Didrot Engels Deel 1 Christianiconographyorv1

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V
CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY:
OR,
THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN ART

IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
BY THE LATE
ADOLPHE NAPOLEON DIDRON.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY E. J. MILLINGTON, AND COMPLETED

WITH ADDITIONS AND APPENDICES
BY
MARGARET STOKES.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
WOL. I.
THE HISTORY OF THE NIMBUS, THE AUREoLE, AND THE GLORY,

REPRESENTATIONS OF THE PERSONS OF THE TRINITY.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
LONDON
GEORGE BELL AND SONS
1896
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
—e—
M. DIDRON's work on Christian Iconography is well known

to the Archaeological world; but as it has never appeared
in an English form, and the original volume is not very
accessible to general readers, the present publication will,
it is believed, prove an acceptable contribution to Archaeo
logical literature.
The subject of which it treats has never yet been
adequately investigated, although the various sketches
which have occasionally appeared prove that its importance
has been duly appreciated. The ensuing pages will be
found to contain much valuable information, available
equally to the artist and the architect, and to every votary
of Archaeological science. In the chapter on the nimbus,
many curious facts are elicited in reference to the form and
decoration of that symbolic ornament, which cannot fail to
be materially useful in marking correctly the distinct
character of different figures in early subjects, whether
~ of painting or sculpture. As, unhappily, it is of too
<! common occurrence in this country, to find figures mutilated
3 and partially destroyed, every additional characteristic that
... may aid in setting a distinctive mark upon the persons
J represented, is an acquisition of no trifling importance.
-- For this object, the form of the nimbus, and the distinct
# signification of cruciform, triangular, and decorated nimbi,
3 present most invaluable data which have never, it is
-- believed, been so clearly set before the reader as in the
- work of M. Didron.
* The history of the various gradations by which the art
'' advanced to its most perfect and glorious conceptions of
# the Deity, under a human form, and the influence of popular
1335.247
iv. TRANSLATOR's PREFACE.
feeling, as exemplified in the manner of representing God

the Father, form a most interesting portion of this work.
It embraces the whole range of Iconography, in its relation
to the Divine persons of the Blessed Trinity; first treating
of each individually, and lastly, as of the three persons
united in one. Many contending elements grew up, even
in the bosom of the Christian Church; men's minds were
subjected to opposing influences, and the faintest shadow
that darkened or the lightest breath that disturbed, the
internal harmony of the Church, was immediately reflected
by the pencil of the artist and the chisel of the sculptor.
Almost every ancient edifice, therefore, becomes as it were
to the eye of the Christian student a hieroglyphic record
of the changes which the Church has undergone during
successive ages, whether produced by external influences,
or by heresies generated within herself. In some countries,
too, even local feelings and jealousies have occasionally been
perpetuated, as is exemplified by certain sculptures in the
porch of the church at Rouen.
Neither time nor labour has been spared in rendering
the present translation as perfect as possible. In many
instances the books and sculptures mentioned by M. Didron
have been examined by the Editor of the present volume,
who availed himself of the opportunity afforded by a stay of
some months in Paris to investigate several MSS. in the
Bibliothèque Royale and elsewhere. To his fine taste and
knowledge of the subject the Translator is, indeed, most
deeply indebted; and she gladly takes this opportunity of
expressing her lively sense of the advantages she has derived
from his friendship and assistance.
The value of the translation is considerably enhanced by
the fact that the engravings are the identical ones used by
M. Didron; they are in no respect inferior to those in the
French work, and their perfect accuracy as illustrations of
the text may be most confidently relied on.
TRANSLATOR’s PREFACE. V
At page 437 will be found an extract from the translation

of the third book of Durandus—the Rat. Div. Qff, and the
correction of a singular error committed by the translators
of that work, published by the Cambridge Camden (now
the Ecclesiological) Society. The word “rotuli,” by them
translated wheels, is clearly shown to be incorrect, rolls
being the proper term. And taken in this sense, the
passage, which is at present unintelligible (none of the Old
Testament prophets having, I believe, ever been represented
with wheels), becomes simple and highly interesting. The
different signification of the roll and open volume, the one
prophetic and shadowy, the other an open and perfect
revelation, is well known and generally recognised.
Little more need be said in reference to the original work,
which will, doubtless, commend itself by its title to all who
are interested in this peculiar branch of Art, and by whom
the want of the aid which it affords, has no doubt been
frequently experienced. We have not at this moment any
work in our own language to which the student could apply
for a knowledge of the leading principles of sacred Archae
ology. Treatises there are; some on one important branch;
some on another. Sketches, too, there are of the science of
Iconography, but they are mere silhouettes; the outline of
a painted window with the contours only; the minor
details, the colours, and all that gives warmth and animation
to the subject, omitted. What has principally been required
is a grammar of the science, containing its fundamental
principles clearly set forth, systematically arranged, and
illustrated by choice examples and copious authorities.
Each subject should be traced through the various changes
which have taken place since Christian artists first com
menced their labours of love, and should be compared with
the holy texts from which they were originally derived.
All this M. Didron has done, and the evidence of his
success is before us. If it be objected that the same facts
vi TRANSLATOR’s PREFACE.
and deductions are too frequently reiterated, it may be

replied, that his work being intended as a medium of
instruction, the plan pursued in it, has not been adopted
without a due consideration.
Every student will, we are convinced, feel satisfied, before
he has closed the book, that he has really gained a new
intelligence, and imbibed the leading principles, at least, of
a science, previously but very dimly comprehended. With a
full knowledge of the sacred texts, he will find no difficulty
in determining any of the usual subjects met with in sacred
edifices, and M. Didron's lucid explanation of the various
modes of treating them at different eras, and in different
countries, will make it a comparatively easy task to decide
on the age which ought to be assigned to them.
The field, however, is as yet only opening before us, and
much remains to be investigated, many theories to be con
firmed or set aside, many opinions to be qualified or more
strongly asserted; while the investigation itself may be carried
on from the Divine Persons, with whom it commences,
through all the hierarchical gradations of angels,—good and
evil,—saints and martyrs, not forgetting the Virgin Mary,
whose Iconographic history would furnish a volume in itself.
All these the Author proposes to treat, at some future, and,
we trust, not very distant period. The original of the
present work has been favourably noticed in several of our
leading Reviews, and although, in the translation, some
technical difficulties have presented themselves, the utmost
care has been taken to give the Author's sense as clearly
and precisely as possible; and the Translator earnestly hopes
the work will not be found to have deteriorated in her hands,
either in interest or importance.
E. J. MILLINGTON.
SEPT. 1851.
CONTENTS.
-4
Page
INTRODUCTION . - - • - - - • • 1
PART I.
NIMBUS, OR GLORY . - - - - - . . 22
DEFINITION OF THE NIMBUS . - - - - . 25
FoRM OF THE NIMBUS - - - - - . . 28
ON THE APPLICATION OF THE NIMBUS . - - . 37
THE NIMBUS OF GOD . - - - - - . . .38

THE NIMBUS OF ANGELS AND SAINTs . - • . 66
NIMBUS OF PERSONS LIVING - - - - . . 76

THE NIMBUS OF ALLEGORICAL BEINGs . - • . 83
SIGNIFICATION OF THE NIMBUS . - - - . . 89

HISTORY OF THE NIMBUS • - - - - . 92
THE AUREOLE . • • - • • • . . 107
THE FORM OF THE AUREOLE . • - - - . 110
THE APPLICATION OF THE AUREOLE . - - . . 121

THE HISTORY OF THE AUREOLE . • • - . 126
THE GLORY • - • - - • • . . 129
THE NATURE OF THE GLORY . - • • - . 131
OF THE GLORY: ITS ORIGIN AND NATIVE Count'RY . . 146
THE CHARACTER OF THE GLORY . - - • . 153
ON THE Colour oE THE AUREOLE . - • . . 163
viii CONTENTS.
PART II.
Page
THE HISTORY OF GOD . - • 166
GoD THE FATHER - - - - 167
PORTRAITS OF GOD THE FATHER 201
CHARACTERISTIC ATTRIBUTES OF GOD THE FATHER 221

GoD THE SON . - 234
HISTORY OF THE PORTRAITS OF GOD THE SON 242
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SIGNS, CHARACTERISTIC OF OUR SAVIOUR 278

THE TRIUMPH OF CHRIST 292
JESUS CHRIST As A LAMB 318
JESUS, AS THE GOOD SHEPHERD . 337

JESUS, FIGURED BY THE FISH . 344
THE CRoss, A SYMBOL OF CHRIST 367

THE WARIETIES OF THE CROSS 374
THE SIGN OF THE CROSS . 405
THE COLOUR OF THE CRoss 412
THE TRIUMPH OF THE CROSS . - - - 414
HISTORY OF THE HOLY GHOST 417

DEFINITION OF THE HOLY GHOST 418
WORSHIP OF THE HOLY GHOST 437
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST 440
THE HOLY SPIRIT As A Dove 451
THE COLOUR OF THE HOLY GHOST REPRESENTED AS A

DOVE - 461
THE HOLY GHOST As A MAN 467
QUALITIES PECULIAR TO THE HOLY GHOST 474
CHRONoLoGICAL Iconography or THE Holy Ghost . 493
THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE HOLY GHOST 496
HERESIES AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST . 499

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
-4
p
Charlemagne crowned, and with the Nimbus . . . . . .
Christ in an elliptical Aureole - - - • - • - -
St. John the Evangelist, with a circular Nimbus surmounted by two sun
flowers, emblems of the sun • - - - - • - • -
God the Father, with a triangular Nimbus bearing rays . - • • -
St. Gregory IV. with a square Nimbus . - - - - - -
The three Divine Persons, adorned with the cruciform Nimbus • - -
Nimbus with rays of unequal length, without any connecting line • -
Transverse lines, or luminous clusters of rays passing beyond the circum

ference of the Nimbus . - • - - - - - - -
Apollo as the Sun, adorned with the Nimbus, and crowned with seven rays
Nimbus bordered with fourteen rays - - • - - - -
The Trinity—each Divine Person wearing the cruciform Nimbus . . .

Maya, the Hindoo Goddess, with a cruciform Nimbus . - - - •
Divine Lamb, with cruciform Nimbus and three smaller crosses - e -
Divine Nimbus, with the transverse branches of the cross elevated - •
A Greek painting of Christ, with a cruciform Nimbus, the transverse

branches inscribed with 3 &y “I Am” • * * * * * *
Christ with a plain Nimbus, ascending to Heaven in a circular Aureole •
Christ without a beard wearing a plain Nimbus . . - • * • *
Christ without Nimbus, and beardless - • • • - • - -
The three Heavenly Beings who appeared to the Patriarch Abraham, one
wearing a cruciform Nimbus, or Nimbus stamped with a cross
The Divine hand, with a cruciform Nimbus . - • - - - • -
God the Father, with a bi-triangular Nimbus; God the Son, with a circular
Nimbus; God the Holy Ghost, without a Nimbus, and within an Aureole
God the Father wearing a lozenge-shaped Nimbus - - - -
Divine Lamb, with a circular Nimbus, not cruciform, marked with the
monogram of Christ, and the A and Q - • - •
St. John the Baptist, with a Nimbus • • - - - - - •
The Emperor Henry II, with a circular Nimbus bearing an inscription •
Pope Pascal with a square Nimbus . . - - - - • -
A bishop whilst living, having a rectangular Nimbus in the form of a

volumen - - • - • • - * • • - 80
b
X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Square Nimbus worn by Charlemagne and Pope Leo III. St. Peter with the
circular Nimbus - - - - -
Liberty with a Nimbus - - - -
Diana, the Moon, with a circular Nimbus . - - - - - -
Sun, with rays issuing from the face, and a wheel-like Nimbus on the head .
God the Father, without a Nimbus and beardless, condemning Adam to till
the ground and Eve to spin wool . - - -
Christ with a Nimbus resembling a flat cap, or casquette

Christ with a Nimbus of three clusters of rays . - - - -
A Nimbus drawn in perspective, formed by a simple thread of light

God in an Aureole of quatrefoils . - - - - - - -
The Lord in an Aureole of clouds, which take the form of the body 111
God, in a circular Aureole, radiating within, and intersected by symbolic
squares, with concave sides. God is sitting on a rainbow; his feet
resting on another - - - • - - • 114
The Transfiguration; Christ in a wheel-shaped Aureole . 117
Christ in an elliptical Aureole formed of branches - - - -
120
Mary, in an oval Aureole, intersected by another, also oval, but of smaller size 122
Soul of Saint Martin in an elliptical Aureole - - - -
124
Mary and Jesus in an Aureole of straight and flamboyant rays 128
Mercury with a circular Nimbus . • • - - - - 182
A Persian king, adorned with a pyramidal flamboyant Nimbus 133
Satan, with a circular Nimbus, tormenting Job . - - - - -
158
The Beast with seven heads; six have the Nimbus, and the seventh, being
wounded to death, is without - • • - - 162
The Creator under the figure of Christ, not of the Father . - - -
173
Jesus Christ (not the Father), as the Almighty . . . - - -
176
Jesus Christ as Saint Sophia - -
179
Jehovah, as the God of Battles - - - - - - - - - 186
The Divine hand, emitting rays of light, but without a Nimbus - - -
The hand of God the Father, neither emitting rays, nor encircled with the
Nimbus, but entirely open . . - -
The Divine hand, resting on a cruciform Nimbus

The Divine hand, presenting a crown to the Infant Jesus -
The Souls of the Righteous in the Hand of God . - • - - • - 210

The Face of God the Father, with the features of the Son . - • - 211
God, beardless: either the Son or the Father . . • - - • - 212
God the Father, and God the Son, with features exactly identica - -
214
The Father, represented as slightly different to the Son 215
God the Father, distinct from the Son and Holy Ghost 217
God the Father, the Creator, as an old man and a pope. - • - - 218
God the Father, as pope, with a tiara of five crowns . - - - • -
The Name of Jehovah, inscribed within a radiating triangle 231

The Creator, under the form of Jesus Christ 240
Figure of Christ, beardless - -
The Supreme Judge .. - - - - - • *.
Christ suffering; bearded, human or ugly - • - - - - 269

Christ triumphant; beardless, divine or beautiful . - • * * 272
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xi
Page
Christ, bearded, tempted by Satan . - - - - - - - . 277
Jesus in a flamboyant Aureole . - - - - - - . 281
Jesus as an angel, in an Aureole composed of triangles . - - - . 282
Jesus in a circular Aureole . - - - - - - - - . . 284
Mary, glorified like Jesus Christ - - - - - - - - . 286
The Word of God; a Child, naked, receiving from his Father the staff and
scrip . - - - - - - - - - - - - . . 296
Jesus treading under foot the Serpent, the Basilisk, the Lion, and the Dragon 298
Jesus Christ chains and overpowers Death . - - - - - . . .300
Christ returning from his pilgrimage . . - - - - - - . 301
Jesus showing his bleeding wounds to the Father . - - - . . .304
Christ as the Grand Archbishop . . - - - - - - - . 306
The Triumph of Jesus Christ, on horseback - - - - - . . .309
The Lamb of God; symbolic of Jesus crucified - - - - • . 320
St. John the Baptist carrying the Lamb of God . - - - - . . .322
A natural lamb, carried by St. John. - - - - - - - . 323
The Lamb of God, under the form of a ram. - - - - - . . 325
Christ and his Apostles, under the form of lambs or of sheep. - - . 327
Lambs representing scenes from the old and New Testatament - . . .331
The Lamb of God, with seven eyes and seven horns - - - - . 334
Jesus, as the Good Shepherd - - - - - - - . . .339
Tomb of a Vendor of Oil . - - - - - - - - - . 355
The Tomb of an Architect . - - - - - - - • . . .356
Sarcophagus of a Mariner, who afterwards became a Shepherd . - . 857
Various attributes, represented on the tombs of the primitive Christians .. 359
Grave-stone of a Vine-dresser . - . - • • - - - - 365
Church in the form of a Greek Cross . . . - - - - - - 378
Greek Cross, with Double Branches . . - - - - - - 383
Christ, armed with the Cross of the Resurrection, descending into Limbo . 385
Greek Cross; as the Cross of Lorraine . . . . . . . . .387
Greek Cross, with Double Cross Arms . - - - - - - . 389
Cross, quartered with the Four Gospels . - - - - - . . .391
Various Crosses of the Greek form . - • • • • • - . 392
A Greek Cross or Star, with six equal branches - • - . . .393
Greek Cross, with six branches of unequal lengths • • • - . 393
Greek and Latin Crosses, of various forms - - - • • . . .394
Monogram, united with the Cross. . • • • • • - - . 395
Mystic Cross - • • • - • • - • - - . . .396
Starry Cross - - - • - - - - . 397
Greek and Latin Crosses, of various forms - - - - - . . .399
Inhabited Cross . - - - - - - - - - - . 400
Spirit of Intelligence, hovering above David . - - - - . . .432
The Holy Ghost, as the God of Intelligence, carrying a boo - - . 435
The Holy Spirit as a Dove, “moving upon the face of the waters” . . 442
The Holy Ghost, as man, assisting at the coronation of the Virgin . . 445
Pope Gregory the Great, inspired by the Holy Spirit • * - . . 448
The Holy Ghost, as a Dove upon a standard . . . . . . . 450
Angel or Celestial Spirit, with six wings • • - - - . . 452
xii * LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
Winged Tetramorph, borne on winged and fiery wheels - - - . 453
The Spirit of Youth - - • - - - • - - - . . .454
The Church as a Dove with six win . . . . . . . . 456
An Evil Spirit, Black . - - - - - - - - - . . 465
Spirit of Evil, the Soul of an Idol . - - - - - - - . 466
The Holy Ghost, as a Child, floating on the wate - - - - . . 470
The Holy Ghost, as a Child of eight or ten years old, in the arms of the
Father . - - - - - - - - - - - - . 471
Jesus Christ surrounded by the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost . . . 476
Six Divine Doves, instead of Seven - - - - - - - . 486
The Holy Ghost as Man, and in the form of a Dove also • - . . 494
The Divine Dove, with a cruciform Nimbus . - - - • - . 497
The Divine Dove, in a radiating Aureole . - - - - - - - 498
The Divine Dove, with a cruciform Nimbus, floating between the waters of
the Creation - - - - - - - - - - - . 500
The Holy Ghost in the upper part of the Cross; without a Nimbus, without
cruciform Rays, without any Aureole or Glory - - - . 505
CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY.
* INTRODUCTION.
l': was the all-powerful influence which, during

he centuries intervening between the ninth and seventeenth
of our era, produced in cathedrals, parish churches, and
private chapels; in colleges, abbeys, and priories; a profu
sion almost incredible of figures, images, and sacred subjects,
sculptured, carved, painted, engraved, and even woven into
tapestries and costly hangings. #
Some large churches, such as those of Chartres, Rheims,
Paris, and Amiens, are adorned with no fewer than two,
three, or even four thousand statues of stone; or, as is
the case in that of Chartres, and in those of Bourges and
Mans, with three, four, or five thousand figures painted
on glass. Formerly, there was not a church, however small
its dimensions, that did not possess thirty, forty, or perhaps
a hundred figures either in sculpture or painti
If then, we take a mean number between the largest and
smallest amounts, and multiply that number by the quantity
of religious edifices known to have existed in France, whether
before the fanatical devastation of the sixteenth, or the poli
tical destruction of the eighteenth century, we shall be able
to judge of the vast importance that had been given by
Christianity to the imitative arts.
Owing to the ravages of the weather, the changes of the
seasons, the course of ages, and the revolutions to which
mankind have been exposed, the number of such figures now
existing, whether executed in sculpture, carving, or painting,
is singularly diminished. The entire series of personages
represented at Chartres and at Bourges, are, however, yet in
B
2 CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY,
existence, and at least three-fourths of those at Lyons. More

than half the original number still remain at Rheims and at
Strasbourg. The great cathedrals, those which were most
thronged with worshippers, have suffered less than churches
of the second or £ rank, so that France is even now
incredibly rich in statues and stained glass. The single city
of Troyes contains no less than nine churches, into which
the light is still admitted through windows of stained glass,
on which are painted historical subjects, memorials extend
ing from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries.
ith a few exceptions, nearly all the figures sculptured
or painted in churches are religious or biblical, and we must
seek an explanation of them either in the Scriptures or in
the Golden Legend; occasionally, perhaps, in Fabliaux and
other popular poems and fictions, but never in serious his
tory, and very rarely even in the early chronicles. . . We
should carry with us these two volumes, the Bible and the
Legenda Aurea, when we study the monuments of sculpture
to be found in our cathedrals; the “Monuments de la
monarchie Française,” by Montfaucon, must, on the con
trary, be discarded altogether, as his theories are calculated
to involve us in most serious errors.
The instruction of the people, and the edification of the
faithful, were the paramount objects proposed to itself by
Christianity in adopting this singular system of historical
embellishment. Writers of every epoch bear witness that
this idea prompted the execution and arrangement of the
numerous statues and figures which crowd our earlier
religious edifices. Quotations might be multiplied to excess;
but we shall be content to mention a few only, beginning with
one inscription, the most recent of all, which might, not long
since, have been read in the church of St Nizier, at Troyes,
but which has now disappeared, together with the painted
window, filled with historic figures, beneath which it was
inscribed. A curé of St. Nizier, in the sixteenth century,
directed the principal themes of the Gospel, the Legenda,
and the Dogma, to be painted on glass, and had them placed
in the windows of the nave, the choir, the apse, and the side
aisles, where they are still to be seen. Below the eastern
window he inscribed, “SANCTA PLEBI DEI.” At a very differ.
ent epoch, in the year 433, Pope Sixtus, in the same manner,
INTRODUCTION. - 3.
dedicated to the “people of God,” the mosaics in Santa

