Enkhuizen No. 2

Wooden (oak) font noted and illustrated in the parish web site [www.xaverius.nl/parochie/kerkgebouw] [accessed 24 December 2015]: "Eikenhouten doopvont uit de Barok, vermoedelijk Zuid Nederlands." The font proper consists of a hemispherical basin raised on a round pedestal base; the wooden cover is also hemispherical. The whole font, however, is a wooden sculpture on the them of Paradise Lost: the lower trunk of the Tree of Science is the pedestal of the font, and two large braches shoot up forming a frame for a large painting of Christ on the Cross; around the trunk wraps the snake, while Adam and Eve stand in shame to the sides of the trunk; the lower base is square, with the top carved as part of the Garden of Eden. Above and to the sides float two angels. [NB: although the font falls outside the chronological parameters of BSI, it is included here as an example of complex wooden fonts being produced at late dates; it is as well an example of a theme already used in England in the 1686 baptismal font for London St. James' by Gringling Gibbons]. A view of the restoration of the Enkhuizen can be seen here [https://bruijs-streep.nl/17de-eeuws-doopvont/] [accessed 5 February 2022]