Casau No. 1

Described in Mestre i Godes (1999): baptismal font just over one metre tall; the basin is ornamented with several animals (peacocks, a long-tailed lion, a cockerel, a lamb -probably the Agnus Dei- and two fish; there are also two warriors -one mounted, the other on foot- a castle, a six-point rosette and a cross inside a circle. Listed and illustrated in Gavín (1977): his illustration shows; the square base with human heads at each angle; the plinth or lower base has also human heads at the angles, corresponding to the ones on the base. Catalunya romànica (1984- ) describes and illustrates the font and its iconographic program in detail [cf. Iconographic Data area] and proposes that the sculpture elements that have been identified make reference to the regeneration and the immortality of the soul through the sacrament of baptism ["Els elements sculpits que hem pogut identificar fan referència a la regeneració i immortalitat de l'ànima a través del sagrament del baptisme"]. Reference is made also to the stoup in St-Aventin, across the border in the Haute-Garonne, with which it shares some iconographic features. There is a little human figure squashed under the last fish on the right; this latter source offers the possible excplanation that it could represent the faithful at the time of baptism, especially if we take into account the placement of symbols around it. [NB: this type of iconographic program, like those on the fonts on the other side of the Pyrenees at St.-Aventin, Ur, Conflent and others of the type, offer a tough challenge to any but the most creative of art historians and even their solutions tend to be of a highly speculative nature, usually starting from a hypothical base that it ought to be related to baptism and proceeding from that assumption. It is highly unlikely, however, that such image groupings were placed on the font side at the whim of inventive carvers or sponsors]. Noted in Amiell (2007).