Maria Maggiore, at Rome; and beneath the sacred persons
whom he had caused to be pourtrayed, he placed the follow
ing inscription: “Xistus episcopus plebi Dei.” Thus, at
the two extreme points of the middle ages, viz. the fifth and
sixteenth centuries, the same idea prevailed, and even found
expression in the same words. Between those two limits it
was propounded in detail, and often commented upon with
eloquence. So, at the close of the seventh century, Benedict
Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, in England, adorned a church,
which he had erected, with paintings brought from Italy
for that purpose. He wished that all, on entering the
House of God, especially those who knew not how to read,
should have before their eyes the ever-beloved image of
Christ and his saints. They were thus stimulated to medi
tation upon the blessings of the Divine incarnation, and
reminded, by the sight of the Last Judgment, of the duty
and necessity of strict self-examination.f
St. John Damascenus, in the eighth century, employed
the same reasoning in defence of images. “Images speak,”
cries the eloquent apologist; “they are neither mute, nor
lifeless blocks, like the idols of the Pagans. Every painting
that meets our gaze in a church, relates, as if in words, the
humiliation of Christ for his people, the miracles of the
Mother of God, the deeds and conflicts of the Saints. Images
open the heart and awake the intellect, and, in a marvellous
and indescribable manner, engage us to imitate the persons
they represent.”:
* Ciampini Vetera Monumenta, p. 49, pars prima.
+ “Quatenus intrantes ecclesiam omnes, etiam litterarum ignari, quaqua
versum intenderent, vel semper amabilem Christi sanctorumque ejus, quamvis
in imagine, contemplarentur adspectum; vel Dominicae incarnationis gratiam
vigilantiore mente recolerent; vel extremi discrimen examinis, quasi coram
oculis habentes, districtius se ipsi examinare meminissent.”—(Act. SS. Ord.
S. Bened. 2e Vol., ou IIe Siècle Bénédictin,) Life of St. Benedict Biscop, first
Abbot of Wearmouth, written by the Wenerable Bede, his disciple.
it “Etiam loquuntur (imagines) nec mutae prorsus sunt omnisve sensus
expertes, uti gentium idola. Omnis enim pictura, quam in ecclesia LEGIMUs,
aut Christi ad nos demissionem, aut Dei genitricis miracula, aut sanctorum
certamina et res gestas, velut imagine loquente, enarrat; sensumque ac
mentem aperit, ut miris eos infandisque modis aemulemur.”— (Opera S.
Johannis Damasceni, Adversus Constantinum Cabalinum oratio, vol. i.,
p. 619, edition of 1712, in fol.) 2
13
4. CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY.
The Synod of Arras, in 1025, declared, as Benedict Biscop

had done, that the illiterate contemplated in the lineaments
of painting what they, having never learned to read, could
not discern in writing.” An ecclesiastical chronicler of
Auxerre supports, in an interesting passage, the texts which
recede and confirm the religious dogma concerning images.
t is stated in his “Histoire des évêques d'Auxerre,” that
under Bishop Geoffrey, son of Hugh, Count of Nevers, in
the time of '' I., the cathedral of Auxerre was partly
destroyed by a conflagration. The bishop, in the space of
one year, caused it to be repaired, the stained glass replaced,
and the whole covered with a roof of timber and tiles. He
commanded the circular wall of the inclosure, surrounding
the altar, to be filled with fresco portraits of the holy bishops,
his predecessors. He desired, by this means, not only to
direct the eye of the officiating priests from the contemplation
of all vain and profane objects, but, above all, to assist those
who were likely to be distracted by vanity or weariness; thus,
in the presence of these images, and at the recollection of
all those pious persons, disinterred, as it were, by painting,
the mind of each was recalled, as by a living counsellor, to
the courage of piety.t To this 'passage, belonging,
like the Council of Arras, to the eleventh century, we shall
add the testimony of St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, near
Naples, written at the commencement of the fifth, and, con
sequently, much earlier than the quotations inserted above.
St. Paulinus, after having described the pictures which he
had had executed in the basilica of St. Felix, built by him
at Fondi, says:—“If any should inquire why, contrary to
* “Illiterati, quod per scripturam non possunt intueri, hoc per quaedam
picture lineamenta contemplantur.” Suger (de Administratione suá, ap.
Félibien, Histoire de l'Abbaye de St. Denis, Pièces justificatives), uses pre
cisely the same language, 115 years later than the Council of Arras.
f “Neque de corona muri claudentis altare, sanctorumque praesulum pictas
habentis effigies sileic justum est, quem canentium oculis sacerdotum non
solum ideo opposuit ut ab eis visus inanes et illicitos excluderet, verum et
idcirco, ut si quis vanitate vel taedio gravatus extra seduceretur, sicut saepe
contingere ex nostrae fragilitatis vitio solet, illa praesenti visione et aperta tot
bonorum per picturam memoria mentem et omnium quasi vivo revocatus
consilio ad fortitudinem pietatis relevaret.”—(Nova Bibliotheca Manuscrip
torum librorum, par le P. Labbe, tom i., p. 452; Historia episcoporum
Autissiodorensium. Paris, 1652, in fol.)
INTRODUCTION. 5
common usage, I have given personal representations of holy

people in this sacred dwelling, I answer: “Among the crowds
attracted hither by the fame of St. Felix, there are peasants
recently converted, who cannot read, and who, before em
bracing the faith of Christ, had long been the slaves of
profane usages, and had obeyed their senses as gods. They
arrive here from afar, and from all parts of the country.
Glowing with faith, they despise the chilling frosts; they
pass the entire night in joyous watchings; they drive away
slumber by gaiety, and darkness by torches. But they
mingle festivities with their prayers, and, after singing
hymns to God, abandon themselves to good cheer; they joy
ously stain with odoriferous wine the tombs of the Saints.
They sing in the midst of their cups, and, by their drunken
lips, the demon insults St. Felix. I have, therefore, thought
it expedient to enliven with paintings the entire habitation
of the Holy Saint. Images thus traced and coloured will
perhaps inspire those rude minds with astonishment. Inscrip
tions are placed above the pictures, in order that the letter
may explain what the hand has depicted. While showing
them to each other, and reading thus by turns these pictured
objects, they do not think of eating until later than before,—
their eyes aid them to endure fasting. Painting beguiles
their hunger, better habits govern these wondering men,
and studying these holy histories, chastity and virtue are
engendered by such examples of piety. These sober gazers
are intoxicated with excitement, though they have ceased
to indulge in wine. A great part of the time being spent
in looking at these pictures, they drink much less, for there
remain only a few : minutes for their repast.’”
* “Forte requiratur quanam ratione gerendi
Sederit hac nobis sententia pingere sanctas,
Raro more, domos animantibus adsimulatis
Accipite, et paucis tentabo exponere causas.”
>k >k >k >k >k
>k * “Visum nobis opus utile, totis
Felicis domibus pictura illudere sancta;
Si forte attonitas haec per spectacula mentes,
Agrestem caperet fucata coloribus umbra.
Quae super exprimitur titulis, ut littera monstret
Quod manus explicuit. Dumque omnes picta vicissim,
Ostendunt releguntgue sibi, vel tardius esca:
6 CIIRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY.
Thus, then, for those men of the middle ages, for those
Christians of lively susceptibility, but who yet knew not how
to read, the clergy provided rondes-bosses, bas-reliefs, and
pictures, where science on the one hand and doctrine on
the other were personified. A sculptured arch in the
porch of a church, or an historical glass £
in the
nave presented the ignorant with a lesson, the believer with
a sermon,—a lesson and a sermon which reached the heart
through the eyes instead of entering at the ears. The
impression, besides, was infinitely deeper; for it is acknow.
ledged, that a picture sways the soul far more powerfully
than any discourse or description in words.”
The dramatic art also aimed at similar results. ' The
representation of mysteries and miracles served to put in
action the persons painted on glass windows, sculptured on
the capitals, or encrusted in the vaultings of cathedrals.
In these same cathedrals were performed the Miracles of
St. Martin and of St. Nicholas, the Mysteries of the An
nunciation, and of the Nativity, which had already been
represented by the hand of art, in sculpture and in painting
ords and gestures interpreted what outline and colour.
ing had expressed, and the intention which actuated both
was the same; in short, the graphic and dramatic arts
became a book to those who £ read no other.t. It is
in this light that they must be regarded; in this character
Sint memores, dum grata oculis jejunia pascunt,
Atque ita se melior stupefactis inserat usus,
Dum fallit pictura famem; sanctasque legenti
Historias, castorum operum subrepit homestas,
Exemplis inducta piis. Potatur hianti
Sobrietas; nimii subeunt oblivia vini.
Dumque diem ducunt spatio majore tuentes,
Pocula rarescunt, quia, per miracula tracto
Tempore, jam paucae superant epulantibus horae.”
-(Divi Paulini episcopi Nolani opera, poema XXVI., de Felice natal. carm.
ix., v., 541-594, p. 642 et 643 de l'edit. de Muratori. Verone, 1736, fol.)
* Horace (de Arte Poetica) expresses this idea in the two following verses:
“Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem
Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus.”
+ “Ejus (Dei) porro formam, sensibili expressam modo, omni in loco
statuimus ac per eam sensum primum sanctificamus—inter sensus enim primas
tenet visus-quemadmodum et per sermones auditum. Imago siquidem
monimentum quoddam est; acquidquid liberest iis qui litteras didicerunt, hoc
INTRODUCTION. - 7
we must seek a clue to the interpretation of the figures

—true hieroglyphics of the middle ages, which Christian
archaeology, although at present only in its infancy, already
begins to decipher and comprehend.
#: imitative art as practised in cathedrals, performed
the combined offices of a lesson for the purpose of instruc
tion, of a sermon for morality, and an example for edification;
like the religious drama, it gave individual forms to the whole
range of Christian science and its dogmas. Assisted by such
material objects, by statues, images, and scenic games, the
most feeble intelligence might rise to the conception of truth,
and a soul plunged in the lowest abyss of darkness might
soar upwards in the light displayed by art before its eyes |
“Mens hebes ad verum per materialia surgit
Et, demersa prius, hac visa luce resurgit.”"
It was in order to attain the twofold object of instruc

tion and edification that writers selected their doctrinal
texts from the sacred Scriptures, and texts referring to
science from the didactic writers of the age. The book
composed by the first class, the Theologians, was the “Bible
Historiale,” in which both the Old and New Testament were
melted into one; that of the other party, the Savants, bore
divers names, but all are comprised in the general appella
tion of “livres de clergie”—“clergie” signifying science.
From these two works, one sacred and doctrinal, the other
civil and scientific, were framed general Encyclopaedias,
called also by various names, the most popular of which
were the “ #: Deliciarum,” or “le Vergier de Solas;”
imago est illiteratis et rudibus; et quod auditui praestat oratio, hoc visui
confert imago.”—(Opp. S. Johannis Damasceni, Oratio prima de Imaginibus,
tom. i., p. 314, 315.)
* These two verses, more beautiful in idea and expression than those of
Horace quoted above, and which express an analogous idea, were written by
the Abbé Suger, the great artist of the Cathedral of St. Denis. They were
inscribed, by his command, on the western portal central entrance, upon the
bronze folding-doors of which were the “Passion,” the “Resurrection,”
and the “Ascension,” and beneath the carvings representing the “Last Judg
ment.” These verses, which still exist, serve as an explanation of the door
posts, vaultings, and tympanum, which are completely covered with illustrious
personages.—(Suger, de Administratione suá, in Félibien, Histoire de l'Ab
baye de St. Denis, Pièces justificatives, p. clxxii. Paris, 1706, fol.)
8 CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY.
the “Summa Theologiae,” by Thomas Aquinas; the “Miroir

Universel,” by Vincent de Beauvais;* the “Image du
Monde,” + the “Propriétaire des Choses,” t and the
“Lucidaire.”
In the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries learned
men and philosophers thought only of making encyclopaedias.
The number of facts relating to nature or to mankind, accu
mulated by the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines and
Alexandrians, had become a chaos, and unparalleled exertions
were made in order to carry light into this night of intelli
gence, in which all was disjoined, incoherent, or misapplied.
Before proceeding to investigate new facts, before calling
other ideas into existence, it was indispensably necessary
to pause for a while to reflect, to arrange an inventory of
the treasures already acquired, and classify as in a museum
or library those disorderly heaps of information which had
hitherto been thrown together pell-mell in all the confusion
and disorder of a storehouse or magazine. It was thought
desirable to glance back at the past before proceeding
onwards.
A feeling of the necessity of, and a prepossession for,
classification, prevails in all works of the middle ages,
whether literary or scientific. To give some few examples
only. Innumerable legends existed, scattered throughout
a host of volumes. An Archbishop of Genoa, Jacques de
Woragine, collected all in one single volume, to which he
gave the name of “Légende dorée,” or Legenda Aurea. ||
* Vincentii Bellovacensis Speculum Quadruplex, Naturale, Doctrinale,
Morale, Historiale, 7 vols. folio. Argent. Mentelin, 1473-76. Frequently
reprinted. The first French translation was published at Paris by Werard in
1495-6, in 5 vols. folio.
+ Two English editions were printed by Caxton, both in 1487, under the
title of “Thymage or Myrrour of the World.” -
# Originally written in Latin by Bartholemaeus Anglicus (Glanville) and

supposed to be printed at Cologne by Caxton, about 1470. The many early
editions, and the several translations into French and English, bespeak its
great popularity. Shakespeare is shown by Mr. Douce to have been familiar
with its contents.
§ An English translation was printed by Caxton, in small 4to, under the
title of “Alytel treatise, intytuled or named, The Lucidarye.”
| One ought to say “Légende d'or,” as one would say “Livre d'or,” since
the word is “aurea,” not “aurata,” but “dorée" has prevailed.
INTRODUCTION. 9
Theological science was diffused throughout a multitude of

treatises: St. Thomas concentrated all in one grand work,
entitled the “Summa Theologiae.” Even the books of
Holy Scripture had been hitherto separated, the Old
Testament from the New, and in the New Testament the
Acts of the Apostles from the Four Gospels. The Acts
were now united with the Gospels, the Old Testament
with the New, and the single volume thus produced was
entitled “Scholastic History.” The plan adopted was
similar to that pursued in natural science, in which several
species collected form a genus, several genuses a family,
several families a kingdom. The Legenda Aurea, a com
bination of all the different families of legends, and the
“Scholastic History,” or “Bible Historiale,” a combination
of the various families of the Holy Books of Scripture, may
aptly be compared to the several families forming the kingdom
of Nature. Vincent de Beauvais, a man of profound learning,
went still farther, and, under the name of “Miroir Uni
versel,” (Speculum Universale) comprised in one book all the
different facts and ideas then current in the Christian world.
Classification became almost a mania. In narrating a
history, or reciting a fact, it was always contrived, however
unnecessary and irrelevant, to introduce a catalogue of
objects, more or less analogous with, or foreign to, the
subject under consideration.
acques de Voragine tells us, that at the feast of the
Nativity, all created nature acknowledged and celebrated
the Birth of the Saviour, and he eagerly seizes the oppor
tunity thus afforded him, of explaining into how many families
and kingdoms, natural objects, the beings created by God,
ought to be divided. “There are,” says he, “beings which
exist, but do not live, as the stars; which exist and live,
but do not feel, as plants; which exist, live, and feel, but
do not think, as the animals; which exist, live, feel, and
think, but are without prescience, as men; and, lastly,
beings in whom all the preceding qualities are united and
combined with perfect intelligence, as the angels.” . In
the Legend of St. Catherine, who was herself a philosopher,
* The Historica Scholastica was the work of Peter Comestor, or Pierre
Mangeur, and was written in the latter half of the twelfth century.—Trans.
the same Genoese encyclopaedist takes occasion to explain

the meaning of the term philosophy. He insists that this
science must be divided into theory, practice, and logic; then
he proceeds to subdivide each of these divisions: Theory
into intellectual, natural, and mathematical; Practice into
ethics, economy, and politics; Logic into demonstration,
supposition, and sophistry.*
Fashion and Necessity inspired in everything a taste for
classification and encyclopaedias.
Since the philosophers, who originated ideas, and the
learned men, who scrutinised facts, together, fixed at that
time the arrangement of both, artists, whose office it is to
give a special and peculiar form to the impulses of the age
in which they live, bowed to the prevailing influence;
they could not breathe this encyclopaedic atmosphere without
imbibing the predominant ideas and rendering them after
their manner.
Consequently, the object of art being to instruct, the
plan of instruction was intended to be encyclopaedic, and
effectively it became so.
Among the numerous different encyclopaedias composed
at this epoch, that of Wincent de Beauvais, was the latest,
and consequently the most complete; it was also the most
remarkable, having been produced by one whose mind was
clear and well organised. This work bears, as has been said,
the title of “Speculum Universale,” or “Miroir Universel.”
Vincent de Beauvais, the preceptor of the children of
St. Louis, was a man of extraordinary erudition; he was
as deeply learned as Pliny the Elder, and knew all that
could be known at the close of the thirteenth century, and
he classified all human knowledge according to a plan which
has never yet been surpassed. In this arrangement, the
chronology, carried down from the earliest period, agrees
admirably with the clearest method, the most rigid analysis.
He follows the course of time from wear to vear and from
age to age, interweaving logically, and as if of necessity, all
those facts pertaining to nature or to mankind, of which
he had, by careful analysis, traced the distinction or the
connection.
* Légende dorée, de Nativitate Domini-De sancta Katarina virgine.

*
INTRODUCTION. 11
He commences by classifying all objects with which we

are acquainted, according to the nature of those objects,
and the system adopted in Botanical works; that, for
example, in which plants are arranged according to their
organic structure. This plan is immutable as nature herself,
and far superior to that of the French encyclopaedists of
the eighteenth century, who divided all branches of knowledge
according to the order and imaginary affiliationof our faculties.
The classification of the French philosophers is artificial
and arbitrary: it is a classification that must vary with
every change in the psychological system.
Vincent de Beauvais established, besides, four orders of
science; Historical, Moral, Abstract or Mechanical, and
Natural science. These divisions, determined by analysis,
are arranged in their chronological order. First, Nature,
next Science, then Ethics, and lastly History. It is not
a pure dry classification, nor a picture merely, but a frame.
work filled up by degrees; for each title is followed by its
appropriate chapter, and the first mention of the science is
immediately succeeded by the scientific treatise.
According to the teaching of Vincent de Beauvais, before
the creation of the universe, God alone existed, in solitary
grandeur and immensity: but, desiring to see himself
reflected in his works, and to make himself adored, beloved,
and comprehended by his creatures, the Supreme Being
determined to call the angels into existence. At this point,
the Christian encyclopaedist explains what God is; con
siders whether there are one, two, several, or none; and
details the nature and attributes of divinity. Then he
passes to the celestial spirits—to the Angel, the Spirit of
Good, and the Demon, or Spirit of Evil, who were the
first of all created beings.
God afterwards created heaven and earth: and then
comes a treatise on geography and mineralogy; the creation
of the sun, moon, and stars, serves to introduce astronomy
and astrology. On the day on which the earth is said to
bring forth and bud, a treatise on botany is subjoined,
together with its application to agriculture and horticulture.
The day of the creation of birds, fishes, and terrestrial
animals, is followed by an entire system of zoology. At
length, man is created, and to the scriptural account is
appended an anthropology or disquisition on the structure

of the human frame and intellect, and on the anatomy and
physiology of the various families of the human race, which,
considering the period in which it was written, is wonder
fully lucid and complete. Then God rested; and Vincent
pauses to examine and discuss the harmony and beauty dis
played in the economy of the universe.
This harmony is too soon interrupted by the Fall of Man;
and the beautiful cosmical drama which had opened in such
perfect symmetry, becomes broken and confused; then the
elements break their bonds, and ravage the physical creation,
while human passions shake the foundations of the moral
world: hence volcanoes, hurricanes, and crime. At the
fall of Adam, the first series of natural and physical science
is brought to a close.
Man had fallen; but he had still the power to rise. He
might, says Wincent de Beauvais, repair by science his lost
perfection, Consequently, the indefatigable encyclopaedist
resumes his discourse, and proceeds to teach man to speak,
to reason, and, last of all, to think. He gives treatises on
grammar, logic, rhetoric, geometry, mathematics, music, and
astronomy. Then follow the other sciences; their application
to domestic life being exhibited in economy, and to public
life in politics; while their employment in the mechanical
arts is shown in architecture, navigation, the chase, com
merce, and medicine.
The second division, the class of sciences, properly so
called—those which Vincent terms doctrinal, is thus brought
to a conclusion.
It is well for man to know, but it is no less necessary for
him to act. The stream of science flows onward, but it
must flow restrained within due limits, without over
whelming the intellect or laying waste the reason. The
moral sciences therefore are next invoked to point out
to man that it is his duty to walk in a certain straight
line, called the law, and which is both divine and
human, both ancient and new. The law teaches man his
duties by instructing him in the nature of virtue.
Vincent de Beauvais wrote as many treatises as there are
distinct and particular virtues... Men must have faith, hope,
and love; must be chaste, humble, meek, patient, temperate,
INTRODUCTION. 13
courageous, and prudent: thus they will be meet for happi

ness in heaven, and the bliss of heaven is detailed at
length, as an incentive to good works. If men relax ever so
little in their onward progress, or turn aside voluntarily
from the right path, they become liable to purgatory: and
purgatory is, therefore, described, and the different sorts of
sin enumerated, and defined either as mortal or venial.
Those who go entirely astray will be cast into hell, where
pride, envy, blasphemy, sloth, and simony, are punished
with peculiar rigour. Not a single moral treatise of any real
importance, is forgotten in this framework, which forms
the third division of the Encyclopaedia.
Man is born, he is endowed with knowledge and the
power of action; science has been placed as a buckler in
his left hand; morality, as an instrument of action, in his
right. He may then live in the world, and work out his
own history. Thenceforth all the different epochs of the uni
versal history of our species, from the period when Adam,
driven from the terrestrial Paradise, was condemned to
constant labour, form themselves into groups around him.
Vincent passes in review, and relates the history of, all
nations and people; he pauses at the year 1244, that in
which he lived; but he has almost divined (if I may be
allowed the expression) the events that would succeed.
Besides, he was far too catholic, too universal in his
ideas, to leave a vacancy. He tells us when time will be
accomplished; when the universe shall perish; how man
kind shall be judged; and when eternity without end shall
recommence, as if it had not been interrupted for a season
by the creation and by history; how the world will end,
whether by water or by fire. He predicts all the phenomena
that will precede the Last Judgment; and the fourth and
last portion of this work closes with the end of the world.
I must again repeat that this analytical and chronological
arrangement, at once historical and natural, is most remark
able. I am myself disposed to consider it superior to that
adopted by Bacon, or by the encyclopaedists of the eighteenth
century; and even to that of Marie Ampère, whose classifi
cation is almost the latest, and seems, perhaps, preferable
to any that has been attempted up to the present time.
This order is precisely that in which the statues decorating
the exterior of Chartres Cathedral are arranged. The sculp

tures here open with the creation of the world, to the
illustration of which thirty-six tableaux and seventy-five
statues are devoted, beginning with the moment when God
leaves his repose to create the heavens and the earth, and
continued to that in which Adam and Eve, having been
guilty of disobedience, are driven from Paradise, to pass the
remainder of their lives in tears and in labour. This is
made by the encyclopaedist, the first groundwork of his
subject; it is the Genesis of organic and inorganic nature
—of living creatures and reasoning beings; that in which
the biblical cosmogony is developed, and which leads to
that terrible event, the fearful malediction pronounced
upon man by his God. This first section, called by
Beauvais the “Miroir. Naturel,” is sculptured on the
central arch of the north porch.
But although man, by the guilt of Adam, had incurred
the penalty of death to the body, and torment to the soul,
he might yet redeem himself by labour. Even while
expelling them from Paradise, God still had compassion on
our first parents: he gave them skins of beasts for gar
ments, and taught them how to clothe themselves; and
the sculptor hence took occasion to instruct the Beau
cerons how to labour with the hands, and with the mind.
On the right of the Fall of Man, he sculptured, under the
eyes of all men, and for their perpetual instruction, first, a
calendar of stone, describing all the labours of the country
in their seasons; then a catechism of the mechanical arts
£ by the dwellers in towns; and, finally, for the
enefit of those engaged in intellectual occupations, a manual
of the liberal arts, personified, preferably, under the figures
of a philosopher, a geometrician, and a magician. The
entire subject is developed in a series of 103 figures, in the
north porch, and more especially in the arch on the right
hand. Such is the second division, exhibiting at once an
historical and allegorical representation of agricultural and
manufacturing industry—of commerce, and of art.
It is not, however, enough for man to labour only; his
muscular powers and intellectual energy must be exerted
for a worthy object; he must make a good employment of the
faculties with which he is endowed by God, and of the riches
INTRODUCTION. 15
acquired by his own industry. To walk is not enough: we

must walk in a straight path, nor is it enough to act, unless
we act well and virtuously. Thus, for moral and religious
purposes, the porches of Nôtre Dame de Chartres were
encrusted with 148 effigies, representing the virtues which
it is our duty to embrace—the vices that we ought to
OWerCOme.
Man, created by God, has duties to fulfil towards his

