Bacile

BASIN. - I. IN THE LITURGY. - A large dish, mostly of metal, used for the various ablutions customary in the liturgy. Especially in the first centuries, when the faithful offered bread and wine for the sacrifice, vessels were needed to allow the celebrant to purify himself before beginning the sacred action. When the Church itself took thought for the oblations, the ablutions diminished and were retained only for their symbolic value; the size therefore of the vessels destined for these ablutions decreased. Today, besides basins large enough to contain holy water, or for washing the hands in the sacristies, there are others of different sizes for liturgical uses. Bishops use a basin with a pitcher of silver and of metal; other prelates also have this privilege. Basins of smaller dimensions serve to contain objects that must be blessed in the various functions, such as salt, ashes, rings, medals, etc., or also to carry certain sacred vestments to the altar in pontifical Masses.

II. IN SACRED ART

Medieval sources, from the Statuta antiqua of c. 500 onward, often mention the liturgical b. (bacimum, aquamanile, pelvis, concha, patena, discus, manipulus, lanx, fons), which differs from the others only in its decoration, in which Christian motifs appear, as in the Oriental plates of the 6th-7th centuries on which the Communion of the Apostles is represented (for example, those from Riha in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and from Stuma in the museum of Constantinople) or angels before the cross (Leningrad, Hermitage; London, British Museum, and New York, Metropolitan Museum, from Cyprus). Other silver plates are simpler in decoration, as, for example, the examples from Ostia (4th century, Vatican, Museo Sacro), from Canoscio (Perugia, Soprintendenza), from Poltava (Leningrad, Hermitage), from Lampsacus and from Sutton Hoo (London, British Museum), from Hamah (Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery). The plates of the treasure of Nagy Szent Miklos with Bulgarian inscriptions of the 9th century (Budapest, National Museum) served rather for profane use. A great number of bronze b., corresponding in form and decoration to Coptic types, was also found in the barbarian tombs of the 6th and 7th centuries.

Numerous and of varied form are the b. of the early Middle Ages; in many treasures are preserved brass b. with allegorical representations, perhaps worked in northern Germany (for example, some of those in the museum of Padua), which served, besides for the "lavabo", perhaps also for Baptism. From the 14th century until the Renaissance the schools of Flanders, of the Rhineland and, from the 15th century, of Nuremberg worked b. often with scenes hammered in brass (Beckenschlägerei) destined to be exported, especially to Spain and to northern Italy. More precious are the enameled copper b. of the school of Limoges of the 13th and 14th centuries, which are often found in pairs with identical decoration (Vatican, Museo Sacro; Paris, musée Cluny; collections of Dresden, Baltimore, London, etc.).

In the Renaissance the liturgical b. serves especially in the pontifical Mass; it becomes wider, very heavy and often decorated with chisel or repoussé work. Almost all the great "treasures" preserve rich examples of b. worked together with the pitcher (Vatican, Sistine Chapel; Siena, cathedral, etc.). Neoclassicism also changes the taste for the form of the b., which becomes simpler and is almost always paired with the pitcher (Vatican, Museo Sacro).

Guglielmo Federico Volbach