{{wiktionary|aureola}} {{wiktionary|aureole}} {{Short description|Halo or radiance in art for holy persons}} {{About|a type of halo in art|the breast tissue|areola}} {{redirect|Aureole|the racehorse|Aureole (horse)}} [[File:17th century Central Tibeten thanka of Guhyasamaja Akshobhyavajra, Rubin Museum of Art.jpg|thumb|17th century Central Tibetan thanka of Guhyasamaja Akshobhyavajra, Rubin Museum of Art]] [[File:Mexico.NstraSraGpe.Repro.jpg|thumb|upright|Images of Mary, mother of Jesus, are often surrounded by an aureole, as in this image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.]] [[File:Chora Church Constantinople 2007 013.jpg|thumb|right|Resurrection of Christ, fresco in Chora Church, Istanbul]]
An '''aureola''' or '''aureole''' (diminutive of Latin ''aurea'' 'golden') is the radiance of luminous cloud which, in paintings of sacred personages, surrounds the whole figure.
In Romance languages, the noun Aureola is usually more related to the disc of light surrounding the head of sacred figures, which in English is called halo or nimbus. In Indian religions, the back or head halo is called ''prabhāmaṇḍala'' or ''prabhavali''.
==In art== In the earliest periods of Christian art it was confined to the figures of the persons of the Christian Godhead,{{Citation needed|date=April 2014}} but it was afterwards extended to the Virgin Mary and to several of the saints.
The aureola, when enveloping the whole body, generally appears oval or elliptical in form, but occasionally depicted as circular, vesica piscis, or quatrefoil. When it appears merely as a luminous disk round the head, it is called specifically a ''halo'' or ''nimbus'', while the combination of nimbus and aureole is called a ''glory''. The strict distinction between nimbus and aureole is not commonly maintained, and the latter term is most frequently used to denote the radiance round the heads of saints, angels or Persons of the Trinity.
This is not to be confused with the specific ''motif'' in art of the Christ Child appearing to be a source of light in a Nativity scene. These depictions derive directly from the accounts given by Saint Bridget of Sweden of her visions, in which she describes seeing this.<ref>{{cite book |first=G. |last=Schiller |title=Iconography of Christian Art |volume=I |date=1971 |publisher=Lund Humphries |location=London |at=pp. 76–78 & figs |isbn=0-85331-270-2}}</ref>
===Development=== The nimbus in Christian art first appeared in the 5th century, but practically the same motif was known from several centuries earlier, in pre-Christian Hellenistic art. It is found in some Persian representations of kings and gods, and appears on coins of the Kushan kings Kanishka, Huvishka and Vasudeva, as well as on most representations of the Buddha in Greco-Buddhist art from the 1st century AD. Its use has also been traced through the Egyptians to the ancient Greeks, representations of Trajan (arch of Constantine) and Antoninus Pius (reverse of a medal) being found with it. Roman emperors were sometimes depicted wearing a radiant crown, with pointed rays intended to represent the rays of the sun.
In the circular form the nimbus constitutes a natural and even primitive use of the idea of a crown,{{Citation needed|date=January 2008}} modified by an equally simple idea of the emanation of light from the head of a superior being, or by the meteorological phenomenon of a halo. The probability is that all later associations with the symbol refer back to an early astrological origin (compare Mithras), the person so glorified being identified with the sun and represented in the sun's image; so the aureole is the ''Hvareno'' of Mazdaism.<ref name="ref1">{{cite journal | last = Ramsden | first = E. H. | title = The Halo: A Further Enquiry into Its Origin | journal = The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs | volume = 78 | issue = 45 | pages = 131 | publisher = The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd. |date=April 1941 | jstor=868232}}</ref><ref name="ref2">{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Aureola |volume= 2 |page=924 |short=1}}</ref> From this early astrological use, the form of "glory" or "nimbus" has been adapted or inherited under new beliefs.
===Mandorla=== {{main|Mandorla}} [[File:Codex Bruchsal 1 01v cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|Christ in Majesty shown within a mandorla shape in a medieval illuminated manuscript]] A ''mandorla'' is a vesica piscis shaped aureola which surrounds the figures of Christ and the Virgin Mary in traditional Christian art.<ref name="ref3">{{cite book | last = Liungman | first = Carl G. | title = Dictionary of Symbols | publisher = W.W. Norton | year = 1991 | pages = 287 | isbn =0-393-31236-4}}</ref> It is commonly used to frame the figure of Christ in Majesty in early medieval and Romanesque art, as well as Byzantine art of the same periods. The term refers to the almond like shape: "mandorla" means almond nut in Italian. In icons of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the mandorla is used to depict sacred moments which transcend time and space, such as the Resurrection, Transfiguration, and the Ascension. These mandorla will often be painted in several concentric patterns of color which grow darker as they come close to the center. This is in keeping with the church's use of Apophatic theology, as described by Dionysius the Areopagite and others. As holiness increases, there is no way to depict its brightness, except by darkness.
