1846.] The Glory. 373 nimbus ; * when it surrounds the whole body, an aureole. Both together constitute the glory in its completeness. In familiar language we speak of individuals as covered, or environed with glory, when they have distinguished themselves by great actions, or sublime efforts of intellect. Alexander, the conqueror of Asia, Cæsar, the master of Europe, Aristotle and Plato, who ruled in the realms of mind, Homer and Virgil, whose works have fired all imaginations, Vincent de Paul, whose zeal inflamed all hearts, Phidias and Raphael, who produced chief works in sculpture and painting, these, and a multitude of others, are described as surrounded with glory. This mode of speech has been always common. By a similar figure we speak of the great suns of the Church, or suns in the world of intellect. To render this glory visible to the eye, the artist, the sculptor or painter, makes use of material light. So God in the Old Testament is described as surrounded by a visible glory, or Shekinah, and is symbolized by fire or flame. ness. Such is the nature of the glory. Its material element or representative is fire or flame radiating light or brightThus the Hindu divinities are represented as environed with luminous rays as of fire. And so the devotees of Buddha appear in some books found in the Royal Library of Paris. By the Greeks, Romans, and Etruscans, the constellations represented under a human form are encircled with rays or luminous figures exactly similar to the nimbus and aureole of Christians. Among the modern Persians, the Arabs and Turks, the heads of sacred personages, representing the good or evil principle, are surmounted by a pyramid of flame. Didron appeals to numerous facts, historical, legendary, and poetic, to show that such was originally the nature of the glory; — it was represented by the subtle, penetrating, powerful element of fire or flame. So the sun among the ancients was regarded as the visible symbol of God, and the Pharaohs of Egypt and other royal personages are called indiscriminately children of the sun and children of God, and by way of distinction the rays of the sun were transferred to their heads in the form of the nimbus radiating light. This was The figure is then said to be nimbed. The term, as we - have seen, is sometimes applied to the hand. VOL. XLI.—4TH. S. VOL. VI. NO. III. 32 the glory. Its use was coeval with the most ancient religions, as the primitive Hindu monuments show. Its native country was the East, and it may be traced down through Egyptian, Grecian and Roman times, till it finally passed into the Christian Church. This was not, however, till some centuries after Christ had ascended. During these early centuries the Church was engaged in struggles and persecutions. It was laying and strengthening its foundations, not applying itself to the embellishments of art. When the time came, it laid Pagan antiquity under contribution to supply its needs. It borrowed its artistic and æsthetic forms from that. By the aid of lustral water it transformed the Pagan basilica into a Christian church. This was in some sort matter of necessity. But the nimbus, or glory, which had adorned the heads of persecuting emperors and false gods, it would not be in haste to adopt. This ornament is seldom found in the catacombs in fresco, or on sarcophagi. Not only the Apostles and saints, but the Virgin and Jesus Christ himself are represented without any insignia of this kind. Before the sixth century Didron asserts that the nimbus does not appear in any authentic Christian monument. The seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries constitute the transition period between its entire absence and its constant presence, and it disappeared at the end of the sixteenth. The aureole, or circle surrounding the body, went through similar vicissitudes with the nimbus, but appeared later and disappeared earlier, and was of much more infrequent use. We must add a few words of the form, application and significance of the glory, comprehending both the nimbus and aureole, as used by Christians. The nimbus is generally circular, and in the form of a disc, the field of the disc sometimes disappearing and only the circumference remaining in the form of a ring. Sometimes it is divided by concentric circles into two or three zones which admit of a great variety of ornament. To the end of the eleventh century the disc was transparent; thence to the fifteenth it acquired thickness; it went through some other changes, a knowledge of which assists archæologists in ascertaining the age of manuscripts and relics of works of art. We meet the nimbus also in the form of a square or a parallelogram, and occasionally, in later monuments, of a triangle; 1846.] The Nimbus and Cross. 375 sometimes a double triangle, or two triangles intersecting each other, five points only being visible, the other being concealed behind the head. Didron gives a specimen of the single triangle, rayed, and surrounding the head of the Father, taken from a Greek fresco at Mount Athos and belonging to the seventeenth century. This form, which is rare in the religious monuments of France, is frequent in Italy and Greece, commencing with the fifteenth century. The nimbus, or glory, is distinguished from the crown, to which it bears some analogy, in being placed vertically on the head, the crown horizontally. When applied to either of the persons of the Trinity, the circular nimbus is always, except occasionally from accident or from the ignorance of the artist, divided by four bars crossing each other at right angles in the centre, thus forming a Greek cross, the lower bar, however, disappearing behind the head.* It is * Of the cross there are four species, the cross without a summit, represented by the letter T, which was the form of some of the ancient churches; the cross with the summit and one transverse bar; with two; and with three. The cross with four branches, or arms, which is the most common, is of two kinds, which again exhibit several varieties. The Greek cross is composed of four equal bars placed at right angles and capable of being inscribed in a circle. It is this, which is placed in the nimbus or circle, which marks the Divine personages. The Latin cross has the foot, or lower part of the shaft, longer than the upper part and longer than the arms. It is represented by a man standing with his arms extended. This, of course, cannot be inscribed in a circle, but requires a parallelogram. On the difference Didron remarks thus. "The Latin cross resembles the real cross of Jesus, and the Greek, an ideal one. So the Latins, greater materialists, have preferred the natural form; the Greeks, more spiritual, have idealized the reality, have poetized and transfigured the cross of Calvary. Of a gibbet the Greeks have