Maker from whom he is derived, towards society in the
bosom of which he lives, towards the family in which he
was brought up, and the household over which he, in his
turn, presides; , lastly, he has duties towards himself,
possessing, as he does, a physical organisation to be preserved,
a heart to be softened and warmed, and a mind to be en
lightened. Thence arise four orders of virtues, the theo
logical, political, domestic, and personal; all placed in
opposition to their contrary vices, as light is to darkness.
Personifications of all these virtues are sculptured in the
different bands or courses of the vaulting. Theological and
political virtues, the influence of which is external, and
suitable for the public arena, are placed without; domestic
and personal virtues, which affect the individual and his
family, are made to retire within the porch, where they find
shelter, in stillness and comparative obscurity. Such is the
third part, the “Miroir Moral,” which occupies the left
archway, and the north porch generally.
Now that man is created; that he has learned to labour,
and to guide his actions aright; that he takes toil with the one
hand for his support, and virtue with the other for his guide
and protectress, he may advance without fear of going
astray: he may live, and become the architect of his own
history; and, after a certain period, he will reach the point
he has had in view. Man's career is then continued
from the Creation to the Last Judgment, just as the sun
pursues his course from east to west, and the remaining
statues are, therefore, devoted to exhibiting the history of
the world, from the period of Adam and Eve, whom we left
digging and spinning without the gates of Paradise, down
to the end of time. The inspired sculptor has, indeed, by
the aid of the Prophets and # the Apocalypse, divined the
future fate of man, long after (poor mortal!) his own earthly
existence should have terminated. No less than 1488

statues were employed, and still remain, to set forth a
history comprising so many ages, so many events, and so
many human beings. This is the fourth and last division;
it fills three recesses of the north porch, as well as the entire
porch and the three bays of the southern entrance.
These sculptures, then, are, in the fullest sense of the word,
what, in the language of the middle ages, was called the
“Image or Mirror of the Universe.” They form an entire
poem, in the first canto of which we see reflected the image
of Nature, organic and inorganic; in the second, that of
science; that of the moral sense in the third; of man in the
fourth; and in the whole, lastly, the entire world. Such is
the intellectual framework of this stone Encyclopaedia; such
its plan and moral unity. It remains for us now to examine
its material unity and physical arrangement.
The history of religion resolves itself for the Christian
into two distinct periods; the first, precedes the coming
of our Saviour, and is occupied by the history of the
Hebrew nation, the people of God; the second, com
mencing at the birth of Christ, comprehends the history of all
Christian people, the Law and the Gospel, the Old and New
Testament. As the Jews did not in their social life consort
with Christians, and as in the thirteenth century the Old
Testament, represented by tables, with circular tops, differed
from the New, which was always represented in the form of
a square book, so in Nôtre Dame de Chartres the history
of the Jewish people is actually separated from that of
Christians by the entire breadth of the church, or, we should
rather say, by the whole length of the transepts. The effi
gies illustrating Old Testament history, from the creation of
the world to the death of the Virgin, are ranged in the north
orch; and those of the New, from the moment in which
Christ first bade hisApostles who were around him, “Go
teach and baptise all nations,” even to and including the Last
Judgment, in the south. In stained glass of the thirteenth
century, and sculpture of the fourteenth, Christ is repre
sented enthroned on clouds, and his back supported by a
* “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them.”—Matt,
xxvii. 19.
* INTRODUCTION. 17
rainbow; the Tables of the Law are placed upon the Ark of
the Covenant on his left hand, the Book of the Evangelists"
is lying open upon an altar on his right. In every epoch
the Old Testament has had its position on the left, and the
New Testament on the right hand. This is as it should be;
for Christians regard the Old Testament as the pedestal or
groundwork of the Gospel. The Old Testament is an antici
patory portrait, of which the New presents the after-model.
The New Testament is the fulfilment, the Old the meta
phorical or prophetic type. Now, in all times, even at the
present day, in civil customs as well as in military manoeuvres
and religious ceremonies, the left is held inferior to the right;
the right hand is given invariably to those who are most
honourable. The artists at Chartres, therefore, placed the
Bible on the north, or the left hand (when we face the east),
and the Gospel on the south, or the right hand. Thus, too,
the Northumbrian bishop, Benedict Biscop, commanded that
the southern portion of the church should be entirely filled
with pictures from the Gospel.f
The 1814 statues which people the exterior of the church
of Nôtre Dame de Chartres, are arranged on the same
principle.
Many encyclopaedias of the middle ages are far less com
plete than that of Wincent de Beauvais. Some writers have
selected one particular portion, or one “Miroir” only, in
preference to another, instead of combining the four several
branches into one united work. Others have preserved the
unity of each branch of the four divisions; but in one or
other of the “Mirrors” they have omitted either entirely
or in part some particular branch of science, or passed it
over with slight notice, in order to exaggerate the dimen
sions of some other science connected with it. In the same
manner, many, one might even say the majority of the French,
cathedrals, are incomplete in comparison with that of
Chartres. Some one branch of the Encyclopaedia is treated
too fully, to the neglect of one, two, or sometimes of the
three other branches. Thus, in the Cathedral of Rheims,
* Missale abbatiae Sancti Maglorii parisiensis. Bib. Arsen. Theol. Lat.
188, fol. 214, recto. XV. century.
t “Detulit . . . . imagines evangelicae historiae quibus australem ecclesiae
parietem decoraret.” (Life of Benedict Biscop, cited above, p. 3.)
C
1S CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY.
what we may call the “Historical Mirror,” comprising more

especially the Life of Christ, and the end of the world, or
the Apocalypse, is extended beyond all due proportion;
while the “Mirror of Nature” is greatly abridged, and that
of “Doctrine” seems almost forgotten. Still, in each of
these cathedrals the principal chapters of the “Universal
Mirror” are represented by eight or ten figures at least.
Even that of Laon, which is in this respect more exclusive
and less complete than most others, gives the argument or
summary of the book, which is treated in full detail at
Chartres. It has, for these reasons, been thought expedient
to adhere in the following work to the classification adopted
by Vincent de Beauvais, and reproduced in the Cathedral of
Beauce.
The order of this arrangement is of the highest import
ance; and should be constantly borne in mind and diligently
followed, while examining or describing sculptured statues
or painted effigies. Many a statue which, isolated, appears
uninteresting and unintelligible, takes a new meaning when
connected with the others which ought properly to precede
and follow it. Either from negligence in the person
appointed to superintend the building, or ignorance in
the sculptor, transpositions frequently occur in regard to the
£ occupied by certain figures; or the displacement may
ave been occasioned by the architectural form of the
building; by its exaggerated or limited dimensions; by the
limited surface of the area appointed for decoration, or by
the preponderance of that from which ornaments were
excluded. In every occasion of difficulty, or when there is
reason to suspect that such alterations have been made, it
will be £ to have recourse to the arrangement of
Vincent de Beauvais. In the Cathedral of Chartres, for
instance, one vaulting of the eastern porch is devoted to the
signs of the zodiac and the labours £ different seasons.
As, however, there was space for ten signs only, it was
necessary to remove the two signs, Pisces and Gemini,
which could find no place in the first vaulting, to an
other; and thus, banished from their proper sphere, they
seem devoid of meaning or intention. Similar examples
are numerous, and must be regarded with scrupulous
attention.
INTRODUCTION. 19
As the statues and effigies with which our churches are

decorated are all arranged according to the system of
Wincent de Beauvais, it has been found necessary to adhere
closely to that arrangement in the following treatise. The
subject opens, therefore, by speaking, firstly, of God;
secondly, of the creation of the first divine beings; and
proceeds thus in order, through the four encyclopaedic
divisions mentioned above, down to the end of the world. It
commences, before the “Genesis,” that is, before the Crea
tion, and will not terminate till it reaches the “Apocalypse,”
after the end of the world. It begins with God, because
God existed before all things; from God, the fountain of
universal existence, it descends to the final judgment, that
point in which the several streams of facts and ideas ter
minate their course.
The first part of the “Instructions for Iconography.”
contains the Archaeological History or Iconography of God;
then follows that of the Angel, a Being immortal, if not
eternal, and who ranks next to the Deity, both in the
hierarchy and in chronology; next, the Iconography of the
Devil—that fallen angel who was precipitated from heaven,
crushed and overwhelmed, at some period subsequent to the
creation of angels, and before the birth of man.
In a future work I propose to treat upon the seven days
of Creation so often represented in our churches, the
Birth and Fall of Man, the archaeological history of
Death, and of the “Dance of Death.” As man, though
doomed to death, may yet regain something of his original
virtue by the labour of his hands, the cultivation of his
mind, the practice of what is good, and the avoiding of evil;
personifications of the labours of the country and the city,
of the liberal arts, of the Virtues and Vices, will be given,
and their intention and signification fully explained.
The History of the Patriarchs, Judges, Prophets, and
Kings of Judah, will occupy the succeeding portion; next
to this will come the Life of the Virgin Mary, and that of
Christ—admirable subjects, well worthy of being treated at
length. We must afterwards pass in review the figures of
Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, the most distinguished saints,
and those whose effigies are most frequently seen on our
portals and painted windows. The concluding portion of
c 2
the work, of which this is only a preliminary sketch, will

contain a description of such figures as are borrowed from
the Apocalypse.
The principal types will be shown in engravings, and the
text will be little more than the legend of the figures repre
sented. The designs will all be outlines from authentic
monuments, and the date and origin of each will be given
with the greatest possible precision. They will be selected
principally from illuminated manuscripts, statues, or paint
ings on glass; but frescoes, mosaics, tapestry, enamellings,
and carvings will also be laid under contribution.
The drawings, like those in the present volume, will be
executed by M. Paul Durand, Correspondent of the His
torical Society of Arts and Monuments, a patient anti
quary, who examines, with most scrupulous attention, every
archaeological character likely to afford either indispensable
or merely useful information. M. Durand accompanied me,
with the greatest zeal and disinterestedness, during my visit
into Greece and Turkey, in July, 1839, and February, 1840,
to the city of Athens, to the Morea, Sparta, Salamis, Thebes,
Delphi, the Meteora of Thessaly, Macedonia, Salonica,
M. Athos, and Constantinople. He made drawings of
every monument, whether in architecture, sculpture, or
painting, which I had proposed to myself to describe:
several Byzantine types of God, Angels, and the Evil
Spirits, reproduced by his pencil, are inserted in the work
now before the reader.
All the drawings here given have, with some few excep
tions, been either copied or outlined by M. Durand. A few
subjects only were copied from the designs of MM. Lassus
and E. Boeswilwald, architects at Paris; Duthoit, sculptor
at Amiens; Ch. Fichot, designer at Troyes; Amable Crapilot,
architect at Auxerre; Klein, painter at Strasbourg, and
Hippolyte Durand, formerly an architect at Rheims. These
artists, skilful, learned, and obliging, placed their time and
talents at my entire disposal, in order to procure for me the
subjects I required, and which are dispersed throughout the
cathedrals of Amiens, Auxerre, Rheims, Troyes, and Stras
bourg. M. E. Boeswilwald gleaned for me among the beau
tiful paintings of the Campo Santo at Pisa.
The designs were all engraved, with studious care, by
INTRODUCTION. 21
MM. Andrew, Best, and Leloir, who are entitled to my

warmest thanks.
The text of the work was read before a special committee,
selected from the Historical Society of Arts and Monuments.
It was composed of MM. Delécluze, Baron Taylor, Comte
de Montalembert, Comte Auguste de Bastard, Du Som
merard, Auguste Leprévost, Schmit, and Albert Lenoir.
Several doubtful points were discussed and decided, several
suggestions were made and adopted. The work was ordered
and approved by the Committee, but the arrangement and
appreciation of the facts was left entirely to the author's
discretion. M. Willemain, Minister of Public Instruction,
was induced, at the request of the committee, to authorise
the printing and publishing of the work.
M. Chabaille, Correcteur to the Comités Historiques
revised the proofs of my work with great attention—
I may almost say, with peculiar affection. He did not
confine himself to the mere correction of typography;
but, being well versed in the dramatic art of the Middle
Ages, and the literature of the Mysteries and Miracles, he
advised me occasionally to draw a parallel between the
imitative, and the spoken or mimetic arts; and to consider
scenic representations in their connexion with effigies and
statues: and I gratefully accepted suggestions so judicious,
offered, too, with so much candour and politeness.
Finally, and to acquit myself, in some degree, of my
numerous obligations, I must express my gratitude to
MM. the Conservators of the Bibliothèque Royale; to
M.M. the Librarians of St. Geneviève; and to M. Amyot,
of the Library of the Arsenal, who placed at my dispo
sition the finest illuminated MSS., from which I copied
several miniatures. MM, le Comte Auguste de Bastard
and Du Sommerard entrusted me with, or described to me,
many valuable specimens of carving in ivory, glass painting,
and painting in enamel or on vellum. I shall always retain
a grateful remembrance of the kindness which aided and
encouraged my efforts, and conferred personal honour on
myself.
- DIDRON,
PARIS, May, 1841.
PART I.
--
THE NIMBUS, OR GLORY.
BEFoRE entering on the subject of Iconography generally,

it may be advisable to devote a few pages to the examina
tion of an attribute which is of very frequent occurrence
in Christian Archaeology, and which alone will often be
found sufficiently expressive to enable us to determine the
dignity and character of the personage invested with it.
This peculiar ornament is usually designated the Nimbus,
or Glory.
The Glory is constantly adopted by artists, both in
painting and sculpture, as a characteristic 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. When this attribute enriches the head only it
is called a nimbus. In this case it is analogous in signifi
cation to a crown, from which, however, it differs essentially
in position if not in form. Both the crown and the nimbus
are circular, but the former is placed horizontally on the
head, the position of the latter is vertical.
The nimbus may sometimes be almost microscopic in
dimensions, but its importance ought never to be overlooked.
Every sculptor occupied in making or re-modelling Gothic
statues, every painter engaged in the restoration of ancient
frescoes, or of early stained glass, each antiquary whose
time and energies are devoted to researches in Christian
Iconography, will find this characteristic to be of the
highest practical importance, and one, too, which requires
to be studied with scrupulous attention, since the omis
sion of it may transform a saint into an ordinary mortal,
or an incorrect application elevate the mere mortal into
a divinity. Errors of this description are frequently
THE NIMBUS, OR GLORY. 23
committed by artists of the present day in their represen

tations of religious themes. Some years since, for example,
a painting on glass, representing Christ and a few saints,
Fig. 1.-CHARLEMAGNE CRowNED, AND witH THE NIMBUs.

Painting on Glass from the Cathedral of Strasbourg, x11 and xIV centuries."
was exhibited. One of the saints, a bishop only, was

adorned with that form of nimbus, which is appro
priated to the Deity alone, and the figure of Christ was
entirely destitute of the insignia which Christian artists
have universally employed as the symbol of his divinity.
Consequently the saint was represented as divine, while
* This head of Charlemagne occupies the upper part of a beautiful stained
glass window in the left aisle (collateral gauche) of Strasbourg Cathedral.
Charlemagne is represented with a crown and nimbus. On the circumference
of the nimbus the following legend is inscribed: KaRolvs MAGNvs Rex. This
glass painting, as well as the series of fifteen Kings or Emperors, in the same
side aisle (bas côté) belongs to the eleventh or twelfth century, but was re
stored in the fourteenth. The floriations on the crown and the inscription on
the nimbus belong to the period of that restoration.
our Saviour appeared but as a man. The nimbus, there

fore, in Iconography is of equal importance with the fingers
and the mammals in zoology, and although its form may
Fig. 2.-CHRIST IN AN ELLIPTICAL AUREoLE.

Miniature in the Bibliothèque Royale, xiv cent."
be by no means striking to the eye, the idea it should

convey is often of the highest importance.
In some instances, not the head alone but the entire
person is encircled by a nimbus; in this latter case, it
ought to be designated by another name, in order that two
* This drawing is taken from the Speculum Humanae Salvationis, a
beautiful Italian MS. of the fourteenth century, belonging to the Bibliothèque
Royale. The elliptical figure within which the Saviour is represented is an
DEFINITION OF THE NIMBUS. 25
ornaments, varying so much in size and nearly always in

form, may not be confounded one with another. The
nimbus encircling the body will for the present be dis
tinguished by the term aureole, and the propriety of this
denomination will be justified hereafter. The aureole is of
less universal application than the nimbus, or ornament of
the head, properly so called; it is very rarely seen in Pagan
Iconography, and in Christian art is restricted almost
exclusively to the Divine persons, to the Wirgin Mary, or to
the souls of saints, exalted after the death of the body into
the kingdom of heaven.
The nimbus of the head and the aureole of the body differ
in a remarkable degree, yet both are sometimes figured in
the same manner, and both usually impart the same idea,
that of apotheosis, glorification, or deification. It seems,
therefore, desirable that one single word should be employed
as a generic term to include both species of nimbus, and
express the union of the two ornaments.
In speaking of the combination of the nimbus and aureole,
I shall in future employ the term glory: nimbus will be
applied peculiarly to that encircling the head, aureole to
that of the body, and glory to the union of both.*
DEFINITION OF THE NIMBUS,
The Latin word nimbus appears to agree in signification

with the Greek vidhás, of which vipo is the original root.
The verb vipo wipew signifies to snow, to water, to wet;
vipds is used to express snow, shower, dew, a raindrop, and
even, by extension, hail.
The meaning of nimbus is the same as that of the Greek
noun vapás ; and it also signifies cloud, that is to say, the
place in which are formed rain, hail, or snow, either of which
aureole; the transverse line, intersecting this ellipsis in the centre, is the rain
bow, or, perhaps, clouds, as they were usually drawn by Italians at that epoch.
This line seems, also, to form a support for the Saviour in his ascension to
Heaven.
* In fig. 2, the figure of Christ has the nimbus around the head, and the
aureole encircling the body, and is consequently enveloped in a complete glory.
26 ChRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY.
may be intended by the Greek word. Nimbus may also be

understood to signify the aerial car, the cloud, which,
according to Virgil, serves as a chariot for the gods; in a
metaphorical sense it means also the veil worn by women,
a fine and transparent covering, air, consolidated as it were
into substance, woven wind, a cloud of gauze, as the ancient
Greeks would have said.
Isidore of Seville, in his “Origines,” describes the nimbus
to be a transverse bandeau of gold, sewed on the veil and
worn by women on their forehead.*
The Romans employed the expressions, nimbus florum—
nimbus sarorum—nimbus sagittarum, nimbus equitum—
nimbus numismatum—to indicate a shower of blossoms
shaken from the trees, the odoriferous snows of spring, as
* “Nimbus est fasciola transversa ex auro, assuta linteo, quod est in fronte
foeminarum.”—(Orig., lib. XIX., cap. xxxi.)
It seems, nevertheless, probable that the learned Bishop of Seville was mis
taken in his explanation of the terms nimbus and nimbatus. He was
probably misled by that passage of Plautus, in the Poenulus, scene 2, in which
the servant, speaking of a lady beloved by his master, says,
“Quam magis aspecto, tam magis est nimbata,”
and thence concluded that nimbata signified wearing a coquettish head-dress.
Comparing the passage in Plautus, with one in the Satire of Petronius, where,
in enumerating the charms of a Roman lady, he particularly notices the low
ness of her forehead (frons minima), with another, in which Horace declares
that his dear Lycoris was distinguished by her low forehead (insignis fronte
tenui), and with a third, in which Arnobius, in his Treatise on the Nature of
Man (ch. viii.), asserts that women who desired to possess this charm, then
valued as a sign of intellectual endowments, lessened the forehead by con
cealing it with bandeaux, Isidore de Seville imagined the term nimbata,
used by Plautus, to refer to a woman who attempted, by wearing an elegant
head-dress placed low upon the brow, to make her forehead appear lower;
hence he drew his definition of nimbus. I imagine that the text of Plautus
should rather be translated as follows:—“The more I look at her the
more radiant (nimbée) she appears;” that is to say, bright, dazzling, or
beautiful; for the nimbus, as will hereafter be shown, is an emanation
of light, the rays of which are rendered visible in sculpture or painting.
In fact, Isidore himself says, “Lumen quod circa angelorum capita pingitur
nimbus vocatur; licet et nimbus sit densitas nubis.” Nimbata must,
then, be considered in the light of a metaphor serving to express an ideal
beauty, and is well rendered in our language by the word “radiant.” It is
not a word properly applicable to any peculiar ornament for the head; besides,
had the word been properly understood in the latter sense, as a woman's veil
or bandeau, its derivation would probably have been found in the transparent
delicacy of the tissue.
|
DEFINITION OF THE NIMBUS. 27
an illustrious French poet of our time has happily termed

them; also the hail of stones or arrows with which an
enemy is pierced and crushed; the cloud of soldiers who
darken the air with the dust raised by the galloping of their
horses; the handfuls of largesse or showers of money
thrown to the people on occasions of public rejoicings.”
This “rain,” “snow,” “hail,” or “cloud,” are but metaphors
which serve to explain and elucidate the signification of
nimbus, and of vibás.
It has thus been shown that the analogy between these
two words, the one Greek and the other Latin, approaches
almost to an identity of meaning.
With regard to the pronunciation, if the Latin b be
changed into the Greek p, that is to say, if the soft labial
be transformed into the labial-aspirate, and the bpronounced
like a v, as is the practice among the modern Greeks, the
resemblance between the two words will become even more
remarkable. There can thus be little doubt, that nimbus
is derived from vaqids.
The etymology of the word has been little regarded by
artists, for the nimbus, which ought always to have the
character of a cloud, a vapour, or flakes of snow, frequently
assumes the form of a circular disk, sometimes opaque, some
times luminous, and sometimes transparent. It has the
shape of a triangle or a square; that of several 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.
* Monarchie françoise, par le P. Montfaucon, Discours préliminaire,
p. xx. Servius, the commentator on Virgil, in the fourth century, referring
to the following verse in the AEneid, book i v. 51:
“Nimborum in patrian, loca foeta furentibus austris,
AEoliam venit—”
observes “Nimbus nunc ventos significat; plerumque nubes vel pluvias
Proprie nimbi repentinae et precipites pluviae.—”(Virgil, 4to. édition de
Genève, 1636, p. 176.)
FORM OF THE NIMBUS.
The nimbus is almost invariably circular, in the form of

a disk, although in some cases the centre of the disk has
disappeared and the outer line only is left.*
. The centre field of the circular nimbus is either plain or
ornamented. When not plain it is striated with foliage, or
decorated with countless radiating lines, occasionally with
three rays only, narrow or broad, resembling the branches
of a Greek cross.
These transverse lines are either plain or adorned with
pearls and precious stones (the latter unpolished), or
marked with Greek or Latin letters: they are formed
either of straight geometrical lines, or of lines resembling
the undulating motion of flame.t
The preceding observations may suffice for the description
of the lines radiating from the centre and finishing at the
circumference of the nimbus; but, besides these, it is fre
quently divided by concentric circles into several zones; the
central zone then becomes the nimbus properly so called;
the others are rather prolongations of the first, or radiations
from it. Pearls and precious stones, polished or unpolished,
are introduced into these zones, which are one, two, or three
* See for the first species of nimbus, figs. 1 and 2, pp. 23, 24, and those
which follow. The drawings here given being in outline merely, the nimbue
is indicated by the outer line alone; but in the originals the centre is filled up
and solid. The transparent nimbus, marked by the line of the circumference
alone, was frequent among the Greeks before the thirteenth century, and the
Italians after the fifteenth. In the History of God the Father, we shall give
a design copied from a Greek MS. in the Bibliothèque Royale, representing
the Father conversing with Isaiah, standing between allegorical figures repre
senting Night (viii) and Day (bpôpos.) The figure of Night has a nimbus,
consisting of the single line of circumference only. Raphael, in the “Disputa,”
has adorned with a perfectly transparent nimbus the several personages
assembled in council.
+ These varieties, and others, will be shown in the various drawings which
follow. In the Evangéliaire of Charlemagne, Bib. Roy, St. Matthew wears
a nimbus ornamented with a semicircle of rays, in the form of a shell. The
Angel who appears to be giving inspiration to the Evangelist has a nimbus, the
rays of which diverging from one common centre, each terminate in a pearl,
at the line of circumference, resembling needles with pearl heads.
FORM OF THE NIMBUS. 29
in number. In some cases the name of the personage

whose head they surround is inscribed upon them.*
The outer edge of the circumference of the nimbus is
usually either plain or indented, that is to say, furnished
Fig. 3.—ST JoHN THE EvANGELIST, witH A CIRCULAR NIMBUs suRMoUNTED BY

Two suN-FLoweRs, EMBLEMs oF THE SUN.
Glass Painting of the xII cent. St. Rémi. Rheims.
with prolongations, formed ordinarily either by straight or

wavy lines. Sometimes, as at St. Rémi of Rheimst, two
sunflowers are inserted in the outer circle of the nimbus,
this plant being considered in the vegetable kingdom
* The nimbus of Karolus Magnus, fig. 1, p. 23, is composed of three zones:
the first and innermost is plain, the second ornamented with figured bands and
small crosses of St. Andrew, and on the third, or outer circle, are written the
name and title.
+ From a stained glass window in the apse in the Tribune, dating from the
twelfth century. It represents the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Baptist,
standing beside Christ on the Cross, and bewailing the agony of the Redeemer.
Both Mary and St. John wear the nimbus, and, from the top of each nimbus,
rise two sun-flowers, the stalks crossing each other. The head here given is
that of St. John. This idea is curious in itself, and reminds us of those
Egyptian figures, from the heads of which two lotus-flowers rise in a similar
manner. The great work on Egypt is full of such figures.
as symbolic of the sun or of the light, of which the sun

is the source. It here forms a sort of double feather sur
mounting the symbolic headdress.
The nimbus is sometimes triangular.” This form is
Fig. 4.—GoD THE FATHER, witH A TRIANGULAR NIMBUs BEARING RAYs...t

Greek Fresco of the xvii. cent.
extremely rare in France: it is frequent enough in Greece

and Italy, especially after the fifteenth century.f
* The figure of God the Father, which follows, is copied from a fresco at
Mount Athos. Rays issue from each side of the triangular nimbus.
+ It must be observed, that in a mosaic belonging to the close of the eighth
or the beginning of the ninth century, in the Cathedral at Capua (see Ciampini,
Vetera Monimenta, part 2, pl. 54), the Holy Ghost, in the form of a dove,
with a triangular nimbus, is represented hovering above the Virgin, who
carries the Infant Saviour in her arms. St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Stephen, and
St. Agatha, stand around the Virgin. It is possible that this nimbus may be a
later restoration; and this opinion is confirmed by the circumstance that the
figure of Christ, and that of another divine person in the upper part of the
mosaic, are without a cruciform nimbus. Mosaics have been so frequently
retouched ! Ciampini (Wet. Mon., part 2, p. 168) says:—“Hujus
triangularis formae aliud antiquius me vidisse minime recordor.” He is right;
the triangular nimbus is always of recent date, and that at Capua, if genuine,
would be unique.
# See also a Greek engraving, representing the “Skite du Prodromos,” a
monastic village situated near Ivirón, on Mount Athos.
The nimbus is sometimes a double triangle, constructed

of two intersecting triangles, which thus form a star of five
points.”
Fig. 5.—ST. GREGORY IV. wiTH A squaRE NIMBUs.t

