Rays of light instead surrounded Jesus and the other religious figures. As it was for the Romans, halos identified sovereigns, characters that had great powers and earthly dignity. At the beginning, it was only meant to underline the political importance of some characters, such as princes or emperors. The halo in the Christian iconographyĬhristians began using the halo in their representations (pictures, statues, mosaics, etc.) only between the II and the III century a.C. They were rich clients or intellectual people, at least until the 17th century, when Pope Urban III strictly forbid the representation of still living and not yet beatified men with halos on their heads. In pagan civilizations, the halo was expression of general power, divine but also human, and this trend went on even in the Christian era, when the halo was used not only to crown saints’ and angels’ heads, but also famous people’s heads. The halo has then always been intended as a symbol of light and grace given directly by God. In statues, it was usually represented as a golden disc placed behind the head of the character. In paintings, the halo went through a remarkable evolution, from big golden circles to halos of light rays, to thin golden rings barely visible to the eyes. In some cases we make a distinction between nimbus (a light that only envelopes the head), the halo (a light that radiates from the body) and the glory, or almond (combination of both, used only for Jesus and Mary to symbolize their divine nature). The word ‘halo’ means golden, the round shape comes from the fact that the circle is a symbol of perfection, and therefore perfectly represents sanctity. What is a halo? It is a ring of shiny light enveloping the head or the whole figure of a person. The Egyptians, the Greeks and later the Romans, used a halo of light to underline the power of their gods, and later, even of their sovereigns. It has been used in sacred art as figurative feature since the beginning in many civilizations and cultures to state the divinity, power and regality of a character, and later, in a Christian setting, sanctity. The irradiating light has been present in art illustrations since very ancient times. The saints halo, the nimbus, the vesica piscis (or almond). Symbol of light and grace given directly by God, the Saints halo expresses their bliss status and the divine majesty they are appointed with. 1 The halo in the Christian iconography.
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