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king Kanishka , 2nd century AD.]] An aureola or '''aureole''' (diminutive of Latin ''aura'', "air") is the radiance of luminous cloud which, in Painting s of sacred personages, surrounds the whole figure. In the earliest periods of Christian Art this splendour was confined to the figures of the persons of the Christian Godhead , but it was afterwards extended to the Virgin Mary and to several of the Saint s. The aureola, when enveloping the whole Body , generally appears Oval or elliptical in form, but occasionally circular or quatrefoil. When it appears merely as a luminous Disk round the Head , it is called specifically a '' 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, Angel s or persons of the Christian Godhead. The nimbus in Christian art first appeared in the 5th Century , but practically the same device was known several centuries earlier, in non-Christian 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 Egypt ians to the Greek s and Roman s, representations of Trajan ( Arch Of Constantine ) and Antoninus Pius (reverse of a medal) being found with it. In the circular form the nimbus constitutes a natural and even primitive use of the idea of a Crown , 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 . From this early Astrological use, the form of "glory" or "nimbus" has been adapted or inherited under new beliefs. SEE ALSO |