Mdina / Citta Notabile / Citta Vecchia / Imdina / Medina

Image copyright © Fabiano T. Rocha, 2012
Image and permission received (email 4 May 2012)
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 church interior - ceiling
view of church interior - ceiling
view of church interior - chancel
view of church interior - nave - looking east
view of font and cover
view of font cover
view of font cover - detail
INFORMATION
FontID: 13717MDI
Church/Chapel: Cathedral Church of St. Paul
Church Patron Saints: St. Paul
Country Name: Malta
Location: Malta
Directions to Site: Located 10 km W of Valletta
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Date: 1496
Century and Period: 15th century (late), Early Renaissance
Workshop/Group/Artisan: Workshop of Domenico Gagini
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Fabiano T. Rocha for his photographs of church and font
Church Notes: Norman church much modified; has also a Romanesque Irish oak door with additons done in 1520
Font Notes: Click to view font notes
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?].
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