LAVABO. - A place and arrangement for ablutions. It became part of ecclesiastical furnishings from the earliest Christian times, following the use of the fountains for ablutions arranged in the earliest basilicas and consisting mainly of a basin and a water reservoir equipped with one or more taps. Such were the lavabos of the basilicas and early medieval monasteries. They were sometimes enriched with aediculae, as in the cloister of the abbey of Fossanova; they were also found in sacristies for the preparatory ablutions before the celebration of the divine Sacrifice, in monastic refectories, etc.
During the Renaissance, many artists sculpted lavabos with ornate compositions, enriching them with niches adorned with garlands of flowers and fruit and inserting bas-reliefs and sculptural finials: thus Giovanni della Robbia in the inverted majolica lavabo in the sacristy of Santa Maria Novella and Verrocchio in that in the old sacristy of San Lorenzo. A notable example is the lavabo with six water spouts, with a sarcophagus-shaped basin on which dolphins and a male bust are carved, set into a large niche with various decorative bas-reliefs and a sculpted lunette, that of the Certosa di Pavia, a work of the 15th century.
In sacristies, besides built-in lavabos, there were also portable washstands, always for the ablutions preceding Mass. These took the form of the more common domestic ewer and basin, consisting of a basin and a water jug. With the introduction of majolica and porcelain, most of these portable lavabos were produced in such materials, but some were also made of metal, bronze, silver, and gold, with notable embossed and chased decorations, often featuring fantastic figures of animals, dragons, monsters, etc., of medieval and Northern derivation (v. , e.g., the rich collection of medieval ewers preserved in the Museo del Bargello in Florence) and some remarkable examples of 18th-century ewers in the treasury of the church of São Roque in Lisbon.
In more recent times, portable lavabos were provided with stands in wrought iron or bronze. — See pl. LIX.