Roman Mosaic in St. Mark, Ix cent.
The nimbus is at other times square: a perfect square,

with sides either straight or concave. *
The nimbus is occasionally a rectangular or oblong square,
or, to use the expression of St. John the Deacon, in the
* This bi-triangular nimbus is figured below in the chapter on the Appli
cation of the Nimbus, fig. 21, p. 60.
+ A Roman mosaic, representing Gregory offering to God the Church of
St. Mark, which was built and decorated by his command, about the year 828.—
(Ciampini, Vet. Mon., part 2, p. 119, tab. 37.) In Ciampini, the Pope is
young, beardless, and smiling; but M. P. Durand, who made this drawing
from the mosaic, assures me that the expression of the countenance is
melancholy, as it is here represented.
form of a table, as shown in the preceding design. Another

kind of nimbus also is often met with in Italian MSS.,
resembling a volumen of
parchment unfolded in the
centre,remaining partially
rolled at each end, or a
roll which has not entirely
taken the plane form, or
a cylinder not completely
flattened, so that the ex
tremities at which the
pressure is less powerful,
curl inwards on them
selves.*
The nimbus may some
times be met with lozenge
shaped,with straight sides,
Fig. 6-THE THREE Divine PERsons, ADoRNED F
wiTH THE CRUCIFoRM NIMBUs.t
as in the headcg of
Tax
God the
• **
Miniature of the close of the xIII cent. MS. in ather in the “Disputa >
-
-
the Bibliothèque Royale. or the sides are concave,

as in an example given
below in the History of God, fig. 22.
When the nimbus is circular and belongs to one of the
Persons of the Holy Trinity, it is always, unless the omission
arises from the ignorance of the artist, divided by two lines,
drawn from the outer edges and intersecting each other
at right angles in the centre. These lines form four rays,
but one of them, the lowest, is concealed by the head.
Sometimes of the entire disk, only the rays or cross lines
that divide the field, are retained.
When these intersecting lines have the form of luminous
rays, they often spread and approach so nearly as almost to
re-compose the disk; the rays, however, that issue from
the temples and the summit of the head or brow, are longer
* See Seroux d'Agincourt (Hist, de l'Art par les monuments, peinture,
pl. 37.) An example of this form is given below, fig. 27.
* This drawing, which is copied from the “Biblia Sacra,” No. 6829, repre
sents the persons of the Trinity creating Adam, whom they appear to raise
from the ground. The Holy Spirit is in the form of a Dove, and has the
cruciform nimbus, as well as the other two persons. This form of nimbus is a
valuable archaeological characteristic, and the invariable attribute of Divinity.
than those intervening. In this case the circumference

being broken into three parts, assumes what we might
almost call the form of a Greek cross, broader at the
extremities than in the centre.
Besides the circle, either plain or ornamented; besides
the simple and the double triangle, or the star; besides the
square, the oblong, and the lozenge shape; the nimbus has
still other forms, which it may not be useless to describe.
It will be shown hereafter that the nimbus is nothing more
than a representation of the radiation of light supposed to
issue from the head, and there are various ways in which
that radiation has been represented.
Sometimes rays of equal number and dimensions emanate
from all points, and thus produce a circular nimbus.
Sometimes the rays issuing from the temples and the
summit of the head, are stronger and more vivid, while those
from other points are shorter and more feeble. If in these
cases an external line be traced, uniting all those rays of
unequal lengths, a sort of lozenge with concave sides, similar
to that above mentioned, will be produced. This line is very
Fig. 7.—NIMBUs witH RAYs of UNEQUAL LENGTH, wiTHoUT ANY connECTING LINE.
Miniature of the xv.1 cent. MS. in the Bibliothèque Royale.
seldom supplied, and the nimbus consequently appears as in
the above drawing.”
* If these rays were all united by one external line, we should have a
lozenge-shaped nimbus with concave sides. This drawing is taken from the MS.
920, in the Bibliothèque Royale. The miniature is of the sixteenth century.
D
34 CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPPLY.
The intermediate space between the three grand luminous

points is, in some instances, destitute of rays, and the
nimbus is then reduced to three clusters, each consisting
in general of three rays only. These three streaks of light
are frequently connected by a circle which thus forms the
cruciform nimbus so commonly to be met with, but at
other times the three luminous clusters of rays pass beyond
the line of circumference, as if too strong to be contained
within its limits.
Fig. 8.—TRANsvERs: LINEs, or LUMINot's clustERs of RAYs PAssING BEYoND Tuk

circuMFERENCE OF THE NIMBUS."
Miniature of the 1x cent. MS. of the Bibliothèque Royale.
it will be remarked that these rays diverge from the

centre towards the circumference; that is to say, they are
contracted at the base; broader and more open at the
extremities.
In Pagan Iconography we particularly observe a nimbus,
the rays of which are broad at the base and pointed at the
extremity; they are placed at equal distances and appear
to emanate equally from all points of the circle of the
head.*
* This beautiful head of Christ, beardless, but serious in expression, and

of mature age, was given by M. de Bastard in his great work, Peintura
et Ornéments des Manuscrits, 4th book. The cross-lines of the nimbus are
formed of three clusters, each containing three rays; the clusters, it will be
observed, emanate from the temples and the upper part of the head.
+ Montfaucon (Antiq. Expliq.) gives several examples of rays thus sharp.
ened at the points.
This form, resembling that given by artists to the stars,

forcibly reminds us of the radiated crowns so frequently
seen on Greek and Ro
man coins. The dispo
sition of these rays is
exactly the reverse of
those clusters of light of
which we have just spo
ken, and is, it must be
added, completely op
posed to the physical
nature of luminous rays;
for light emanating from
a centre, becomes, at the
circumference, diver
Fig.9.—APOLLOAS THE SUN,
NIMBUs, AND CRowNED ADORNED
witH SEVEN WITH
RAYS."THE gent, not convergent.
Roman Sculpture. In this design, the rays
are linked together, not
at their points, but at about half their length, by a circle
or thread which appears to confine them. The circum
scribing thread is sometimes placed nearer to the head,
in which case the rays, instead of emanating from the head
itself, start from that circle. The nimbus, as has been
already observed, is a disk, the field of which is sometimes
streaked with rays: in this case the rays are within the
interior of the circumference, covering the interior space
within the outer circle, but in the arrangement just described
it is exactly the reverse, the line of circumference being
within, and the rays without.
The extent of the nimbus is generally indicated by an
* These seven rays, placed at equal distances, exceed the limits of the
nimbus surrounding the head. The head given above is that of the Sun; it
is taken from the “Antiquité Expliquée de Montfaucon,” tom. i., p. 118, pl. 54.
Lucian also observes, that the head of the Syrian Goddess had rays, éti Tà
repaxi &ictivas pépei. Ciampini (Wet. Mon., part 1.) says, “Publ. Victor
in Colosso Solis, quem Zenodorus Neroni dicavit, de quo Plin., cap. xxiv.,
lib. 7, SEPTENIs caput ejus radiis coruscàsse tradit, quorum singuli viginti
duos pedes et semis in longitudine praestabant.” It will be observed that the
number of rays surrounding the head of the colossal Sun of Zenodorus are
precisely the same as those of the youthful Sun figured in our engraving.
Each ray is supposed to dispense its radiance to a planet, and the Sun forms
the centre of all. The Star of Julius Caesar, says Suetonius, shone for seven
successive days.-Sce below, note, p. 37.
D 2
unbroken line, forming a perfect circle; yet, among the

Romans especially,” and also
among the Hindoos,t this circle
is frequently broken into zigzag
lines, which give the edge the
appearance of being cut like the
teeth of a saw. The points
of these teeth maybe considered
as the extremity of the cloud of
rays emanating from the head,
and which spread, in one com
pact body # light, to the cir
cumference, but, when they
reach that limit, become
broken and divided, extending
their points in every direction.
Fig. 10.—NIMBUs BoRDERED witH I shall notice, in the last
*: ' place, a form which appears to
":" be antique, and constantly oc
curs in the Iconography of the
* See the coins of the time of the Antonines; they bear on the reverse a
bird—the phoenix—symbol of immortality. This bird, which is supposed to
be regenerated by fire, has its head encircled by an indented nimbus. On the
coins of Faustina, Eternity is represented with a peacock, wearing a similar
nimbus. It is a singular fact, that a Christian MS. in the Bib. Roy., 434,
St. Germ., has two peacocks wearing the nimbus appropriated to Saints.
f See the symbolism of Creuzer, (German Atlas, pl. 31,) among others, and
pl. 17 of the French Atlas, accompanying the translation of M. Guignaut. The
sun is there placed in the centre of a disk indented interiorly; between the
luminous circle surrounding the sun, and an exterior circle containing the
signs of the Zodiac, is a narrow space on which eight personified planets are
represented: Luna, or rather Lunus—that constellation being masculine
amongst the Hindcos—Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus masculine, Saturn,
Rahou, and Ketou. The head of each is encircled by a nimbus or aureole,
indented like that of the immortal bird of the Romans (See below, fig. 12, p. 43.
Maya surrounded by a nimbus indented or zigzag). In the fresco paintings of
Greece, the Holy Spirit is frequently drawn under the form of a Dove, gene
rally within a nimbus or aureole, with a zigzag circumference, like that of the
Pagan Phoenix. An engraving brought from Mount Athos, representing the
great Monastery of Iviron, has a similar figure of the Holy Ghost, descending
from Heaven at the time of the Annunciation. Ciampini (Vet. Mon., part 1,
pl. 36, fig. 14) gives an engraving from a coin of Faustina, in which the alle
gorical figure of Eternity holds a bird, supposed by Ciampini to be a peacock,
but which may, possibly, be a phoenix. It is represented with an indented
nimbus, like that of the Holy Spirit at Ivirón.
# This outline is taken from an engraved gem called Abraxas, used as
APPLICATION OF THE NIMBlu S. 37
Renaissance: it is that of a tongue of fire placed upon the

forehead of genii. At the removal of the remains of
Napoleon, on the 15th of December, 1840, this tongue of
fire might be seen illumining the brows of the statues of
genii placed on the Pont du Carousel, and on the esplanade
of the Invalides. The Holy Spirit, descending upon the
Apostles at Pentecost, was represented in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, by a similar tongue of flame.
The Apostles are supposed to have been transformed at
that moment, from ordinary mortals, into divinely inspired
beings almost genii. This tongue of flame was the star
shining on the forehead of the statue of Julius Caesar.”
Such are the principal varieties of the nimbus. We
have yet to notice the different modes of application which
have been commonly adopted, and which will be easily
defined and understood.
ON THE APPLICATION OF THE NIMBUS.
The nimbus, in Pagan Iconography, is the ordinary

attribute of divinity; but it is also given frequently to
Roman Emperors, to the Kings of Eastern Europe, and of
Asia. It is likewise commonly worn by female magicians
and prophetesses, and almost invariably distinguishes per
sonified figures of the constellations, or of the good and evil
an amulet by the Gnostics. It is a species of Panthaic * deity. This genius

of the world is shown to be Celestial by the Sun and Moon, introduced into
the field on which he is engraved; Terrestrial, by the Lion's head; Aquatic,
by the serpent-like tail; Divine, by the nimbus of twice seven luminous rays.
See “l’Ant. Exp. de Montfaucon,” tom. iv., p. 363.
* “Ludis quos primo consecratosei (Julio Caesari) haeres Augustus edebat,
stella crinita per SEPTEM dies continuos fulsit, exoriens circa undecimam
horam. Creditum est animam esse Caesaris in coelum recepti, et hac de causa
simulacro ejus in vertice additur stella.”—(Suetonius. Vita Julii Caesaris.)
* Panthée, nom que les anciens donnaient aux statues qui réunissaient
les symboles ou les attributs de differentes divinités.—(Dictionnaire de
l'Académie.)
powers, which exert their influence on the human soul, on

nature, and on society.”
In Christian Iconography, it is worn by the three Holy per
sons of the Trinity, whether represented together, or apart;
it distinguishes the Virgin Mary, the apostles, angels, saints,
and prophets. Sometimes, but more rarely, it is given to
the personifications of the virtues; to allegorical figures of
natural or psychological objects; to several of the constel
lations; and to certain qualities or affections of the soul.
Political power, the energies of nature, and the genius of
evil, are sometimes dignified with this attribute, but very
rarely, and only when Pagan influences have been infused
into the symbolism of Christianity.
THE NIMBUS OF GOD.
In representations of the Godhead, the figure of the

Divinity, like that of angels and saints, is depicted with the
circular nimbus or disk; but that the Creator may be dis
tinguished from his creatures, the field of the divine nimbus
is intersected by two bars, which, meeting in the centre,
cross at right angles, and thus present the figure of a
Greek cross. One of the half bars, that which forms the
foot of the cross is concealed by the head, which appears to
rest upon it. The three others are visible, and extend verti.
cally from the summit of the head, and horizontally from
the extremity of the temples. -
It seems doubtful whether it can actually have been

intended to decorate the field of the Nimbus of God, with a
cross; possibly, the form of the ornament which marks the
nimbus of divine persons, is not borrowed, as one might
be led to believe, from the instrument of our Saviour's
suffering.
The propriety of the Redeemer being represented with a
nimbus thus decorated, is sufficiently obvious: but why
should it be worn also by the Father and the Holy Spirit?
It is as if they wore the badge and insignia of the Son,
which would not be very consistent. Besides, the halo
* See page 84, and figs. 9, 44, 45.
THE NIMBUS OF GOD. 39
encircling the heads of several Buddhist and Hindoo

•
divinities, is marked with a similar cross; and it cannot be
Fig.11.—THE TRINITY—EACH DIVINE PERSON weARING THE CRUCIFoRM IMBUs.”

Miniature taken from the “Heures du Duc d'Anjou.”—Bib. Roy. End of xIII. cent.
supposed that, in these instances, any allusion is designed

to the Cross of Calvary.
The nimbus, worn as a badge of holiness by an ordinary
saint, or a mortal who has received the honour of apotheosis
or canonisation, is properly plain; the simple glory; but in
a figure of God, this halo should be more distinctly marked.
Not only is the entire body encircled by a nimbus, that is,
to speak more correctly, by an aureole, as will appear here
after, but the nimbus of the head is marked with a cross,
the one limb drawn from the top of the head, and the two
* This miniature of the Trinity belongs to the fourteenth century, or rather
to the close of the thirteenth. It is taken from a MS. bearing the name of
Louis, Duke of Anjou, and containing an inexhaustible fund of information for
iconologists. I shall notice here, with a view to deducing a conclusion here
after, that it is not possible to distinguish the figure of the Father, in this
painting, from that of the Son. Wide fo. 183 of the MS. Coté Lavall, 127.
others from the ears or the temples. Rays of light may be

seen to emanate from the entire contour of the head; * but
there are three principal sources of radiance, namely, the
three essential parts of the cranium, the region of the brain
or cerebrum, and the two temples, where life, defined and
concentrated, throbs in the great arteries. The forehead
and temples may therefore be termed the three cardinal
points of the cerebral sphere.
When the figure of God is surrounded by an aureole, as
well as by the nimbus, and the field of both is striated by
luminous rays emanating from all parts of the body, these
rays are seen to issue in much greater abundance from the
head than from the trunk, because the head is the most
important part of man. The brow and the temples are still
more radiant; for the forehead and the temples bear the
same relation to the head as the head does to the body:
they are, in fact, the essential organs.
Thus, in the following sketch, the Hindoo goddess, Maya,
is represented pressing her breasts, whence flow those
copious streams of milk by which all living creatures are
nourished and supported. A veil of Ideas, the prototypes
of creation, surrounds the richly-attired figure of the
goddess. Maya is represented in a semi-aureole, or large
Nimbus, the circumference of which is indented with
zigzags, and the field striated with luminous sparks.
Parallel with the temples and forehead, and stretching beyond
the circumference, three clusters of rays dart forth, cor
responding exactly with the cross lines in the Divine nimbus
of Christian archaeology. In fig. 34, an infant Christ
may be seen wearing similar £of light; these rays, on
transverse lines, seem therefore intended rather to sym
bolise the superior power residing in those three regions of
the head, than the Divine cross.
Still, it must be acknowledged that in some rare instances,
and when Christ alone is represented, the figure behind the
head of our Saviour is indeed that of a genuine cross, the
instrument of the passion. This is seen clearly on an ivory
tablet in the Louvre, belonging to the eleventh century.f
* See in the History of Christ, fig. 67, a figure taken from the Campo
Santo, in which the rays of light spread in all directions.
f Armoires du Musée Charles X., Salle Gothique.
The Christ sculptured on this curious monument rests his

head upon a cross, the upper limb of which is longer than
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Fig. 12.–MAYA, THE HINDoo GoDDEss, wiTH A CRUCIFORM NIMBUs.”

Hindostan Iconography.
the transverse bars. The three branches are not united by

a circular line, and thus their identity with the cross becomes
even more striking.
In an ancient sarcophagus preserved in the Vatican, and
belonging to a very early period, is a figure of Christ,
bearded, and standing on the mystical mountain, whence
flow the four streams of the Celestial Paradise. Our
Saviour appears to be giving his last instructions to his
apostles. He tells them to go forth into all parts of the
* Réligions de l'Antiquité, atlas, planche 19, No. 103.
* Get a r ( - i.e. Creuzer tre+ i.e. z. e. ...
* P., 2, 22%
world to preach and to baptise; to preach the Word written

in the volume in his right hand, which he extends towards
them; to baptise with the water of the sacred streams
which roll their waves at his feet. The apostles, of whom
six only are represented on the sculpture, three on the left
and three on the right hand, are under the form of lambs;
Christ himself is accompanied by the symbolic lamb, as the
Ferouer, the emblem of man among the Persians, accom
panies the individual, whose person he is supposed to
inhabit. These lambs have no nimbus, neither has the
person of Christ; for the monument belongs to an epoch
antecedent to that in which the nimbus was first adopted;
but the symbol of Christ, the Divine Lamb, bears on its
brow the image of the cross on which our Saviour suffered.”
At Arles, in the church of St. Trophemius, chapel of the
Sepulchre, a tomb, which was brought hither from the
Aliscamps,t presents a figure of Christ, with a beard,
teaching the Gospel, and seated within an aureole, the
upper part of which is circular. On the head of the Saviour,
almost as if implanted in the crown of the skull, is a little
cross, perfect in form; a curved line drawn in an angle on
the right of the upper part of the cross, forms a P, the rho
* See a drawing on this subject, in the History of Christ, fig. 86.

t “Beyond the walls, to the east of the town, is situated the ancient cemetery
of Arles, called Aliscamps, a slight variation from the original name (Elisii
Campi) by which it was known eighteen centuries ago. It was of vast extent,
a complete necropolis, and the dead were brought hither from other cities, as
far distant as Lyons, for interment. Dante mentions it in the Inferno, IX.
112:— -
‘Si come ad Arli ove’l Rodano stagna,

Fauno i sepolcri tutto 'l loco varo :
and Ariosto alludes to it in the Orlando Furioso,
“Piena disepolture e la Campagna.'
One portion of the ground was used for burial in Pagan times; another marked
off with crosses, was afterwards designated for the interment of Christians.
The ground teems with gravestones, sepulchral memorials, and sarcophagi;
but the most curious have been removed to the museums of Arles, Toulouse,
Marseilles, &c.”—Murray's Hand-Book of France, page 467, edition 1847.
In a work upon Arles in my possession I met with the following anecdote
of a tomb, which I think may be the one alluded to by M. Didron. I shall, I
trust, be pardoned for introducing it here:
“Dans un autre chapelle (de St. Trophime), Il y a un tombeau de marbre
blanc, orné de trois belles figures, dont celle du milieu représente Jésus
of the Greeks. The cross itself is equivalent to a chi, X, and

we thus obtain the monogram of Christ, XP (Xplorós).
These examples prove more decidedly than those before
given, that the rays from the head of God, united by a
circle, are designed to represent a cross, more particularly
when they adorn the head of Christ.
A%
Fig. 13.—DIVINE LAMB, witH CRUCIFORM NIMBUS AND THREE SMALLER CRossEs.”
Italian Sculpture of the x cent.
It must also be remarked that the nimbus worn by the

Lamb of God, of which a drawing is here given, is not only
Christ, qui, d'une main, présente l'évangile à Geminus Paulus Gouverneur, et
de l'autre, il lui donne sa bénédiction.
“Ce tombeau a été transporté dansla chapelle du Saint Sepulchre de l'église
metropolitaine (d’Arles) en 1804, ou il sert d’autel.
“Voici l’épitaphe qui est sur le tombeau :
Wir Agrippinensis Nomine Geminus,
Hic jacet qui post dignitatem Praesidiatus
Administrator rationum qui novem,
Provinciarum dignus est habitus
Hic post annos XXXIIX.M.II. Dies sex
Fidelis in fata concessit
Cujus ob insignem gloriam
Cives sepulchralia adornaverunt.
—Abrége Chronologique de l’Histoire D'Arles, par M. De Noble Lalausiere,
Arles, 1808.—Trans.
* Engraved in Bosio. Roma sotterranea, info., édit. de Rome, 1636 (1632),
p. 627.
cruciform, like that borne by several other lambs, but that

each cross limb contains a smaller cross.
If then, these transverse bars be intended, as seems
probable, to indicate the divine power or energy, this
singular peculiarity of a nimbus, the transverse branches of
which also bear crosses, would appear in some sort to
elevate that energy into a fourth power. A romanesque
fresco, in one of the transepts of t'. Church of Montoire
(Loire-et-Cher), near Vendôme, represents Christ in an
oval glory.
Fig. 14.—DIVINE NIMBUS, witH THE TRANsvERsE BRANCHEs of THE CRoss ELEvATED."
Fresco of the x1 cent. in the Church of Montorio (Loire-et-Cher).
The nimbus surrounding the head is divided by rays,

but the transverse branch, the centre of which in the
* See the “Musée Egyptien,” in the Louvre; the great work on Egypt,
the Zodiac of Denderah; and pl. 29, 30, 32, 33, 34,35, &c., of the “Atlas
des Religions de l’Antiquité.”
preceding examples is concealed by the head itself, in this

is raised above it and entirely visible. This transverse limb,
being thus entirely visible, makes the cross-like form of these
rays more distinctly evident than in any other of the like kind
of nimbus. The form of a cross is, therefore, more distinctly
recognised in this nimbus than in any of those hitherto
described. Still the upper limb and branches of this cross
(the foot, if it exists, is concealed by the Saviour's head)
are confined by an external line in such a manner, that the
nimbus in its general form resembles that of the terrestrial
globe, as it is ordinarily represented in the hand of God.
The three bands which form the cross of Montoire exactly
resemble the circles drawn upon the representation of the
terrestrial globe; Christ would thus appear to support the
world upon his head, and this circled sphere carries us back
immediately to Egyptian Iconography, in which we meet
with numerous personages bearing the world upon their
heads in a similar manner.
The arms forming the transverse bar in the divine
nimbus, vary considerably in size, and are sometimes broad,
more or less; sometimes more or less slender; occasionally
they are formed by one line only, a simple thread, and at
other times they occupy half of the entire surface. In the
latter case they are ordinarily adorned with pearls, precious
stones, or other varied ornaments. Among the Greeks
each bar of the cross bears a letter, and the three united
form o ov, I am, or “the Being.” The arrangement of
these letters varies; sometimes, and most frequently, the
omicron is on the left, sometimes at the top, as in the
drawing given below.
In the “Guide de la Peinture,” we find the following
directions: “On the cross intersecting the crown (nimbus)
of each of the three persons of the Trinity, the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, let the following letters be inscribed, 6 &v,
for it is by these words that God was pleased to reveal
himself to Moses in the burning bush; ‘āy& étul ă ăv, “I
am that I am. Let the letters be thus arranged: Place
* épunveid ris (oypapukis, a MS. which I purchased at Mount Athos,
and which my fellow-traveller, M. P. Durand, has recently translated and
prepared for the press, with an introduction and notes, written by myself.
the omicron (o) on the righthand branch of the nimbus,”

the omega (o) on the upper part, and the nu (v) on the
left.”
Fig.15.—A GREEK PAINTING or chRIST, witH A CRUCIFoRM NIMPUs, THE TRANsvERsE

