Achenes / Achénes / Achêne / Achinne

Main image for Achenes / Achénes / Achêne / Achinne

Image copyright © KIK-IRPA, Brussels (Belgium), 2015

Reproduced in accordance with KIK-IRPA guidelines

Results: 15 records

B01: design element - motifs - vine - mask

[cf. FontNotes]
Scene Description: [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © José Antonio Tolosa Urieta, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2010 by José Antonio Tolosa Urieta [www.infomolina.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

B02: animal - mammal - lion - bearded - vegetation stemming from the mouth

[cf. FontNotes]
Scene Description: [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © José Antonio Tolosa Urieta, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2010 by José Antonio Tolosa Urieta [www.infomolina.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

B03: design element - architectural - arcade - blind - round arches - columns with capitals and bases - 6

[cf. FontNotes]
Scene Description: [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © José Antonio Tolosa Urieta, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2010 by José Antonio Tolosa Urieta [www.infomolina.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

B04: design element - architectural - arcade - blind - round arches - columns with capitals and bases - 6

[cf. FontNotes]
Scene Description: [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © José Antonio Tolosa Urieta, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2010 by José Antonio Tolosa Urieta [www.infomolina.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

LB01: design element - motifs - leaf - 4

[cf. FontNotes]
Scene Description: [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © José Antonio Tolosa Urieta, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2010 by José Antonio Tolosa Urieta [www.infomolina.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

R01: design element - motifs - foliage - palmette?

in the spandrels of the basin upper surface
Scene Description: in the spandrels of the basin upper surface
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © José Antonio Tolosa Urieta, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2010 by José Antonio Tolosa Urieta [www.infomolina.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover

the 18th-century metal font inside the church
Scene Description: the 18th-century metal font inside the church
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © KIK-IRPA, Brussels (Belgium), 2015
Image Source: B&W photograph taken in 1944 by the Commissariat général à la Protection aérienne passive [KIK-IRPA, Brussels (Belgium), cliché A071137]
Copyright Instructions: Reproduced in accordance with KIK-IRPA guidelines

view of font

[cf. FontNotes]
Scene Description: [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © José Antonio Tolosa Urieta, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2010 by José Antonio Tolosa Urieta [www.infomolina.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font in context

as displayed in the museum in April 2010 [cf. FontNotes]
Scene Description: as displayed in the museum in April 2010 [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © José Antonio Tolosa Urieta, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2010 by José Antonio Tolosa Urieta [www.infomolina.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font

Font image
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: illustration in De Bruyn (1869)
Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

This B&W photograph in Ronse (1929) shows the font raised on five supports; the outer colonnettes are now [April 2010] missing
Scene Description: This B&W photograph in Ronse (1929) shows the font raised on five supports; the outer colonnettes are now [April 2010] missing
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: B&W photograph in Ronse (1929: fig. 8)
Copyright Instructions: PD

view of basin and cover

the inscription runs around the side of the cover
Scene Description: the inscription runs around the side of the cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © KIK-IRPA, Brussels (Belgium), 2015
Image Source: B&W photograph taken in 1971 by Paul Aerts, I.R.P.A. [KIK-IRPA, Brussels (Belgium), cliché M74681]
Copyright Instructions: Reproduced in accordance with KIK-IRPA guidelines

view of basin - upper view

[cf. FontNotes]
Scene Description: [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © José Antonio Tolosa Urieta, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2010 by José Antonio Tolosa Urieta [www.infomolina.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior

Source caption: "Église Saint-Clément, Achêne" -- the church from which the font now in the museum originated
Scene Description: Source caption: "Église Saint-Clément, Achêne" -- the church from which the font now in the museum originated
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © L. Mahin, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph taken 4 October 2007 by L. Mahin [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eglijhe_Achinne_sordjou.jpg] [accessed 24 March 2015]
Copyright Instructions: GFDL / CC-BY-SA-3.0-migrated

view of base

notice the now missing angle colonnettes [cf. FontNotes]
Scene Description: notice the now missing angle colonnettes [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © José Antonio Tolosa Urieta, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2010 by José Antonio Tolosa Urieta [www.infomolina.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

