page_title: Baptistère de Saint Louis
section_title: Flora and fauna
hierarchical_section_title: Baptistère de Saint Louis / Description / Flora and fauna
context_page_description: The Baptistère de Saint Louis is an object of Islamic art, made of hammered brass, and inlaid with silver, gold, and niello. It was produced in the Syro-Egyptian zone, under the Mamluk dynasty by the coppersmith Muhammad ibn al-Zayn. This object is now in the Islamic Arts department of the Louvre under inventory number LP 16. Despite its common name, it has no connection with the King of France Louis IX, known as Saint Louis.It was used as a baptismal font for future French Kings, making it an important Islamic and French historical object.
  The origins and original purpose of the basin are not fully known, since the first record of the object was in a French church inventory. It was possibly used as a ritual washing bowl at the Mamluk court or it could have been commissioned by a Christian patron.
  The Baptistère de Saint Louis has a complicated visual program on the interior and exterior, depicting a number of different groups of people, a wide variety of animals, fish, plants, and Arabic inscriptions. The basin was made through an engraving and hammering process using precious and high quality metal.
context_section_description: Animal motifs are widely present in the Baptistery of St. Louis and take several forms.
  Animal elements which are present in the narrative scenes, whether or not they participate in the narrative, consist of a complex composition at the bottom of the pond, with fish and other aquatic animals.
  Apart from the round of fish, most of the animals belong to the world of hunting. Some animals are prey such as gazelles, ibex, hares, wild boars, lions, bears, foxes, wolves, cheetahs, ducks, and waders, while others are helpers like tame cheetahs, dogs, and hawks. There are other various animals such as dromedaries, elephants, and horses. Also present are imaginary creatures such as griffins, sphinxes, unicorns, and dragons.
  The round of fish are specifically organized: in the center, six poisons form a radiant pattern around a point. Five concentric circles of fish surround them. However, the general impression is that of a disorder, because between the circles of fish, the artist slipped a varied and disorganized aquatic fauna: ducks, eels, crabs, frogs, a crocodile, a pelican, and two harpies
  The entire decoration, with the exception of the ornament of the edge of the basin, is on a background of interlaced vegetation. In the animal friezes, foliage is organized in cylindrical windings. In the principal registers, the vegetable ornament seems more free-flowing, with the aim of filling every space. The foliage is accentuated by small palm leaves and palmettes divided into three parts. Leaves, possibly derived from the vine leaf pattern, are present in the interior medallions with escutcheons, as well as five-petalled petals inlaid with gold. On the main registers, there are also large plant stems bearing rows of leaves, with flowers present at the end of the stems. There is also a vegetable with a large flower and another indistinct vegetable which is composed of two palms intersecting they lay between the legs of the characters of the headband.
caption: Detail of the frieze.
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