Cuevas de San Clemente / Covas Sancti Clementis

Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

Results: 23 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

animal - bird - eating fruit

Scene Description: one of a pair that face each other; this one faces right

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

animal - bird - eating fruit

Scene Description: one of a pair that face each other; this one faces left

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

animal - bird - eating fruit - 2

Scene Description: a pair, almost identical, both facing the right

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

animal - bird - stork

Scene Description: to the right of the rolled snakes; facing right

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

animal - reptile - snake

Scene Description: the head and tail end of the snake that hides as the moulding around the lower base

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

animal - reptile - snake - 2

Scene Description: rolled one into another, to the right of the pair of birds facing right

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

animal - reptile - snake - detail

Scene Description: the head and tail end of the snake that hides as the moulding around the lower base

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

design element - architectural - arcade - round arches - columns - torsade columns

Scene Description: arches rest on torsade columns

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

design element - architectural - arch-head - round

Scene Description: incised round arch-heads all around below the moulding that is really the body of a snake

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

design element - motifs - floral - 4-petal - 2

Scene Description: or, can also be seen as Maltese crosses

design element - motifs - floral - flower - 3-petal - in a circle

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

design element - motifs - floral - flower - 4-petal - inside a circle - 2

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

design element - motifs - vine - acanthus?

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

design element - patterns - triangular

Scene Description: all around, between the vine above and the arch-heads below

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

view of basin - detail

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

view of church exterior - northwest view

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph 1 April 2011 by LaHornera.info [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iglesia_Cuevas_de_San_Clemente_-_panoramio.jpg] [accessed 27 October 2016]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

view of font in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

view of font in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

view of font in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

view of font in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

view of font in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 October 2016 by Pedro Lozano Huerta

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 24 October 2016)

view of stoup

Scene Description: [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital photograph 23 March 2024 by Ferran Petit

Copyright Instructions: Imagen and permission received from the author via Juanma Torrens Alzu

INFORMATION

FontID: 00568CUE

Church/Chapel: Iglesia Parroquial de San Miguel Arcángel

Church Patron Saints: St. Michael

Church Location: 08641 Cuevas de San Clemente, Burgos, Spain

Country Name: Spain

Location: Burgos, Castilla y León

Directions to Site: Located off the N-234, 28 kms ESE of Burgos capital

Ecclesiastic Region: Diócesis de Burgos

Historical Region: Comarca de Arlanza

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end, S side

Century and Period: 12th - 13th century, Romanesque

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Pedro Lozano Huerta for his photographs of this church and font. We are grateful also to Ferran Petit for his photograph of the late-date stoup in this church

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

Described and illustrated in Bilbao (1996). Described and illustrated in the Enciclopedia del románico en Castilla y León (2002- ) [https://www.romanicodigital.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/files/burgos_CUEVAS_DE_SAN_CLEMENTE.pdf] [accessed 16 March 2023] as a Romanesque baptismal font: "pila bautismal románica, único testimonio del mobiliario litúrgico medieval que ha llegado hasta nuestros días. Se encuentra ubicada en la parte anterior de la nave de la epístola. Consta de doble basamento circular de 38 cm de altura, decorado con arquillos incisos en la parte inferior y borde biselado en el superior. La copa es de forma semiesférica (102 cm de diámetro × 50 cm de alto) y se decora con motivos figurativos de talla muy somera. Una cenefa de dientes de sierra enmarca una arquería sobre columnas entorchadas que cobijan tetrapétalas inscritas en círculos, dos serpientes, aves afrontadas picoteando piñas y otra de mayor tamaño que ocupa todo el espacio del arco." The entry for this village in Emiliano Nebreda Perdiguero [www.archiburgos.es/wp-content/uploads/amo-a-mi-pueblo.pdf] [accessed 16 March 2023] notes: "La iglesia, dedicada a San Miguel, Arcángel, es renacentista […] la pila es románica, buena, de vaso, con arcos y figuras en relieve, cenefa superior vegetal y base moldurada." The font consists of a roughly hemispherical basin, the upper side decorated with an acanthus vine, with a triangular pattern right below that; the sides and underbowl is an arcade of round arches on torsade columns; inside the arches are: two birds eating fruit, both facing right; a pair of snakes rolled into a ball; a stork facing right; two folral or cross motifs; another pair of birds eating fruit, similar to the first pair but these face each other; three encircled floral motifs, one with three petals, two with four petals;. The round plinth is surrounded by the representation of a snake. Two metal staples from the old cover at the upper rim; raised on a squat round base with a thick moulding all around that turns to be a snake, the head and tail meeting; the lowwer side below the snake nas incised round arch-heads all around. There is no cover present now but the upper rim of the basin retains two metal spales from an old cover. In addition to the font noted above there is a curious holy-water stoup of a much later date, a circular basin raised on a base decorated with human heads and feet, held from behind by a seated (?) female with long hair; it is damaged on the basin sides.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 42.129722, -3.568333

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 42° 7′ 47″ N, 3° 34′ 6″ W

UTM: 30T 453028 4664336

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown

Number of Pieces: two

Font Shape: hemispheric (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Drainage Notes: no lining

Diameter (includes rim): 113 cm* / 102 cm**

Basin Total Height: 50 cm**

Font Height (less Plinth): 99 cm*

Notes on Measurements: * Bilbao (1996) / ** Enciclopedia del románico

REFERENCES

Bilbao López, Garbiñe, "La pila bautismal románica de Mazariegos (Burgos): una representación de la Jerusalem celeste", t. XV, 1-2, Boletín del Museo Arqueológico Nacional, 1998, pp. 197-203; r["References"]

Bilbao López, Garbiñe, Iconografía de las pilas bautismales del románico castellano: Burgos y Palencia, Burgos: Editorial La Olmeda, S.L., 1996

Fundación Santa María la Real, Enciclopedia del románico en Castilla y León, Aguilar de Campoo: Fundación Santa María la Real, Centro de Estudios del Románico, 2002-