BRANCHES INsCRIBED witH o aly, “I AM.”f
Fresco des Météores, in Thessaly, xIV cent.
The o is occasionally placed on the left, but with the v at

the top, and a on the right, as in the crown of enamelled
copper, presented as an offering by the Emperor Frederic
Barbarossa, and which is suspended under the dome in the
cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle. Each transverse bar is
* The right of the figure, the left of the spectator.
* Similarly “Jehovah” signifies “He is,” or “Being itself.” See Mant's
Bible, Exodus, iii., 14.
# It is impossible to give drawings of every monument mentioned in illus
tration of the facts cited. Of many of these monuments no engravings exist,
so that it will be necessary to trust to oral testimony, which is the case in
regard to the crown at Aix-la-Chapelle; that crown, however, I have myself
seen, and the description of it was written on the spot. Whenever, therefore,
any monument is mentioned without either an engraving, or a reference to any,
in support of my statements, it may be inferred that I have myself seen and
examined it.
formed by two parallel lines, drawn from the centre of the

disc to the circumference. The bar is often equal in breadth
throughout its entire length, but sometimes increases in
width, like a spatula, at the circumference; it is then
narrower in the middle of the disk, and at the half of its
length considerably narrower and appearing as if forcibly
compressed.
Between these transverse bars there are no ornaments,
and most frequently the field is plain. Sometimes narrow.
threads or little rays, in groups of threes, or fours, fill the
space intervening between the great rays which compose
the cross of the nimbus.
The cruciform nimbus is entirely appropriated to the
Deity: it is given more peculiarly to Christ the Saviour,
and frequently, as in the Byzantine monuments, as has been
already shown, the letters o ov, I am, or “He who is,” are
inscribed on the branches of the cross.”
This idea has sometimes been imitated by the Latins;
but instead of 6 &v they inscribe the word REX, also in
three letters, one for each visible branch of the cross t
Both the original artists and the copyists of the middle
ages appear to have been often ill-instructed, and either
from ignorance or negligence the latter frequently passed
over some important word or phrase, and the artists omitted
* The Greeks, who were intimately conversant with the sacred writings,
remembered, as we are told in the “Guide de la Peinture,” that verse in the
book of Exodus, where God announces himself by the words, “I am that I
am,” (Exod. iii., 14). They wished, by the aid of painting, to embody
that sublime expression; and, not content with the divinity of expression
conveyed by painting alone, added the letters 'o &v, in the halo encircling the
head of God. The Christian artists of the West, on the contrary, either less
instructed, or relying more implicitly on the omnipotence of art, sought to
convey the idea of Deity by the countenance alone. In the cathedral of Athens,
now transformed into a public library, a figure of Christ, painted in fresco on
the vaulting of the cupola, has a cruciform nimbus, but without the 6 &v
inscribed upon it; rough precious stones and pearls supply their place. The
absence of these three Greek letters is, perhaps, a token of antiquity; the
cathedral is certainly the most ancient church in Athens.
+ See Gori Thesaurus Veterum Diptychorum, vol. iii., p. 79. The
drawing represents Christ within an oval aureole, and is sculptured on an ivory
tablet, which served as a cover to a book of the Gospels. This singular relic,
the date of which is uncertain, is from the Musée of the Camaldules de St.
Michel de Mariano, at Venice, and must have been executed by some Latin
artist who loved and had studied Byzantine art.
48 -CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY.
some constant characteristic feature. We must not, there

fore, be astonished often to find one of the persons of the
Trinity without a nimbus, or with a nimbus plain instead
of cruciform. Such errors are, indeed, extremely com
mon, as in the annexed engraving, which represents the
Ascension of Christ, and is taken from a carving on wood,
executed in Italy about the fourteenth century.*
Fig. 16.—CHRIST witH A PLAIN NIMBUS, ASCENDING TO HEAVEN IN A CIRCULAR

AUREoLE. Carving in wood of the XIV cent.
A contrary error, but much less frequent than the former,

is that of representing an ordinary mortal with the cruci
form or divine nimbus. An ancient MS. in the Bibliothèque
d’Amiens,t contains at the commencement, within an illu
minated capital B, adorned with arabesques, a young man,
beardless, crowned with a diadem and seated; he holds in
* This carving is the property of M. Paul Durand, who brought it with him
from Italy.
+ Liber Psalmorum : attributed to the ninth century. M. le Docteur
Rigollot (Atlas de l'Essai Historique sur les Arts du dessin en Picardie,
depuis l'époque Romaine jusqu'au xvie siècle, 8vo, Amiens, 1840,)
gives a drawing by M. Duthoit, of this capital B, illuminated with arabesques
and miniatures. It is the first letter of the “Beatus Vir,” with which the
his left hand an open book, and in the right a pen, which
he is in the act of dipping into an inkstand. This young
writer wears a cruciform nimbus; he appears to be listening
attentively, as if to catch inspiration from a dove hovering
near his ear, and breathing into it, we may imagine, the
poetry he is about to write. The miniaturist is here un
doubtedly in fault; the figure is probably intended for
David writing the Psalms, or at the most for St. John the
Evangelist, attended and assisted by his eagle; but in
either case the figure is that of a mortal, not of a god.
In the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal a miniature" is preserved,
representing a priest officiating and adorned with a cruci
form nimbus of gold. It may be that the personage is
designed for Christ himself performing the functions of a
priest; but it must be remarked, in confutation of this,
that the figure here has the head bald, the characteristic of
St. Peter, and that our Saviour is never so represented.
Still granting that this be Jesus in person and that no
error exists in reality, other unquestionable facts may easily
be adduced.
The missal of the Abbey of St. Magloire, at Paris,t be
longing to the fifteenth century, contains a picture of the
“Nativity of Mary,” in which the little virgin is represented
wearing a golden nimbus, divided by three black transverse
lines. The Virgin has also a large aureole, in which her body
is entirely enclosed, exactly like that encircling the figure
of God, of which an engraving will be given further on.
The Virgin is thus made almost equal with God. The
figure may have been designed by one of her enthusiastic
votaries, and the error may be one of intention and not
book of Psalms opens. M. Rigollot, without deciding (Essai, &c., p. 36,) the
question, considers the young man to be intended either for the Evangelist
St. John, or the Psalmist David. I believe it to be David, inspired by the
Holy Spirit. The figure of David is frequently thus painted at the head of the
book of Psalms; and a similar drawing will be given in the History of the
Holy Ghost, in which the Spirit is seen to hover above him, and inspire his
sacred songs.
* Evangelarium in fo. Théolo. lat., No. 202. End of the fourteenth cen
tury. This miniature is to be found in the Gospel for the Feast of the Holy
Trinity, fo. 139, verso.
+ Bibliothèque de l’Arsénal, Théol. lat. 188, fo. 307, verso. In Nati
vitate beatae Mariae.
E
simply of fact. But in another MS., of the end of the

thirteenth century the mistake is clearly evident, and even
involves a double error.” The Prophet Joel is there repre:
sented youthful, beardless, with a cruciform nimbus; Joel
is listening to the words of inspiration, breathed into his
ear by a form, intended to be a personal representation of
the Deity; but it is singular that God is drawn with a
simple nimbus. The true intention is, in fact, reversed;
the cruciform nimbus, the symbol of divinity, is removed
from God to a mortal, while the Creator has simply the
attributes of the creature. Such errors are of much im
portance and throw a certain light on the education then
received by Christian artists.
The divine nimbus was not immediately cruciform; the
earliest Christian monuments found on Sarcophagi are, it
will be remarked, generally either without the nimbus, or,
if introduced, it is completely simple and undecorated.
I would mention, as instances of the latter style, an
old carving on ivory, in the possession of M. le Comte
Auguste de Bastard,t the bible of Charles the Bald, and
.the first and most ancient portion of the MS. of Herrade. §
In this latter work, with the exception of God creating
the angels, the other representations of the deity, up to
folio 54, have only a plain nimbus without the cruciform
divisions.
In the drawing on the following page, taken from a fresco
in the Roman catacombs, our Saviour is represented beard
less, seated between the two apostles St. Peter and St. Paul,
who are standing; the £ of our Saviour is plain,
* Officium Ecclesiasticum. Bib. de l'Arsénal. Théol. lat. 123; fol. 790,
Verso.
+ This carving belongs, probably, to the fourth or fifth century. It repre

sents the paralytic healed by Jesus; the woman touching his garments; the
swine rushing into the sea, at the voice of the Incarnate God. Christ is in
each scene represented beardless, with a simple nimbus, and sandals on his feet.
# In the “Creation,” in this beautiful Bible, God the Creator is represented
young, beardless, his feet bare, and with a staff in his hand. The nimbus is
not cruciform.
§ Hortus Deliciarum, MS., filled with splendid miniatures. It is an
Encyclopaedia, compiled and even painted, it is said, in 1180, by Herrade de
Landsberg, Abbess of the convent of Saint Odile, in Alsace. This precious
MS. belongs to the Bibliothèque de Strasbourg.
| Roma Sotterranea, p. 475.
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A. Hiß
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NIMBUS OF GOD. 51
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not cruciform, and exactly resembles those of the two

apostles.
The age of this painting is uncertain, but the monument
itself belongs to the earliest period of the Church, and this
example of the Christian nimbus is certainly the most
ancient that can be found. The other representations of
God are like that given below without a nimbus: Christ is
here represented beardless and with long hair." (Fig. 18.)
Both angels and saints wear the plain nimbus. Still
numerous MSS. contain figures of angels wearing a cruci
form nimbus, like that appropriated to the Deity. Various
explanations may be given of this singular anomaly; either
the artist has been mistaken, as sometimes appears, and inad
vertently made the nimbus cruciform when he ought to have
left it plain, or, he has here intended to represent that
historical scene mentioned in the Old Testament, wherein it
is related that Abraham, having met three angels, prostrated
himself at the feet of one only and :him. “Tres
vidit, unum adoravit:” “Three he saw, one he worshipped.”f
Commentators having asserted that these three persons
represented the divine Trinity under the angelic form,
artists followed the directions of theologians and made the
nimbus of the heavenly angel, whom Abraham was said to
have adored, cruciform. In the Bible, No. 6 of the “Biblio
thèque Royale,” even the wings are removed, and the per
sonage before whom Abraham prostrates himself is repre
sented with a beard, in order the more fully to display the
characteristics of the Deity. (Fig. 19.)
* Christ is here without a beard, seated on a throne, and his feet supported
by a scarf held by a naked female figure, the personification of the Earth; the
Earth being thus the “footstool” of Christ, as had been prophesied by Isaiah.
(“Ponam terram scabellum pedum tuorum.” (See Roma Sotter.) In this
picture, the allegorical figure sustaining Christ is a woman, probably
because it represents the Earth. Elsewhere we generally find an aged man
with a beard; this aged man is, perhaps, designed to symbolise the Heavens,
and, if so, the idea must have been borrowed from Paganism. Mythological
ideas have, in many cases, been adopted by Christian Art; it is not unlikely
that these ideas were, in the first instance, borrowed from the Jewish faith;
and Christianity, in reclaiming them from the Pagans, merely entered into
possession of her own birthright.
+ M. Didron's version of this scene is different from that in our Bible.
Gen. xviii. 2. -
. . + These figures are scrupulously correct as copies, but the original drawing
In the History of the Devil, a drawing taken from the

“Emblèmes Bibliques,” MS. of the thirteenth century,
Fig. 18.—CHRIST WITHOUT NIMBUS, AND BEARDLESS.

sculpture from one of the Sarcophagi in the Vatican. First ages of Christianity.
in the Bibliothèque Royale, will be given. It represents

three angels engaged in combat with Behemoth and Levi
athan;* one only of the three has the cruciform nimbus; he
is engaged in single conflict with Behemoth, while the other
is bad. The MS. from which they are taken is no less ugly, in an aesthetic
Point of view, than it is valuable as an archaeological treasure.
* Wide infra, fig, 132.
two, who attack Leviathan, have only a plain nimbus and

appear to be angels. Was there intention in this fact,
or is it an inadvertence? Was it the artist's design to
represent the Triune god united in one person, and attack
Fig. 19.—THE THree hEAvENLY BEINGs who APPEAREd to THE PATRIARCH ABRAHAM,
ONE weARING A CHUCIFoRM NIMBUs, or NIMBUs staMPED witH A CRoss.
Miniature of the x cent. Bible No. 6. Bibliothèque Royale.
ing the Genius of Evil under the form of that Behemoth,

who exerts his evil influence upon Earth, even as Leviathan
holds dominion over the waters?
The nimbus, as has already been observed, by established
usage encircles the head: it is a species of religious crown;
but there is in this respect one singular exception, referring

only to God the Father. Artists, for various reasons
which will hereafter be explained in the Archaeological
History of God, have sometimes thought fit to represent
the Divinity by one portion only of his body; by the hand,
for instance, which is seen -- -
extended from the clouds, \ |\ ^^)

while the entire body remains Ś N
concealed in the heavens. In -
these instances the hand is

distinctly shown to be the em
blem of Deity by being encir
cled with a cruciform nimbus.
Hands thus decorated with
the nimbus formed the earliest
symbolic representation of the
Father; the example subjoined,
which belongs to the ninth .
century,” is interesting on ac- *: " -
count of the peculiar direction Miniature of the Ix cent. Bil. Roy.
given to the branches of the
cross, and of the rays which seem attached in groups
of four to the line of circumference. Either from a
feeling of reverence, in compliance with some religious
dogma, or even, as will be subsequently explained, from an
ill-feeling towards the supreme Being, nothing more was
shown of the Father than the hand extended to bless,
at first destitute of any nimbus,t and subsequently with
the cruciform nimbus.
* Bib. Roy. Liber Precum. The miniature represents the Martyrdom

of St. Stephen, who appears to be gazing into the opening Heaven, from which
the hand of God is extended towards him.
t See (Peintures et Ornements des Manuscrits) a Divine Hand without
the nimbus, belonging to the first half of the eleventh century, in a collection
of Treatises on various subjects. (M.S. de la Bibliothèque Royale fonds de
St. Germain.) Another hand, without a nimbus, appearing to St. Stephen at
his Martyrdom, may be seen in a missal of St. Denis, of the middle of the
eleventh century, Latin MS., supplement. In the frescoes of St. Savin,
twelfth century, the hand of God, without a nimbus, is extended from the
clouds in the act of blessing Melchizedeck. In the cathedral of Chartres is a
painting on glass, representing the History of Charlemagne and the Death of
Roland. The hand of God, without a nimbus, is seen extended from the
Not merely the countenance of God, but even his hand,

when the hand alone is shown, is decorated with the cruci
form nimbus; not only the actual figure or person of
Divinity, but even the Ideal of Divinity itself, the symbol
under which that idea is sometimes conveyed, is distinguished
by the same attribute.
Thus, the lamb is the symbol of our Saviour, for Jesus
shed his blood and yielded up his life without a murmur;
it is the symbol of Christ, who was pointed out to the
people by St. John the Baptist with these words, “Behold
the Lamb of God.” This symbol, the use of which is as
ancient as the Christian faith, and which still continues to
be employed, is likewise invested with the cruciform nimbus.
In the engraving in which St. John is represented holding
a lamb, the divine emblem has no nimbus; the omission is
without doubt either accidental or occasioned by the diffi
culty of carving it in so small a space: the lamb, however,
is encircled by an aureole.*
In the History of Christ, an engraving copied from a
sculpture in the Catacombs, will be found belonging to a
period prior to that in which the nimbus was universally
adopted among Christians, and for this reason, the Divine
Lamb is distinguished from the Apostolical Lambs around
by the cross upon its brow.
In fig. 13, the Lamb has a cruciform nimbus, and each
branch is again marked by a lesser cross.
The lamb is the most common, and generally popular,
symbol of our Saviour; still it is far from being the only
one in use. The lion is the type of the tribe of Judah,t
and Christ is descended by # from that tribe;: Christ,
clouds, appearing to Roland, who, in his distress, sounds the oliphant, and
cleaves a rock with his good sword Durandal. This painting belongs to the
thirteenth century. The hand of God, represented on sarcophagi of the first
Christian ages, as presenting to Moses the Tables of the Law, never has a
nimbus; still, notwithstanding these and similar exceptions, the hand of the
Eternal is very frequently decorated with a circular nimbus, divided by the
cross-bars. We shall meet with many more examples.
* This figure is given in the History of Christ. It represents a colossal
statue placed against one division of the north porch in the cathedral of
Chartres. See fig. 83.
+ “Catulus leonis Juda.” Genesis, xlix. 9.
# St. Matt., i. 1, 2.; Rev. v. 5. “Ecce vicit leo de tribu Juda, radia:
IDavid.”
like the lion of St. Mark, filled the deserts with the voice
of his Gospel;" as Christ lived in the tomb,t so likewise
the lion sleeps with unclosed eyes. In short, since the
lamb, the personification of gentleness, was the accepted
emblem of the Son of God, Art, which delights itself in
contrasts, completed the symbolism by the introduction of
the lion, the type of strength and energy. In fact, the
Bible of Charles le Chauvet contains a sacred lamb, adorned
with the cruciform nimbus, and gazing on a lion, with a
glory divided in the same manner by the cross. The com
bined symbols are significative of Christ in his fulness of
perfection, ready to break the seals of the mysterious volume
laced near him.
The Abbé Suger § confirms this explanation. In a large
painting on glass which he commanded to be executed for
the western window of St. Denis, among other symbolic
themes, the lion and the lamb are introduced breaking
the seven seals of the book of the Apocalypse. The two
verses subjoined, which are from his pen and placed by his
command upon the window, explain the allusion:
“Qui Deus est magnus, librum Leo solvit et Agnus;
Agnus sive Leo fit caro juncta Deo.”
It is probable that this lion and lamb, both of which

unhappily are destroyed, had the cruciform nimbus like
those in the Bible of Charles le Chauve.
The nimbus represents the radiation of light from the
head, and the head being spherical, this radiation ought
* “Marcus ut alta fremit vox per deserta leonis.” Inscription in Saint Paul
hors-les-Murs (S. Paoli di fuori), copied or repeated in several MS. Gospels,
particularly in the Quatuor Evangelia, Theol. Lat., 33; Bib. de l'Arsenal.
f Alciatus thus explains the presence of the sculptured lions who frequently
guard the entrance of churches:—
“Est Leo, sed custos oculis quia dormit apertis;

Templorum idcirco ponitur ante fores.”
# This Bible is in the Bib. Roy. M. de Bastard (Peintures et Ornements
des Manuscrits) has given the miniature of the Lion and Lamb, each with the
cruciform nimbus, standing face to face, the book of the Apocalypse lying
between them.
§ De Administratione Sud, ap. Félibien. Histoire de l'Abbaye Royale
de St. Denis.
necessarily to be of the same form, and the nimbus in conse

quence is almost always round.
Still there are instances of both the triangular and the
square nimbus being applied to the head of Deity. The
reason may, probably, be thus explained: the jets of flame
from the brow and temples are represented as larger, longer,
and more abundant, because there the emanation is supposed
to be more energetic. In this case the circular nimbus is
intersected by cross lines, or by rays drawn from the centre
towards the circumference. At certain epochs, however,
and more particularly in the fifteenth century, these jets of
flame were made to exceed the limits of the circumference
of the disk; and to render this extension less unpleasing to
the eye, the line circumscribing the disk was omitted.*
On the other hand, some artists,in certain countries, wishing
to re-connect these three rays from the brow and temples,
drew a direct line from the extremity of one to that of the
other two points, and thus formed a pyramid, the point of
which was above; the base was formed by the horizontal line
which connected the two jets of flame from the temples, as the
two sides of the pyramid connected the temples with the
brow; a triangle was thus formed.t
But although first produced by chance, or, at least,
without direct design, the triangle has maintained itself,
and indeed, been further developed in Iconography, from a
much higher cause, for a mystical reason. In all ages, the
triangle has been the geometrical emblem of the Divine
Trinity. An unbroken area, terminated by three angles,
expressed, with wonderful exactitude, the unity of one God
in three persons. Consequently, Italy, more ideal and
imaginative than France, or any other country of Western
Europe, eagerly adopted for the nimbus a figure which thus
symbolised the fundamental dogma of Christianity. Greece
embraced the same idea, and even heightened it, declaring
positively that the triangle was a fitting symbol of the Deity
—of the great I AM—by inscribing, in each of the three
angles, one of the letters, o ov, THE BEING.'
* See Fig. 7. * See Fig, 4.
# See a Greek engraving of the Annunciation, from Mount Athos, copied
rom a fresco there. At Kares, Mount Athos, which is the capital of this
province of monks, copper-plate engravings may be purchased, either coloured
The Greeks, more mystical even than the Italians, were

not content with one triangle only; they made the nimbus
to consist of two triangles intersecting one another, and
thus forming five angles instead of three. If a single
triangle express the perfect divinity, two would seem to
indicate the infinity of the Godhead. This idea is analogous
to that of the cruciform nimbus, in which each limb further
bears a cross, and is an ingenious manner of figuring the
omnipotence of the Divinity.
It should be remarked that it has always been the
practice to indicate the divine attributes by means of the
nimbus.* The Supreme Being is designated by the three
Greek letters; the Trinity by the triangle; the infinity of God
by the double triangle; eternity by a circle; life by a square,
and the eternity of existence by a square within a circle.
A nimbus, of triangular form, is thus seen to be the
exclusive attribute of Deity, and is most frequently restricted
to the Father Eternal. The other persons of the Trinity
sometimes wear the triangle, but only in representations of
the Trinity, and because the Father is with them. Still,
even then, beside the Father, who has a triangle, the Son
and the Holy Ghost are often drawn with a circular nimbus
only; but in all cases these two persons of the Trinity, like
the first, are alone honoured with the triangular nimbus of
divinity. A copy of Dante, printed in the sixteenth century,
and ornamented with engravings, contains, amongst others, a
Trinity of three heads on one single body; this Trinity has one
triangular nimbus only for the three heads.t. In some
instances, both the Father and the Son have a triangular
or plain, representing all the monasteries and the different villages (skites)
of the mountain. These drawings, moreover, analogous to those made at
Epinal, present to us the chief Saints, and the principal Legends of Christianity.
We thus obtain the entire Greek Iconography. I brought back with me a
complete series of these engravings, which, although sufficiently rude, yet
possess much interest. * See Fig. 13.
+ See this design below, in the History of the Trinity (Fig. 147).
Since it has been found necessary, in this Iconographical History to be
somewhat sparing of engravings, when any particular fact is enunciated, and
not accompanied by a drawing in illustration of it, it will almost invariably be
found in some other paragraph to which it more decidedly belongs. The
reader is, therefore, requested to look through the engravings, in order to dis.
cover the solution of any difficulties, or the explanation of certain facts that
may perplex him.
nimbus, while the Holy Spirit is encircled by a circular

aureole. The divine persons are thus figured in the
Fig. 21.—GoD THE FATHER, witH A BI-TRIANGULAR NIMBUS;

God THE SON, witH A CIRCULAR NIMBUS;
GoD THE HOLY GHost, witHouT A NIMBUs, AND witHIN AN AUREOLE."
Fresco at Mount Athos.
“Epigonation,” with which Greek archbishops and bishops

