Jeantes / Janta Curtis / Jantha / Jeante-la-ville / Jeantes-en-Thierache / Jeantes-en-Thiérache

Image copyright © C.S. Drake, 2002
PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
Results: 21 records
animal - mammal - lion - passant - facing each other - at water source - 2
design element - architectural - arcade - round arches - 6
design element - motifs - floral - 4-petal - in a circle - 3
design element - motifs - foliage

Scene Description: at the angles of the lower base, similar to the motif on the capitals of the missing colonnettes on the underbowl -
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © E.J. Erpelinck, 2004
Image Source: E.J. Erpelinck [detail]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 7 Sepetember 2004)
design element - motifs - foliage
design element - motifs - fruit - grapes or arum?
design element - motifs - moulding
design element - motifs - palmette
design element - motifs - palmette - 7
design element - motifs - tendril
human figure - head - 3
view of base
view of basin's top
view of church exterior - southeast view
view of church exterior - southwest end
view of church exterior - southwest view
view of church interior - nave - looking east
view of font
view of font - side 2
view of font - side 3
INFORMATION
FontID: 04344JEA
Church/Chapel: Eglise paroissiale Saint-Martin
Church Patron Saints: St. Martin of Tours
Church Location: rue de l'Eglise, 02140 Jeantes, France
Country Name: France
Location: Aisne, Hauts-de-France
Directions to Site: Located in the canton of Aubenton, vecinity of Laon
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocèse de Soissons, Laon et Saint Quentin
Historical Region: Pays des Trois Rivières - La Thiérache - Picardie
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave, N side
Century and Period: 12th - 13th century, Romanesque
Workshop/Group/Artisan: Mosan font
Cognate Fonts: The fonts at the cathedral of Laon and the one at Nouvion-le-Vineux; also the font at Bancigny and the one at St-Just-en-Chaussée
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to E.J. Erpelinck for his photographs of this font
Church Notes: church listed in Mérimée [ref.: PA00115702]
Font Notes: Click to view font notes
Described in Corblet (1881-1882) as a Romanesque font ornamented with human, animal and foliage motifs on the sides of the basin. Described in an entry by G. Dumas in the Dictionnaire des églises... (1966- ) as a 12th century baptismal font made of the blue Tournai stone: a square basin mounted on a single broad cylindrical base; the basin sides are ornamented with palmettes, arum (?) fruit and colonnettes. This same source gives the fonts at the cathedral of Laon and at Nouvion-le-Vineux as cognates. Described and illustrated in Drake (2002): "Jeantes [...] echoes the Tournai font of St Jut-en-Chaussée with its three masks and three flowers in discs occupying the six arches of the arcade". Drake (ibid.), in describing one of the sides of this font refers to a "device well known from Romanesque capitals and from the East Jutland lion fonts, where two beasts face inwards and share a single head [...] for example at [...] Jeantes", but, the lion on the right of the two on the Jeantes font side, like the lion on the left of the two on the Bancigny font [cf. Index entry], is looking at the other lion, not sharing its head. The problem with the lion at Jeantes is that it is so badly carved that it has a tiny ugly head that touches the bigger head of the lion on the left and can be seen as only the neck. If one looks closely at both compositions, however, it appears more clearly as a head on its own. Drake (ibid.) groups it in his Mosan-1b class of square bowl on multisupport fonts. A third side is decorated with a palmette and grape-bunch garland or tendril, and has an upside-down human head in the lower-centre area [no information available on the fourth side]. The upper surface of the basin appears plain around the round well, though it is difficult to judge whether or not it had any decoration at all due to the poor state of the object; there is a wooden cover on the font but it is modern. The font is now [2004] in a deplorable shape: the basin is broken and poorly repaired in several areas; the part of the underbowl that forms the capitals of the outer colonnettes of the base is badly damaged and parts of it are missing, as are the four outer colonnettes of the base; the plain central shaft remains; the lower base, consisting of the round-to-square shape common in this type of font, is badly damaged too and one of the corners is missing. The font is inventoried in Palissy [ref.: IM02001609.html] with date in the second half of the 12th century. The iron font cover is modern, by Suasso de Lima de Prado Hans [cf. Palissy ref.: IM02001610].
COORDINATES
Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal:
49.804203,
4.054846
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS:
49° 48′ 15.13″ N,
4° 3′ 17.45″ E
UTM: 31U 575974 5517423
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material:
stone, limestone (black and blue) (Tournai marble)
Font Shape: square (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: square
Font Height (less Plinth): 105 cm*
Trapezoidal Basin: 85 x 90 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * Palissy [ref.: PM02000559]
LID INFORMATION
Date: 20th-century (mid?)
Material:
metal,
iron
Apparatus: no
Notes: modern flat iron cover decorated with fish and water motfs
REFERENCES
Dictionnaire des églises de France, Belgique, Luxembourg, Suisse, Paris: R. Laffont, 1966-
Corblet, Jules, Histoire dogmatique, liturgique et archéologique du sacrement de baptême, Paris: V. Palme, 1881-1882
Drake, Colin Stuart, The Romanesque Fonts of Northern Europe and Scandinavia, Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2002