INFORMATION

Font ID: 00821ACH
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Date: ca. 1155-1160?
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century (mid?), Romanesque
Workshop/Group/Artisan: Namur font / affiliation de Saint-Séverin-en-Condroz [Ghislain]
Cognate Fonts: Herenthals, Huy, etc.
Museum: Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire de Bruxelles / Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis - Brussel [orig. in the Musée du Cinquantenaire], Inv. 2976
Church / Chapel Name: Église Saint Clément d'Achêne [moved to a museum after 1900]
Font Location in Church: in museum after 1900
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Clement
Previous Font Location(s): Eglise Saint Clément d'Achêne
Church Address: [NB: address & coordinates for the parish church]5590 Achêne, Belgium
Site Location: Namur, Wallonie / Wallonne, Belgium, Europe
Directions to Site: Located near and in the municipality of Ciney [the font was located at the Musée du Cinquantenaire, later Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire de Bruxelles]
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocèse de Liège
Historical Region: formerly Namur province
Additional Comments: disused font (in a museum)
Font Notes:
Noted and illustrated in De Bruyn (1869): "De même que la cuve baptismale de Ciney, celle de l'église d'Achenes appartient à la classe des fonts pédiculés à cinq colonnes. La cuve a les quatre faces de sa table ornées de sculptures représentant alternativement une série d'arches plein-cintre et une tête barbue, ceinte d'une bandelette autour du front, et donnant naissance à un rinceau à palmettes entrelacé. Les écoinçons supérieurs de la table servant d'emplacement aux substances sacramentelles, sont occupés par les figures symboliques des évangélistes. Le gros pédicule central cylindrique est accompagné de quatre petites colonnes à chapiteaux cubiques et à bases moulurées, servant d'appui aux angles saillants de la table carrée." Cloquet (1890) and (1895) describes the font at Achenes as "un type analogue à celui du Tournaisis [...] moin massif et offre une physionomie différente", illustrating it as still basically of the same general shape as the Tournai fonts, although the corner colonnettes are now non-constructional; two sides of his illustration show 1)a bearded lion head with foliage stemming from the mouth on one, and 2)a set of six human figures under arches on the other. Enlart (1902) lists it as a Tournai font and describes the base as being a five-column type. Enlart's image of one of the sides, a bearded lion head with foliage issuing left and right, is very similar to those on the fonts of Meerbeck, Hour, Emptinne, Bastogne and many others, as has been pointed out by Borchgrave d'Altena (1971). Described and illustrated in Ronse (1929). Noted in Ghislain (1986) as one of a group of Mosan fonts [Achêne, Asselt, Bastogne, Gentinnes and Zonhoven] that include the motif of a feline head with branches of palmette and/or grape-vines stemming from its mouth. Baptismal font of table-top type, now displayed in the Musées royaux..., Brussels; it has blank [cf. supra] six-arch arcades on two contiguous sides, the arches on columns with capitals and bases; of the other two sides, one has a twisting vine that ends at the bottom right in a twist that resembles a head or mask; the next side, to the right, has a lion head in the centre with tendrils spewing from its mouth; the font is displayed now [April 2010] on a single broad shaft, but the underbowl and lower base show that it originally had four additinal colonnettes at the angles [cf. supra for reports of the font still on five columns ca. 1900]; the angles of the lower base are decorated with foliated motifs. The museum label identifies the stone as "Pierre de Meuse", aka as 'calcaire mosan', and dates it to the third quarter of the 12th century, a work of an "Atelier du Namurois". Catalogued and illustrated in Ghislain (2009) as a baptismal font of the Namurois group, filiation de Saint-Séverin-en-Condroz, made of limestone (calcaire de Meuse) ca. 1155-1160, acquired by the Museum from a private owner in 1890.
A 3-D model of this font made by Geoffrey Marchal may be seen in Sketchfab [https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/baptismal-font-saint-clement-dachene-church-7b254c1529084006a248092b284e796d] [accessed 22 July 2025].
The church has a later metal (brass and iron) font of 1719; it consists of a cauldron-shaped basin supported on a tripod made of three scroll ribs; the font is similar in shape to the basin, with a Latin cross finial/handle. It is noted and illustrated in KIK-IRPA, Brussels (Belgium), which reports an inscription on the side of the cover: "C D F A. P. A. LEGLISE. DACHENNE. 1719", and gives an approximate height of 70 cms.
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to José Antonio Tolosa Urieta, of www.infomolina.com, for his photographs of this font

COORDINATES

UTM: 31U 645721 5570281

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone [pierre mosan]
Font Shape: square, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: square
Drainage System: centre hole in basin [now cemented over]
Drainage Notes: no lining
Diameter (inside rim): 56.5 cm*
Basin Depth: 30 cm*
Basin Total Height: 37 cm*
Height of Central Column: 41 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 101 cm*
Trapezoidal Basin: 75 x 77 x 78 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * [cf. FontNotes]

LID INFORMATION

Notes: upper surface of the basin shows repairs at opposite ends, likely damage caused by the cover hardware

REFERENCES

  • Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 205
  • Borchgrave d'Altena, Joseph de, comte, Fonts baptismaux romans conservés au Chateau d'Emptinne, Bruxelles: [s.n.], 1971, p. 5 and ill.
  • Cloquet, Louis, "Fonts de baptême romans de Tournai", 45, Revue de l'art chrétien, 1895, pp. 308-320; p. 318
  • Cloquet, Louis, "Travaux des sociétés savantes: Comité des travaux historiques", 40, Revue de l'art chrétien, 1890, pp. 415-420; p. 417
  • De Bruyn, Hyacinthe, abbé, Archéologie religieuse appliquée à nos monuments nationaux, Bruxelles: Victor Devaux et Cie., 1869-1870, vol. 2: 179
  • Eden, Cecil H., Black Tournai Fonts in England, London: E. Stock, 1909, p. 30
  • Enlart, Camille, Manuel d'archéologie française depuis les temps mérovingiens jusqu'à la Renaissance, Paris: Alphonse Picard & fils, 1902, p. 777 footnote 1
  • Ghislain, Jean-Claude, "La cuve baptismale romane de Wauthier-Braine", VII, Annales du Cercle historique et folklorique de Braine-le-Château, Tubize et des Régions voisines, 1986, pp. 89-[120]; p. 98
  • Ghislain, Jean-Claude, Les fonts baptismaux romans en pierre bleue des ateliers du Namurois (ca. 1150-1175), Namur: Musée provincial des arts anciens du Namurois, 2009, catalogue entry no. 29, p. 114-116
  • Ronse, F. T., Les fonts baptismaux de Zedelghem et les fonts romans tournaisiens du XIIe siècle, Bruges: Apostolat liturgique, 1929, p. [9] and fig. 8