Antique Representation of the Cure of the Palsied Miin.
but not as their invariable attribute till the 7th cen- tury (see Buonarotti, Vasi Anlichi). What must seem strange, however, is that the nimbus does not appear at all on the sarcophagi, the most ancient of Christian monuments. This, together with the fact that the nimbus did not come into constant use in the West un- til the 8th century, leads to the supposition that it was borrowed by the Christian Church from the classical customs referred to above. After the Cth century we find the nimbus very frequent in Christian symbol- ism, more particularly in the Eastern Church, where it was far more generally used, until the cultivation of sacred art by the Western Church made it almost a necessary appendage of all representations of God or of the saints.
Its ordinary form is the circular or semicircular ; a form indeed in which later symbolists discover an em- blem of perfection and of eternity ; but the nimbus of the Eternal Father is often in the form of a triangle, and that of the Trinitj^ an emanation of light, the rays of which form the three arms of a cross. Tliis inten- tion to mark the divinity by this symbol is oftentimes made the more clear by inscribing on three branches of the cross (the fourth branch being concealed by the head), or at the three angles of the triangle, the letters O Q N, this being the name which God gave himself when he spoke to Moses from the burning bush, 'Eyw t'ljii 'O "QN : "I am that I aji." The nimbus of the Virgin is sometimes a simple ring, and sometimes a crown or diadem ; occasionally it is encircled by an or- namental border, on which twelve stars are sometimes represented. Her nimbus, as well as that of the Divine Persons, is commonly of gold; but that of the Virgin Mary is occasionally in colors, as blue, red, purple, or white. The nimbus of the saints is ordinarily the semi- circle or lunula. Uidron mentions the curious instance of a picture of the traitor Judas tcith a black nimbus! In later art the nimbus became lighter and more aerial, melting, as it were, into the picture ; and in Raphael's saints it occasionally fades into the verj- faintest indica- tion of a golden tinge around the head. In the Eastern Church the use of the nimbus appears to have much less precise meaning. It seems to claim consideration not only on the ground of sanctity, but of eminence of other kinds. It is applied to saints, and to many per- sons who are not saints — to kings, statesmen, and war- riors. It frequently signifies poicei; and it is withheld from beings destitute of this title to admiration. Thus in a miniature of the r2th century, the beast with seven heads (Rev. xii, 1-3) wears a nimbus on six of them, but the seventh, which is "as it were wounded to death," is without it; and even Satan has it in a min- iature of the 10th centurj'.
Mosaic in thj Church of St. A<ratha at Kaveuua (A.D. cir. 402).
Mosaic in St. Aquiline's at Milan.
In connection with the nimbus may also be men- tioned two analogous forms — the A ureole and the Glory. The former is 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 ve- sica piscis, and is supposed to contain an allusion to 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 colors. The glorj- is a combination of the nimbus and the aure- ole, and is chiefiy seen in Byzantine pictures, and those of the early South German school.
The Latin word nimbus appears to agree in significa- tion with the Greek vtcpdc, of which viipw is the origi- nal root, and which is used to express snow, shower,
NIMETULAHITES
108
NIMROD
and even sometimes hail; it also signifies the place in which they are formed, i. e. clouds. Isidore of Seville, in his Ori{/iiies, describes the nimbus as a transverse bandeau of gold, sewed on the veil, and worn bj^ women on their forehead. The glory is constantly adopted by artists, both in painting and sculpture, as a character- istic ornament; it either encircles the head alone or the entire figure. As an attribute, it serves to denote a holy person, in the same manner as the crosier or the sceptre distinguishes a bishop or a king. The etymol- og}' of the word has been little regarded by artists, for the nimbus, which ought always to have the character of a cloud, a vapor, or flakes of snow, frequently as- sumes the form of a circular disk, sometimes opaque, sometimes luminous, and sometimes transparent. It has the shape of a triangle or a square ; that of sev- eral jets of flame ; of a star, with six, eight, twelve, or sometimes even a countless number of rays. There is scarcely, perhaps, a single instance in which the shape of the nimbus agrees entirely with the idea which that word seems intended to convey. See Didron, Chris- tian Iconography, i, 22 sq. ; Siege!, Christliche Alter- thiimer, i, 436, 437; iii, 301 sq. ; Walcott, Sacred Ar- ch(FoL s. v.; Martigny, Diet, des Antiquites Chret. p. 435-437.