Lentini / Leontini / Leontinoi / Λεοντῖνοι / Lintini

image and permission received from the author via Elena Mendirichaga and Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

Results: 19 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

B01: nature - labours of the months - May

Scene Description: human figure carrying a basket of flowers

Image Source: digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Paulo Martins

Copyright Instructions: image and permission received from the author via Elena Mendirichaga and Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

B02: nature - labours of the months - June - man weeding the garden

Scene Description: human figure carrying a basket of fruit on his back

Image Source: digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Paulo Martins

Copyright Instructions: image and permission received from the author via Elena Mendirichaga and Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

B03: nature - labours of the months - July

Scene Description: human figure wearing a straw hat carries a scythe

Image Source: digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Paulo Martins

Copyright Instructions: image and permission received from the author via Elena Mendirichaga and Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

B04: nature - labours of the months - August

Scene Description: human figure with flowers on his head carries a basket of fruit on his back

Image Source: digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Paulo Martins

Copyright Instructions: image and permission received from the author via Elena Mendirichaga and Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

B05: nature - labours of the months - September

Scene Description: human figure leaning on a stick presses grapes with his feet

Image Source: digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Paulo Martins

Copyright Instructions: image and permission received from the author via Elena Mendirichaga and Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

B06: nature - labours of the months - October

Scene Description: human figure carries a container [vase?] on his back

Image Source: digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Paulo Martins

Copyright Instructions: image and permission received from the author via Elena Mendirichaga and Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

B07: nature - labours of the months - November

Scene Description: human figure badly damaged/eroded

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Elena Mendirichaga

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

B08: nature - labours of the months - December

Scene Description: human figure carrying a piglet/small pig on his back

Image Source: digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Paulo Martins

Copyright Instructions: image and permission received from the author via Elena Mendirichaga and Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

animal - bird

animal - mammal - lion - head

Scene Description: maned lion-head like motifs between the figures of the months; they show different expressions in the different positions

Image Source: digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Paulo Martins

Copyright Instructions: image and permission received from the author via Elena Mendirichaga and Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

animal - mammal - quadruped - 2

Scene Description: the spandrels of the arcade are populated with a variety of animals; this one has two quadrupeds opposed

Image Source: digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Paulo Martins

Copyright Instructions: image and permission received from the author via Elena Mendirichaga and Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

animal - unidentified

Image Source: digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Paulo Martins

Copyright Instructions: image and permission received from the author via Elena Mendirichaga and Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

animal - unidentified

Image Source: digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Paulo Martins

Copyright Instructions: image and permission received from the author via Elena Mendirichaga and Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

animal - unidentified

Image Source: digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Paulo Martins

Copyright Instructions: image and permission received from the author via Elena Mendirichaga and Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

design element - architectural - arch-head - 8

Scene Description: linked arch-heads without supports

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Elena Mendirichaga

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

design element - motifs - vine

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Elena Mendirichaga

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

information

Scene Description: the information panel posted by the display case of the font

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Elena Mendirichaga

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

inscription

Scene Description: the one shown here to the laft of the figure's leg has the name of the month corresponding to the scene, August

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Elena Mendirichaga

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

view of font in context

Scene Description: as displayed in April 2019

Image Source: digital photograph taken in April 2019 by Paulo Martins

Copyright Instructions: image and permission received from the author via Elena Mendirichaga and Mikel Unanue (e-mail of 20 April 2019)

INFORMATION

FontID: 22099LEN

Church/Chapel: Chiesa di Maria della Fontana o dei tre Santi [originally from the Reggia Abbazia di Santa Maria di Roccadia]

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin [St. Alfio, St. Cirino & St. Filadelfo; also St. Mercurio]

Church Location: Via Roma, 19, 96016 Lentini SR, Italy

Country Name: Italy

Location: Siracusa, Sicilia

Directions to Site: Locate off (E) the SP10, E of the SS194, about 6 km inland, 30 km SSW of Catania, on the E coast of Sicily