In a famous romanesque fresco of Christ in Glory at Sant Climent de Taüll, the inscription "Ego Sum Lux Mundi" ("I Am the Light of the World") is incorporated in the Mandorla design.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.xtec.es/~jarrimad/medieval/romanico/taull.htm |title=Conjunt iconogràfic de Sant Climent de Taüll |lang=es |first=Javier |last=Arrimada |date=2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025141342/http://www.xtec.cat/~jarrimad/medieval/romanico/taull.htm |archive-date=25 October 2020}}</ref>
The tympanum at Conques has Christ, with a gesture carved in romanesque sculpture, indicate the angels at his feet bearing candlesticks. Six surrounding stars, resembling blossoming flowers, indicate the known planets including the Moon. Here the symbolism implies Christ as the Sun.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071007071716/http://www.handinaute.org/roman.img/Conques02.jpg Image]</ref>
In one special case, at Cervon (Nièvre), Christ is seated surrounded by eight stars, resembling blossoming flowers. At Conques the flowers are six-petalled. At Cervon, where the almond motif is repeated in the rim of the mandorla, they are five-petalled, as are almond flowers -the first flowers to appear at the end of winter, even before the leaves of the almond tree. Here one is tempted to seek for reference in the symbolism of the nine branched Chanukkiyah candelabrum. In the 12th century a great school of Judaic thought radiated from Narbonne, coinciding with the origins of the Kabbalah.<ref name="ref5">{{cite book |last=Scholem |first=Gershom |author-link=Gershom Scholem |title=Origins of the Kabbalah |publisher=Princeton Paperback |year=1990 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9dRi8v-j7OMC |isbn=0-691-07314-7}}</ref> Furthermore, at Cervon the eight star/flower only is six petalled: the Root of David, the Morningstar, mentioned at the close of Book of Revelation (22:16) <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20061206130957/http://www.romanes.com/Cervon/Saint_Barthelemy_de_Cervon_0011.html Image]</ref> (In one of the oldest manuscripts of the complete Hebrew Bible, the Leningrad Codex, one finds the Star of David imbedded in an octagon.)
In the symbolism of Hildegarde von Bingen the mandorla refers to the Cosmos.<ref name="ref6">{{cite book | last = Riedel | first = Ingrid | title = Hildegard von Bingen, Prophetin der kosmischen Weisheit | publisher = Kreuz Verlag, Zürich | year = 1994}}</ref>
==Aureole (atmospheric phenomenon)== {{main|Corona (optical phenomenon)|Glory (optical phenomenon)}} In meteorology, an aureole is the inner disk of a ''corona,'' an optical phenomenon produced by the diffraction of light from the Sun or the Moon (or, occasionally, other bright light sources)<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz855.htm | title = Jupiter corona from Iran | last = Cowley | first = Les | date = 2012 | website = Atmospheric Optics | access-date = 2016-05-02 }}</ref> by individual small water droplets and sometimes tiny ice crystals of a cloud or on a foggy glass surface.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/astro/corona.htm |last=Calvert |first=J. B. |title=The Corona |website= |publisher= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616161651/https://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/astro/corona.htm |archive-date=16 June 2019 |access-date=22 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Cowley |first=Les |url=http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/corona.htm |title=Coronae: A Phenomenon of Light and Color in the Sky |date=16 December 2024 |website=Atmospheric Optics |access-date=22 November 2025 |archive-date=5 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105143412/http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/corona.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The aureole is often (especially in case of the Moon) the only visible part of the corona and has the appearance of a bluish-white disk which fades to reddish-brown towards the edge.
==See also== * Halo * Aureole effect * Crown of Immortality * Five Crowns
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book |last=Timmers |first=J. J. M. |title=A Handbook of Romanesque Art |location=New York, London |date=1969 |publisher=Icon Editions, Harper and Row}} *{{cite book |first1=Gérard |last1=de Champéaux |first2=Dom Sébastièn |last2=Sterckx |title=Symboles, introduction à la nuit des temps 3 |location=Paris |date=1966 |publisher=Zodiaque (printed: Cum Permissu Superiorum) |lang=fr}} *{{cite book |first=Adolphe Napoléon |last=Didron |title=Christian iconography or, the history of Christian art in the Middle Ages |volume=I |location=London |date=1886 |url=https://archive.org/stream/christianiconogr01didruoft |publisher=George Bell & Sons}} *{{cite book |first=Brian |last=Young |title=The Villein's Bible; stories in romanesque carving |location=London |date=1990 |publisher=Barry & Jenkins}} *{{cite book |first=Roger |last=Cook |title=The Tree of Life: Image for the Cosmos |location=New York |date=1974 |publisher=Avon Books}} *{{cite book |editor-last1=Parry |editor-first1=Ken |editor-first2=David |editor-last2=Melling |title=The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=1999 |location=Malden, MA. |isbn=0-631-23203-6}}
== External links == * {{commons category-inline|Aureola}}
Category:Religious symbols Category:Buddhist iconography Category:Christian iconography