Hautmont / Altus mons

Listed in Palissy [ref.: IM59000692]: "fonts baptismaux [...] représentation animalière (cheval, de profil) ; être fabuleux (griffon, de profil) ; feuille [...] 12e siècle". Noted in 'Cuves baptismales et fonts baptismaux : évolution formelle avant le XVIe siècle' [www.culture.gouv.fr/documentation/memoire/CATALOGUES/fontsbapt/fontsbapt_histav16e/html/fontsbapt_histav16e.html] [accessed 8 April 2016]. Described and illustrated in Drake (2002: 48, 51, 53, 59, 176 and pl. 109) as "unique among Tournai fonts for its portrayal of a figure straight out of Classical mythology, the centaur"; Drake (ibid.) classes this font as "not conclusively" a product of the Tournai School on account of: 1)its being more box-like, 2)the flat raised portion of the relief, as opposed to the more rounded approach of this school, 3)the very shallow low-relief of the carving, 4)the organisation of the figures, their orientation and their distribution on the sides of the basin, as well as other details, all of which make Drake place this font in the Tournai group with a question mark. It is a square mounted font with single round pedestal base; each side of the basin is divided in two by a colonnette, each space occupied by a fabulous creature; on one of the visible sides, on the right, the left portion contains an avian-sort-of-dragon (the body looks not at all serpent-like but more turkey-like) facing right; in the right a centaur aims its arrown to the left; to the left, on the next side, more avian-dragon like figures; to the right, on the next side, a passant quadruped on the left half faces a lion on the right; the rounded underbowl has leaf motifs at the sides that correpond to the angles of the basin; the central shaft is cylindrical and totally plain; the lower base is a thick round moulding with leaf motifs that correspond to those on the underbowl; there appears to be a removable metal lining for the basin. Oursel (1994: 226) and Drake (letter to BSI, 26 August 1998) point out the shallow carving resembling a lino-cut.