Volume 30 of the Europa Sacra series, this book represents a career of respected research on baptismal fonts by Harriet M. Sonne de Torrens. This massive study sets forward clearly interconnected ideas around the decoration of Northern baptismal fonts. There is a substantial set of material here that reveals a period concern with Infancy cycles; the organization of workshops in the region means that a homogeneity of motifs is also likely. Indeed, in regions with less well-shaped production, this kind of programmatic focus is harder to isolate. Sonne de Torrens, however, pushes this further, emphasizing an ecclesiastic and political agenda to create a Christian North. “This study argues that the ecclesio-political developments during the Valdemarian Era (c. 1157-1241) under the archbishop of Lund, the primate Church of Sweden, Denmark, and Gotland, generated the making of the northern Romanesque baptismal fonts with extensive Christological narratives” (31). Fonts become a tangible expression of a deliberate cultural drive that introduces and validates Crusading ideas and actions.
This is indeed a potent reference work, remarkable for hundreds of photographs of baptismal fonts, many difficult to see elsewhere and a remarkable number in color. There are detailed maps showing font and church distributions against territorial distinctions, supporting her work on the regional concentrations of these motifs. There are extensive tables that help to attribute fonts to particular workshops, to document programs and inscriptions, and to confirm regions and dates. The organization of these resources, however, is not ideal: maps appear after the introduction while the table of historical dates and genealogical relationships is lumped in with the iconographic tables. This means that these elements, crucial to the understanding of the geographic region and period, are not well integrated with the text. The introduction focuses on describing and justifying the corpus and thesis; the writing throughout is thoroughly sourced. These elements are valuable but also indications that the book is meant as a tool for the engaged scholar, rather than for drawing in the novice.
The book organization has different priorities that are sometimes at odds and that can lead to an intermingling of analytical evidence that is hard to follow. The brief entry in the Introduction devoted to the history of the Valdemarian Dynasty is easy to miss; there is a cursory paragraph on the waves of forced Christianization in the area, followed by a quick scholarship review. Font iconography is often tucked into larger discussions of trade as a brief mention, to the detriment of the example (e.g., Ch. 2, Sighraf font at Torp). The images make the reader long for some case studies that could smoothly spin out a single font in the situation of its decoration--to see the analytical product as directly as these elements of ecclesiastical authority, workshop, liturgical year, and the politics of Crusade all come together. The issue is not one of knowledge or authority in Sonne de Torrens’s research, but a facet of writing choices.
Chapter 1: “The Workshops and Continental Networks,” discusses the key elements of northern sculptural practice. Much of the chapter discusses the prominent artisans and workshops that are part of a medieval export trade (Mosan, Tournai, Germany) and those in the North--Majestatis, Byzantios, Semi-Byzantios, Tove, Hegwald, Sighraf, Calcarius, and others. Perhaps most important is the way in which these workshops do not follow contemporary geographies, instead connecting with Hanseatic League and Baltic Teutonic Order cities, so following areas of trade and politics. The order of this chapter means again that Sonne de Torrens is referring to important major events, political intermarriage, and ecclesiastical connections and their effect on the stone industry, before detailing those narratives and influences; my advice to those not familiar with the region or its specific history is to read out of order, beginning with the second chapter.
Chapter 2: “The Ecclesiastical, Cistercian, and Artistic Relationships between Denmark and Gotland,” helps the reader understand the complexity of this material. A more linear historical narrative would do more to highlight the connections that are so important between Valdemar I and the Cistercian Archbishop Eskil and his Clairvaux colleagues, and between Valdemar II and Archbishop Sunesen of Lund (educated in Paris at the Abbey of St. Victor). The military and ecclesiological expansions go together, further bolstered by papal authority (particularly the first Cistercian pope Eugene III [r.1145-1153], and later Innocent III [r.1198-1216]), beginning with the crusades against the Wends in 1147 and followed by Crusades against the Obotrites, Finns, Estonians, Livonians, and other Northern groups over the next hundred years. Like Holy Land crusaders, these fighters took up the cross with full remission of sins, not to mention freedom from taxation, protection of possessions, and interest-free loans. Key is this context: the mission of the military and the institutional Church are then furthered by conquered wealth and tax exemptions, increased successful commercial expansion throughout the Baltic Sea, and the patronage of deliberately propagandistic art.
