Nimbus,

Nimbus, in Art, especially in Sacred Art, is the name given to the disc or halo which encircles the head of the sacred personage who is represented. Its use is almost universal in those religions of which we possess any artistic remains—the Indian, the Egyptian, the Etruscan, the Greek, and the Roman. Some, indeed, have sought directly to derive it from the Greek mêniskos, or metal disc placed over the heads of statues to keep off the droppings of birds. Nevertheless, the nimbus, strictly so called, is comparatively recent in Christian art, not appearing before the 6th century. Later in Christian art it became almost a necessary appendage of all representations of God or of the saints. Its ordinary form is the circular or semicircular; but the nimbus of the Eternal Father is often in the form of a triangle, and that of the Trinity an emanation of light, the rays of which form the three arms of a cross. The nimbus of the Virgin is sometimes a simple ring, and sometimes a crown or diadem; occasionally it is encircled by an ornamental border, on which twelve stars are sometimes represented. Her nimbus, as well as that of the Divine Persons, is commonly of gold; but occasionally it is in colours, as blue, red, purple, or white. The nimbus of the saints is ordinarily the semicircle or lunula. In later art the nimbus became lighter and more aerial, melting, as it were, into the picture. In connection with the nimbus may also be mentioned the Aureole, an illumination surrounding, not the head only, but the entire figure. If the figure be upright the aureole is commonly oval, when it is called the vesica piscis, and is supposed to contain an allusion to the sacred Christian emblem, the ichthys. With a seated figure it becomes circular, and is occasionally divided by radiating bands, in the form of a wheel; sometimes it takes a quatrefoil form. It is commonly of gold, but occasionally also is in colours. The Glory is a combination of the nimbus and the aureole, and is chiefly seen in Byzantine pictures and those of the early South German school.