The Fountain of Life, or in its earlier form the Fountain of Living Waters, is a Christian iconography symbol associated with baptism and/or eucharist, first appearing in the 5th century in illuminated manuscripts and later in other art forms such as panel paintings.
The symbol is usually shown as a fountain enclosed in a hexagonal structure capped by a rounded dome and supported by eight columns. The fountain of living waters, fons vivus[1] is a baptismal font (a water fountain in which one is baptized, and thus reborn with Christ), and is often surrounded by animals associated with Baptism such as the hart. The font probably represents the octagonal Lateran Baptistery in Rome, consecrated by Pope Sixtus III (432-440), which was iconographically associated with the fountain of the water of life mentioned in Revelation 21:6.
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The best examples date from the Carolingian period: the Godescalc Evangelistary made to commemorate the Baptism of the son of Charlemagne in 781, and in the Soissons Gospels.
In the Ghent Altarpiece: The Adoration of the Lamb by Jan van Eyck (1438), the Lamb of God stands upon an altar dressed as for the Mass of the Precious Blood, with a blood-red frontal: the Lamb's blood is caught in a chalice, and its Eucharistic intention is signaled by the dove of the Holy Spirit above. In the foreground, offering the other means of grace, is the Fountain of the Living Water surrounded by the faithful. In the Prado, Madrid, is the Fountain of Living Water emanating from the Lamb of God,[2] in which the open fountain is set into the outer wall of Heaven. That the water is not merely the purifying water of baptism is shown by the innumerable wafers that float upon its surface: the two sacraments are represented as one.
In a miniature in a Book of Hours,[3] probably painted at Ghent at the end of the 15th century, the Fountain of Living Water has given way to a fountain of blood, the Fountain of Life, in which the figure of Christ stands upon a Gothic pedestal at the center and fills the fountain from his wounds, though the aureole that surrounds him identifies him as the transfigured Christ and the location as Paradise.
In Flanders at the close of the Middle Ages an intense devotion to the Precious Blood of Christ gave rise to an iconographic tradition of the 15th and 16th centuries, which rendered the theological concept of Grace,[4] expressing Roman Catholic dogma allegorically as a fountain of blood. This transformation was first addressed in Evelyn Underhill in 1910, taking her point of departure an Assembly of Saints and the Fountain of Life of 1596 in Ghent,[5] in which blood from the five Holy Wounds of Christ flows into the upper basin of a "Fountain of Life"[6] and streams out through openings in the lower "Fountain of Mercy". Saints and martyrs, patriarchs and prophets hold golden chalices of blood, which some empty into the fountain. Below the faithful hold out their hearts to receive droplets of blood.
Traditions about Alexander's search for the Fountain of Life were influenced by earlier legends about the Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh and his search for immortality, such as in the Epic of Gilgamesh.[7] In the Alexander Romance (3rd century AD), Alexander is travelling along with his company in search of the Land of the Blessed. On the way to the Land, Alexander becomes hungry and asks one of his cooks, Andreas, to get him some meat. Andreas gets some fish and begins to wash it in a fountain. Immediately upon being washed, the fish sprang to life and escaped into the fountain. Realizing the has discovered the Fountain of Life, Andreas tells no one else about it and drinks the water for himself. He also stores away some of the water into a silver vessel, hoping to use some of it to seduce Alexander's daughter. Meanwhile, Alexander eventually reaches the Land of the Blessed but is unable to enter it. At the same time, he learns of Andreas losing the fish and questions him over it. Andreas confesses about what happened with the fish, and he is whipped for it, but he denies that he drank any and does not mention that he stored some, and asks Alexander over why he should worry about the past. At a later point, Andreas manages to use the water to seduce Alexander's daughter, who is enticed by the opportunity to drink from it, which she does and becomes immortal. Alexander learns of the miracle and punishes both Andreas and his daughter greatly: for Andreas is turned into a daimōn of the sea and his daughter into a daimōn of the desert.[8] This story was elaborated on in subsequent versions of the Romance, such as in the Syriac Song of Alexander and in the Talmud.[9][10]
In the sixth or seventh century, a Syriac language Christian text known as the Song of Alexander was composed and spuriously attributed to the poet Jacob of Serugh. It contains a slightly revised version of the narrative of Alexander's search for the water of life, compared to its appearance in the Greek Romance. During Alexander's search for the fountain, he encounters a wise old man who tells Alexander that he might identify the water of life by washing salted fish in the diverse springs in his region. One of Alexander's cooks named Andrew is one of the ones instructed with the task of testing out the springs. He begins washing one of the fish in the water. Suddenly, the fish springs to life and escapes into the water, swimming away into a river. The cook is worried that this will anger the king, Alexander, and so he tries to catch it but to no avail. He notifies Alexander of the event but also tells him that, during his episode, he had discovered the fountain of life. Alexander is happy and goes to bathe in the water, but in trying to approach the water enters suddenly into a middle of darkness and is unable to reach it. Alexander is sad, but is consoled by the wise old man; at this point the story shifts into questions asked to the wise man by Alexander and the responses he receives.[11][12] Unlike the earlier Romance, the version in the Song draws on Christian iconography, where bathing in the fountain is represented in baptismal terminology, and the fish symbolizes Jesus who rises from the dead.[11]
Yet another version appears a little earlier, in the Babylonian Talmud which was composed in the late fifth or sixth century. In this version, there is neither a cook (as in the Romance and Song) nor a wise old man (as in the Song). It is Alexander himself who, in his search for the water, washes the fish in the water which subsequently comes alive. Noticing that he has found the fountain of life, Alexander proceeds to watch his own face in the water. However, the Talmud does not explain the significance of this event. The Talmud also recounts an alternative version of the story where instead of washing his face, he traces the source of the fountain to the entrance of the Garden of Eden and demands to be let in on account of his status as a king. He is denied entry, however.[12]