Gaillac No. 2 / Galhac

Results: 6 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

B: animal - bird - dove - drinking from chalice - 2

Scene Description: Symbol of the Eucharist, a/p identification in the Dictionnaire des églises... (1966- )

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 8 June 2001 by BSI

design element - motifs - foliage

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 8 June 2001 by BSI

design element - motifs - moulding

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 8 June 2001 by BSI

view of basin

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 8 June 2001 by BSI

view of stoup in context

Scene Description: both stoups seen here, one at each side of the doorway

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 8 June 2001 by BSI

INFORMATION

FontID: 04128GAI

Church/Chapel: Ancienne abbatiale Saint-Michel

Church Patron Saints: St. Michael

Church Location: Place Saint-Michel, 81600 Gaillac, France -- Tel.: +33 5 63 57 14 65

Country Name: France

Location: Tarn, Occitanie

Directions to Site: Gaillac lies off the D87-D964 cross-roads, off the A68 (dir. Toulouse), 22 km W of Albi, NE of Toulouse

Historical Region: Midi-Pyrénées

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, by the entranceway, on the N side

Century and Period: 12th century (mid) (?), Romanesque

Church Notes: Originaly the church of a very important Benedictine abbey.

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

Described in the Dictionnaire des églises.. (1966- ) as a Romanesque stoup ornamented with foliage in which two birds quench their thirst drinking from the "calice d'une fleur (symbole de l'Eucharistie)" [cf. Index entry Gaillac No. 1 for the baptismal font at this church]. This is the same item described and illustrated in Lasteyrie (1929: 710, pl. 720), a rather shallow basin without a drainage hole; the sides have deep-relief ornamentation made up of foliage roundels which house birds. Lasteyrie relates this ornamentation style to the contemporary sculpture from Toulouse and Moissac and informs that the present base is not the original (ibid.) On-site notes: of the two objects found in this church one, the stoup on the north side, corresponds to the Dictionnaire... and Lasteyrie's description, although the ornamentation is quite blurry now [June 2001]. Another stoup, octagonal and likely medieval, exists on the south side [cf. Index entry for Gaillac No. 3]

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 43.897281, 1.896117

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 43° 53′ 50.21″ N, 1° 53′ 46.02″ E

UTM: 31T 411598 4861511

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone

Font Shape: round (molunted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Notes on Measurements: [no measurements taken]

REFERENCES

Dictionnaire des églises de France, Belgique, Luxembourg, Suisse, Paris: R. Laffont, 1966-

Lasteyrie du Saillant, Robert Charles, conte de, Architecture réligieuse en France à l'époque romane (2e éd., avec une bibliographie critique par Marcel Aubert), Paris: A. Picard, 1929