* This representation of the Trinity is taken from a fresco, in one of the
Greek convents of Mount Athos. The Holy Spirit is drawn within a radiat
ing aureole, the flame of which encloses within its light the two other Divine
Persons. The Holy Ghost has no nimbus. The Son has a circular nimbus
with the cross rays, on which are inscribed the letters o wy. The Father has
a double triangular nimbus, and the three letters, o wy, are traced in the
corners of that triangle, the point or apex of which is at the top. See, further,
a Greek engraving, representing the Monastery of St. Paul, one of the convents
on Mount Athos. The lower portion of this engraving contains a general view
of the Monastery; the upper part gives a representation of the Trinity. The
Son and the Holy Ghost have each a circular cruciform nimbus: the Father a
bi-triangular nimbus. The five points of the triangle are connected by a circle.
Another, an engraving of the Convent of Chilandari, also on Mount Athos,
contains the Coronation of the Virgin by the Holy Trinity. Mary has a
simple circular nimbus, the Holy Ghost a circular radiating nimbus, Christ
a circular cruciform nimbus, with the letters o ww. The Father alone has
the triangular nimbus. Thus, then, from the Virgin up to the three Divine
Persons, are different gradations of dignity, as from Saints to Angels. The
artist may also have intended, by the various kinds of nimbus, to express the
different relations existing between the Divine Persons themselves. The
different forms are thus made to indicate the hierarchy of created beings,
are sometimes decorated. The Holy Trinity is represented

in the same manner on the “Epigonation,” worn by a great
image of St. Nicholas, which may be seen in the principal
convent of Météora, in Thessaly, near the ancient city of
Tricca, now Triccala." It has thus been clearly shown that
the triangle belongs especially to the Father, sometimes to
the Son, occasionally, though not often, to the Holy Ghost,
and is never given to the Blessed Virgin, nor to the Apostles.
The ancients, the platonists, the neo-platonists, Pythagoras,
Plutarch, Pliny, Vitruvius, &c., have dilated on the value of
the triangle in its geometric and symbolic properties. In
the traditions of India, and, indeed, of the whole of Asia,
the Triad is a mystic number; it is symbolic of the
attributes of the Supreme Being, uniting in itself the pro
perties of the two first numbers of the unity, and the dual.t
These discussions on numbers were echoed by the West,
resounding and increasing in vehemence throughout the
entire course of the Middle Ages. St. Angilbert, the father
of Nithard and the companion of Charlemagne, constructed
the Abbey of Centula, or St. Riquier, in the form of a
triangle. The cloisters formed a triangle, and a church was
erected at each angle; the number three, shone on the altar,
chandeliers and ciborium in each. One hundred monks were
devoted to the service of each of these churches, amounting
altogether to three hundred; and thirty-three children formed
the choir of each. It is expressly stated that all was thus
arranged in honour of the Holy Trinity: Even in our
and the relative position of the different persons of the Trinity. The
same fact may be noticed in the fresco paintings of the Greek Church; the
engravings alluded to are a reproduction or calque of these paintings. We cite
the drawings in preference to the frescos, because the engravings may easily
be obtained in confirmation of the assertions here advanced.
* The “Epigonation,” étryovártov, is a lozenge-shaped ornament depending
over the right knee, whence it derives its name (êrl and yovv), and which,
like the stole amongst ourselves, forms a part of the Pontifical costume. The
Epigonation is embroidered with ornaments and figures. Among the latter
the Trinity is frequently conspicuous.
+ M. le Baron di Gerando, Vie de Pythagore, in “la Biographie Uni
verselle.”
: “Claustrum monachorum triangulum factum est. Sic que sit, ut dum
hic inde parietes sibi invicem concurrunt, medium spatium sub divo triangulum
habeatur.—Quia igitur omnis plebs fidelium sanctissimum atque inseparabilem
Trinitatem confiteri, venerari, et mente colere, firmiterque credere debet,
time, Cambry, in his “Monuments Celtiques,” asserts that

the triangle expressed three of the inseparable attributes of
Deity—to be; to think; to speak." The triangle, having
thus been, at all periods, the geometrical expression of
the £ it may easily be conceived that the trian
gular nimbus would be peculiarly appropriate to God the
Father.
In France, nevertheless, although the divine nimbus, that
is to say, the circular nimbus, with three rays, is often
omitted, when applied, its figure is never altered, nor is it
ever brought back to that of the triangle. This change was
effected in Italy, in which country the nimbus assumes
a diversity of form, distracting to the antiquary, and sub
secundum hujus fidei rationem in omnipotentis Dei nomine tres ecclesias
principales, cum membris ad se pertinentibus, in hoc sancto loco, Domino co
operante, et praedicto domino Augusto [he alludes to Charlemagne] juvante,
fundere studuimus [here Angilbert himself speaks] in ecclesia sancti Bene
dicti, altaria parata tria; in ecclesiis vero sanctorum angelorum Gabrielis,
Michaëlis et Raphaëlis, altaria tria, quae simul fiunt altaria triginta, et ciboria
tria, et lectoria tria.—Quapropter trecentos monachos in hoc sancto loco
regulariter victuros, Deo auxiliante, constituimus.—Centum etiam pueros
scholis erudiendos sub eodem habitu et victu statuimus, qui fratribus per tres
choros divisis in auxilium psallendi et canendi intersint: ita ut chorus Sancti
Salvatoris centenos monachos cum quatuor et triginta pueris habeat ; chorus
Sancti-Richarii centenos monachos, tresque et triginta pueros jugiter habeat;
chorus psallens ante Sanctam-Passionem centenos monachos, triginta tribus
adjunctis pueris, similiter habeat. Ea autem ratione chori tres in divinis
laudibus personabunt, ut omnes horas canonicas in commune simul omnes
decantent. Quibus decenter expletis, uniuscujusque chori pars tertia ecclesiam
exeat, et corporeis necessitatibus vel aliis utilitatibus ad tempus inserviat,
certo temporis spatio interveniente ad divinae laudis munia celebranda denuo
redeuntes. In unoquoque etiam choro id jugiter observetur, ut sacerdotum
ac levitarum reliquorumque sacrorum ordinum aequalis numerus teneatur.
Cantorum nihilominus et lectorum aequali mensura divisio ordinetur, qualiter
chorus à choro invicem non gravetur.” (Acta SS. ord. S. Benedicti, IWe.
Siècle Bénédictin, 1". partie, Vie de St. Angilbert.) It has been thought
advisable to transcribe a portion of the text of this work, which, in regard to
the history of symbolic monuments, is one of the most interesting works we
possess on Christian Archaeology. This triangular cloister is unfortunately no
longer in existence, and the loss is irreparable, as we know of no other
monastery thus appropriating the symbolic form of the triangle.
* He might have substituted “to act,” in the place of “to speak,” since
speech is but one of the thousand varieties of action, merely a simple phase of
that intellectual activity which is multiplied to infinity. Still, God created all
things by His word; and, in this sense, Cambry would be right. (Monu
ments Celtiques, par Cambry, in 8°., Paris, 1805, p. 157.)
verting every fixed rule which one might attempt to assign

to it. A similar change was made in the Greek Church,
which adopts many ideas of religion completely at variance
with ours; it was introduced also at the period of the Renais
sance, when the laws of previous epochs became the sport of
fancy, and rules were abandoned to caprice. France has been
less variable, and is still content with the circle, a form which,
indeed, is better suited to the head. The few examples of
the triangular nimbus, which are to be found amongst us,
deserve to be carefully noted; they will always be found to
be exceptions, indicating, probably, either a Greek or
Latin influence.
It is easy to understand why the triangle should be
an attribute of God, since the Godhead is tri-une (DEUS
TRINUS UNUS, says Lactantius); but the application of
the square is more difficult to comprehend. In fact the square,
in the opinion of neo-platonists and pythagoreans, sym
bolises the earth; and the earth, in symbolism as well as in
reality, is inferior to heaven, of which, according to ancient
ideas, it can at most be only the pedestal. The square nimbus
has nevertheless sometimes been given to God, and to God the
Father; a circumstance which it is difficult to explain, espe
cially when we remember that, in Italy, the square nimbus
is frequently granted to virtuous mortals, but only when
they are painted during their lifetime, in order to distin
guish them from figures of saints or holy £ departed;
a living personage, however holy, being always held inferior
to a dead saint, however inferior may be the reputation he
enjoys: the living is still but human; the canonised dead,
almost a god. For this reason the square, a geometrical
symbol of the earth, adorns the heads of the living; and the
circle, a celestial figure, decorates the heads of saints in
Paradise.” Wherefore, then, should the Creator of all these
* The Bollandists (Acta SS. Maii, tom. i., p. 62, in the introduction to the
Saints of that month,) have had engravings made from a painting at Mount
Cassin. It represents St. Benedict giving the rules of his order to the Abbé
Jean. St. Benedict has a circular nimbus, as well as the Angel who stands
behind to aid him with his counsel; the Abbé Jean, on the contrary, has a
square nimbus. The Bollandists observe, in reference to this subject:—
Wides gemmatum utrique circa caput ornatum, cum hac diversitate quod
S. Benedicto, ut aeternitatem felicem adepto, caput ambiat circulus, alternitatis
beings, whether living or dead, have an attribute which

lowers him to the condition of his creatures—and of his
creatures, too, while still living, and, as yet, unglorified?
It must be observed that the square nimbus, as worn by
God, is generally concave, not straight at the sides; while
the sides of that of living created beings are right lines, not
rounded into an arc; it must be especially noticed that the
nimbus of God is almost invariably placed upon an angle, in
the manner of a lozenge, and not, like that of his creatures,
on the side.*
Fig. 22.-GOD THE FATHER WEARING A LozENGE-SHAPED NIMBUs.

Miniature of the xIV cent. Italian Manuscript in the Bibliothèque Royale.
Raphael also, has represented God the Father, with

a lozenge-shaped nimbus, but with straight sides.f. Pos
symbolum; Johannivero, ut adhuc viventi, quadratum quid post caput sit,
quo creditur firmitas fidei, velut quadrolapide immobiliter nixae, repraesentari.”
If the square nimbus indicates the energy of faith, why give it to God, who is
himself the object of faith?
* In a Mosaic, in the Church of San Giovanni in Laterano, is a repre
sentation of God, with a square nimbus, resting on the sides, not angularly.
+ The nimbus, with concave sides, is from the MS. entitled Speculum
Humanae Salvationis; that with straight sides is taken from the “Disputa”
of Raphael.
sibly, this lozenge may have been regarded by artists as a

purely mystical emblem, a symbol unencumbered by any
material signification. In this case, the £
nimbus would imply only an idea analogous to that which is
conveyed by a triangular nimbus. In fact, in the Apse of
S. Giovanni-in-Lateran, at Rome, there exists a mosaic,
executed between the years 1288 and 1294, under Pope
Nicholas IV., in which God the Father is seen, under the
figure of Christ, the '' part of the body only issuing
from the clouds; below him is the Holy Spirit, and, lower
still, the Cross, richly decorated; a Cross of gems. The
nimbus of the Father is no longer a lozenge, as in the pre
ceding examples, but square, like those of the Popes
Gregory and Pascal: God is living. The square nimbus is,
however, inscribed within a circular nimbus; the circle is
the common symbol of eternity: God is, therefore, eternally
living.” I AM, and I SHALL BE, are words used by the
Eternal in several passages of the Sacred Books.t. Such
may, probably, be the signification of the square nimbus
contained within the area of a circle; for life is compre
hended in eternity.
The field of the divine nimbus is generally more highly
ornamented than that of the nimbus worn by angels,
mortals, or allegorical beings. The divine head, the centre
of all light, almost invariably has rays or jets of light thrown
out on the field of the nimbus. Prior to the fifteenth cen
tury, these rays or jets of light terminated at the line of
circumference, by which they were bound together; but
about that period they first became separated one from
another. The line of circumference disappears, the rays
alone remain. These rays are generally straight, and of
equal lengths; sometimes those on the forehead and temples
are gathered into a sheaf, and extend beyond the inter
mediate rays; sometimes all are flamboyant, or alternately
straight and flamboyant.
* M. Tournal gives the above explanation of this figure, and I accept it
with pleasure. I am indebted to the kindness of the learned antiquary of
Narbonne for a copy of this curious mosaic, recently taken in Rome by himself.
+ The term of duration is even more complete, embracing not only the
present and future, but also the past: “Ego sum . . quiest, et qui crat, et
qui venturus est.” (Apocalyp. i. 8.)
F
During the primitive ages of Christianity, when Christ

was often, indeed almost invariably, represented under the
form of a lamb; this lamb was generally without any
nimbus, but frequently also with a circular nimbus. At a
somewhat later period, the field of the nimbus became
crossed. From that time (although rarely, it is true) the
field was sometimes marked by the monogram of the divine
person whom the lamb was designed to symbolise, the X
and P, two Greek letters, with which the name of XPIXTO2
commences. Lastly, the A and Q, signifying the beginning
and the end, a monogram pertaining equally to each of the
three persons, accompanies the special monogram of Christ,
as in the opposite drawing.”
THE NIMBUS OF ANGELS AND SAINTS.
The angel has a circular nimbus, but with the field plaint
Sometimes, however, in Italy especially, and in Greece,;
in the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth
centuries, the field is striated or adorned with an arcature,
or with strings of pearls, or even with rays; but it must be
observed that, in the latter case, the rays are dispersed
without regard to number, and not limited to three, as in
the nimbus of God. It seems to be the same with the rays
of the nimbus, as with the fleurs-de-lys in heraldry; an inde
finite number of fleurs-de-lys, indicate noble, but not royal,
* This Lamb was taken from Roma Soterranea, p. 591. He stands on
the mystical mountain, whence descend the four streams of Paradise—the Pison,
Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates.
+ See in the Hist. of Angels various delineations of these celestial beings.
# In Greek frescoes the nimbus is not merely painted, but is also sculptured
or modelled. Before painting this insignia, a matrix of wood is impressed
upon the soft coating, which gives the ornaments hollow and in relief. On the
plaster thus modelled the painter spreads his colours; the same plan was
adopted among us also, particularly in the thirteenth century. The nimbus
executed in this manner, first modelled and afterwards painted, is to be seen
on the basement in the interior of the Sainte Chapelle, at Paris (Chapelle
Haute). Similar hollows and projections of nimbi, which I remarked in the
year 1836, led me to suspect the existence of fresco painting concealed under
several layers of whitewash in an apsidal chapel of St. Julien de Brioude.
These paintings are now, probably, exposed to view.
THE NIMBUS OF ANGELS AND SAINTS. 67
birth, while three fleurs-de-lys characterise royalty, at

least starting from a certain period. So, also, a nimbus
of three rays indicates di
vinity; a greater number
of rays are attributes of
created beings, and more
especially of angels, the
most noble of all creatures.
| Thus, then, no angel ever
# wears the cruciform nim
bus, unless, as amongst the
| Greeks, that angel is a per
sonification of the Deity.
In Greece, Christ is called
the Angel of the Great
Will (3 "yyeAos rñs ueyáAms
Sov\ms), and he is often
represented, at the back of
the apse of the left aisle,
under the form of a great
angel, winged and beardless. Fig. 23.—DIVINE LAMB, witH A CIRCULAR
This divine angel, this mes- NIMBUS, NoT CRUCIFoRM, MARKEd with
- - MONOGRAM OF C * D THE
senger of God (áyyeAos), an " #'", as
admirable creation peculiar
to Greece, wears the divine
Sculptured on a Sarcophagus in the
Vatican.
2 The earliest ages of Christianity.
nimbus. In the scene in
which Abraham, seeing three angels, prostrates himself in
adoration at the feet of one, the angel whom he adores,
frequently wears a cruciform nimbus, to signify his being
the representative of Deity.*
The exceptions to this rule are very numerous, and most
frequently these three angels differ in no respect from
other creatures of the celestial hierarchy, and like them
wear a simple nimbus, or at least, one not divided by a
CrOSS.
The persons of the Old Testament, particularly in the

East, have all a nimbus, like the saints of the New Testament.
* See Fig. 19, p. 54, in which one of the three persons appearing to
Abraham has a cruciform nimbus, while the other two, who are simply
angels, have the nimbus plain.
In 2
In the West the Jewish kings, patriarchs, judges, and

prophets are far less honoured. Jacques de Voragine, in
the “Legenda Aurea,” says that none of the festivals of the
Old Testament saints are observed, except that of the
Holy Innocents, who suffered for Christ; of the Maccabees,
whose patience and courage under torture and suffering
are proposed as examples for Christians; and lastly, of
St. John the Baptist, because he forms a link between the Old
Testament and the Gospel.” No festivals are kept for
Adam, Abel, Noah, or Abraham, nor for Moses, Samuel,
David, or Isaiah; they are not called saints, they do not act as
patrons, and their names are seldom selected for baptismal
names. In Litanies, where the saints of Christendom are
enumerated one by one, the people of the West are content
to mention the Old Testament saints en masse. “All
ye patriarchs, all ye prophets, pray for us!” It is not thus
in the East, either in Greece or in Asia; there they say
St. Abraham, St. Isaac, St. Jacob, St. David, St. Solomon,
and St. Isaiah. When an infant is baptised, biblical names
are as frequently given as evangelical; it may even be
affirmed that biblical names are held in greater favour in
the East, and frequently preferred to others.
Churches are dedicated to St. Abraham, St. Isaac, and
St. David. These personages are painted at full length in
the interior; they are invoked singly by name in litanies;
regarded thenceforth as saints, and by the same title as
apostles, martyrs, and confessors; their heads are encircled
with a nimbus, sometimes circular, sometimes with a striated
field. A fresco painting of Adam, drawn in this manner,
with a nimbus, and honoured with the title of (äytos) saint,
is to be seen in the pretty church of the monastery of
Kaigariani, concealed in a vale or dip on the south-east of
Mount Hymettus at the distance of one myriamétre from
Athens.
* “Notandum quod Ecclesia orientalis facit festa de sanctis utriusque Testa

menti, occidentalis autem non facit festa de sanctis Veteris Testamenti, eo quod
ad inferos descenderunt, praeterquam de Innocentibus, eo quod in ipsis singulis
occisus est Christus, et de Machabaeis. De Machabaeis, propter quatuor
rationes, &c.” Legenda aurea de sanctis Machabaeis. He ought also to have
included St. Joseph and St. Elizabeth, both of whom are alike worshipped.
In certain localities, where the Oriental and Byzantine

spirit has showed itself among us, as at Rheims, Troyes,
St. Savin near Poictiers, and Chartres, the nimbus is seen
more particularly on prophets; it is less frequently given
to patriarchs and judges, and more rarely still to kings;
amongst the kings, those most preferred and most frequently
decorated with the nimbus, are David and Solomon; in
Greece the nimbus is also given to Hezekiah and to Manasseh,
holy kings, more especially revered than the others. In the
church of St. Savin, among the curious frescoes which the
“Comité des arts et monuments” are about to publish, is
one which represents Cain and Abel offering their sacrifice
to God.
Cain, the accursed, has no nimbus; Abel, the righteous,
has a gold coloured nimbus.
Further on, when Cain, after having killed his brother,
replies to God, who enquires for Abel, that he knows
nothing of him, and that he had not been charged to keep
guard over him, the head of the fatricide is encircled by
a nimbus, possibly intended for the sign with which God
marked Cain, that he might not be slain like a wild beast.*
Further still, in the scene in which Abraham, after having
conquered the five kings of the Pentapolis, receives the
bread and wine, presented by Melchizedeck, the royal
priest is crowned as a king, and has a nimbus of the
colour of gold, like a Christian saint. At Chartres, in the
north side porch, is a colossal statue of Melchizedeck, with
a nimbus, and crowned in addition with the tiara, like that
worn by a pope. A few similar examples will be mentioned,
which may be observed in certain towns of France, par
ticularly at Bourges, where Jacob and Elias are represented
on stained glass, each with the nimbus.t. But it may be
* “Posuitgue Dominus Cain signUM, ut non interficeret eum omnis qui
invenisset eum.” (Genesis, iv. 15.)
+ See the “Monographie,” on the painted windows of Saint Etienne, the
cathedral of Bourges, which the Abbés Cahier and Martin have in preparation.
On the very same window are representations of Abraham about to sacrifice
Isaac; Moses causing water to flow from the rock; and a personification of the
Christian Religion attending at the death of Christ; neither of whom have
the nimbus. Still, the Church, the personification of the Christian Religion,
is rarely seen thus destitute of the nimbus.
observed generally, that amongst ourselves and in the

entire West, the nimbus is generally denied to saints
of the Old Testament and restricted to those of the New.
In the East, on the contrary, it is lavished equally on
both.
St. John the Baptist is always honoured with the nimbus,
even in Western Europe, where, indeed not only the day
of his death, but the Festival of his Nativity also is ob.
served; he loses this attribute only at the same period at
which other saints of the New Testament are deprived of it.
Aft FI
%:
'%
')(i)('%
Fig. 24.—St. JoHN THE BAPTIST, witH A NIMBUs.

Fresco from the Convent of Kaigariani, Mount Hymettus.
St. John the Baptist, the Precursor, who, although

himself belonging to the circumcision, yet already baptises:
he who points out the Lamb of God, who is the pre
paration for the Gospel, who (to employ the words of the
Church on the day of his festival) is the link or “Fibula”
between the Old and New Testament, St. John the Baptist,
is certainly entitled to the nimbus. The engraving sub
joined is an oriental representation of St. John the Baptist,
with his name written in Greek characters, “6 áyios 'Ioãvvms 6

Ilpóðpouos,” St. John the Precursor.”
St. Joseph, the foster-father of Christ, usually has the
nimbus;t still he is, in some instances, represented without
it; in the cloister of the choir of Notre Dame de Paris,
for instance, and on a glass painting in Notre Dame de
Chartres, at the extreme end of the apse. The Virgin
Mary has a circular nimbus, frequently too, magnificently
ornamented. § The Virgin, the mother of God, that created
being who in the worship of the middle ages, was assimi
lated as closely as possible with the supreme Creator and the
divine Son, has rays, emanating not only from the head but
also from the body and hands. She has not a cruciform
nimbus, the cross rays being reserved solely to Divinity,
* St. John is here represented bearing his head in a vase. He is clad in a
camel's skin, with a leathern girdle, and hair dishevelled, in the manner of a
penitent; he wears a circular nimbus. The Greek Church translates literally
these words of St. Mark: “Behold, I send my angel [messenger] before thy
face,” (i. 2,) and constantly attach angel's wings to the shoulders of St. John
the Baptist. In the West, where the spirit is more regarded than the letter,
St. John has a nimbus, as will be seen below (Fig. 83, 84,), in two examples
given in the History of Christ, but the wings are dispensed with.
* In a MS. chronicle, and various treatises, of the eleventh century,
belonging to St. Germain, Bibliothèque Royale, St. Joseph being warned by
the Angel to take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt, is
represented with a nimbus. In the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold, a MS. of
the tenth century, in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, Joseph, who
is present at the birth of the Saviour, has a nimbus.
# Joseph has no nimbus in the “Flight into Egypt,” in the “Evangiles de
Saint Martial,” a MS. of the thirteenth century, in the possession of the Comte
Auguste de Bastard. Yet the same MS. gives a nimbus to the Magian Kings,
and even to Herod. It would seem that the nimbus is here an indication of
power, rather than holiness, and, consequently, that the MS. was executed
under Byzantine rather than Latin influences, belonging rather to the East
than to the West.
§ In the altar-piece of St. Germer, near Beauvais, in the chapel of the
Virgin, Mary has a nimbus, splendidly decorated with pearls, and the rainbow.
Christ alone has a nimbus rather more richly ornamented. See the work of
M. le Baron Taylor, Voyage dans l'ancienne France, province of Picardy,
which contains a lithograph of this beautiful altar of the thirteenth century,
executed by M. Nicolle, from a drawing by M. Lassus. This monument is
sculptured and painted. M. Boeswilwald repaired and restored all the paint
ings, in a drawing prepared for the Exposition of 1842.
| The cruciform nimbus, (quoted above, p. 50) given to the infant Mary
at her entrance into the world, in the missal of St. Magloire, is an isolated
instance, and probably an error of the miniaturist. -
but with that distinction only her nimbus is as rich as that

of God.
She is encircled by the aureole and entire glory; her
hands are wrapt in flame; the rainbow is her throne, the
moon her footstool; she has the sun for a vestment, and is
crowned with stars, equal in all respects to the Saviour Jesus
Christ. In the frescoes of St. Savin, the Virgin of the
Apocalypse is represented wearing a nimbus, throned upon
the sun, and her feet supported by the moon. In speaking
of the glory, subsequently (Fig. 74), it will be seen, by a
drawing, brought from the Campo Santo, that the Blessed
Virgin is as glorious, as luminous, as her Son, although He
is there represented (Fig. 67) in all his glory as the great
judge. Lastly, a medal has been struck, even in these later
times, in which Mary is £ diffusing streams of
light from the ten fingers of her hands, exactly in the same
manner as the colossal figure of Christ sculptured at Wezelay,
a town in France (department Yonne), from whose hands
floods of grace '' to stream down upon the Apostles.
In the effigy of Mary, as well as in that of Christ, these
streams take the character of rays.
The Apostles are always, and with propriety, adorned
with the nimbus. Like the divine persons, the Apostles
are the first to assume the nimbus, and the last to quit
it.” In the western porch of Rheims cathedral, the nimbi
of St. Peter and of St. John the Evangelist are adorned
with pearls; on the windows of the Sanctuary in the same
church nearly all the Apostles are represented with nimbi
ornamented with precious stones either rough or polished,
emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.
All the various orders of Saints, Martyrs, Confessors, and
Virgins, have the circular nimbus.t
The field of the disk is more or less ornamented according
to the period and the country in which it was produced, and
the material on which it is executed. In the first ages of
* See fig. 17, in which St. Peter and St. Paul are represented with nimbi
like the youthful Christ, and at as early a period.
+ See the vaulting of the cathedrals at Rheims, Paris, and Chartres. The
Hortus Deliciarum, specimens of Mediaeval art, paintings and illuminated
ornaments of MSS., present numerous and highly-varied examples of the
nimbus.
Christianity, and at the period of the Renaissance," the

nimbus is more richly decorated than during the middle
ages properly so called.t . The nimbus in Italy and in
Greece is much less simple than with us. The Greeks, as
has been said, not content with tracing with the brush the
ornaments on their frescoes, further contrived to make a
sort of relievo on the plaster of their walls. Nimbi executed
in goldsmith's work, in ivory, enamel, or painting on glass,
are generally more elaborately rich than those sculptured on
freestone or granite. The first are executed with more care
and costliness; besides, it is more easy, and often necessary,
to ornament them.
The beautiful reliquary at Mauzac, in Auvergne, displays the
Virgin thus inscribed in an elliptical glory. Mary has a cir
cular nimbus of blue enamel, gemmed with little red flowers.:
* A painting on glass (en grisaille *) of the sixteenth century, belonging
to M. Guénebault, represents St. John the Baptist, carrying the Lamb of
God, with nimbi charged with ornaments and rays of light. The fine paintings
on glass of St. Alpin, at Châlons-sur-Marne; of Ste. Madeleine, at Troyes;
and of the Church at Epernay, are filled with richly-decorated nimbi. These
windows are all of the time of the Renaissance. The edge of the nimbus is
generally a sort of hem worked with pearls, or a ribbon more or less richly
embroidered. This edge is extremely rich in the nimbi of Christ and of Mary,
represented on the tympanum of the Cathedral at Autun; they belong, how
ever, to the twelfth century. The employment of the decorated nimbus, as an
hierarchical distinction, is well exemplified in the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold,
Bishop of Winchester. There St. Mary, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John,
have the nimbus much more highly ornamented than any other Saints or
Apostles. This Anglo-Saxon MS. is the work of Godeman, with whose name
it is inscribed, and who, in the year 970, was Bishop of Thorney.
+ The Evangeliaire of Charlemagne (known under the name of “Evangiles
de St. Midard de Soissons,” Latin MSS. in the Bibliothèque Royale) contains
fine examples of richly-decorated nimbi. See St. Matthew and his angel, as
reproduced in the “Peintures et Ornaments des Manuscrits.” The tympanum
of the cathedral of Autun, belonging to the twelfth century, and the altar-piece
of St. Germer, chapel of the Virgin, thirteenth century, present fine examples
of the striated and channelled nimbus. But these two monuments, although
of stone, are as rich as if they had been of gold or silver; in the altar-piece of
St. Germer the nimbi are not only modelled but also heightened by colouring.
# See the work of M. Mallay, architect at Clermont-Ferrand, on the
Romanesque Churches of Puy-de-Dôme. Various coffers, relic chests,
crosses, and enamelled altar-fronts, given by M. du Sommerard, in “l’Atlas
* “En grisaille"—a term used to denote a style of painting in two neutral

colours: the one light, the other dark.-Translator.
During the fourteenth century, a custom prevailed in

