Abstract
This is a preliminary study of a special group of Romanesque baptismal fonts located in the eastern part of Jutland and decorated with confronted lions as their main motifs. They are part of a much larger group of lion-fonts from the same area, dominated by lions as bicorporates. These lions may designate Christ and His two natures, but there are no clear signs in the confronted lions of any differentiation enabling them to signify Christ’s divine contra His human nature. As confronted animals these lions are also part of earlier pictorial schemes used through centuries and many different cultures, from the Sumerian to Western Europe in the Romanesque period. Taking these things in consideration, the confronted lions on the baptismal fonts are analyzed in relation to different schemes and contexts: flanking a human head, either with their heads en face or in profile, often with their tongues sticking out, or swallowing and pouring forth human beings. Without denying the intricate relations between good and evil in these images the main thesis is that all these lions are ‘good’ lions that take care of and protect the persons being baptized and signify in this way different stages of the transformative process. They are not lions representing Christ but often related to him through a head between them.
| Original language | Danish |
|---|---|
| Journal | Tahiti |
| Volume | 2016 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| ISSN | 2242-0665 |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Keywords
- Faculty of Humanities