Chapter 3: “The Eucharist, New Law, and Crusader Theology,” opens with the suggestion that chalice-shaped fonts were a conscious connection of the two primary sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. The idea of the font as a well of salvation (Isaiah 12:3) originates in early Christian writings of the theologians Tertullian (ca. 160-230), Ambrose of Milan (d. 397), and Jerome (d. 419/420); twelfth-century theologians also drew together baptism and Christ’s Incarnation and death (107). Liturgy uses the Infancy motifs, and therefore those motifs received prominent visual artistic expression on fonts. This chapter traces Eucharistic symbols such as chalices and grapevines, images of the priesthood, celestial attendants, and the ByzantineEtimasia (empty throne). A short section entitled “The Judicial Century,” which feels out of order, discusses key law collections (e.g., Laws of Scania, Liber legis Scaniae, Guta Lag) as establishing the Church's institutional positions within society for elements like property ownership and responsibilities, baptism, and kinship connections. It leads into discussions of visuals of Christ in Majesty and the Agnus Dei, with clear judgment and crusader themes, but also again of ecclesiastical authority in images of bishops and abbots. There is a fascinating discussion of the Bosom of Abraham imagery, seldom seen in the West, as a prefiguring of the pilgrim-crusader (121); it is then followed by an entry on St. Peter which seems like it should be incorporated into the subheading on bishops and abbots as the presence and authority of the Church.
Part II: “The Iconography, Liturgy, and Crusades,” covers chapters four through six, which connect the liturgical seasons and font iconography. Each of these three chapters connects readings with iconography and period culture. Again, what Sonne de Torrens is showing in these chapters is a point she could make more directly: that there is a deliberate timelessness in these decorations that promotes the very present moment of Christian crusading within a fluid history of Old Testament foundation, Christ’s Infancy, saintly identity, and the culmination of the Second Coming. Chapter 4: “The Advent Season and Feast Days,” starts with the Annunciation to Mary and the Visitation in the Advent readings, amply visualized in the baptismal fonts of the region, but then also tackles less-intuitive symbolism. For example, the palm frond connects saints and palmers--pilgrims who had completed their vows--here expressed with the Baltic Crusades and the association with the expansion of Christian conversion. Saints are often chosen for their connections to the Crusades (e.g., St. George of Cappadocia found on Gotland fonts). Here too, Cistercian and Victorine theological writings shape the moral message of the season, making these scene popular subjects for the decoration of the font.
Chapter 5: “The Christmas Season,” adds elements of Joseph’s story in both Gospel and non-canonical common sources like the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew or the Protoevangelium of James. What stands out as Crusader rhetoric in the liturgy and the visuals are stories such as the Annunciation to the Shepherds and their modeling of conversion, and the unusual stories associated with St. Stephen, a motif not seen outside Scandinavia. Sonne de Torrens shows that non-canonical but well-known stories like the Miracle of the Harvest and the Palm Tree miracle have a place in the readings specific to the liturgical and crusader concerns that shape the region.
In Chapter 6: “The Epiphany Season: Crusader Kings and Peregrini,” Sonne de Torrens draws out the connections between the Mass readings and the critical Crusader theology that motivated these images. The cult of the Magi here creates the centrality of Christian conversion as the political and ecclesiastic purpose. Motifs of recognition, journeying, and submission set against the persecutions of Herod’s resistance are easily read as a focus of the Valdemarian Era. Sonne de Torrens interrupts first with Holy Sepulchre imagery and then the Old Testament connections to Moses (militarily through the Amalechites and baptismally through the Crossing of the Red Sea). The choice of particular saints, often shown in militant costume, connects orders like the Hospitallers, the monarchy of Valdemar I, and Cistercian preaching. The choice of Northern saints such as St. Olaf II Haraldsson (995-1030, king of Norway), St. Canute Lavard (d. 1131, Obotrite king), and St. Canute the Holy (d. 1086, king of Denmark) shows a larger picture of relic investment, regional church dedications, and font decoration.
General readers will need to persevere to get at the analysis here but this volume clearly advances our study of baptismal fonts. It tackles an object class that is integral and prominent, and often dismissed from earlier art historical study. It is grounded both in the view that artistic products exist in a technical context of materials and workshops and are shaped by the power of cultural philosophies spread with intention and attention. And finally, the images show a richness previously not shared with English-speaking audiences.