Olite No. 1

Described in Díez y Díaz (1984: 176ff) where it is dated to the 16th century as a replacement of an earlier damaged font; described and illustrated in the Catálogo Monumental de Navarra (1990?- , vol. III: 286) and in Domeño (1992: 167 and pl. 17): a large baptismal font of the 16th century that substituted the earlier one by episcopal decree; it is a Gothic piece, monolithic but with two volumes, both shaped like upturned truncated cones; there are rope moulding motifs at the upper and lower rims and at the centre where the two volumes meet; the rest of the outer surface of the basin sides is covered in diagonal fluting, top and bottom volumes pointing in different directions. Domeño (1992: 118 fn13) argues that the ornamentation on this font do not correspond to the ones common in the 16th century, and suggests that it may have been a Romanesque font from elsewhere acquired in this occasion to replace the old font. [We are grateful to the Institución Príncipe de Viana, and photographers Larrión & Pimoulier, of Pamplona, Spain, for the image of this font]