Valence

Results: 4 records

Old Testament - Genesis from the creation to the expulsion from paradise, and later years of Adam and Eve - Temptation and Fall - Eve and the Serpent

Scene Description: All images as partt of the baptistery's mosaic, a/p Corblet's description

animal - assorted

Scene Description: Corblet mentions: lions, deer, crows, hare, eagle, lamb and leopard

symbol - the four rivers of paradise (springing from a fountain) - deer - drinking

Scene Description: a/p Corblet's description

symbol - water - Jordan river

Scene Description: a/p Corblet's description

INFORMATION

FontID: 03642VAL
Church/Chapel: Baptistery near the cathedral
Church Location: [NB: address & coordinates given for the cathedral complex] 4 Pl. du Pendentif, 26000 Valence, France
Country Name: France
Location: Doubs, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Directions to Site: Valence is about 90 km S of Lyon, about 80 km W of Grenoble. The disappeared baptistery site is located between the cathédrale Saint- Apollinaire and the Musée-Bibliothèque (former episcopal palace)
Font Location in Church: [disappeared]
Century and Period: 6th - 7th century, Early Christian
Corblet (1881-1882, v. 2, p. 73-74) informs that during excavations near the south side of the cathedral, the foundations of a 6th-7th century baptistery were unearthed. The building was cruciform (Greek cross) and had one porch and three small apses. The excavation discovered the intake and drainage water conduits of the basin and also the fragments of the baptistery mosaic surface which depicted, among other subjects, the Fall of Eve, deer drinking from the four rivers, facing lions before a chalice with handles, crows, one of which appears to try and blind a hare who is protected by an eagle with spread wings, the river Jordan and other animals ornamenting the borders (deer, lion, crow, lamb and leopard).

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 44.931153, 4.889644
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 44° 55′ 52.15″ N, 4° 53′ 22.72″ E
UTM: 31T 649111 4977039

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: , unknown
Font Shape: cruciform (Greek cross)
Drainage Notes: [cf. Notes on Font]

REFERENCES

Les premiers monuments chrétiens de la France, Paris: A. Picard ; Ministère ce la culture et de la francophonie, Direction du patrimoine, Sous-direction de l'archéologue, 1995-1998
Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908
Corblet, Jules, Histoire dogmatique, liturgique et archéologique du sacrement de baptême, Paris: V. Palme, 1881-1882