Norsk døpefont i Hólar domkirke på Island

Abstract

Hólar Cathedral in Hjaltadal has a richly carved baptismal font of soapstone, which the author maintains is reworked from a Norwegian medieval font. An inscription confirms that Guðmundur Guðmundsson carved the ornaments in year 1674, figures and inscriptions according to models and a pictorial program provided by Bishop Gísli Þorláksson. Sentences from the Old and the New Testament as well as the motifs of the circumcision and baptism of Christ, framed by curved and enrolled lines, cover the outside of the bowl (cupa). The shaft and base are new, made when the bowl was transformed. Guðmundur was trained as a carpenter and woodcarver in Copenhagen and introduced the baroque style in Iceland on his return in 1647. From then on his work was extensively devoted to both bishoprics: supervising the construction of the new Skálholt Cathedral, and collaborating with Bishop Gísli Þorláksson of Hólar on a number of projects. Guðmundur is regarded as one of the superior seventeenth century woodcarvers in Iceland, and the Hólar font is presumably his main work.