Laon No. 1

Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

Results: 21 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

animal - fabulous animal or monster - 2

Scene Description: one a dragon with bovine extremities, another an avian with a round tail

Image Source: digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

animal - mammal - lion - passant

Scene Description: passant to the left; very sketchy representation, but the tail on the hunches identifies it as a lion

Image Source: digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

design element - motifs - floral - 6-petal - in a circle

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

design element - motifs - geometric

Scene Description: squashed between the vine on the left and the head on the right

Image Source: digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

design element - motifs - groove

Scene Description: a groove all around appears to be the only decoration on the basin top surface -- notice the damage to the rim and inner well

Image Source: digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

design element - motifs - leaf - lanceolated - 4

Scene Description: at the angles

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

design element - motifs - moulding

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

design element - motifs - moulding - 4

Scene Description: forming the capitals of the outer colonnettes

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

design element - motifs - vine - bearing fruit - grape or arum?

Scene Description: similar to the one on side 1

Image Source: digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

design element - motifs - vine - bearing fruit - grape or arum?

Scene Description: forming two large circles; similar to the one on side 4

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

human figure - head

Scene Description: one of four; this one to the right of side 3; completely broken off but it was probably quite alike the other three [NB: was the expansion of a metal staple atop that caused the breaking of the stone? a common occurrence in stone fonts when lead plugs were not used, or were too thin to take the expansion of cold metal]

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

human figure - male - head

Scene Description: one of four; this one to the right of side 1 -- notice the drilled hole atop the head, an anchoring for an old cover hardware

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

human figure - male - head

Scene Description: one of four; this one to the right of side 2 -- notice the plugged hole atop the head, an anchoring for an old cover hardware

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

human figure - male - head

Scene Description: one of four; this one to the right of side 4, with the geometric motif on the left; like the other surviving two, it has drilled hole atop, probably an anchoring point for a font cover hardware

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

symbol - tree?

Scene Description: Drake (2002) mentions it resembles a weeping willow

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

view of base

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

view of church exterior - west façade

Image Source: digital photograph taken 19 March 2011 by Velvet [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laon_cathedrale.jpg] [accessed 19 January 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of church exterior - west façade - portal

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2008 by Tango7174 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Picardie_Laon3_tango7174.jpg] [accessed 19 January 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of church exterior in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 September 2011 by Pline [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:La_cathédrale_de_Laon_DSC_0707.jpg] [accessed 19 January 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 February 2005 by Paul Herman [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Interieur2_kathedraal_Laon.JPG] [accessed 19 January 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 3 August 2014 by Paula Guillot

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 19 April 2015)

INFORMATION

FontID: 00382LAO

Church/Chapel: Eglise paroissiale (ancienne cathédrale) Notre-Dame

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin

Church Location: 8 rue du Cloître, 02000 Laon, France -- Tel.: +33 3 23 20 26 54

Country Name: France

Location: Aisne, Hauts-de-France

Directions to Site: Laon is 26 km NE of Soissons. There are several fonts in the immediate arrondissement of Laon and also in the outer areas towards Soissons (cf. field-work maps; also Index headings with the words "Laon" and "arrond.")

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocèse de Soissons, Laon et Saint Quentin

Historical Region: Nord-Pas-de-Calais / Picardie

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the S arm of the transept, east side

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

Workshop/Group/Artisan: Mosan font (Namurois)

Cognate Fonts: Bastogne, Gosnes, Lustin, Archennes, etc.

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Paula Guillot for her photographs of this font

Church Notes: original church here 8thc; present building is 12thC -- listed in Mérimée [ref.: PA00115710]

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

Included by Cloquet (1895) among the round Mosan-type fonts that have four heads at 90-degre angles on the basin sides. Enlart (1902) lists it with the Mosan-type fonts with four heads on the sides of the basin and describes the base as "cinq supports". Pudelko's (1932) illustration shows a round basin with heads at 90-degree angles; the basin sides between the heads are decorated with fine Tournai-like rounded leaf motifs and some symbols [cf. Drake below]; the base is a broad central column with four corner colonnettes resting on cushion bases and a square plinth. This is one of two baptismal fonts now found in the cathedral; it was classed 'Monument historique' 1 January 1840 and, according to Sanit-Denis, Plouvier & Souchon (2002), was located throughout the 19th century in the southeast part of the transept. Drake (2002) writes of the ornamentation: "One face has a short vine tendril of three leaves and two bunches of grapes, offset to the left, leaving an irregular space between it and the adjacent salient head. In this space is an oval, distorted so that it can fit beside the head. Its longer dimension is vertical and two horizontal cross-bars form semicircles at top and bottom; between these are two raised semicircular areas, their bases formed by the sides of the oval and not quite touching in the centre. On the adjacent face, also with similar vine tendril offset to the left, are two 'space-fillers'. Below, growing out of the narrow plain band defining the bottom of the face, is a miniature tree consisting of a slender trunk with branches hanging down on each side like a weeping willow. Above this is a disc containing a six-petalled flower. The other two faces have crude beasts and these fill the panels. The layout forces the onlooker to believe that these designs are deliberate and not merely an example of the medieval horror vacui filling in a space left through inaccurate measurement or workmanship. In fact the foliate decoration is of finer quality than the beasts and the two motifs are very similar, even down to the number of grapes shown in each bunch, and are off-set in identical manner to the left." Listed and illustrated in the Palissy database [références PM02000565 and IM02000163] with date in the late-12th century

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 49.5643, 3.625

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 49° 33′ 51.48″ N, 3° 37′ 30″ E

UTM: 31U 545195 5490377

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone (black and blue) (Tournai marble)

Font Shape: cylindrical (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Diameter (inside rim): 85 cm* / 83 cm**

Font Height (less Plinth): 100 cm* / 98 cm**

Notes on Measurements: * Palissy [référence PM02000565] / ** Palissy [ref.: IM02000163]

LID INFORMATION

Material: wood,

Apparatus: no

Notes: square and flat; appears modern

REFERENCES

Crozet, René, Fonts baptismaux de Souffrignac (Charente), Angoulême: Coquemard, 1966

Drake, Colin Stuart, The Romanesque Fonts of Northern Europe and Scandinavia, Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2002

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

Pudelko, Georg, Romanische Taufsteine, Berlin: Wurfel Verlag, 1932

Saint-Denis, Alain, Laon, la cathédrale, Paris: Zodiaque, 2002