Fowlis No. 1 / Fowlis Easter / Foulis Easter

PERMISSION [requested 10 October 2005] NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

Results: 22 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

B01: New Testament - Passion of Christ - Crucifixion?

Scene Description: one of the three figures in this scene appears to have the leggs trapped in the stocks; McG&R suggest this may be Christ bound, though the original carving appears to have Christ's feet on a shelf-like stoup, and represnts more likely the Crucifixion

Image Source: digital image of a drawing in MacGibbon & Cross (1896-1897: v. III: fig. 1118)

Copyright Instructions: PD

B02: New Testament - Passion of Christ - Via Crucis - Simon of Cyrene?

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Walker (1887: 442)

Copyright Instructions: PD

B03: human figure - standing - 3

Scene Description: unknown scene

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Walker (1887: 442)

Copyright Instructions: PD

B04: New Testament - events from Resurrection to Pentecost - Resurrection of Christ - Christ rises from the grave?

Scene Description: a partly dressed Christ appears to have one leg out of the tomb

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Walker (1887: 442)

Copyright Instructions: PD

B05: New Testament - events from Resurrection to Pentecost - Harrowing of Hell?

Scene Description: a figure on the left holding a cross appears to extend the hand to a haloed (?) figure on the right

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Walker (1887: 442)

Copyright Instructions: PD

B06: new Testament - public life of Christ - baptism of Christ?

Scene Description: this is identified in McG&R as the Baptism of Christ, whereas Walker offers "Jesus and St Peter on the sea, the latter in the act of sinking" [most likely the Baptism of Christ]

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Walker (1887: 442)

Copyright Instructions: PD

B07: New Testament - Passion of Christ - arrest of Christ?

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Walker (1887: 443)

Copyright Instructions: PD

B08: human figure - 3

Scene Description: unidentified scene

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Walker (1887: 443)

Copyright Instructions: PD

coat of arms - Gray and Wemyss?

Scene Description: MacGibbon & Ross identify the arms of Gray and Wemyss on this font

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Walker (1887: 442)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of church exterior - northwest view

Scene Description: Source caption: "Fowlis and Liff Parish Church. Also known as St Marnock's"

Image Source: digital photograph 27 March 2014 by Douglas Nelson [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3905790] [accessed 16 February 2023]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.5

view of church exterior - southwest view

Scene Description: Source caption: "Fowlis and Liff Parish Church. Also known as St Marnock's"

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph 27 March 2014 by Douglas Nelson [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3905792] [accessed 16 February 2023]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.5

view of church interior - detail - Annuciation

Scene Description: On a lintel of the Sacrament house, inside the Easter Church

Image Source: Digital image in www.arthist.arts.gla.ac.uk/gothic_open.index.htm

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION [requested 10 October 2005] NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of church interior - looking west

Scene Description: Source caption: "St Marnock's Church, Fowlis. This timber screen at the west end of the church was constructed in 1889 and incorporates doors from original rood screen"

Image Source: digital photograph 27 March 2014 by Douglas Nelson [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4941482] [accessed 16 February 2023]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.5

view of church interior - painting

Scene Description: Source caption: "The Crucifixion. Having somehow survived the iconoclasts of the Reformation time, this painting of the Crucifixion still hangs on the north wall of St Marnock's Church, Fowlis in Angus, a building that dates from 1453. The inscription on the frame of the painting is said to read '(They) built this Church to St Marnock; if you ask when (then) in 1453, because he (Lord Gray) had been on a pilgrimage to Rome, as one under a vow. But Thou (O Lord, have mercy upon me)...Amen'. The church is extremely rare if not unique in Scotland for its surviving paintings, rood screen doors and other furnishings."

Image Source: edited detail of a 18 April 2016 photograph by James Allan [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4941466] [accessed 16 February 2023]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.5

view of font

Scene Description: three scenes can be discerned on the basin panels [L-->R]: Via Crucis? -- Crucifixion of Chist -- Resurrection of Christ

view of font

Image Source: digital image of a drawing in MacGibbon & Cross (1896-1897: v. III: fig. 1117)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Scene Description: Illustration in MacGibbon&Ross (1896-97): note the arrangement of the base motifs: the band of square flower motif appears here just below the chamfer of the underbowl (whereas in Waklker's illustration [ca. 1887] they are just above the lower base band of shields and flowers)

Image Source: digital image of a drawing in MacGibbon & Cross (1896-1897: v. III: fig. 1117)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Scene Description: note the arrangement of the lower base motifs: the band of square flower motif is just above the lower base band of shields and flowers (whereas in MacGibbon & Ross' illustration [ca. 1896-97] they are just below the underbowl chamfer

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Walker (1887: 442)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Scene Description: three scenes can be discerned on the basin panels [L-->R]: Resurrection of Christ -- Harrowing of Hell -- Baptism of Christ in the Jordan

Image Source: Digital image in www.arthist.arts.gla.ac.uk/gothic_open.index.htm

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION [requested 10 October 2005] NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of font

Scene Description: two scenes can be discerned on the basin panels [L-->R]: Arrest of Christ? -- Mocking of Christ?

