LAVABO. — Place and installation for ablutions. It became part of ecclesiastical furnishings from the earliest Christian times, and in use followed the facilities for ablutions installed in the atria of the early
basilicas; it consisted principally of a basin and a water tank fitted with one or more taps. Such were the l. of the basilicas and of the early monasteries of the High Middle Ages. They were sometimes enriched with aedicules, as in the one in the cloister of the Fossanova Abbey; they were found in sacristies, for the ablutions preceding the celebration of the Divine Sacrifice, in monastic refectories, etc.
During the Renaissance, many artists sculpted l. with ornate compositions, enriching them with niches containing festoons of flowers and fruits and incorporating bas-reliefs and crowning sculptures: thus Giovanni della Robbia in the glazed maiolica l. in the sacristy of S. Maria Novella, and Verrocchio in the one in the old sacristy of S. Lorenzo. A large l. with six water jets, with the receptacle in the form of a sarcophagus on which dolphins and a male bust are carved, set into a large niche with various decorative bas-reliefs and a sculpted lunette, is the one in the Certosa of Pavia, a work of the 15th century.
In the sacristies, besides l. set into the wall, there were also portable hand-washing basins, likewise for the ablutions preceding Mass. They had a form similar to that of the more common aquamanile for domestic use, consisting of a basin and a jug for water. With the introduction of maiolica and porcelain, most of these portable l. were produced in such materials, but there were also examples in metal, bronze, silver, and gold, with notable repoussé and chased decoration, often featuring fantastic representations of animals, dragons, monsters, etc., of medieval and northern derivation (v. , for example, the rich collection of medieval aquamaniles preserved in the Museo del Bargello in Florence), as well as some exceptionally fine examples of eighteenth-century aquamaniles in the treasury of the church of S. Rocco in Lisbon.
In more recent times, wrought-iron or bronze stands were made for portable l. — Vedi tav. LIX.