SCALLOPED BAPTISMAL FONT

The meaning of cleaning with water comes from the conception that churches are sacred places which are separated from the profane so as to keep divinity. Before penetrating this world, the human being must go through a cleaning and he is invited to renovate the purification with holy water. In the traditional symbolism, each ritual basin represents the Ocean essential in our lives; the water of the Genesis. Then, the holy water basins are a reminder of the baptism for the believers every time they get into the temple.

These containers, which were originally austere and far from decorations, achieve due to its contents, this magic capacity and get lots of carvings spreading the message. Their evolution increases the weight of the decorative and imaginative elements in its fabrication combining religious roles with the most valuable beauty and craft works.

The piece, a rectangular parallelepiped, has a protruding of gallons semispherical container. The Romanesque gallons have convex sections with natural segment, but at the end of the 15thand beginning of the 16th centuries, they became concave. This type of cup symbolizes water, as the venera is the aquatic fertility , the fertile spiritual belly. The cross, in his broadest sense, represents the glory and triumph of the Christian faith to achieve liberation and the pardon of your sins. When found in basins, its meaning has also to do with salvation, as it is proposed to save believers through baptism. At the front, there is a small part with vegetal motifs referring to the eden to embellish the spandrel. Last but not least, as a little alcove the concave scallop is represented. It has a semi-circled shell-shaped silhoutte. Its sharp edges create a light and shadow combination.