Varese No. 1 / Baretium
Image copyright © Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli, 2002
Permission received March 27, 2002
Results: 14 records
B01: Christ
Scene Description: front side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli, 2002
Image Source: Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli
Copyright Instructions: Permission received March 27, 2002
B02: Apostle or saint - Apostles - St. Peter and St. Paul
![side 2 of front [L->R]](/static-50478a99ec6f36a15d6234548c59f63da52304e5/compressed/1020327002_compressed.png)
Scene Description: side 2 of front [L->R]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli, 2002
Image Source: Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli
Copyright Instructions: Permission received March 27, 2002
B03: unfinished
![sides 3 and 4 from the front [L->R]](/static-50478a99ec6f36a15d6234548c59f63da52304e5/compressed/1020327003_compressed.png)
Scene Description: sides 3 and 4 from the front [L->R]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli, 2002
Image Source: Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli
Copyright Instructions: Permission received March 27, 2002
B04: Apostle or saint - unidenitfied - 3
![sides 5 from the front [L->R]](/static-50478a99ec6f36a15d6234548c59f63da52304e5/compressed/1020327004_compressed.png)
Scene Description: sides 5 from the front [L->R]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli, 2002
Image Source: Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli
Copyright Instructions: Permission received March 27, 2002
B05: Apostle or saint - Apostles - Thomas, Simon and Philip
![sides 6 from the front [L->R]](/static-50478a99ec6f36a15d6234548c59f63da52304e5/compressed/1020327005_compressed.png)
Scene Description: sides 6 from the front [L->R]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli, 2002
Image Source: Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli
Copyright Instructions: Permission received March 27, 2002
B06: Apostle or saint - Apostles - St. Matthew and [??]
![sides 7 from the front [L->R]](/static-50478a99ec6f36a15d6234548c59f63da52304e5/compressed/1020327006_compressed.png)
Scene Description: sides 7 from the front [L->R]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli, 2002
Image Source: Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli
Copyright Instructions: Permission received March 27, 2002
B07: Apostle or saint - standing - 2
![side 8 from the front [L->R]](/static-50478a99ec6f36a15d6234548c59f63da52304e5/compressed/1020327007_compressed.png)
Scene Description: side 8 from the front [L->R]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli, 2002
Image Source: Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli
Copyright Instructions: Permission received March 27, 2002
view of basin
Scene Description: with the Baptism of Christ panel in the centre
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Renzo Dionigi, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 June 2007 by Renzo Dionigi [http://www.flickr.com/photos/renzodionigi/2357939068/]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
view of basin - detail
Scene Description: the cleric [bishop?] present in the Baptism of Christ panel
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Renzo Dionigi, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 June 2007 by Renzo Dionigi [http://www.flickr.com/photos/renzodionigi/2357939068/]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
view of basin - detail
Scene Description: St. Peter with two keys
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Renzo Dionigi, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 June 2007 by Renzo Dionigi [http://www.flickr.com/photos/renzodionigi/2357939068/]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
view of church exterior
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli, 2002
Image Source: Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli
Copyright Instructions: Permission received March 27, 2002
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli, 2002
Image Source: Paola Viotto Pedroli & Alberto Pedroli
Copyright Instructions: Permission received March 27, 2002
view of font
Scene Description: in the present [2007] arrangement the raised tank-font allows to see the earlier sunken font beneath
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Renzo Dionigi, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 June 2007 by Renzo Dionigi [http://www.flickr.com/photos/renzodionigi/2357939068/]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
view of font in context
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Renzo Dionigi, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 June 2007 by Renzo Dionigi [http://www.flickr.com/photos/renzodionigi/2357939068/]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
INFORMATION
FontID: 05822VAR
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Church/Chapel: San Giovanni Battista [attached to San Vittore]
Church Patron Saints: St. John the Baptist
Country Name: Italy
Location: Varese, Lombardia
Directions to Site: Varese is located on the N342, 55 km N of Milan, between Lake Maggiore and Lake Como [the baptistery is attached to San Vittore]
Font Location in Church: In the centre of the baptistery [cf. Font notes for earlier location]
Century and Period: 12th - 13th century, Gothic
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Dr. Paola Viotto Pedroli for bringing these fonts to our attention and for the materials provided.
Font Notes:
Click to view
"The Baptistery of Varese was attached to the 'plebana' church of San Vittore. It was built in the early Middle Ages (supposedly 8th-9th century) with a polygonal shape. Of that phase still survives a masonry octagonal font, that was excavated in 1950. Substantial changes were introduced during the late Middle Ages, in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the result was the building we see nowadays. The Gothic octagonal font, made of a single block of local stone, has carved relief on six sides, the other two bearing evidence of preliminary work for further figures. The reason why it was never completed is still unknown." There are partial inscriptions identifying some of the Apostles on the sides of the basin. In an essay that gives an architectural synthesis of the baptistery of San Giovanni Battista in Varese, Navoni (2000) explains that when this present baptismal font of this church was removed and the ground excavated in 1948-1950, a sunken piscina appeared and was subsequently documented [cf. Index entry for Varese No. 2]. Navoni (ibid.) also notes that the raised font had not always been located above the sunken one; although it is not known with any certainty where the raised font first was, it is known that ca. 1574 and 1612 it was located against a wall, and it was moved to the centre of the baptistery in 1878-1880.
COORDINATES
UTM: 32T 487052 5073692
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, [local stone]
Number of Pieces: one
Font Shape: octagonal (unmounted)
Basin Interior Shape: octagonal
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
INSCRIPTION
Inscription Language: Latin
Inscription Location: on some of the sides of the basin, on the upper frames
Inscription Text: "THOMAS [??} - S. SIMON - S. PHILIP[??] - S. MATHEVS"
Inscription Source: Images supplied to BSI by Paola Viotto Pedroli
REFERENCES
Navoni, Marco, "Il battistero di Varese: una sintesi architettonica della storia del battesimo", 2000, pp. 17-28; p. 17-28
Viotto, Paola, "Gli affreschi trecenteschi del battistero", 2000, pp. 137-[180]; [throughout]