Saint-Severin-en-Condroz / Saint-Séverin-en-Condroz / Sint-Sevrin / Nandrin

Rousseau (1892) writes of: "un petit monument archéologique non seulement très rare en son genre, mais encore unique peut être dans notre pays. Ce sont des fonts baptismaux qui nous paraissent remonter au XIe siècle"; Rousseau (ibid.) refers to an anonymous article that appeared in the Gazette de Liège in 1857 in which the four protomes of the base harks back at the four Evangelists, a hypothesis that Rousseau himself finds, though not entirely inadmissible, "quelque peu hasardée"; this same source reports the font as being at the time in an dreadful state of conservation, "un état de dégradation vraiment pitoyable", and advises for a mindful restoration of the font, "un travail d'une extrême délicatesse, qui réclame autant de science que d'habileté", including the replacement of all twelve outer colonnettes and the stapling of the basin pieces that were at the time held together by an iron girdle all around the basin, and, if the font cannot be acquired by the Musées du Palais du Cinquantenaire, that a replica copy be made of it as soon as possible. Included by Cloquet (1895) [after Rousseau] among the round fonts of the Mosan type with four human heads, at 90-degree angles, on the basin sides. Described and illustrated in Ronse (1929) as a characteristic font of the Mosan region; the basin is supported on a broad central shaft and twelve outer colonnettes, the ones at the corners significantly thicker than the others. Ronse (ibid.) notes that the human heads on the angles of the basin are similar to those at the font Beauvechain [cf. Index entry]. Noted in Ghislain (1986) as one of a handful of the Mosan-namurois fonts [Bastogne, Gentinnes, et Hanzinne, Hour and Saint-Séverin en Condroz] without arcade ornamentation. Ghislain (ibid.) dates the font to the time of Albéron II (1136-1145) or slightly later. Described and illustrated in Architecture romane en Belgique (2000): typical font of the Mosan style in which the squareness of the basin is retained by the corner heads (two of them are visible in our source, the one on the right, bearded and with a crown or diadem, while the one on the left is bearded but without any headwear); in between the heads, a pair of passant lions, back to back, heads turned towards each other. The inner well of the basin is lead-lined. The base is a cluster of engaged colonnettes around a round stem, the whole raised on a short square lower base. Illustrated in Barral i Altet (1989). The low dome lid has a large Latin cross finial. In Lefftz (2001). 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 anthracifère gisâtre du Condroz) [stone type after Tollenaere] ca. 1155-1160, which introduced two original characteristics: the square shape of the lower part of the otherwise round basin, and the presence of a base made of thirteen columns, not the usual five; Ghislain (ibid.) further remarks on specific detail similarities with the fonts at Rethel, Flostoy, Gerpinnes, Goesnes, Fairon, Othée, Bléhen and Merksem. Pubben (2019) writes: "Aftercomparing the decorations on the baptismal font in Maastricht and Brussels with 50 fonts attributed to the Tournai School and 150 fonts attributed to the Mosan School, it became clearthat there were significant similarities between this font and four Mosan fonts: the ones in Saint-Séverin-en-Condroz, Hanzinne, Sclayn en Gentinnes. These five fonts can be seen as an exceptional category within the Mosan School, because of their lavishly decorated bowls and intricate and complex iconographies. That the font is probably part ofthe Mosan School corresponds with Ghislains conclusions and the results of the geological examinations done bythe KIK-IRPA in 1970." A communication from Pol Herman to BSI (e-mail of 10 February 2022) suggested that the base of the font in the Rotterdam Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, listed in BSI as Rotterdam No. 2, has a similar lower base as this one.