![]() ![]() The halo appears even in literature, such as Homer's Iliad's depiction of battle heroes having an unnatural light around their heads. Mary's halo is often depicted as a circle of twelve stars, a symbol that, along with Mary's traditional blue colour, now forms the European Union's flag.įrom ancient times, halos have been used to highlight the significant characters in artwork. Popular fiction, as well as film and television depict Christians as believing that when they die and go to Heaven they too will receive halos (and harps and wings). The circle, having no beginning or end, symbolizes eternity and represents the transcendence of physical existence. This circle can have various forms, from a solid disk to a thin ring, but it is always circular and bright. Saints, angels, and other holy beings are traditionally depicted as having a circle of light over or behind their heads. Nouvelles Editions Latines, Paris.Lie - Angels and saints wear a halo Lie - Angels and saints wear a halo The Story Histoire du nimbus des origines au temps modernes. A lamb with a circular halo within which the cross appears, for example, is a common figure for Christ.Ĭollinet-Guérin, M. Halos also appear around the heads of animals who symbolize a saintly or divine figure. A cross within the circle of light is used to signify Christ. The Virgin Mary always appears with a circular halo. Trinitarian figures often have three rays of light emanating from the head. The square is inferior to the circle and is associated with the earth. Square zones of light behind the head are used to show that the person was living at the time the painting was made. When used for human figures, the halo represents holiness or sanctity, and its iconography is developed to mark important distinctions between the figures represented. By the eighth century, square halos were used to designate donors, bishops, and popes. In the fifth century and after, it was extended to the Virgin Mary, angels, and saints. In the third and fourth centuries, the halo or nimbus (Latin: ‘cloud’ or ‘mist’) was used only for Christ and the lamb. Similarly, in Christianity, halos around the head of a figure mark it as divine or saintly. The halo is used in Hellenistic representations of gods and goddesses and those associated with them. In this way, the halo points to the transcendent nature of the bodhisattva. Within some Mahayana Buddhist texts, for example, bodhisattvas are described as having halos studded with 500 Buddhas, each attended by numberless gods. In other traditions, the connection to light symbolism is much more general, pointing to intellect, knowledge, or enlightenment. This is clearest in the Inca god, Viracocha, who wears a tiara that is also a sun. The indigenous civilizations of Central America depict agrarian gods with golden crowns or halos, suggesting an association of the halo with the sun. Halo The halo, usually represented as a luminous figure around the head of a god or holy person, appears in the iconography of a number of religious traditions. lowrie, Arts in the Early Church ( New York 1947), profusely illustrated. ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art ( New York 1959). leclercq, Dictionnaire d'arch éologie chr étienne et de liturgie, 15 v. The blessed, those beatified but not yet canonized, are depicted with a halo less explicit, formed by shafts of light radiating from behind the head.īibliography: h. The halos of the Blessed Virgin are often elaborately decorated, whereas those of the saints are usually simple gold bands. The triangular, or Trinitarian, halo is often composed of three broad rays of light issuing from the head. The square was used because in symbolism it represents the earth and temporal things and is inferior to the circle, which expresses eternity and heaven. This latter form is not now in common usage, though in ancient iconography it frequently was placed behind the head of the donor portrayed in a fresco or painting. When triangular, the halo designates the Holy Trinity or God the Father when circular, a saint or (with cross superimposed) Our Lord when square, a living person. Gold is ordinarily employed as most expressive of effulgence. It is usually a circle of gold surrounding the head, though at times it is shaped as a triangle or square. ![]() Greek ἅ λ ω ς in Christian art a symbol of the moral excellence of the person whom it adorns. ![]()
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