NIMBUS
81
NIMBUS
for wreath and crown or shield shaped discs as marks
of honour to holy personages. Durandus writes:
"Sic onines sancti pingiintur coronati, quasi dicerunt.
Filia> Jerusalem, venite et videte martyres cum coronis
quibus coronavit eas Dominus. Et in Libro Sapien-
tiae: Justi accipient regnum decoris et diadema speciei
de manu Domini. Corona autem huiusmodi deping-
itur in forma scuti rotundi, quia sancti Dei protectione
divina fruuntur, unde cantant gratulabundi: Domine
ut scuto bon;p voluntatis tuae coronasti nos" (Thus
all the saints are depicted, crowned, as if they would
say: O Daughters of Jerusalem, come and see the
martyrs with the crowns with which the Lord has
crowned them. And in the Book of Wisdom: The
Just shall receive a kingdom of glory, and a crown of
beauty at the hands of the Lord. And a crown of
this kind is shown in the form of a round shield, be-
cause they enjoy the divine protection of the Holy
God, whence they sing rejoicingly: O Lord, Thou hast
crowned us as with ashieldof Thygood-will.) (Ration-
ale divin. offic, I, 3, 19, sq.). Furthermore the Mid-
dle Ages are almost exclusively accredited with the
extension of symbolisni inasmuch as they traced,
sometimes felicitously, allusions to Christian truths
in existing symbols, of which they sought no other
origin. Durandus adds to the passage quoted above,
the nimbus containing a cross, usual in the figures of
Christ, signifying redemption through the Cross, and
the square nimbus which was occasionally combined
with it in living persons, to typify the four cardinal
virtues. Judging by the principal monuments, how-
ever, the square nimbus appears to be only a variant
of the round halo used to preserve a distinction and
thus guard against placing living persons on a par
with the saints. The idea of the cardinal virtues, the
firmness of a squared stone, or the imperfection of
a square figure as contrasted with a round one was
merely a later development. In the cross nimbus the
association of the nimbus with an annexed cross must
be conceded historical ; but that this cross is a " signum
Christi crucifixi" Durandus probably interprets cor-
rectly.
Origin. — As stated above the nimbus was in use long before the Christian era. According to the ex- haustive researches of Stephani it was an invention of the Hellenic epoch. In early Christian art the nimbus certainly is not found on images of God and celestial beings, but only on figures borrowed from profane art, and in Biblical scenes; in place of the simple nim- bus, rays or an aureole (with the nimbus) were made to portray heavenly glory. Hence it follows that Holy Writ furnished no example for the bestowal of a halo upon individual saintly personages. As a matter of fact the nimbus, as an inheritance from ancient art tradition, was readily adopted and ultimately found the widest application because the symbol of light for all divine, saintly ideals is offered by nature and not infrequently used in Scripture. In conteni- porary pagan art, the nimbus as a symbol of Divin- ity had become so indefinite, that it must have been accepted as something quite new. The nimbus of early Christian art manifests only in a few particular drawings, its relationship with that of late antiquity. In the first half of the fourth century, Christ received a nimbus only when portrayed seated upon a throne, or in an exalted and princely character; but it had al- ready been used since Constantine, in pictures of the emperors, and was emblematic, not so much of divine as of human dignity and greatness. In other scenes, however, Christ at that time was represented with- out this emblem. The "exaltation" of Christ as in- dicated by the nimbus, refers to His dignity as a teacher and king rather than to His Godhead. Before long the nimbus became a fixed .symbol of Christ and later (in the fourth century), of an angel or a lamb when used as the type of Christ. The number of personages who were given a halo increased rapidly, XL— 6
until towards the end of the sixth century the use of
symbols in the Christian Church became as general
as it had formerly been in pagan art.
Miniature painting in its cycle represents all the most important personages with haloes, just as did the Virgil codex, so that the continuity of the secular and Christian styles is obvious. This connexion is defi- nitively revealed when royal persons, e. g. Herod, receive a nimbus. Very soon the Blessed Virgin Mary always, and martyrs and saints usually, were crowned with a halo. More rarely the beloved dead or some person conspicuous for his position or dignity, were so honoured. Saints were so represented if they constituted the central figure or needed to be dis- tinguished from the surrounding personages. The nimbus was used arbitrarily in personification. Gospel types, and the like. Official representations clearly show a fixed system, but outside of these there was great variety. Works of art may be distinctly differ- entiated according to their birthplace. The nimbus in the Orient seems to have been in general use at an early period, but whether it was first adopted from ecclesiastical art is uncertain. In general the customs of the East and West are parallel ; for instance, in the West the personifications appear with a nimbus as early as the third century and Christ enthroned no later than in the East (in the time of Constantine). Their nature makes it apparent that in every depart- ment of plastic art the nimbus is more rarely used than in painting.
Form and Colour. — The form of the symbol was first definitely determined by Gregory the Great, who (about 600) permitted himself to be painted with a square nimbus. Johannus Diaconus in his life of the pope, gives the reason : " circa verticem tabula; sim- ilitudinem, quod viventis insigne est, prsfercns, non coronam" (bearing around his head the likeness of a square, which is the sign for a living person, and not a crown.) (Migne, "P. L.", 75, 231). It appears to have already been customary to use the round nim- bus for saints. In any event the few extant examples from the following centuries show that, almost with- out exception, only the living, principally ecclesiastics, but also the laity and even women and children, were represented with a square nimbus. The aureole, that is the halo which surrounds an entire figure, naturally takes the shape of an oval, though if it is used for a bust, it readily resumes the circular form. The radia- tion of light from a centre is essential and we must recognize the circle of light of the sun-god in ancient art as one of the prototypes of the aureole. The medal- lion form was for a long time in use among the ancient Romans for the Imagines clipcatir. The gradations of colour in the aureole reveal the influence of .\poc., i y, 3, where a rainbow was round about the throne of God. Indeed, in very early times the aureole was only used in representations of God as the Dove or Hand, or of Christ when the divinity was to be emphatically expressed.
In early Christian times (as now) the mmd nim- bus was by far the most usual designation of Christ and the saints. The broad circle is often replaced by the ring of light or a coloured disc, especially on fabrics and miniatures. In pictures without colour the nimbus is shown by an engraved line or a raised circlet, often by a disc in relief. In the aureole blue indicates celestial glory, and it is used in th<- nimbus to till in the surface, as are yellow, gray, and other I'olours while the margins an; sharply de- fined in different tints. In many haloes the inner i)art is white. In mosaics, since the fifth and sixth cen- turies, blue has been replaced by gold. From this jjcriod also, the frescoes show a corresponding yellow, as seen for instance, in paintings in the catacombs. Gold or yellow prevails in miniatures, but there is a great deal of variety in illustrated books. Blue as a symbol of heaven has the j)reference, but gold, which