Image Source: Digital image in www.arthist.arts.gla.ac.uk/gothic_open.index.htm

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION [requested 10 October 2005] NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of font - plan

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Walker (1887: 443)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font - section

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Walker (1887: 443)

Copyright Instructions: PD

INFORMATION

FontID: 00386FOW

Church/Chapel: Fowlis Easter Church / St Marnoch's Parish Church. Fowlis

Church Patron Saints: St. Marnoch [aka St Marnan/Marnoc the Confessor]

Church Location: Fowlis Easter, Angus, DD2 5SG, Scotland, United Kingdom

Country Name: Scotland

Location: Angus, Perthshire

Directions to Site: Located off (S) the A923, just a few km WNW of Dundee

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of St. Andrews

Historical Region: formerly Perthshire

Font Location in Church: Back in the church ca. 1887; at the W end of the nave

Century and Period: 16th century(early?), Late Gothic

Workshop/Group/Artisan: heraldic font

Church Notes: church first mentioned 1180; present building 1453; restored 1889

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

****************** ADD PICS https://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=175440824 Described and illustrated in Walker (1887), who informs that about 50 years earlier [i.e., ca. 1837] the font had been "found lying about in a fragmentary state by the parish schoolmaster; he collected the parts, and restored the font as far as possible. Not long afterwards, Mr T.S. Muir says- 'The sole heritor' of the parish removed the relic to a solitary residence among the mountains of an adjoining county- an act of perverted taste and bad feeling that could scarcely have been looked for in a such a quarter.' The font, which was returned to Fowlis some years later [i.e., before 1887], "is octagonal in plan, and each face in filled in with sculptured figures, clothed in albs, armour, &c. The mutilations prevent any accurate idea being formed, however, of what they represent. One seems to represent Jesus and St Peter on the sea, the latter in the act of sinking" (ibid.). What was left of the font ca. 1896 is illustrated in MacGibbon-Ross (1896-1897); the damage to the basin scenes and the nature of the drawing is such that it does not permit an identification of the scenes: one appears to be a naked person in the water (baptism?); another side shows someone's leggs trapped in the stocks, hands at the back and sided by two other persons; the person in the centre is scantily dressed; another scene shows two persons in the centre (holding hands?, marriage?) with three other persons present; MacGibbon & Ross (ibid.) describe the program as "sculptured scenes from the life of Christ, which are much broken and defaced. The Baptism occupies one space, and Christ bound with a figure on each side [...] is carved on another. The panels also contain the arms of Gray and Wemyss, with others now obliterated" [NB:from this description one would assume that the "arms of Gray and Wemyss" appear on the panels of the basin; it is not clear from either source, since there appear to be nothing but scenes on the basin panels; it is possible that MacGibbon & Ross' reference is to the coat-of-arms on the lower base panels, which Walker illustrates as charged with rampant lions]. The chamfer of the font is graded, the lower part ornamented with a flower or foliage motif. The upper part of the octagonal base has a flat moulding; the next part splays out slightly and is plain; the lower base volume is also octagonal but wider, and has some motifs on the sides, at least one of which is a shield charged with a an emblem (unidentified). [NB: it is interesting to note that in the ten years beween Walker and McG&R the font was obviously re-mounted: in Walker, the stem of the base appears plain on top, then a narrow centre ring with floral motif, followed down by a row of large square flowers; the next volume down is the splayed lower base ornamented with shields. In McG&R, however -ten years later- the order of the blocks had been reverted so that the row of square flowers made the top of the stem, then the centre ring -which in McG&R's drawing appears plain-, and then the plain part, followed down by the lower base block. One would assume that the latter arrangement is more common in fonts of this period]. Professor Robert Gibbs, Glasgow University, includes this font in his course notes on Scottish Gothic Churches and Abbeys; Gibbs dates the font to the early 16th century and identifies the scenes on the font: "features Christ's Baptism, [...] and scenes of his Passion as the promise of Redemption for humanity: the Arrest of Christ, Mocking of Christ, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Descent into Hell." Gibbs (Ibid.) notes also a noteworthy holy-water stoup in this church [source: www.arthist.arts.gla.ac.uk/gothic_open/index.htm]. The entry for this church in the Historical Environment Scotland [http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB13144] [accessed 16 February 2023] notes: "Damaged octagonal font at west end, probably pre-Reformation, with sculpted scenes of the life of Christ". The entry for this church in POWiS (Places of Worship in Scotland) [http://www.scottishchurches.org.uk/sites/site/id/1166/name/St+Marnoch%27s+Parish+Church%2C+Fowlis+Fowlis+Easter+Tayside] [accessed 16 Fberuary 2023] reports the "large stone font of the church" being located at the westeern end of the nave. [cf. Index entries for Fowlis Nos. 2 and 3 for the two stoups in this church]

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 56.489, -3.1

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 56° 29′ 20.4″ N, 3° 6′ 0″ W

UTM: 30V 493842 6260511

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown

Number of Pieces: three

Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

Rim Thickness: 12.5 cm [calculated]

Diameter (inside rim): 52.5 cm

Diameter (includes rim): 77.5 cm

Font Height (less Plinth): 90 cm

Notes on Measurements: Walker (1887: 445) [NB: MacGibbon & Ross give measurements as: "3 feet high, with a round basin, 20 1/2 inches wide" - the latter must refer to the inner diameter of the basin]

REFERENCES

Gibbs, Robert, "Scottish Gothic Churches and Abbeys [course notes]", 2005

MacGibbon, David, Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland: from the Earliest Christian Times to the Seventeenth Century, Edinburgh: D. Douglas, 1896-1897

Walker, J. Russell, "Scottish Baptismal Fonts", 21 or N.S. 9, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1887, pp. 346-448; r["References"]