Emptinne / Anetines / Château d'Emptinne / Emtene-dilé-Hamwè / Ennetines / Entines

A Romanesque baptismal font was reported in the gardens at the Château d'Emptinne, in Emptinne, Belgium, being used as a water trough. Borchgrave d'Altena's study is concerned with one of the images on the front side of the Emptinne font: a mask/head of an animal from whose mouth issue two branches of acanthus (?), one to the left, the other to the right; this image appears in many other fonts, some of which Borchgrave d'Altena mentions, and is a motif which has been studied by several authors, including Tollenaere, Ghislain, etc. The font at Emptinne appears to be of rather early manufacture and mounted on columns; unfortunately the source does not show the other sides of the basin (description based on ill. and notes in Borchgrave d'Altena, 1971). Catalogued and illustrated in Ghislain (2009) as a baptismal font of the Namurois group, filiation de Saint-Séverin-en-Condroz, made of limestone (calcaire de Meuse) ca. 1160-1170, and now in a "lieu de conservation indéterminé, having been serving as a water trough in the castle grounds until the end of the 20th century; when the castle changed owners the font was moved to an undisclosed location, part of a private collection. Ghislain (ibid.) describes it as being a crude work: "L'éxecution lourde révèle un artisan original". A communication from Pol Herman to BSI (e-mail of 9 May 2022) notes: "the baptismal font that was once used as water basin in the courtyard of the castle at Emptinne. It is a Mosan Romanesque font that Jean-Claude Ghislain dates 1160…1170. It is mentioned in his book “Les fonts baptismaux romans en pierre bleue des ateliers du Namurois (ca. 1150-1175) “ on page 132. It is now lost, because the new owner of the castle (the family Emsens) removed it, its present whereabouts are unknown. The font could come [originally] from the local église Saint-Martin, that was already mentioned around 1300. In the church stands a 19th century font that could date from 1842 when both lateral aisles were added to the old building." No entry found in BALaT KIK-IRPA for this font or its fragments.