Villanueva de Cangas de Onis / Villanueva de Cangas de Onís / San Pedro de Villanueva

There is an engraving of this font, made probably ca. 1900, that shows a large hole at the bottom of the basin, approximately under the word IOHAN[n]ES of the inscription; the making of such a hole would be consistent with the use of the vessel as a rain trough at some point. A report to the Real Academia de Historia dated in Madrid, 29 March 1907 and signed Julián Suárez Inclán (Boletín... , p. 339), the author informs that this font was collected by Antonio Cortés, of Cangas de Onís, who sent it to Madrid, where it is kept. Described and illustrated in Miguel Vigil (1987 c1887). Described and illustrated in Viñayo González (1987 c1979) as a monolithic barrel-shaped stone font originally at the Benedictine monastery of San Pedro de Villanueva until the dissolution of 1835, but now [ca. 1987] in the Museo Arqueologico Nacional in Madrid; the basin is ornamented with a band of deeply-carved vine-like vegetation at top and bottom of its sides, while two other plain bands sandwich the inscription [cf. Inscription area] that runs around the centre part. Abbad (1941) describes it as being almost cylindrical with a widening at the centre, of sandstone and divided into five bands of ornamentation: the upper and lower ones have a garland of typical Romanesque leaves; the next two bands are blank; the central one carries the inscription. The font had been at the Museo Arqueológico Nacional in Madrid [inventory no. 50181] since its arrival on 9 October 1868; the donor was recorded as Antonio Cortés y Llanos [source: Spain. Ministerio de Cultura [http://ceres.mcu.es] [accessed 15 December 2011]. Monolithic sandstone barrel-shaped font originaly from the church of the monastery of San Pedro de Villanueva; the upper rim of the basin is broken off; below it, a running inscription [cf. infra] between two bands of acanthus; at the very bottom, a thick roll moulding. Studied in Bilbao (1998) who points out its similarity with the early fonts made of wood. Described and illustrated in Ruiz de la Peña (2002); this author -quoting J. Manzanares [see AuthorNotes below]- informs that the font was moved in 1684 from the Iglesia Parroquial de Santa María de Villanueva to the new church of the Monasterio de San Pedro. In 1738 the new abbot, Fr. Miguel Fernández, had a new baptismal font made for this church and the old one ended up abandoned in a corner of the cloister. An engraving was made by Vicente Arviol in the mid-19th century for the Comisión Provincial de Monumentos. Soon after, a local person, Antonio Cortés, moved it into his own home until he made a donation of it to the Museo Arqueológico Nacional ca. 1870 [cf. supra]. Described and illustrated in García de Castro (1995), who, based on the date inscribed on the font, 1114 A.D. [Era 1152], argues that it should be considered a milestone as the last of the barrel-shaped font type, the last extant example in the area. The font is now [December 2011] in the Museo Arqueologico de Asturias, in Oviedo [NB: a local informant communicated that the font had been on a temporary loan from the M.A.N. of Madrid since March of 2011; it was not known the precise date of the future return of the font to Madrid, and there was talk of an attempt to keep it in Asturias been in the works]. The accompanying label in the Museo Arqueologico de Asturias reads: Baptismal font; sandstone; date 1114 [Era 1152]; from San Pedro de Villanueva (Cangas de Onís); inscription translates: "Juan y Maria mandaron hacer esta obra en la era 1152 (año 1114)" [=Juan and Maria made in Era 1152 (A.D. 1114)] [NB: the inscription reads "FECERVNT", which would more commonly translate simply as 'made', rather than 'had it made' or 'ordered it made', as the Spanish translation suggests, even though the meaning is most likely the latter. The sponsorship, rather than the authorship proper, of art works is sometimes indicated in medieval Latin by the expression 'fecerunt fieri' -or 'fieri fecerunt'-, to underline the intermediary role of the persons/s named, as apposed to the one indicating the actual agent, the artesan/artist: e.g.: The font at Landewednack has an inscription that reads"[...] D. Ric. Bolham me fecit", whereas the font at Orford has: "Orate pro animabus John Cokerel et Katerine uxoris ejus qui istam fontem in honore dei fecerunt fieri"].