Arcas No. 1

Results: 4 records

BBU01: symbol - cross

Scene Description: Potent cross

BBU02: head

Scene Description: Faces?

BBU03: design element - motifs - chevron

Scene Description: a band of them, up and down, like a zig-zag

BU01: design element - patterns - ribbed

Scene Description: very large and deeply carved ribs on the underbowl

INFORMATION

FontID: 02450ARC
Church/Chapel: Iglesia de la Natividad de Nuestra Señora [formerly known as Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Estrella]
Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin
Church Location: Arcas, Cuenca, Spain
Country Name: Spain
Location: Cuenca, Castilla-La Mancha
Directions to Site: Located off the CM-2100, 8 km S of the town of Cuenca, on the northern banks of the Rio San Martin.
Font Location in Church: Located inside the church, in the nave -- earlier, ca. 1994, it was outside the church [cf. FontNotes]
Century and Period: 13th century, Romanesque
Cognate Fonts: [cf. FontNotes]
Described in Nieto Taberné (1994) and (2001) as a large font then [ca. 1994] located just outside the church; he suggests that it dates from the same period as the church, the 13th century; the lower basin sides are ornamented with large deep-relief ribs, while the band of ornamentation at the upper rim consists of faces, pattée crosses and zig-zag motif. One of the sides of the basin shows a hole just under the ornamentation band, probably from an earlier use as trough or garden ornament? Noted and illustrated in the Enciclopedia del románico en Castilla-La Mancha: Cuenca (2009) as a Romanesque font, the earliest of two in this church, that was for many years used as a garden ornament outside the church, but was brought inside recently; the roughly hemispherical basin has a crudely rendered broad ribbed pattern around its sides and underbowl, with a band of zig-zag above it, except on three of the ribs, which are topped with a Maltese cross in a circle and two human faces; raised on a much-damaged square base decorated with foliage motif. The Enciclopedia... (ibid.) notes the presence of the floral and cross motifs on the fonts at Alconchel de la Estrella, Arandilla del Arroyo, Arcas and Villanueva de los Escuderos.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 39.988494, -2.115111
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 39° 59′ 18.58″ N, 2° 6′ 54.4″ W
UTM: 30T 575556 4426856

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown
Number of Pieces: two
Font Shape: chalice-shaped
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Drainage Notes: the hole oin one of the basin sides cannot be the original drain
Rim Thickness: 19 cm
Diameter (inside rim): 105 cm
Diameter (includes rim): 143 cm
Basin Depth: 47 cm
Basin Total Height: 60 cm
Height of Base: 40 cm
Font Height (less Plinth): 100 cm [Enciclopedia has 95 cm]
Notes on Measurements: Nieto Taberné (1994); Enciclopedia del románico en Castilla-La Mancha: Cuenca (2009)

REFERENCES

Fundación Santa María la Real, Enciclopedia del románico en Castilla-La Mancha: Cuenca, Aguilar de Campoo: Fundación Santa María la Real, Centro de Estudios del Románico, 2009
Nieto Taberné, Tomás, El Románico en Cuenca, Cuenca: Estudio Museo, 1994
Nieto Taberné, Tomás, El Románico en Cuenca, León: Ediciones Lancia, 2001