Holy Water Fonts
Wall fonts for holy water, held by angels and putti.
A holy water font is a wall piece and its structure never changes: a basin for the water and a figure above it. What differs is who holds the basin, and how.
Most often it is an angel. A face with the head softly inclined and eyes half closed, wings open above a hemisphere. A flying figure holding a cloth, and the cloth itself serves as the basin. A winged angel on a cloud-sphere with drapery and blue wings touched with gold. A seated winged child beside a shell-shaped basin.
The second group is putti: two seated either side of the shell, two bending over a basin among moulded pink roses, two flanking a composition crowned with a yellow and pink rose.
Many were made as pairs, differing in hair colour and shade of decoration: coppery curls and chestnut, pink roses and cream, a rose robe and a blue one. There are also praying children set in a medallion niche.
The largest piece of the series is a baroque basin with two putti, a cartouche and moulded acanthus.