St Bartholomew's Church, Liège
The Collegiate Church of St. Bartholomew was one of the original seven collegiate churches of Liège, which also included the Churches of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John, St. Denis, St. Martin, and the Holy Cross, and until the Liège Revolution of 1789 collectively comprised the "secondary clergy" in the First Estate of the Prince-bishopric of Liège.
In 2006, the church emerged from heavy restoration work lasting seven years and involving 10,000 replaced stones and the restoration of the polychromy of the walls).
Art collections
The church contains numerous works of art, among which may be mentioned The Glorification of the Holy Cross, a tableau of the local painter Bertholet Flemalle (1614–1675); The Crucifixion, from another local artist, Englebert Fisen (1655–1733); and a statue of St. Roch by Renier Panhay de Rendeux.
St. Bartholomew is the site of one of the most known examples of ecclesiastical Mosan art, a baptismal font attributed to the goldsmith Renier de Huy. It was commissioned at the beginning of the 12th century (1107–1108) by the Abbot Hellin for the Church of Notre-Dame-aux-Fonts, now destroyed, where local baptisms traditionally were administered.
The font was installed in St. Bartholomew Church in 1804, after having been spared from the occupying forces of the French Revolutionary Army.
This work heralds a resurgence of Greek influences on Western art. The brass tank, resting on ten (originally twelve) ox figures, presents five scenes: the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, the preaching of St. John the Baptist, the baptism of the catechumens, the baptism of the Centurion Cornelius, and the baptism of the philosopher Craton.
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Font of Renier de Huy: The baptism of Christ
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Font of Renier de Huy: The baptism of the catechumens
Notable figures
- Alger of Liège (1055–1131), deacon
References
- ^ Currie, C. R. J. (2019), "A Romanesque box hoist in Liège: A possible precursor of medieval tower-clock frames?", Fifty Years of Medieval Technology and Social Change, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-315-58231-3, retrieved 2024-02-03