Saint-Aventin No. 1 / St-Aventin

Results: 33 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

Christ - Agnus Dei

Scene Description: Bottom of the bowl has Agnus Dei in a circle in the middle of six-petal rosette.

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 20O1 by BSI

animal - bird - dove - drinking from chalice - 2

Scene Description: Upper register has two doves drinking from chalice.

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

animal - bird - dove - drinking from chalice - 2

Scene Description: Lower register has two doves drinking from chalice.

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

animal - bird?

Scene Description: sideways; looks somewhat like a Inuit sculpture

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

animal - fish - 10

Scene Description: incised on the upper basin border

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 20O1 by BSI

animal - mammal - quadruped - vertical display

Scene Description: on the left side of the basin, just right of the upside down bird (?)

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

design element - motifs - zigzag

Scene Description: around the frame of the large floriated cross

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

human figure - hands raised to the chest

Scene Description: High relief of a cathecumen(?)

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

human figure - hands raised to the chest

Scene Description: a male figure with arms folded at chest height.

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

human figure - hands raised to the chest

Scene Description: badly damaged

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

information

Image Source: digital image of fieldnotes taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

Copyright Instructions: NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

information

Image Source: digital image of fieldnotes taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

Copyright Instructions: NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

symbol - cross - Greek - fleuronnée

Scene Description: a large one in a circle; with heart-like shapes between the arms

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

view of basin - interior

Scene Description: the carved and painted bottom of the inner basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 2 May 2015 by Txaro

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission recieved via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 3 June 2015)

view of church exterior - detail

Scene Description: Roman altar built into the wall

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001

view of church exterior - detail

Scene Description: Legend of St. Aventin

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001

view of church exterior - detail

Scene Description: Legend of St. Aventin

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001

view of church exterior - detail

Scene Description: Madonna and Child

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001

view of church exterior - detail

Scene Description: Legend of St. Aventin

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001

view of church exterior - detail

Scene Description: musician

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

view of church exterior - detail

Scene Description: Legend of St. Aventin

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

view of church exterior - detail

Scene Description: Massacre of the Innocents (detail)

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

view of church exterior - detail

Scene Description: Massacre of the Innocents

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

view of church exterior - portal

Image Source: digital photograph taken 30 May 2010 by Père Igor [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint-Aventin_église_portail.JPG] [accessed 5 June 2015]

Copyright Instructions: GFDL / CC-BY-SA-3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0

view of church exterior - portal - tympanum

Scene Description: Christ in Majesty

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

view of church exterior - southeast view

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001

view of church interior - crucifix

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

view of church interior - crucifix

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

view of stoup

Image Source: digital photograph taken 2 May 2015 by Merce

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission recieved via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 3 June 2015)

view of stoup

Image Source: digital photograph taken 2 May 2015 by Merce

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission recieved via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 3 June 2015)

view of stoup

Image Source: digital photograph taken 2 May 2015 by Merce

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission recieved via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 3 June 2015)

view of stoup

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 11 July 2001 by BSI

view of stoup - upper view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 2 May 2015 by Txaro

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission recieved via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 3 June 2015)

INFORMATION

FontID: 02248AVE

Church/Chapel: Eglise Saint-Aventin de Larboust

Church Patron Saints: St. Aventin

Church Location: 31110 Saint-Aventin, France

Country Name: France

Location: Haute-Garonne, Occitanie

Directions to Site: Located 5 kms W of Bagneres-de-Luchon, about 20 kms NW of the Vall d'Aran, 52 km S of Saint-Gaudens

Font Location in Church: inside the entranceway, to the right

Century and Period: 12th century, Romanesque

Church Notes: The church has some very interesting capitals inside and a freeze outside [cf. Images area], which narrate the story of St. Aventin. Other interesting pieces in this church: an odd stone Crucifixion [dated by Couzi to the 11th-12th century], a Madonna-with-Child, a statue of Isaiah, a Christ-in-Majesty tympanum, and at least one Roman ara incorporated in the external wall of the church.