Europe, and more especially in Germany, of writing, within
the edge of the nimbus, the name of the saint whose head it
adorned. The painted windows in the cathedral of Stras
burg, for c: representing several kings and emperors,
(and which, though originally the work of the eleventh or
twelfth century, were restored, particularly the heads and
nimbi, about the fourteenth century), have inscribed within
each nimbus the name of the person represented; thus,
“Karolus-Magnus Rex,” “Rex Bippinus pater Karoli,”
“Rex Henricus Claudus.”*
We have seen the first-named of these, Charlemagne;t
the annexed Plate represents Henry II, the Lame,
who is honoured with the title of king only, as is the
case with Charlemagne himself, the titles of king and
emperor not bearing at that time the same relative value
et l’Album des Arts au moyen àge,” confirm the facts proved by the châsse
of Mauzac. See principally, le Paliotto of Milan, la Palla-d'oro of Venice,
the golden altar at Basle, and the Romanesque reliquary at Chartres.
* This Henricus Claudus Rex is Henry, Duke of Bavaria, who became
Emperor after the death of Otho III., in 1002, under the name of Henry II.
He died on the 13-14th July, 1024, and was canonised in 1152, by Pope
Eugenius III. St. Henry was one of the benefactors of the Cathedral at
Strasbourg. In the German Chronicles, the epithet Claudus is translated
by “lahme” (lame.) The fifteen Kings painted on glass in the north
window of the side aisle of the Cathedral at Strasbourg, are all designated as
benefactors to the Cathedral, and it was indebted to them for the considerable
revenues which not only afforded the necessary means for the erection of that
edifice, but are still employed in its preservation. Although none of these
emperors and kings, with the exception of Henry II, and, perhaps, of
Charlemagne, were ever canonised or recognised as Saints, all are, never
theless, decorated with the nimbus. This is a curious fact, and well deserving
of investigation. M. Klotz, architect to the Cathedral of Strasbourg, will
doubtless offer some explanation of it in the work he is now preparing, which
is to contain a graphic and literary description of all the monuments of painted
glass confided to his care. The important repairs which these paintings on
glass underwent in the fourteenth century will facilitate the solution of this
difficulty.
* See above, plate 1, p. 23. Raphael, in the “Disputà,” has painted
several names in the interior of the nimbi decorating the heads of certain
Saints, who are contemplating or adoring the Host, in the “ostensoir,”* or
* “Ostensoir,” Pièce d'orfévrerie dans laquelle on expose la Sainte Hostie,

ou des reliques qu'on y voit à travers une glace.—Dict”. de' Academie.
THE NIMBUS OF ANGELS AND SAINTS.
which we attach to them

InOW. -
This custom prevailed in

Germany even till the close
of the sixteenth century.*
It is adopted in our time
also, as may be seen by the
attempts made in Bavaria
and the Grand Duchy of the
Bas-Rhin to revive the art
of painting on glass.
The Greeks invariably
follow the same plan; but
instead of giving the name
at length, they frequently
inscribe the monogram
only,f as #8, #C. (Jesus
Christ), and #. & (the
Mother of God)—for Christ
radiating sun. In France, during

the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
the names of Saints were generally
written on the scroll which those
holy persons have in their hands; the
inscription around the nimbus resem
bling the legend upon a medal, is far
preferable; it seems a happy idea
to make the Saints bear their names
upon their heads, and even within
the nimbus itself, the symbol of their
apotheosis.
* See, amongst other examples,
the stained glass in the apse of the
Cathedral of Freybourg, in Brisgau,
and the beautiful paintings on glass
attributed to Albert Durer, which
adorn the north side aisle (nef laté
rale du nord) of the Cathedral at Fig. 25.—THE EMPEROR HENRY II. witH A
Cologne. CIRCULAR NIMBUS BEARING AN
INSCRIPTION.
* See a fresco surmounting the
south and side door of the principal Painted Glass in the Cathedral at
Strasbourg, XII and xIV cent.
and the Virgin; or simply the initial letters T, M, P,

M, H, II, for Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, Moses, Elias,
Peter.
NIMBUS OF PERSONS LIVING.
Men who had attained an undoubted and recognised

degree of sanctity were honoured, during their lifetime,
with the nimbus; a fact which is positively asserted by
John the Deacon, and repeated, on his authority, by
Ciampini; * but, in order to preserve the high position
due to departed saints, the nimbus of the living saints was
square, t
church at Argos. See also in the “Histoire de Jesus Christ et de l’Ange,” engrav
ings taken from Greek frescoes, in which Christ is represented in the character
of Archbishop, with the Xúvatis, or assembly of Archangels. See also an
engraving of the Transfiguration (Merauðpparis) of Jesus Christ, beneath
which is introduced a view of the Monastery of Coutloumoussi, near Karès,
on Mount Athos. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphaël, are among the Archangels
figured in the drawing above mentioned; each has his name indicated in the
nimbus by the monograms M, T, or P.
* John the Deacon (Wit. S. Gregorii, lib. iv., cap. 84) says, speaking of
Gregory the Great, who had commanded his own portrait to be executed during
his life-time, “Circa v ERT1cEM vero, TABULE similitudinem quod vivKNTIs
insigne est, praeferens, non coRoNAM. Ex quo, manifestissime declaratur quia
Gregorius, dum adhuc viveret, suam similitudinem depingi salubriter voluit.”
Ciampini, who had at first adopted this opinion, afterwards thought differently
(Veter. Monim., pars. 2, p. 140), but without reason; both facts and texts
are opposed to him. The square nimbus always implies the person wearing it
to have been living when the drawing was made. The rectangular nimbus is
frequently seen in Italy. M. du Sommerard has recently cited St. Appollinaire
in classe, at Ravenna; Ciampini, in the second part of the Vetera Monimenta,
gives no less than eight examples of it; the Bollandists, in the introduction
to the first volume of the Act. SS. of the month of May, give an engraving
of a square nimbus; Seroux d'Agincourt in the Histoire de l'art parles
Monuments, atlas of painting, gives numerous examples of the rectangular
nimbus arranged under three different types. Lastly, in Les Arts au moyen
dge, ninth series of the Album, is a magnificent drawing of the celebrated
Altar, called “Paliotto di San Ambrogio,” at Milan, and in it the Bishop
Angilbert, who, while living, presented this altar to St. Ambrose, is orna
mented with a rectangular nimbus, while St. Ambrose himself has the nimbus
circular.
+ Fig. 26 represents Pope Pascal holding in his arms the Church of St.
Cecilia, which he caused to be erected, and in which he was himself repre
sented, during his life-time, in a mosaic. This mosaic belongs to the year 820.
The same Pope, still with a square nimbus, may be seen at Rome, on two
NIMBUS OF PERSON'S LIVING. 77
The square, as has been already said, was held inferior

to the circle by Pythagoras, and the neo-platonists. The
square, according to their doctrine, was a geometrical sym
bolic figure, employed to designate the earth; the circle was
the symbol of heaven. The circle is a square perfected, the
square in the language of
heraldry, a diminished or
broken circle. At Rome,
in the ancient Basilica of
St. Peter, there was a
series of Popes, painted
originally at a very remote
period. In the thirteenth
century, this gallery of
Roman Pontiffs was re
painted by command of
the Pope, Nicholas III.,
who had it placed some
what lower down. In the
new gallery, Pope Libe
rius was represented with
a square nimbus; the
painter employed by Pope
Nicholas in the work of
restoration had scrupu
lously copied every figure
in the ancient gallery, in
which the nimbus of Pope
Liberius had been rectan
gular, and appropriately Fig. 26.—PoPE '' WITH A SQUARE
so as regards, the ancient Mosaic in the chu's
work, since that portrait IX cent.
ceili, at Rome ?
was dated, in all probability, from the time of that very

Pope. It could not, however, be applicable to a portrait
drawn in the thirteenth century; and the painter, doubt
less, imitated the figure of the nimbus without regard to its
signification, or considering the important meaning attached
other mosaics, executed by his direction: one, in 815, in the Church of S".
Maria della Navicella; the other, in 818, in that of Sa. Prassede. (See
Ciampini, Vet. Mon., Pars secunda, tab. 44, 47, and 52.)
to the rectangular form. This peculiarity is, even now, the

subject of critical discussion among archaeologists and anti
quaries. We believe, however, that the signification here
given is correct.
The Benedictine monks of Solesmes, who have devoted
much attention and research to the study of the square
nimbus, give a very different explanation of this circum
stance.” “We must take leave to remark,” say they, “that
the difference in the manner of representing Liberius may
possibly have arisen from the fall of that Pope, t and the
slighter veneration with which he was, in consequence,
regarded by the Roman Catholic Church. It appears that
he was never honoured by that Church with particular
worship, as was the case with all his predecessors, and a
great number of his immediate successors. The inferior
estimation in which his memory was held may have been
thus expressed by an external sign.” This explanation is
ingenious, but it does not appear to be strictly archaeological.
It will serve, however, to confirm the opinion already set
forth of the symbolic signification attached to the square
nimbus, namely, that that figure is inferior to the circle, and
that the square, or rectangle, is a circle broken and dimi
nished. It may have been given to Liberius, as the Bene
dictines imagine, in order to make a degrading distinction
between him and the other popes, who are adorned with a
circular nimbus, just as, in heraldry, one abates, # by marks
of degradation, the armorial bearings of an attainted noble,
or of a noble who has forfeited his rights.
* Origines de l'Eglise Romaine, tome i., pp. 167, 168, in-49. Paris, 1836.
+ Liberius had confirmed the condemnation of St. Athanasius, who was
persecuted by the Arians.
# Writers on Heraldry have given certain figures, which, it is pretended,
were formerly added to the coats of arms of such as were to be punished and
branded for cowardice, fornication, slander, adultery, treason, or murder, to
which they give the name of “Abatements of Honour;” but they have only
produced one instance of such whimsical bearings. Arms, being marks of
honour, cannot admit of any note of infamy; nor would anybody, now
a-days, bear them if so branded.—Encyc. Britann., Art. “Heraldry.”
“‘Abatement,’ a certain mark of disgrace added to the coat-armoury of
certain persons. Abatements are called in Latin Diminationes vel discernula
Armorum, of which Guillim mentions nine different sorts, as follow:—
1. The Delf, exactly a square in the middle of the coat. 2. An Escutcheon
reversed, or a small escutcheon turned upside down in the middle of the coat.
NIMBUS OF PERSON'S LIVING. 79
The square or rectangular nimbus is found in Italy, on

various frescoes, old enamels, ivories, or ancient mosaics,
and the miniatures of illuminated MSS. That form of
nimbus is peculiar to Italy, and never to be met with either
in Greece, Germany, England, or Spain.” In Italy, the
square nimbus is most lavishly employed, and under various
configurations; sometimes it is simply rectangular, as in the
case of the Popes Gregory and Pascal, already mentioned; +
at times it is actually in the form of a tablet, with an
indication of solidity and thickness, as in the examples
given by Ciampini, in the second part of his work. :
Occasionally, it assumes the form of a triptych, the head
resting on the centre tablet at the back, the two shutters
being half opened, as in the models engraved by Seroux
d'Agincourt; or it has the form of a square picture, with
the field and frame, as is also shown by Seroux d'Agincourt;$
or it is in the form of a roll, partially unfolded, as in the
example given below. || Possibly, other varieties of this
3. A Point parted dexter, when the upper right corner of the escutcheon is
parted from the whole. 4. A Point in Point, when the ends of two arched
lines are joined in the middle of the escutcheon so as to part off the base from
the rest. 5. A Point Champagne, or a hollow arched line cutting off the base
of the escutcheon. 6. A Plain Point, or a straight line parting off the base
of the escutcheon. 7. A Gore, or two hollow lines between the sinister chief
and the sinister base. 8. A Gusset, a line sloping a little, and then perpen
dicular from the upper corner to the bottom or base. These eight Abatements,
if ever they were used, required to be of a stained colour, i.e., Sanguine
or Tenne ; but it is supposed by modern heraldic writers, that these distinc
tions were only imaginary. 9. The ninth and last Abatement is when the
whole coat is reversed, which was never done but to a traitor. An instance
of this kind occurs in the arms of Sir Andrew de Harcla, knight, who, for his
treachery towards his master, King Edward II, by taking a bribe from the
Scots, was first degraded, then drawn, hanged, beheaded and quartered, in
1322. He beareth white, a red cross, and in the first quarter a black martlet,
as in the annexed cut, the shield being reversed.”—Selden. “Tit. of Honour,”
pp. 337,338. Guillim, Disp. of Herald.—Extract from Crabb's Technological
Dictionary, art. “Abatement.”—Trans.
* This peculiarity deserves consideration. Possibly in Italy, where
Christian monuments of every age are so abundant—where individualities
have always been more marked and striking than amongst ourselves—a new
form was invented with all its concomitant varieties while in our own country,
and other people of the west, one uniform type was observed.
+ Figs. 5, 26. + Vetera Monimenta.
§ Histoire de l’Art par les Monuments, peinture, pl. 53.
| Ibid. pl. 37 and 54. This engraving is taken from a pontifical manuscript
singular species of nimbus may still exist. It would be

well to note carefully any that may be met with, and which
| --
bo,
Fig. 27—A BISHOP whiLST LIVING, HAVING A RECTANGULAR NIMBUS IN THE

FORM OF A VOLUMEN.
Miniature taken from a Latin manuscript of the Ix cent.
might hereafter admit of our arriving at a satisfactory

with miniatures, in Latin, of the ninth century, in the “Bibliothèque de la
Minerve,” at Rome. It contains twelve pictures, representing the Pontiff
consecrating Priests, and in each the nimbus of the Bishop resembles a parch
ment volumen. An “Exultet,” several of the miniatures of which have been
engraved by d'Agincourt, presents similar examples.
NIMBUS OF PERSONS LIVING. 81
explanation of this singular form of nimbus, instances of

which have, as yet, been afforded by Italy alone.
The fact here proved by the quadrature of the nimbus
is of extreme importance, as it affords a clue for ascertaining
the exact age of mosaics, manuscripts, and other monuments
of art, all which may unquestionably be assigned to the
period at which any personage, represented in them with
a square nimbus, was living. It is a subject of much regret
that France has not in this respect imitated Italy, and
reserved the square nimbus for the living and the round
nimbus for the dead. Had this plan been universally
adopted, we should now be enabled to fix with great cer
tainty the date of various monuments of sculpture, painting,
and even architecture, the age of which is still matter of
discussion and will probably continue so for ever without
the possibility of determining their exact epoch. The
discovery of a nimbus of this description would produce
such important results that I deem it right to call particular
attention to the attributes of this form.
The Italians did not confine themselves to the use of the
square or rectangular nimbus alone.
They invented also the hexagon which is applied to
personifications of the theological and cardinal virtues.
The form in these cases is no longer susceptible of a chrono
logical interpretation, since it does not indicate that the
individual adorned with it was then living, but it is em
ployed to convey a mystical meaning, and its signification
is purely allegorical. The triangular nimbus, when given
to God, makes allusion to the divine Trinity; and the
hexagon assigned to the personified Virtues, is understood
to convey an analogous idea.
But, in truth, I do not clearly see the analogy; for the
Virtues are three in number, if we speak of the theological,
or four if referring to the cardinal, or twelve, as in the
portals of the cathedrals of Paris, Chartres, Amiens, and
Rheims; in every case there are either more or less than
six. It may perhaps be said, on the other hand, that the
hexagon has some reference to the number twelve, of
which it is the half. However this may be, the gates of
the Baptistery at Florence, executed by Andrea Pisano;
G
the paintings in the choir of San Francesco, at Pisa, by

Taddeo Gaddi; those in the groined vaulting (votite d'arrête)
B E AT E. P. E. T. R. E. D.O.N.A
o VITA LEON | PPE BICTO
RIA CARVLO REG-I DONA
Fig. 28.—squaRE NIMBUs worn BY CHARLEMAGNE AND POPE LEO 111.

ST. PETER WITH THE CIRCULAR NIMBUS.
Roman Mosaic." Triclinium of the Vatican, Ix cent.
above the altar of the lower church of Assisi, by Giotto,

* This picture, which has been partly destroyed and very ill restored,
represents St. Peter presenting Leo III. with the insignia of the Popedom,
THE NIMBUS OF ALLEGORICAL BEINGs. 83
present examples of the personified Virtues with the nimbus

of the hexagonal form.*
In France the nimbus is neither square nor polygonal,
and with the exception of the single instance mentioned
above, invariably circular; it is intended, in fact, to convey
the idea of radiation from the head; and the head being
round, the nimbus must consequently be circular, or at
most slightly elliptical.
THE NIMBUS OF ALLEGORICAL BEINGS.
Those allegorical personages to whom our Saviour, in his

parables, gave in some sort a rational existence, are adorned
with the nimbus, when they figure either of the Virtues or
any holy quality. Such are the wise, and sometimes also
the foolish Virgins, and they wear a nimbus, like persons
who have actually existed. Wirtues, when personified by art,
and represented in sculpture or painting, usually have the
nimbus; and so also have the theological virtues, Faith,
Hope, and Charity, and the cardinal virtues, Justice,
Prudence, Temperance, and Strength.f The nimbus worn
and giving the Standard of War to Charlemagne. It is in mosaic, and adorned
the triclinium of San Giovanni di Laterano, built under Charlemagne, by
Pope Leo. Both Leo and Charlemagne have a square nimbus, and that of
St. Peter is circular. See Nicolo Alemanni, De Lateranensibus Parietinis,
Rome, 1625, p. 12. Alemanni, in the same work, gives an engraving from a
mosaic which once existed in Ste. Suzanne, at Rome, and was destroyed about
250 years since. In this, also, Leo and Charlemagne have the square nimbus.
The Church of Ste. Suzanne had been rebuilt by Leo III., who is represented
standing, holding the Church on his chasuble. Charlemagne was also standing,
habited like the figure in this mosaic of the triclinium, gesticulating and
apparently addressing himself to the Pope, who is bare-headed.
* I am indebted for this information to M. Orsel, an artist, most pro
foundly versed in Christian Iconography, and who is now employed in painting
a chapel in Notre Dame de Lorette, at Paris.
+ See in the Bibliothèque Royale, the Missal of St. Denis, Manuscrits
Latins, supplement. This missal is supposed to belong to the first half of
the ninth century. The miniature, in which Christ is represented descending
from Heaven to administer the Communion to St. Denis, in prison, is
enclosed in a frame-work containing the four Cardinal Wirtues personified by
female figures, whose heads are environed by the circular nimbus. M. de
Bastard (Peintures et Ornements des Manuscrits) has 1eproduced this
picture. The “Pastoral” of St. Gregory, a very fine ancient omanuscript
-
by the Virtues is in Italy occasionally hexagonal, as has

been already been observed, but with us always circular. In
the Cathedral of Chartres, among the fourteen virtues public
and social, which occupy a cordon, or band of the vaulting
in the left entrance of the north porch, is a figure of Liberty.
The first rank is assigned, in right of precedence, to the per
sonification of Virtue, in the abstract, as the mother of those
that are attending her, just as in Pagan mythology Mnemo
syne is regarded as the mother of the Muses. Liberty stands
second in rank; she is, consequently, the eldest, and held
superior to all those who follow her; the names, which were
engraven in the stone, have some of them been effaced by
the action of the weather; but amongst those which yet
remain we can decipher, in characters of the thirteenth
century, the words, “Libertas, Honor, Velocitas, Fortitudo,
Concordia, Amicicia, (sic) Majestas, Sanitas, Securitas.”
Three names only are wanting, and possibly they have
always been thus deficient. Each Virtue bears a character
istic attribute. Doves dwell peacefully on the bucklers of
Concord and Friendship; arrows and a battlemented castle
distinguish Swiftness and Security; fishes, a singular and
curious fact, adorn the buckler of Health. The annexed plate
of Liberty will give an idea of the others, for a resemblance
may be traced throughout these Wirtues as in children of
one family.
Liberty, like her mother, who precedes, and the twelve
sister Virtues, who follow her, is decorated with a large
nimbus; she is a holy virtue, and well entitled to that
honour, as are all the others who accompany her, or rather
defile after her.*
Natural beings, personifications of the cardinal points,
of the winds, the four elements, the constellations, and of
belonging to the bishopric of Autun, contains the Cardinal Virtues, with
similar nimbi.
* The right hand, which is broken, ought properly to hold a standard or
a pike. The nimbus is thick and solid, as is evident from the engraving
The word “Libertas” is distinctly legible, not “Liberalitas,” as might be
imagined; there is not the slightest sign of abbreviation. Besides, according to
the rules of palaeography, it is not possible to abridge “Liberalitas” by the
omission of the second L. Before making the above drawing of Liberty, I
took the precaution of getting an impression of the inscription; the correctness
of the form, and of the number of the letters, may, therefore, be relied on.
THE NIMBUS OF ALLEGORICAL BEINGS. 85
day and night, sometimes have the nimbus. The Christian

religion, or the Church, is personified by a female figure,
-"
Fig. 29.—LIBERTY wiTH A NIMBUs.

