Beauty of Holiness Art and the Bible in Western Culture

Pope John VII, mosaic particular, 705-06 CE, Vatican Museums

Last year, in two different classes, I had students ask me most the history of the halo in art. It is an interesting topic to consider, especially since there isn't a reference to Jesus having a halo in the Bible. I think that the closest reference to a halo in the Bible is a description of Moses existence surrounded with a "crown of light" or "rays of low-cal" (from when he came down off of Mt. Sinai, every bit recorded in Exodus 34:29). Interestingly, St. Jerome's Vulgate had a translation of this poetry as "horns of light," and you lot sometimes run into depictions of Moses with horns from the Middle Ages and onward. But that's some other story for another post, perhaps.

Detail of Helios from a red-effigy vase, fifth century BC, British Museum

I thought I'd write down a bit virtually the early on sources for the halo, in case I accept more students ask the aforementioned question in the futurity. The halo may accept come from several dissimilar sources, including classical culture. For example, the Greek god Helios is depicted with rays emanating from his head. There likewise are a few depictions of Apollo with halos. A Roman floor mosaic in Tunisia which has 1 such delineation. I've also heard discussions nigh how laurel wreaths (used to crown victors in classical societies) could be related to the halo.

In add-on to classical sources, the sun disk constitute in Egyptian crowns may accept been an early manifestation of a halo-like form.  There also are similar forms related to the halo (like the nimbus or aureola) constitute in non-Western fine art, likewise. Some call back that the halo form traveled from West to East, ending up in Ghandara and influencing depictions of the Buddha (run across one example from the Tokyo National Museum from the 1st-2nd centuries CE).^ane

Detail of vault mosaic in the Mausoleum Thousand (Mausoleum of the Julii), from the necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica. Mid-3rd century CE. Paradigm courtesy Wikipedia

Christians adopted the round halo from their contemporaries, using the circular shape to connote perfection, divinity, and holiness. I know of ane early image, a ceiling mosaic from the necropolis underneath St. Peter'due south (encounter above), which may depict Christ or Sol Invictus (the later lord's day god of the Roman empire). This image pre-dates the 4th century, and could exist a very early example of the halo in a Christian context. After this point, halos were used for Christ and the Lamb of God, angels, the Virgin, and eventually saints.²

Some variants of the halo:

• The mandorla (an almond-shaped aureole) normally is used for depictions of Christ and the Virgin. However, the earliest representation of a mandorla appears effectually an Old Testament figure, specifically one of the iii angels who visit Abraham (in a fifth century scene at Santa Maria Maggiore).³ The mandorla continues to become more abstract and angularly divers in later art.
• The cruciform halo is normally used for members the Trinity, especially Christ. This form of halo includes a cross inside or extending beyond the round surface area of the halo. An early on case of the cruciform halo is found in the Miracles of the Loaves and Fishes mosaic of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna (c. 504). In Orthodox and Byzantine tradition, the cruciform also include the letters Ο ὤ Ν, which translate to mean "The Being" or "I Am," serving as a testament to Christ's divinity (see more information Hither).
• The square halo was sometimes used to bespeak that a person is even so living when the piece of work of art is created. From what I can tell, the earliest case of a square halo dates from about the early 8th century. The foursquare, every bit an imperfect shape that represents the World, is used to draw a contrast with the perfect circle used for divine figures. (For an example, see mosaic of Pope John VII at the beginning of this post. Other examples of foursquare halos are establish at Santa Prassede in Rome, found in a mosaic of Pope Paschal I (c. 820) and a mosaic which includes a adult female specified every bit "Theodora, Bishop").
• The trianglular halo is sometimes used to symbolize the Trinity (example: Antoniazzo Romano, detail of God the Begetter, from the Altarpiece of the Confraternity of the Annunciation, c. 1489-90, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome).
• The hexagonal halo has been used in conjunction with allegorical figures (instance: Alesso di Andrea, Hope, 1347. Pistoia Cathedral, Pistoia).
• Dotted halos sometimes appear in Crusader fine art; they are considered one of the stylistic characteristics of this blazon of fine art (case: Saint Sergios with Female Donor icon, c. 1250s).⁴ The dotted halo also appears in other creative traditions, too, including Ottonian art (example: Christ and the Apostles on the Sea of Galilee from the Hitda Codex, c. 1025-50).
• The star halo sometimes appears in depictions of the Immaculate Formulation. This type of halo refers to the to the description of the Virgin being crowned with twelve stars (Revelation 12:1). Several depictions of the Immaculate Conception appear in Counter-Reformation art, including Velasquez's The Immaculate Conception c. 1619 and Francesco Pacheco's Immaculate Conception with Miguel Cid, c. 1621 (Seville Cathedral).

Jan Van Eyck, detail of Virgin from the Ghent altarpiece, 1432

With the rise of realism in Renaissance fine art, the halo began to decrease (in terms of size and frequency of use). Giotto seems to take struggled with how to describe groups of figures with halos, while yet giving a sense of three dimensional space, as seen in his Madonna and Child altarpiece. Masaccio tried to angle his halos to appear a trivial more realistic in three-dimensional infinite, every bit seen in his "Tribute Money" fresco in the Brancacci Chapel. Leonardo da Vinci only subly suggests a thin halo in many of his paintings, like Virgin of the Rocks at the National Gallery in London. In some Renaissance art, sometimes the halo was subtly incorporated into a scene, like the a firescreen (Follower of Robert Campin, Virgin and Child Before a Firescreen) or an architectural device (Leonardo da Vinci's Concluding Supper). I similar how Jan Van Eyck created thrones in the Ghent altarpiece with backs that give the suggestion of halos (see above). Beyond the Renaissance, some artists connected to suggest halos without creating a traditional halo, as seen in the drape backside Christ in Coypel's The Resurrection of Christ (1700).

What are your favorite depictions of halos? Why?

1 Sally Fisher, The Square Halo and Other Mysteries of Western Fine art: Images and the Stories that Inspired Them (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995), 92.

ii Ibid.

3 "Mandorla," Encyclopedia Brittanica. Available online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/361739/mandorla (accessed September 19, 2013).

4 Angeliki Lymberopoulou, "To the Holy Country and Back Over again: The Art of the Crusades," in Art and Visual Civilisation 1100-1600: Medieval to Renaissance, edited by Kim Westward. Wood (London: Tate Publishing, 2012), 134.

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