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

Illustrated in Alcolea i Blanch (2008) recorded at a visit in 1907. A holy-water stoup said to have served as baptismal font [cf. Couzi ref. below]. The bucket-shaped basin has at least two large human figures, supposedly a cathecumen and a later representation of the same with folded arms at chest height; between them, two registers, almost identical, of a pair of doves drinking from chalice. The registers are separated by a moulding. To the right of the figure with the crossed arms is a large circle with an eight-petal flower (?) forming a cross and diagonal motif. Fish outlines are carved all over the top part of the rim. The bottom of the inside of the basin well has a deeply carved eight-petal rosette and in the inside circle of this rosette is an Agnus Dei (description based on Durliat, 1978). The Dictionnaire des églises... (1966- ) describes it as a curious grey marble stoup of the 12th century, which had been a baptismal font in earlier times, ornamented with crudely rendered human figures and symbolic animals. On-site notes: the motifs not included in the above descriptions are: a four-legged animal, carved on the vertical, located on the left side of the basin and, after it, almost hidden against the wall, an upside down figure (?) with hands on its knees (?). The extreme right side has just a continuation of the dividing moulding; there may be further motifs on the side against the wall. The two figures to the right and left of the rosette are badly damaged, probably wilfully so. The upper surface of the rim has ten (?) fish incised on it; one of the sides of this rim is slightly damaged. Besides the mentioned figures and this other minor damage, the stoup is in fair shape. It is raised on a slender cylindrical column which may or, more likely, may not have been the original base. Couzi (1895, 1913) elaborates on the iconography on this stoup: on the vertically displayed animal he writes: "La forme allongé de sa tête, celle des oreilles, des pieds et de la queue caractérisent l'Agneau, emblème de Jésus-Christ immolé" (ibid, p, 14). The odd upside down figure is "un enfant la tête en bas" who waits for "sa régénération spirituelle." The figure to the right of the animal is "soit la jeuneusse réelle du néophyte, soit la renouveau mystique que donne au catéchumène sa naissance à la vie de la grâce" (ibid., p. 15). The round motif on the opposite side od the basin is "l'emblème du Sauveur et de l'épanouissement de la foi" (ibid.), while the two figures on the sides of it bear the sign of the chosen. He explains the two pairs of drinking birds as "les colombes symboliques de l'Eucharistie qui rougissent leurs becs de sang dans la coupe mystérieuse ou dans la grappe vermeille" and suggests that, these archaic motifs notwithstanding, the stoup should not be dated to before the 11th century. (Ibid., p. 15-17)

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 42.806806, 0.548

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 42° 48′ 24.5″ N, 0° 32′ 52.8″ E

UTM: 31T 299512 4742277

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, marble (grey)

Number of Pieces: two

Font Shape: bucket-shaped (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Rim Thickness: 5.5-6 cm*

Diameter (inside rim): 39-40 cm*

Diameter (includes rim): 50-52 cm* [70 cm* with heads]

Basin Depth: 15-17-19 cm* / 19 cm**

Basin Total Height: 40 cm* / 38 cm**

Height of Base: 50 cm* / 49 cm**

Font Height (less Plinth): 90 cm* / 87 cm**

Notes on Measurements: * BSI on-site [NB: depth of the inner basin well varies from 15 cm at the outer sides to 19 cm in the centre where the Agnus Dei appears] / **Couzi (1913: 17)

REFERENCES

Dictionnaire des églises de France, Belgique, Luxembourg, Suisse, Paris: R. Laffont, 1966-

Alcolea Blanch, Santiago, La missió arqueològica del 1907 als Pirineus, Barcelona: Fundació Institut Amatller d'Art Hispànic; Obra Social, Fundació La Caixa, 2008

Couzi, Adolphe, "Croix romane et le bénitier roman de Saint-Aventin", Bulletin de la Societé Archéologique du Midi, 1895, pp. 11-18; r["References"]

Durliat, Marcel, Pyrénées romanes, La Pierre-qui-vire, Yonne: Zodiaque, 1978

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

Fundació Enciclopèdia Catalana, Catalunya romànica, Barcelona: Fundació Enciclopèdia Catalana, 1984-

Laurière, J. de, Église de Saint-Aventin de Larboust, Saint-Gaudens: [s.n.], 1894

Mesplé, Paul, "Bénitiers à lobes", 3, Revue de Comminges, 1961, pp. 117-121; r["References"]