Utrecht No. 4

Noted and illustrated in the entry for this church in Kerken Kijken Utrecht [https://www.kerkenkijken.nl/kerken/pieterskerk/geschiedenis-en-gebouw] [accessed 12 February 2022] informs: Nothing more is known about the current baptismal font in the Pieterskerk than that it is from the 11th century and comes from the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht. However, this museum and the archives of the Pieterskerk and the Catharijneconvent provide no further information. We can assume that it is a Romanesque baptismal font, hewn from freestone, possibly from a quarry in the Ardennes near Namur. The font was probably chopped on site and transported ready-made by ship across the Maas and other rivers to the Northern Netherlands. This was the procedure for Mosan baptismal fonts in the Romanesque and Gothic periods, many of which were made. The four "cups" on the curve of the font may symbolize the four streams of paradise, which according to Genesis 2:10-14 are: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates. The baptismal font stands on a new foot, made by the Utrecht sculptor Pieter d'Hont in the 1950s [="Van de huidige doopvont in de Pieterskerk is niet meer bekend dan dat deze 11e-eeuws zou zijn en afkomstig uit het Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht. Dit museum en de archieven van de Pieterskerk en het Catharijneconvent geven echter geen verdere informatie. Wij kunnen ervan uitgaan dat het een romaans doopvont is, uit hardsteen gehakt, mogelijk uit een steengroeve in de Ardennen bij Namen. Waarschijnlijk is de vont ter plaatse gehakt en kant en klaar per schip over de Maas en andere rivieren naar de Noordelijke Nederlanden vervoerd. Dit was de procedure voor Maaslandse doopvonten in de romaanse en gotische periode, waarvan er vele zijn gemaakt. De vier ‘kopjes’ op de ronding van de vont symboliseren wellicht de vier stromen van het paradijs en dat zijn volgens Genesis 2:10-14: Pison, Gihon, Tigris en Eufraat. De doopvont staat op een nieuwe voet, vervaardigd door de Utrechtse beeldhouwer Pieter d´Hont in de jaren ´50."] [cf. BSI entry for Utrecht No. 1, with a claim for this font's presence in that church until the 19th century] A communication from Pol Herman (e-mail of 10 February 2022) includes an interesting report in Westheem, tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Archeologie, number XLV-I-1996, Theo van Dijk, een Utrechtse AWN-er van het eerste uur. Een interview door Regina Horbach en Frans Landzaat. Page 3, of how the font was transferred from the Centraal Museum in Utrecht to the church [Pol Herman's translation: " Until then, we had always worked outside the city. In the same sixties, plans were also made for the restoration of the Pieterskerk in the city of Utrecht itself. It was then that we offered to assist and we asked the church board for permission to dig an archaeological site. This led to a counter question: what exactly could we do, what did we propose? We had to show that with a test! It turned out to be a very strange test! The original baptismal font from the Pieterskerk, from the 15th century, was in the Centraal Museum in Utrecht and the church council did not get it back. Then they received a Romanesque baptismal font from the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht, but it had frozen to pieces and had to be restored. If we could do that, we could get to work in the church. Our archaeological skills had to be shown by restoring that baptismal font. Anyway, we passed that exam and we got permission. If you look closely at that thing, there are two identical heads on it; we made a copy of one and mounted it, otherwise it would never have worked. The whole still looks nice."