Font Location in Church: in a display case

Century and Period: 13th century (early?), Early Gothic

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Elena Mendirichaga and Paulo Martins for their photographs of this font and information panel (and to Mikel Unanue for the format migration of the original files)

Church Notes: 18thC church, one of seventeen churches in Lentini, at leat two of them 'rupestri' (Crocefisso and San Guliano)

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

As some of the sources below indicate, this object is said to have been originally at the Abbazia di Santa Maria di Roccadia; what it is not clear from the sources is whether the original capital had already been re-cycled in Roccadia or in Lentini. Noted in P. Mane's Calendriers et techniques agricoles (Paris, 1983: 302). Giosuè Musca (1989) writes: "Il Calendario di Lentini del XIII secolo si trova su un capitello trasformato in fonte battesimale nella chiesa di Santa Maria della Fontana'" and cites Mane's reference [cf. supra]. Glass (1991) notes a baptismal font at Lentini with carved with the Labour of the Months theme. Also in Altvater (in Sonne & Torrens, 2013). Described and illustrated in Antoni Randazzo's Archeologia Siracusa [www.antoniorandazzo.it/archeologia/il-fonte-di-lentini.html] [accessed 20 April 2019]: "Il fonte, in marmo di Carrara, fu eseguito per l'abbazia di Santa Maria di Roccadia, in territorio lentinese, per essere poi collocato nella Chiesa della fontana di Lentini. La decorazione propone il ciclo dei Mesi, da maggio a dicembre, comprendente otto figure superiormente inquadrate da timpani, costituenti una cornice continua, e alternate a protomi leonine. Affinità stilistiche collegano il fonte di Lentini al ciclo decorativo del portale centrale della Cattedrale di Sessa Aurunca. Le analogie iconografiche si colgono soprattutto tra la settima e ottava figura, a destra, di Sessa Aurunca e le figure di Agosto e Settembre di Lentini. Comuni sono inoltre alcune riminiscenze classiche (il panneggio ad effetto "bagnato", con fìtto sistema di pieghe)e taluni elementi iconografici (il copricapo, gli oggetti e la foggia delle vesti). Ulteriori echi stilistici e iconografici si riscontrano in alcuni capitelli del chiostro di Monreale e in quelli con le storie di Sansone, nei plutei figurati della Cappella di Santa Restituta a Napoli. Il binomio Sicilia-Campania ripropone così, ancora una volta, il problema della circolazione delle maestranze e dell'origine degli impulsi artistici in questa età. Lo scultore, seppure ancorato agli schemi di arte normanna (come attesta una certa squadratura delle figure), crea un'opera formalmente matura, databile nel primo ventennio del secolo XIII. Le citazioni classicheggianti negli elementi architettonici e nella decorazione documentano la cultura figurativa del momento, costituente una fase di transizione che innesta elementi federiciani su un substrato tardo-normanno. (C.V) Agostina Musumeci, Carmela Velia."

COORDINATES

UTM: 33S 500000 4126304

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, marble [Carrara]

Font Shape: octagonal

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

Diameter (includes rim): 44 cm*

Basin Total Height: 30 cm*

Notes on Measurements: * Information panel near the display case in which the font is shown

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Language: Latin

Inscription Location: in the little notice that each figure has

Inscription Text: "MADIVS / IVNIVS / IVLIVS / AGVSTVS / SEPTEMBJER / OTVBER / NOVEBER / DECEMBER"

Inscription Source: Information panel by the display case in which the font is kept

REFERENCES

Glass, Dorothy F., Romanesque Sculpture in Campania: Patrons, Programs, and Style, University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991

Sonne de Torrens, Harriet M., The Visual Culture of Baptism in the Middle Ages: Essays on Mediaeval Fonts, Settings and Beliefs, Farnham: Ashgate, 2013