Otumba: The Baptismal Fonts

In our first post on Otumba we looked at the sculpted doorways of the church and convento.  For our second post we survey other examples of early stonework there, notably the various fonts.

Carved stone basins in all shapes and sizes proliferate in the church. They have a family resemblance, ringed with the Franciscan knotted cord and emblazoned with large, eight-pointed rosettes.

The larger baptismal font, housed beneath a shell niche in the baptistry, sports huge ball pendants and a trumpet-shaped hood.  This font is accompanied by a smaller version as well as a third font with a barbed quatrefoil basin, foliated swags and an inset ceramic bowl.

 

 

The knotted cord rims another font in the nave, in front of a similarly banded dado, also with star-like relief rosettes. 

Finally a more elongated version rests in the convento, carved with four petaled rosettes and a cross relief.

text © 2018 Richard D. Perry. images by the author and ELTB

Please see our earlier posts featuring early Mexican fonts of interest: 

Oaxaca; Yucatan; Michoacan-east; Atlixco (Puebla); Acatzingo; Tlaxcala; Cholula; Ciudad Hidalgo; Tepepan; Molango; Tecamachalco; Quecholac; Tecali; Zinacantepec; Cuernavaca; Otumba; Chimalhuacan; Tlalmanalco;