made an ornament." Originally the two types or forms were common to the Greek and Latin Churches, but afterwards one predominated in the East and the other in the West; hence the names. Many of the Oriental churches have the form of the Greek cross; the form of the Latin has had the preference in the West, though neither form has been closely adhered to in sacred architecture. The cross of St. Andrew differs from the Greek cross in having its bars intersect each other obliquely, forming & figure resembling the letter X. The cross is sometimes ornamented, and sometimes interlaced, so to speak, the monogram of the names of the Saviour, the Greek chi (X) and rho (P), the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ, and the iota (I), the initial of the Greek word for Jesus, - being united with the Greek or Roman cross, or cross of St. Andrew. These are sometimes enclosed in a circle or square, and sometimes not. The first and last letter of the Greek alphabet, the alpha and omega, are sometimes added, and sometimes branches of palms indicative of victory. Some of these figures are very beautiful. They frequently appear on works of Christian art in the early ages, on sarcophagi, and in catacombs, on monuments of sometimes rayed, and at other times not; in some cases the rays appear without the circular line as their base; they are sometimes unequal, and sometimes equal, exhibiting the form of a star. The colors employed are various. They are blue or azure, violet, red, yellow and white, the yellow, or color of gold, being the most noble and expressive, gold, its type, being described as "light solidified." The color as well as the form of the glory, or nimbus, is often symbolical. The application of the nimbus, or glory, among Christians appears to have been governed by no very rigid laws. It decorated the persons of the Trinity, represented singly or united; angels, prophets, the Virgin Mary, saints and martyrs; it is occasionally assigned to the virtues personified, to allegorical beings, and to the powers and affections of the human soul; sometimes, but rarely, to the representatives of political power, to the forces of nature, the sun and moon, the winds, the four elements, the cardinal points, day and night (personified) and even the genius of evil, Satan. Its significance varies with time and place. According to the ideas prevalent in the West it is an attribute of holiness divinity or saintship-as the crown is of royalty. It is somewhat different in the East. Among the Orientals the nimbus was used to designate physical energy as well as moral force; civil or political power as well as religious authority. Thus in a Turkish manuscript in the Royal Library of Paris, Aureng-zebe wears the nimbus, or glory. In the West, with few exceptions, a king, emperor, or magistrate, never appears nimbed, unless canonized, or exalted to the rank of a saint.* The Pagan idea continued to prevail in the East, according to which the glory was an attribute of power, not of holiness. The Oriental Christians indeed were exceedingly prodigal in the use of the glory. While those of the West reserved it chiefly for God and the the dead, where they are far more appropriate than many of the emblems of Heathen origin, which greet the eye in our modern cemeteries. We might add other particulars relating to the form, ornaments and use of the cross, but we have already too far extended this note. It is necessary to bear in mind, however, that the absence or presence of the nimbus does not deny or express saintship after the commencement of the fourteenth century. After this period it loses its importance, and is given or witholden somewhat arbitrarily. 1846.] The Holy Spirit. 377 saints, restraining it to qualities of the soul, rarely extending it to physical properties, or mere intellectual energy, or force used for evil, it is not uncommon in the East to see it applied to any individual in any way distinguished, to a virtuous man and a criminal, to archangel and devil, to whatever, in fact, was famous, or put forth mighty energy whether for good or for evil.* But we must return to what constitutes more properly our present subject, and proceed to say a few words of the artistic representations of the Holy Spirit. The Father, says Didron, is the God of Power, the Son the God of Love, and the Spirit the God of Love in theology, but God of Intelligence in history, distinctions of some importance in their relation to Christian works of art. By Scripture, legend, and history, by works of art in France, Germany, Italy and Greece, Didron affirms that it may be proved, that the Spirit is the God of reason, that is, addresses, directs and enlightens the reason, and thus it is represented as holding a book. Monuments, as churches and convents, dedicated to the Spirit are fewer than those dedicated to the Son, but more * In illustration of the profuse use of the glory among the Greek Christians, a Greek Psalter is mentioned, deposited in the Royal Library at Paris, adorned with numerous curious and very beautiful miniatures, in which the nimbus appears on a great multitude of heads belonging to personages real and allegorical, good and bad. Among the allegorical personages which serve to explain the history, are Wisdom and Prophecy standing at the side of David as two great genii habited in female attire; in his penitence he is assisted by the genius of Repentance; in slaying the lion by the genius of Force. So Night looks down upon the calamity of Pharaoh as his host is drowned in the Red Sea. All these allegorical personages are adorned with the nimbus or glory of various colors, as are prophets and kings also, and of the latter the worst as well as the best, the suicidal Saul, and Pharaoh, the impious king of Egypt, at the moment when he is engulfed in the abyss, to the latter a nimbus of gold being assigned. So too the monster Herod is represented with the nimbus on a mosaic executed by a Greek artist, the scene portrayed being that of the massacre of the Innocents. In a small church at Athens in which the Supper is painted in fresco, Judas wears the glory as well as the other Apostles, though the color is black to designate his treachery. In an old Bible adorned with miniatures belonging to the ninth or tenth century, Satan is twice represented in the presence of Job, whom he is torturing and over whose calamities he laughs, encircled with the glory or nimbus, such as a guardian or consoling angel would wear. And in an Apocalyptic manuscript with miniatures, referred to the twelfth century, the dragon with seven heads combatting Michael, the serpent with seven heads pursuing the woman into the wilderness, and the beast of the sea, wear a nimbus of green or yellow, like the saints of Paradise. The manuscript appears to be of Byzantine origin. |