Zacualpan de Amilpas: The Baptismal Font

In a previous post in this series, we looked at the monolithic baptismal font at Tlalmanalco, whose rim was inscribed with the Latin legend:  

Qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit, salvus erit; qui vero non crediderit, condemnabitur.

Whomever believes and is baptized will be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

The first part of the same quotation, from the gospel of St. Mark, is carved on the rim of a more complex font at Zacualpan de Amilpas in nearby Morelos state.

© Niccolo Brooker

Below the inscribed rim, the delicately delineated, shell like form of the basin rests on an inner ring carved with cannonball reliefs.

But the most extraordinary feature of this font is the outer ring, with its freestanding supports of luxuriant carved foliage modeled in high relief.

© Niccolo Brooker

text © 2018 Richard D. Perry

See our earlier post on the early colonial murals of Zacualpan

Please see our earlier posts featuring early Mexican fonts of  interest: Oaxaca; Yucatan; Michoacaneast; Atlixco (Puebla); Acatzingo; Tlaxcala; Cholula; 
CiudadHidalgo; Tepepan; Molango; Tecamachalco; Quecholac; Tecali; Zinacantepec; Cuernavaca; Otumba;