The baptismal font

The brazenly baptismal font stood to the west of the nave until the 17th century and was displaced into George’s chapel to the north of the aisle in 1653. Four genuflecting figures which symbolizes the four river headwaters of the Euphrates, Tigris, Pishon and Gihon, carry the heavy caldron.

The unique configuration of the baptismal font is structed by the number four. On the caldron four reliefscenes are shown, which are bounded by medallions and columns. It is about the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan, the traverse through the Red Sea, the transport of the Ark of the Covenant over the Jordan and the dedication, on which the donor Wilbermus is allegorised next to the feet of god’s mother.

This sequence correlates with the structuring of the lid, which has four reliefscenes as well, which are bounded by columns. Personated are Christ and the rueful sinneress, Bethlehemian child murder, deeds of lovingness and the blooming baton ot Aaron.

Furthermore an intense relation is constructed by the inscriptions, medallions, prophets and the cardinal virtues between the vertical and horizontal levels with an intense symbolic content, which relates to the baptism.