332 OBSERVATIONS ON THE NIMBUS.1 BY GILBERT J. FRENCH, ESQ., CORRESP. MEMB. SOC. OF ANTIQ. OF SCOTLAND. FROM the earliest ages of symbolical art, it has been the custom to embellish the effigies of divine and saintly persons with the distinctive mark of a nimbus of fire or light, either emanating from or resting upon the head. The pagan gods of antiquity were crowned with this fiery ornament, darting beams of radiant splendour from the brows of the greater divinities, or shedding a milder effulgence from the heads of demi-gods and heroes. The origin of the custom is hidden in the obscurity of antiquity; we therefore can only conjecture the circumstances which may have induced it, and endeavour to state such of them as appear to be probable and reasonable, though in the attempt it is not unlikely that we may disappoint many who can find no charm in symbolism when unaccompanied by mystery. The sun is of all natural objects that one which by uneducated humanity in every age, and in almost all climes, has been looked upon with the greatest awe and reverence. Before the glorious rays of its light and heat—the apparent material source of life and vegetation-men willingly bent themselves in adoration; and even when reason and education had somewhat influenced them with a knowledge of a spiritual power, by which the sun itself was created and controlled, many nations retained that luminary as the visible sign or emblem of the unseen God, to whom, through it, they continued to offer sacrifice and worship. 1 The author of this paper a few months since printed off a very limited number of copies for private distribution. It has since undergone careful revision and correction, and many additions have been made both in the body of the paper and to the illustrations. The editor of the Journal takes this opportunity of expressing to Mr. French, on the part of the Council of the Association, their best thanks for his great liberality in the presentation of the cuts illustrative of his communication. 2 The derivation of this word, usually understood as a glory (which, however, is very properly restricted by M. Didron to the aureole surrounding the whole figure), is far from being satisfactorily determined. It is conjectured to agree in signification with the Greek vipás, of which view is the original root, a verb signifying to snow, to water, to wet. The Greek noun has been employed to denote a cloud. Rays of fire or of light thus naturally became emblems of divine power; the statues of pagan deities were clothed or armed with fiery emanations; Jupiter bore the lightning, Apollo was crowned with sunbeams, and Diana wore the crescent moon as a diadem, while numerous persons of both sexes are fabled to have been translated to the sky, there to sparkle for ever as starry constellations. Eastern paganism invests its idols even to the present day with similar attributes. The heads of gods of Japan and Burmah are surrounded by rays corresponding with those of the classical Apollo, as seen in the accompanying example," which has a nimbus with seven rays. The subjoined cut, also derived from the same source, will be seen to exhibit the head of a Persian king, sur mounted and surrounded by a mass of flame rising up into the air like a pyramid. The figure was taken from a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Royale. Mr. W. B. Barker, in his Lares and Penates, edited by Mr. W. F. Ainsworth, has likewise given a representation of a radiated Apollo, obtained at Cilicia; and Mr. Birch has recognised in it the same figure as that found upon the gold and siver coins of Rhodes. The radiation of the heads of divinities, although found in some instances, is by no means common among either the Greeks or Romans. MM The crowns worn by ancient eastern potentates were but materialised glories the di vine emanations fo copied in burnished gold. 1 See Picart's Religious Ceremonies, vol. iv, pp. 221, 303. 2 Didron's Iconographie Chrétienne. Paris, 1843, 4to. VOL. X. 43 The application of the nimbus has not been confined to Divine persons or to the saints. It has already been stated to have accompanied the representation of royalty; it is also attached to many persons mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. In a monastery at Mount Hymettus in Attica, Adam has a nimbus; so also in some of the earliest paintings in the churches of France, the Jewish kings, the prophets, Abel, Melchisedec, Jacob, etc., all are figured with the same attribute. The nimbus of the Virgin Mary is frequently represented with profuse ornamentation, being studded all over with jewels. Allegorical figures also, such as the cardinal virtues, the winds, the elements, day and night, etc., are said to be not unfrequently accompanied by the nimbus in Christian monuments. In a ma nuscript bible of the Byzantine period, either of the ninth or tenth century, preserved in the Imperial Library of Paris, Satan tempting Job is figured with a nimbus;1 and the beast in the Revelations, the leopard with the feet of the bear, has upon six of the seven heads each a nimbus. These are coloured differently in the manuscript from which plate 31 is taken, four of them being painted blue and two red. The seventh head, without a nimbus, is that which according to the sacred text was wounded to death, which would appear to be appropriate, since the nimbus is intended to imply power which would be inconsistent with mortality. Mr. T. Wright, in the article on the "Iconographie Chré 1 Represented in the Journal, vol. i, p. 124. As the volume containing this and other representations is now scarcely attainable and not in the hands of many of the associates, it has been esteemed advisable to repeat some of the illustrations given in the article on the Iconographie Chrétienne of M. Didron in the present communication. |