CC-BY-SA-4.0

design element - motifs - foliage

Scene Description: visible here on the left

Image Source: digital image of a B&W photograph by Camille Enlart, reproduced in Cartes de France [https://www.cartes-2-france.com/villes/54390-mousson.php] [accessed 3 February 2023]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-NC-ND 4.0 = Licence Ouverte / CC-BY-SA-4.0

design element - patterns - scalloped

Scene Description: visible here on the right

Image Source: digital image of a B&W photograph by Camille Enlart, reproduced in Cartes de France [https://www.cartes-2-france.com/villes/54390-mousson.php] [accessed 3 February 2023]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-NC-ND 4.0 = Licence Ouverte / CC-BY-SA-4.0

human figure or simian?

Scene Description: one of the twelve protomes of the base [cf. FontNotes]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-NC-ND 4.0 = Licence Ouverte / CC-BY-SA-4.0

sacrament - baptism

Scene Description: in the presence of a cleric, two figures in a font; another two, disrobed, waiting their turn behing the large tree? [cf. FontNotes]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-NC-ND 4.0 = Licence Ouverte / CC-BY-SA-4.0

view of church exterior and interior - ruins

Scene Description: Source caption: "Château de Mousson; Ruine de la chapelle castrale, Mousson, Lorraine, France"

Image Source: digital photograph 17 February 2015 by M.Strīķis [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Château_de_Mousson,_Ruine_de_la_chapelle_castrale,_Mousson,_Lorraine,_France_-_panoramio.jpg] [accessed 3 February 2023]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font

Image Source: digital image of a B&W photograph by Camille Enlart, reproduced in Cartes de France [https://www.cartes-2-france.com/villes/54390-mousson.php] [accessed 3 February 2023]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-NC-ND 4.0 = Licence Ouverte / CC-BY-SA-4.0

view of font and cover

Scene Description: the wooden cover only partially visible here

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-NC-ND 4.0 = Licence Ouverte / CC-BY-SA-4.0

INFORMATION

FontID: 00337MOU

Museum and Inventory Number: Château de Mousson [disappeared]

Church/Chapel: Ancienne chapelle castrale [ruins]

Country Name: France

Location: Meurthe-et-Moselle, Grand Est

Directions to Site: Near Pont-à-Mousson, itself located about half way between Metz and Nancy up the A31/E21/E23, about 20 kms either way. The Château de Mousson is reported in ruins in the "Mérimé" database. Tealdi's Châteaux et guérriers de la France au Moyen Âge reports this castle as having been dismantled by Richelieu (1624+) and later totally destroyed in 1944 in a bombardment

Historical Region: Lorraine / Duché de Lorraine

Font Location in Church: The font was in the chapel of the castle of Mousson before the whole thing was destroyed in WWII

Date: 1083?

Century and Period: 12th century (late?) / 13th century (early?), Romanesque

Cognate Fonts: St-Barthelemy, in Liège [as an example of a font mounted on animals]

Church Notes: The castle and the font were totally destroyed in 1944, World War II [cf. FontNotes] -- the ruins are listed in Mérimée [ref.: PA00106097] -- the present church, Église de l'Assomption, is modern

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

The font from the acienne chapelle castrale of the Château de Mousson appears in Corblet (1881-1882) both in Aisne and Meurthe-et-Moselle with different, though not necessarily contradictory descriptions; they both include a mention of a baptism of Our Lord scene; the entry under Meurthe-et-Moselle mentions that the font was donated in 1083 by the comtesse Sophie de Bar. The font had a large quatrefoil basin carved in very high relief with scenes separated by columns; the baptism scene had John the Baptist on the left with his hand over Christ's head, above which was the "diving dove" (Holy Ghost) and a head (God the Father?); to the right, an angel stood holding the folded robes; another angel above the first swings a censer; the next scene to the right of the dividing column included at least one robed male person stands facing right; this latter scene is described by Corblet (ibid.) as a bishop "imposant les mains à deux enfants plongés à mi-corps dans une cuve." The very stumpy underbowl had scallop motif in some areas. The lower part of the font, the squat base, had the remains of some (12?) carved animals (oxen) which must, when whole, have been similar to the ones which hold the St Barthélemy font in Liège [description based in part on an ill. in the Index of Christian Art]. Schiller (1971) notes" another imitation of the Brazen Sea, dating from the second half of the twelfth century, at Mousson." Dated by Müller-Dietrich (1968) to the early 13th century. The entry for the castle chapel in the Bulletin Monumental Année 1890 56 p. 534 [https://www.persee.fr/doc/bulmo_0007-473x_1890_num_56_1_10855_t1_0534_0000_3] [accessed 2 February 2023] asked for a funding drive to be started to restore the former castle chapel, at the time parish church of the village, and mentions the baptismal font therein. Enlart (1902) describes the scene on this font as a Baptism "figuré" and he mentions that, like the font at Liège, this one is also supported by twelve oxen; farther on he gives its shape as "quatrilobés", and his photograph is avalibale in Mémoire [ref.: APMH00029883] [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Eglise_-_Fonts_baptismaux_-_Mousson_-_Médiathèque_de_l'architecture_et_du_patrimoine_-_APMH00029883.jpg] [accessed 3 February 2023]. Colman & Colman (2002) note that the font had survived well until its destruction in the war in 1944, and that good photographic records of this font exist. Colman & Colman (ibid.) do not disagree with Müller-Dietrich's dating [cf. supra]; they described the font as having a quatrefoil basin raised on a base made up of twelve protomes of different types, but which included a ram, a lion and a human or simian as well; the sides of the basin included four scenes separated by columns, one of which scenes was a representation of the Baptism of Christ. [NB: M. Hubert Collin, directeur des Archives départementales de Meurthe-et-Moselle, confirmed to BAPTISTERIA SACRA the total destruction of the castle, as well as the font itself, in September 1944 -- e-mail to BSI -- cf. physical font file]

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 48.90497, 6.07792

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 48° 54′ 17.89″ N, 6° 4′ 40.51″ E

UTM: 32U 285878 5421008

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown

Font Shape: quatrefoil (mounted)

Basin Exterior Shape: quatrefoil

LID INFORMATION

Material: wood,

Notes: [cf. ImagesArea]

REFERENCES

Colman, Pierre, Les fonts baptismaux de Saint-Barthélemy à Liège: chef-d'oeuvre sans pareil et noeud de controversion, Bruxelles: Académie Royale de Belgique, 2002

Enlart, Camille, Manuel d'archéologie française depuis les temps mérovingiens jusqu'à la Renaissance, Paris: Alphonse Picard & fils, 1902

Index of Medieval Art, The Index of Medieval Art, Index of Christian Art, Princeton, [s.d.]. URL: https://theindex.princeton.edu/.

Müller-Dietrich, Norbert, Die romanische Skulptur in Lothringen, [München]: Deutsche Kunstverlag, 1968

Schiller, Gertrud, Iconography of Christian Art, Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1971