Arreu No. 2 / Àrreu

An 'oil font' ["pica d'oli"], the type of Romanesque tub-like fonts (?) which are found in the area of the Pyrenees and were often used to store the tithe oil for the illumination and heating of the church. It has been argued by some that they are the original immersion fonts, later used to hold the tithe oil contributed by the brethren to light and warm up the churchs. This one is somewhat similar to the one of unknown origin and now kept at the Museu Mares in Barcelona, ornamented with a lion with the body on the narrow side and the head at the angle between that side and the long side to the right; on the long side, though the carving is blurry, it appears to have the same rabbit or hare (?) on the far right and, possibly, the bird [a peacock?] before it. One important difference between the two fonts appears to be the broad upper part of the Arreu basin, which is lacking [was it ever there?] in the Museu Mares font; the other difference is, of course, the quality of the carving, the one on the museum font being much more refined (as if the Arreu font were but a poor copy of it).