Brussels No. 18 / Bruxelles

A communication to BSI (e-mail of 26 June 2024) from Pol Herman refers to several fonts in this church at some time. PH refers to an article in the Bulletin des Commissions Royales d’Art et d’Archéologie, dixième année, 1871: Trèsor Artistique de la collégiale de Sainte-Gudule à Bruxelles, p. 152, that informs about a brass baptismal font was located in a baptismal chapel and that was probably destroyed in March 1793 and melted by the Sans-culottes, as they seized all the metal objects in the church, to remelt them into money. Among the objects was a baptismal font. A further communication from PH (e-mail of 3 December 2025) revisits the destroyed brass font mentioned in his earlier e-mail [cf. supra], and suggests that a very similar font appears on a Van der Weiden painting of ca. 1455: "Reading the book “Landschap van kerken, 10 eeuwen bouwen in Vlaanderen” by Geert Bekaert, ISBN 90 02 16038 0, the very knowledgeable author writes that the painting “Tryptic of the seven sacraments” by Rogier van der Weyden, around 1455, probably shows the interior of the Saint-Gudule cathedral of Brussels or the Saint-Peter’s church of Leuven. The painter was born in Tournai around 1400, and it is known that as a young man he lived in the goldsmiths' district of Tournai. He bought a house in Brussels in 1443/1444 and lived there until his death in 1464. Comparing the structural and stylistic details of the building and the sculptured decoration, I am personally convinced that the painting indeed shows the cathedral of Brussels. This could mean that the brass font on the left would be the item that was melted down between 6th and 14th of March 1793 by the revolutionary “sans-culottes”. The font looks like a combination of elements from the fonts at nearby Halle and (further away) Avelgem. I would not be surprised if these fonts would be linked. This would mean : made around 1450 by the Tournai coppersmith Guillaume Le Fèvre. Note that the city of Tournai appears in the live of both artists. I could not find the following article : “Rogier van der Weyden en de basiliek van Halle” by Franssens Marcel in Hallensia 33/3, 2011".