Romanesque Font - St Margaret of Antioch - Crick, Northamptonshire - Romanesque Architecture on Waymarking.com

St Margaret's church, Crick, boasts an important 12th century font, unusual in being supported by atlantes.

"At the W end of the S aisle. Consists of a cylindrical drum of red sandstone, tapering outwards slightly towards the top. It is decorated with an overall design of hemispherical bosses, slightly irregular in size because the design transposes at the SW from three rows of bosses to four (and back again at the SE). The lower edge of the bowl has a double roll, and the upper a zigzag fillet with a groove. The upper rim is decorated with a ring of pointed cusping, the cusps in relief. The basin is very shallow and lined with lead. The bowl is carried on three atlantes at E, SW and NW. All are of the same red sandstone, and all are grotesque naked male figures, shown frontally, but beyond that they differ considerably.

E atlas figure. He kneels on both knees with his hands gripping his thighs and his arms straight. His navel is drilled. His head is triangular with large bulging eyes, a broad flattened nose and a thin mouth turned down at the ends in a frown. His shoulders and head support a cuboidal slab, carved from the same block, and it is this that the bowl rests on. His forehead and hair overlap the top slab, but wear makes their form difficult to discern. SW atlas figure. This figure is squatting on his feet and bottom, his shins vertical. His elbows rest on his knees (his left arm is lost) with his upper arms raised to support the font bowl. Again, what they support is a slab carved from the same block on which the upper part of his head and his hair are carved. The head is oval with a broad forehead and pointed chin. The eyes are almond shaped, the nose is lost, and the mouth is thin and turned down at the ends, and he has a long upper lip emphasized by deep nasolabial folds. His hair consists of short radiating tufts surrounding the crown of his head. NW atlas figure. His pose is the same as the SW figure, but both of his legs are lost from above the knee, although the stumps of his feet survive. His left arm is missing too. What remains is the right arm, its elbow resting on the right thigh with the upper arm raised to support the integral slab under the bowl. Between his feet and attached to his torso is a large, roughly-shaped tongue of stone. His head is oval with a broad forehead and pointed chin. The features are not clearly carved, in fact the eyes and spiky hair are indicated by grooves, and it may be that this figure is not completely finished. The atlantes are carried on a later chamfered plinth.

Dimensions -
ext. diam. of bowl 0.77 m
h. of atlantes 0.38 m
h. of bowl 0.38 m
int. diam. of bowl 0.54 m
overall h. of font 0.94 m

The use of atlantes suggests inspiration ultimately from Italy, where such supporters were widely employed. The episcopal throne at Bari (Apulia) is the most celebrated example. In England the font at Castle Frome (Herefordshire) also has three figures in the base, but they do not support it as these do. What may be more relevant is the Prior's doorway at Ely cathedral (Cambs) whose jambs were supported on men seated on lions, of which traces remain. This doorway is demonstrably dependent on the Bari throne, or something very like it, and it may be that Ely was the channel through which the motif reached this country. If so, a date in the 1130s or '40s would seem reasonable for the Crick font."

SOURCE - (visit link)

Web site proof of Romanesque or Pre-Romanesque features: [Web Link] Type of building (structure): Church Address: St. Margaret of Antioch Church Street Crick Northamptonshire England NN6 7TP Date of origin: Not listed Architect(s) if known: Not listed Romanesque or Pre-Romanesque: Not listed

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