Mdina / Citta Notabile / Citta Vecchia / Imdina / Medina
Results: 19 records
B01: design element - patterns - ribbed
B02: Apostle or saint - Apostles - St. Paul - holding book and sword
B03: design element - motifs - medallion - 2
BS01: design element - motifs
CR01: design element - motifs - moulding
LB01: design element - motifs - moulding
LBF01: human figure - caryatid - 3
R01: design element - motifs - moulding
view of font and cover
view of church interior - ceiling
view of church interior - ceiling
view of church interior - chancel
view of church interior - nave - looking east
view of font cover - detail
view of font cover - detail
INFORMATION
Font ID: 13717MDI
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Date: 1496
Font Century and Period/Style: 15th century (late), Early Renaissance
Workshop/Group/Artisan: Workshop of Domenico Gagini
Church / Chapel Name: Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Mdina / Il-Katidral Metropolitan ta' San Pawl
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Paul
Church Notes: Norman church much modified; has also a Romanesque Irish oak door with additons done in 1520
Church Address: 2 Triq San Pawl, L-Imdina MDN 1061, Malta -- Tel.: +356 2145 6620
Site Location: Malta, Malta, Europe
Directions to Site: Located off hwy 7, 10 km W of Valletta
Font Notes:
Click to view
Buhagiar (2005) notes and illustrates the baptismal font at the Cathedral of St. Paul, in Mdina, as a product of Domenico Gagini's Palermo workshop from 1496, four years after Gagini's own death in 1492. Buhagiar (ibid.) describes this font as one of the workshop's "better productions. It consists of a scalloped basin […] carried by four caryatid young men […] clustered together on a circular base […] Their slender grace and stylized drapery folds are essentially Gothic, but there is a Renaissance feeling in the concern for thye clasizing structure of the body and in the flexed knees and raised arms. The basin is emblazoned with municipal and Episcopal shields and carries two medallions with respective low relief representations of St Paul […] and the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan [NB: the Baptism appears on the cover, as well as a decapitation; is it John's?].
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Fabiano T. Rocha for his photographs of church and font
COORDINATES
UTM: 33S 446197 3971512
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 35.886389, 14.403889
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 35° 53′ 11″ N, 14° 24′ 14″ E
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, marble
Font Shape: hemispheric, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Diameter (includes rim): 94 cm*
Basin Total Height: 47 cm*
Height of Central Column: 56 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 103 cm [calculated]
Font Height (with Plinth): 126 cm [calculated]
Notes on Measurements: * [Buhagiar (2005) -- this source gives the height of the caryatid base (56 cm) separate from the lower base (23 cm)]
REFERENCES
- Buhagiar, Mario, The Late Medieval art and architecture of the Maltese islands, Valletta: Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, 2005, p. 233-235, 247 and plates 10.25 and 10.26