Isavarre No. 2

Described in Catalunya romànica (1984- , vol. XV: 164-165): a roughly rectangular object made of limestone and ornamented with human and animal motifs, possibly an 'oil font' ["pica d'oli"] of the type commonly found in the southern side of the eastern Pyrenees (Aneu, Val d'Aran...). It is upside-down now and located at the entrance of the church serving as bench (?). This source describes the face of the lion carved on one of the narrow sides as human, and resembling those in such fonts at Son and the Museu Marés of Barcelona [NB: the faces could well be described as caricaturesque or sketchy rather than human]; the head of the lion is at the corner -as is common in medieval carving- but does is not shared by a body on the other side; instead, a beautifully rendered rodent, a rabbit or a hare. Earlier sources have identified this object as a sarcophagus. This source suggests an oil font ["malgrat tot, creiem que es tracta d'una pica d'oli"] and dates it to the late 12th or early 13th century. Cabestany, Matas & Palau (2005) relate it stylistically to the baptismal font [not the oil font] at Alos d'Isil]. Noted and illustrated in www.romanicocatalan.com: "la pica [sic] bautismal rectangular que esta situada en el exterior del edificio, en un lateral de la puerta de entrada, compuesta por un bloque de granito de 139 x 37 x 44, con animales representados muy esquematicamente en las caras, datable también en el siglo XII." [NB: these measurements probably after the entry in Catalunya romànica (1984- )