Sculpture of the xIII cent. Cathedral of Chartres.
crowned and with a nimbus, holding in one hand a chalice,

in the other a cross;” this was one of the most frequent
* See particularly a fine Champenois Manuscript of the end of the thirteenth
ersonifications throughout the middle ages. A Greek

S., preserved in the Vatican,” contains the city of
Gabaon (Tö\'s TáSaov) under the figure of a tall woman,
wearing on her head a mural crown, her feet bare, and a long
staff in her hand; the personified city, wears, besides the
crown, a large circular nimbus. The sun and moon often
have a nimbus in imitation of the Pagan custom: this is
easily accounted for, the nimbus being a radiation of light,
and the sun and moon, which divide time into day and night,
being the two pre-eminently luminous objects in creation,
at least to the inhabitants of our world. In our own
country where the nimbus is less
prodigally given than in Greece,
instead of encircling with that insig
nia the heads of the sun and moon,
a torch or a flambeau is frequently
placed in the hands of those stars,
as may be remarked in the north
porch of the cathedral of Chartres.
Christians bestow the nimbus on
saints, exactly in the same manner in
Fig. 30.—DIANA, the Moos, which the ancients gave it to the sun
"," " " and moon; thus in the annexed ex
Roman Sculpture.t ample, the head of Diana, or the Moon
has a circular nimbus, but in order to distinguish her by some
peculiar attribute, the crescent is placed upon her head.:
century, in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal. The Christian Church and the
Synagogue are both present at the Crucifixion of our Blessed Saviour. The
Church, the personification of Christianity, has a nimbus; the Synagogue,
personifying the Jewish religion, whose existence terminated at the death of
Christ, is without. The MS. of Gulielmus Durandus (Racional des offices)
“Theol.” fr. No. 24, close of the fifteenth century, in the same library, also
contains a personified figure of the Church with a nimbus. The celebrated
MS. of Drogon (Bib. Roy.) Supplément Latin, 645, contains a personification
of the Church, similarly adorned with a golden nimbus.
* See Seroux d'Agincourt, Histoire de l'Art par les Monuments, p. 28.
This MS. belongs to the seventh or eighth century.
+ Montfaucon, Antiquité Expliquée, tom. ii., p. 414. The Sun, in the
next example, is in the first vol., pl. 53, p. 106. Observe here, also, as above,
the astronomical and planetary number of the seven rays.
# See below in The History of God, fig. 52, a very fine design, taken from
a Greek MS., giving a personification of Night, represented with a nimbus like
that of the Prophet Isaiah, near whom she is stationed. The MS. of Drogon,
THE NIMBUS OE ALLEGORICAL BEINGS. 87.
The following engraving represents the sun. The nimbus is

formed by the seven rays issuing from his head, together with
the material representation of the
sun in the form of a wheel, which
forms his characteristic attribute.
The sun and moon are frequently
represented in works of Christian
art, as present at the death of Christ,
and weeping at the sacrifice of the
Deity. In the thirteenth century
this sun and moon were figured under
the form of stars, held by two angels,
who seem, as it were, the genii of Fig. 31.
those orbs: but in the eleventh and . -
twelfth the two stars are personi- "£"

fied and placed, in half lengths only,
on the field of the nimbus, which
likeEtruscan
"sosSculpture.
run "ap.
is bordered by undulating lines, in imitation of clouds or
flame.” Upon a crown of gilded copper, presented by Bar
barossa to the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, Christ is repre
sented bound to the cross. The sun and moon are half
figures, the moon is a woman bearing a crescent on her head;
the sun a young man with a nimbus of sunbeams. In
several manuscripts with miniatures belonging to the eighth
or ninth centuries, these two stars, the sun and moon, are
represented quite after the antique type; they have a circular
nimbus, and are mounted on a car drawn by four horses.
The four attributes of the Evangelists, the Angel of
St. Matthew, the Eagle of St. John, the Lion of St. Mark,
and the Ox of St. Luke, wear a nimbus like that of the
Saints and apostles themselves.f A manuscript in the
quoted above, also presents a miniature of the Crucifixion, in which the
Moon is personified by a tall, white female figure, with a crescent on her head.
The Sun is personified by a red coloured youth, with a radiated crown; both
are inscribed within a medallion.
* See below, in The History of God the Son, fig. 68, a Sun and Moon
thus represented, mourning the death of Christ.
t See, in “The History of the Trinity and of Jesus Christ,” several designs
representing the symbolic animals wearing the circular nimbus. Below, in
the description of the aureole, a representation is given (No. 36) of the
romanesque fresco in the Cathedral of Auxerre ; both the Eagle of St. John,
and the Ox of St. Luke, have the nimbus. On the tympanum of the central
88 - CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY,
Bibliothèque Royale, a kind of encyclopaedia or “livre de

clergie,” of the £ century, furnishes one instance of a
singular peculiarity.” Two peacocks looking at and ap
parently advancing towards each other, climb up the rampe
of a circular arch, the tympanum of which contains a figure
adorned with a cruciform nimbus and holding a book.
The triple aigrette of light rises like a plume from the
heads of the peacocks, which are also girt by a broad
circular thread, forming, in fact, a nimbus. These peacocks
are unquestionably symbolic and ought to express some
idea analogous to that conveyed by the animals of the
Evangelists. A manuscript psaltert in the library at
Amiens, contains at the eighty-second psalm a figure of the
lamb of God, painted and inscribed within the D, which is
the initial letter of the first verse. The lamb has a plain
nimbus without a cross, the first peculiarity to be remarked;
but the head of the D is in the form of a bird, which appears
to seize a serpent by the throat with its beak. This bird,
resembling an eagle, and which is unquestionably intended
to symbolise courage or virtue triumphant over vice, has a
nimbus resembling that of the lamb; a plain nimbus of the
colour of parchment, and the form designed by one simple
black line.
Finally, Satan, the Genius of Evil, is sometimes drawn
with a nimbus: it will at this point be necessary to make a
few observations concerning the importance of the nimbus,
and the idea intended to be expressed by it.
door, in the west porch of the Cathedral of Chartres, is a sculpture representing
Christ surrounded by the symbolic animals; of these, the Eagle alone has a
nimbus, the heads of the other three being so completely detached from the
ground, that the nimbus would be more difficult of execution.
* “Fonds de St. Germain,” lat. No. 434, olim 547. See Peintures et
Ornements des Manuscrits, 8", livraison.
‘f Liber Psalmorum, ninth century. The 82nd Psalm begins with these
words: Deus, quis similis erit tibi ?
SIGNIFICATION OF THE NIMBUS, 89
SIGNIFICATION OF THE NIMBUS.
The nimbus, in the West more especially, is regarded as

an attribute of holiness; a king, according to our ideas,
should be adorned with a crown, a nimbus marks the saint.*
It is not thus in the East: the nimbus is there a cha
racteristic of physical energy no less than of moral strength,
of civil or political power, as well as of religious authority.
A king is equally entitled to the nimbus with a saint.
In a Turkish manuscript, preserved in the Bibliothèque
Royale, is a figure of Aurungzebe mounted on horseback
and reading. The aged descendant of Timour is preceded
and followed by an escort of persons on foot. The Grand
Mogul alone, among all the persons there, is represented
wearing a circular or radiating nimbus on the head. This
example may serve to illustrate its application to civil
power; in proof of its use in expressing religious domina
tion, we may cite an oriental picture, brought by General
Allard from the kingdom of Lahore, representing Gourou
Sing and Baba-Nanck, founders of the Sikh religion. Baba
Nanck, its first revealer, has a radiating nimbus; Gourou
Sing, a reformer only and a warrior reformer, has a simple
luminous circle of unradiating light by way of nimbus.
Thus then we discover that the nimbus is given in the
East, to all who govern by civil power alone, by military
and religious authority combined, or by purely religious
authority. It is awarded in the East to everything powerful,
not only to kings and saints, but to good and evil genii,
to devils and false gods; it is, on the contrary, withheld
from all beings destitute of power or deficient in virtue.
The distinction is most easily established. Any creature,
supposed to be infirm, conquered, or ready to yield, will
be drawn without a nimbus; it is an insignia borne by the
mighty and powerful alone.
* See, amongst other examples, a copy of a beautiful miniature, presented in
the grand work of M. le Comte Auguste de Bastard, Peintures et Ornements
des Manuscrits.
In the western world, and in countries wholly uncontami

nated by contact with eastern opinions, the nimbus, except in
the few instances noticed above, is given only to the heads of
God, angels, saints, and the personification of holy ideas.
A king, or an emperor, a bishop, a priest, a religieux, or a
magistrate, is, notwithstanding his power and authority,
without a nimbus, unless, indeed, he ' something higher
than either king, emperor, bishop, clerk, or citizen. To be
entitled to a nimbus, he must, like St. Louis, St. Charle
magne, St. Remi, St. Victor, St. Bernard, Ste. Regina, have
been canonised, or be esteemed as a saint. For yet more
weighty reasons, the nimbus is not given to a serf, a vicious
man, or a demon, however great may be his reputation in
other respects; yet, on the other hand, a poor and holy
woman, like St. Geneviève; a poor beggar, like St. Alexis;
a poor boatman, like St. Julian; a poor shoemaker, like
St. Crispin, will all have the nimbus, because they, in their
lifetime, loved God, mortified the flesh, prayed for others,
and succoured the unfortunate. If any have performed the
six works of mercy, have nourished the hungry, refreshed
the thirsty, entertained strangers and sick persons, clothed
the naked, visited those in prison,” they will be honoured
with the nimbus; they are greater in heaven than the Kin
Clovis, the Emperor Otho, the famous Pope Sylvester II,
and the great Archbishop Hincmar.
We must, however, guard against misconceptions; as, for
example, when statues, or sculptured figures, are without
the nimbus, as is the case in the grand porch of the Cathe
dral of Amiens, it must not be too hastily concluded that the
persons they represent were non-canonised; for, at Amiens,
the figures are, in fact, very holy saints, apostles, and
martyrs; and, although without a nimbus, the deficiency
arises from the difficulty of sculpturing that insignia, in a
permanent manner, around the head, and from their being
too far distant from the wall, against which alone the
nimbus could possibly have been applied; and, in fact, on
the vaultings, and in the tympanum, where its execution
was more easy and practicable, that attribute will be found
to exist. *
. On the other hand, it must not be imagined, in conse

* St. Matthew, xxv., 35, 36.
SIGNIFICATION OF THE NIMBUS. 91.
quence of what has been now said, that any personage,

whose head is not adorned with the nimbus, may, neverthe
less, be a saint; and that, although deprived of the nimbus,
it is only because that attribute was forgotten, or found
difficult of execution. That it may have been forgotten, is
possible and is known to be frequently the case. But
although errors of this description abound in miniatures, and
in illuminated manuscripts, they are seldom found in
statuary, in which greater correctness is observed. Besides,
if the persons in question be surrounded by other figures, in
the same position, and all wearing the nimbus, it must be
concluded that the person without it is not canonised, but
that the others, on the contrary, are all saints. Thus, in
the tympanum of the right hand door, at the grand entrance
of the Cathedral of Paris, a king is seen on his knees, and a
bishop standing beside him, both figures destitute of the
nimbus, while the other persons have it; it is because the
bishop is Maurice of Sully, and the king is Philip Augustus,
neither of whom were saints.
In short, neither the absence nor the presence of the
nimbus must be assumed to be an unquestionable proof of
sanctity or its reverse, except during the period preceding,
and inclusive of the fourteenth century. After that time,
the important signification of the nimbus disappears; it
is given, or withheld, in a somewhat arbitrary manner.
But, during the thirteenth century, especially in certain
edifices where the true signification of the nimbus is
observed, we may affirm that the nimbus, when encircling
the head of any figure, proves the person represented to
have been a saint. A figure of an ecclesiastic placed erect
against the side of the left doorway, in the south porch of
the Cathedral at Chartres, has the nimbus: this man must,
consequently, have been a saint; he cannot, therefore, be
intended for Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres, who was never
canonised, but rather for the Pope St. Clement, who may,
besides, be recognised by his crown, which is a tiara, not a
mitre, and by the little building surrounded with water, on
which he rests his feet, and which is not intended, as has
been asserted, to figure the destruction of the Cathedral of
Chartres by fire.
Still, notwithstanding the above observations, the only
certain guides in such investigations are sound judgment,

and the habit of examining and studying ancient monuments.
HISTORY OF THE NIMBUS.
It is the object of the nimbus, forcibly and at a glance,

to express the distinctive character of the person decorated
with it. It is placed like a crown on the head, the head
being the noblest portion of the human being, and the
loftiest and most conspicuous part of the person.
The head has, indeed, been invariably selected as the
peculiar point of attraction, whenever men have desired to
excite attention, or to command respect.
In all ages, and among all people, the head has been
regarded as the noblest portion of man. It is to the head
that the lion owes his title of monarch of the brute creation.
It is from carrying his head erect, and thus directing his
gaze freely and naturally towards heaven, that man himself
derives his rank, as the chief of all created beings.” The
head is to man what the flower is to the plant—the pediment
to the portico; it is, if we may be permitted the expression,
the material soul of the body—the outer covering—the seat
and temple of the immortal spirit. To the head belong the
faculties of taste, sight, smell, and, above all, of thought; in
the brain, the source and fountain of ideas, the motions of
the senses, and their peculiar organs and affluents, are found
to terminate. Properties, which are dispersed irregularly
throughout the body, are united and concentrated in the
head; beauty itself, although it has for its development the
varied surface of the entire person,—beauty itself is most
vividly displayed, most powerfully concentrated, in the head.
A fine head gives beauty to an ugly form; but there can be
no true beauty in a noble person, with a commonplace or
vulgar head and countenance.
Thus, in the material economy, both anatomical and
physiological, the entire man is concentrated in the head;
and in aesthetics, also, we find the head to be the seat of
* “Pronaque cum spectent caetera animalia terram,
Os homini sublime dedit (Opifex rerum) coelumque tueri
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.”
Ovid, Metamorphoses, lib. i.
HISTORY OF THE NIMBUS. 93
supreme beauty and intelligence. In psychology, the body

is of little consequence; the head is everything. The body,
divested of the head, is a plant without a flower, a column
without a capital, a nameless and formless object. But, on
the other hand, a rose taken from the plant, a capital sepa
rated from the shaft, may, each respectively, become a
graceful ornament, either for a woman or a monument; in
short, the human head, apart from the trunk, has been
exalted into the purest of all celestial intelligences, the
Seraphim, who are, solely and entirely, love.
The Christian Church and religion thought but lightly of
the human body; but the head was held in high estimation.
“Any spot may be chosen for the interment of the trunk,
when separated from the head,” say the ancient liturgists,
Gulielmus Durandus and John Beleth; “but the head may
not be buried except in holy and consecrated ground—in
the church or the cemetery.” The body, without the head,
does not consecrate the place in which it rests; the head,
without the body, sanctifies the spot immediately.*
Of all the millions of martyrs belonging to the Theban
legion, who repose at Cologne in the church dedicated to
St. Gereon, their companion and one of their chiefs, the
heads in particular are preserved, ranged in cabinets with
glass doors, like costly books in a library. So in the church
of St. Ursula, also at Cologne, what are the memorials there
preserved of the eleven thousand virgins ? still, the heads;
enclosed in reliquaries of gold, silver, or precious woods.
* Durandus, Bishop of Mende, writes thus (Rationale Divin. Offic, lib. i.,
cap. v., de cimeterio et aliis, &c.):—“Religiosa sunt ubi cadaver hominis
integrum vel etiam caput tantum sepelitur, quia nemo potest duas sepulturas
habere. Corpus vero vel aliquod aliud membrum, absque capite sepultum,
non facit locum religiosum.” John Beleth (Rationale Divin. Offic.,
cap. ii., de loco,) says, in his turn:—“Postremo locus religiosus ille dicitur in
quo integrum hominis cadaver sepultum est, vel tantum etiam caput. Corpus
enim obtruncatum, nisi et caput adsit, locum religiosum facere non potest.”
“Religious places within which the entire body of a man, or, at least, his
head, is buried, because no man can have two sepulchres. But the body,
or any member without the head, doth not make the place wherein it is buried
religious.” In these quotations we see the working of that spirit of Christianity
which gives every honour to the head, the especial seat of the soul. M. l'Abbé
Pascal, correspondent of the “Comité des Arts et Monuments,” is about to
publish a Liturgical Dictionary, in which the question of the preference of
the head over the body will be treated at length.
94 . CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY.
There is a large chamber entirely occupied by these rich and

curious relics. How much have people contended for the
head of John the Baptist! five or six different churches
pretended, and do still pretend, to possess it; has his body
ever been the subject of the slightest contention? Has
any one ever sought to discover in whose possession it
might be, or where it was laid?
The head being thus invested with such pecular impor
tance, the insignia employed to distinguish or classify
various ranks of men, was naturally enough attached to the
head. Some men are born to command, others to obey; some
march first, direct, command; others follow and execute.
The former are chiefs, the latter workmen.
The chiefs wear on their heads a distinctive sign; the
king is recognised by his crown, the pope by his tiara, the
bishop by his mitre; even the distinction of sex is marked
amongst us by a difference in the head-tire, which is fixed
upon women and moveable on men.
The crowns or head-tire of civil and military chiefs are
extremely varied; but amongst all nations, whether highly
civilised or in the lowest state of barbarism, the crown has
been and still is the insignia of supreme power.
The diadem amongst the Greeks, the open crown of the
Romans, the cone or cylinder amongst Eastern nations, the
cupola of the Byzantines, and the close crown worn by
Christian sovereigns, are but the principal types of a host of
varieties. The crown, in the middle ages, was a hierarchical
symbol, and used like the escutcheon, as a token of recog
nition amongst nobles. The escutcheon distinguishes
families, the crown marks different orders of rank. The
crown of an emperor is closed; a king's crown is arched but
open; a prince's crown is of fleurs-de-lis and feuilles-d'ache.
As the crown descends step by step in the scale it be
comes diminished in proportion to the rank of the wearer;
it loses its fleurs-de-lis, and is first formed simply of feuilles
d'ache; or secondly, of feuilles-d'ache intermingled with
pearls; or thirdly, of eighteen large pearls without leaves;
or fourthly, of four large pearls intermingled with lesser
ones; or fifthly, and finally, of small pearls alone, arranged
in a simple thread or twist. Crowns thus diminished are
worn, the first by dukes, the second by marquises, the third
HISTORY OF THE NIMBUS. .95
by counts, the fourth by viscounts; the fifth is the baronial

crown; and the knight's crown is formed by the helmet only.
The crown may be likened in its use to a standard,
borne aloft in the air by the leader to serve as a guide to
those who follow. At the battle of Ivry, Henry IV, ex
claimed, “Follow my plume, you will always find it in the
path of honour.” It may possibly be from a similar motive
and as a decorative mark of honour, that kings of savage
nations crown themselves with lofty and brilliant plumes.
When any man has rendered himself illustrious by
brilliant actions, a crown is generally awarded to him as a
recompense; the mark of homage being invariably appropriate
to the head.* The mural crown, crowns of oak, olive, and
laurelt were granted by the ancient Romans to those who
headed the assault of a city, gained a victory, or performed
any other illustrious deed, and crowns were given by the
Greeks to those gods whom they desired especially to
honour. The great poets and philosophers of ancient
times were distinguished by various crowns, and we find
them often thus decorated in their Iconography.
When, with the first rise of Christianity, a mode of
becoming illustrious before unknown, was as it were revealed
to the world; when martyrs shed their blood in witness of
the faith which they proclaimed, preached and propa
gated, God himself consecrated the system adopted by
profane policy, and these heroic deeds were recompensed by
crowns bestowed upon those who had performed them. The
earliest monuments of Christian art represent either divine
hands, extended from the highest Heaven, proffering
crowns to the martyrs, or angels descending in like
manner from Heaven, bringing crowns by the command of
* It may be said that with us that mark of homage has descended from the
head to the shoulders, with the epaulettes, and been removed with the cross
from the shoulders to the breast.
+ At Notre Dame de Brou is a statue of St. John the Evangelist of carved
wood, a work of the sixteenth century. It belonged originally to the ancient
sculptured pulpit, and is now placed in a niche in one of the stalls. St. John
is young, beardless, represented like a Roman Emperor; he wears on his head
a crown of laurel, like an ancient conqueror. This crown appears to be a
species of nimbus borrowed from Pagan antiquity.
# See, in the History of God, a hand thus holding forth a crown (fig. 55),
taken from the Vetera Monimenta, secunda pars, pl. 53.
God to all, who, by their death, had borne witness to theil

faith.*
The entire basement of the Sainte Chapelle at Paris i;
decorated with a system of arches. The deaths of variou
martyrs are represented in the tympanum of the arcades
amongst others the martyrdom of St. Stephen, and o
Thomas of Canterbury. Above the mortal suffering appear
the celestial reward, for angels descend from Heave.
bearing crowns, which they bestow upon those gloriou
martyrs.t
Another method, however, if not invented, was at leas
very widely adopted among the Christians and awarded a
a mark of honour and distinction to saints and mart
The crown is a material ornament, encircling the head lik
a sort of head-tire. This new mark of honour, more idea
and differently placed, although also encircling the head
took another name, and was called the nimbus.
The crown is an insignia of civil power, borne by th
laity; the nimbus is ecclesiastic and religious; but the
nimbus, like the crown, is applied to the head. It might
therefore, be desirable, in treating of archaeological subject
referring especially to the head, to give a history of thes
two modes of conferring honour on different personages
and which, although diverse, are yet analogous in form and
treatment. But as the present work is devoted to religiou
archaeology, we are called upon solely to speak of the nimbu
without in any way noticing the crown.
The Pagans, as has been already said, were familiar with
the use of the nimbus, but it has £ most frequently an
constantly employed by Christians, and with the mos
varied and significant application. From the fifth or sixtl
century of the Christian era down to the present time th
* See, in The History of the Angels," one of these celestial beings, in
design taken from the “Roma Sotterranea.” The angel bears in one hand
palm, in the other a martyr's crown.
+ M. de Sommerard has in his possession a valuable manuscript covered wit
plates of ivory; these plates are fixed in a framework adorned with filagre
work, and rich precious stones, unpolished. The Crucifixion is sculptured o
one of these plates of ivory, and above it is seen a hand issuing from the clouds
it is the hand of God the Father presenting a crown to the divine martyr.
* This history has not yet appeared.

nimbus has never ceased, except in some few instances of

casual omission, to be painted or sculptured around the heads
of various statues and figures, to indicate their dignity and
their hierarchical rank and degree.
The history of the nimbus is, therefore, marked by several
distinct phases, the principal among which will now be
enumerated and explained.
The nimbus is little seen during the four first centuries
of the Christian era, for that distracted period was one of
strife, persecution, and contention. The Church was esta
blished, but having as yet no form of art peculiarly her own,
had recourse in her need to the arts of antiquity. She con
stantly adopted from the Jewish religion whatever belonged
to her by anticipation, and did but borrow doubtfully from
Pagan art such themes as it was in her power to sanctify
to her use. She might well transform by the aid of lustral
water* the Roman Basilica into a church, because con
strained by wants and imperative necessity so to do; but
it was possible for her to dispense for some time with the
Pagan nimbus, which would have recalled the emperors by
whom she had been persecuted, and the false gods whom
she had abjured; most frequently, therefore, it was omitted
altogether. The nimbus rarely occurs in the catacombs,
either on frescoes or sarcophagi.
Not only are apostles and saints drawn without that
distinctive mark, but the Virgin, and even Christ himself are
without it. The annexed plate is taken from an antique
sarcophagus preserved in the Vatican.
Here, as in the greater number of similar monuments,
God is represented beardless and without a nimbus; He is
* “It would be instructive to trace the rites and customs adopted by the
Roman Church from Pagan ceremonies; for instance, the Aqua lustralis
was a species of holy water, since it was that in which a torch from the
altar, during the offering of a sacrifice, had been extinguished. Thus sanc
tified, it was put in a vase at the entrance of the temples, and into it
every one dipped his fingers at ingress or egress; and, to make the analogy
between the Roman Catholics and the Pagans, in this respect, more complete,
we may observe that light brooms being dipped in it by the officiating priest,
it was scattered in the form of dew over those who were present.
“‘Idem ter socias pură circumtulit undà
Spergens rore levi.’”
–Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, “Greeks and Romans,” vol. ii., p. 59.
sentencing Adam to till the ground, that it may bring forth

corn, of which He offers him a little sheaf, and commanding
Eve to spin the wool of the lamb, which He presents to her.
Fig. 32.—GoD THE FATHER, witHouT A NIMBUS AND BEARDLEss, CoNDEMNING ADAM
To Till THE GROUND AND EVE TO SPIN WOOL.
Sarcophagus in the Vatican-earliest ages of Christianity.
Thus, in the most ancient monuments of France and Italy,

divine and sacred persons are constantly represented without
the nimbus.”
* This engraving is taken from the work of Bosio, “Roma Sotterranea,”
p. 295. See, in the “History of Jesus Christ,” two other designs, also copied
from early Christian sarcophagi now in the Museum of the Vatican. One
represents Christ, beardless (Fig. 66), seated on a throne, his feet
resting on a figure personifying the Heavens; in the other, Jesus Christ is
represented with a beard, standing on a mountain, whence flow the four rivers
of Paradise. Both these figures represent the Saviour preaching the Gospel.
In the last mentioned, he addresses his Apostles, who stand round under the
form of sheep. None of these personages have the nimbus, not even the Lamb
of God, who is distinguished only by the cross which rises above his head.
On the sarcophagi at Arles are several figures of Christ, without beard or
nimbus. I am indebted to the kindness of M. H. Clair, correspondent of the
“Comité des Arts et Monuments,” and author of “Arles, Ancien et Moderne,”
for two drawings representing Jesus, without a beard or nimbus. These draw
ings, executed by M. Dumas, were taken from the sarcophagi of the Aliscamps.
In later times, towards the fifth and sixth centuries, the

Church, powerful at Rome, in Europe, in Asia, and even in
Africa, was but rarely exposed to contradiction or opposi
tion. She had, in those days, to contend with heretics,
rather than with heathens. At that period, she distributed,
into groups, all her personalities, laic and ecclesiastical; she
had attained power, and it became her, therefore, to assume
its attributes.
Feudalism was just about to rise; everything was be
coming hierarchical; men and things were all disposed in
regular order. The Church had herself founded a hierarchy
on earth as well as in heaven; she arranged, in categorical
order, the multitude of saints triumphant in Paradise, and
of Christians militant on earth: she assigned, to all, their
chiefs. As in the army the distinction of grade of the
various officers commanding battalions and companies, is
marked by the epaulette, so the saints who command
in heaven are distinguished by the varied forms of the
nimbus.
The supreme head of all, God the Father, or the Son, or
the Holy Ghost, had a circular nimbus, a disk precisely
resembling that of the saints; but the nimbus of the
divine persons was, as a mark of special distinction, divided
diagonally by two intersecting lines, in the form of a cross,
as has been said and shown above.
When the nimbus had once been adopted among
Christians as a characteristic of holiness, and to mark the
distinction of rank, it was constantly employed nearly
to the period of the Renaissance; still it was subject to
certain modifications, which supply the materials of its
archaeological history, and of which it is now time to
speak.
P: nimbus is not constantly figured around the heads of
saints, in monuments belonging to a period earlier than
the eleventh century. The Christian nimbus is not found on
well authenticated monuments anterior to the sixth century.
The transition from the complete absence to the constant
presence of the nimbus, was effected during the seventh,
eighth, and ninth centuries. During that period, figures,
even on the same monument, are represented sometimes
with, and sometimes without, that attribute. Thus, at the
H 2
conclusion of a manuscript in the “Bibliothèque Royale,”*

we find a figure of St. Daria without a nimbus, and St.
Chrisant with a nimbus formed of a simple thread; while,
elsewhere, in the body of the manuscript, Jesus Christ bears
a nimbus marked with the cross, while that of the apostles
has a simple edge or hem, and other saints have it of a disk
like form. It is evident, therefore, that, at that epoch, the
nimbus was not constant, and, further, that it varied con
siderably in form.
The nimbus, up to the twelfth century, was in the form
of a disk, but fine and attenuate. A very beautiful Greek
manuscript, of the tenth century, belonging to the “Biblio
thèque Royale,” and which has been already mentioned,
contains a personification of Night, under the figure of a
woman, clad in black robes. Her head is encircled by a
luminous and transparent nimbus, through which, as
through the glass of a telescope, the stars of heaven are
discernible.t. Even if the nimbus be not, in all cases,
equally diaphanous, it is always so lightly traced as to
suggest the idea of transparency, and of the artist's desire
to figure it as a luminous atmosphere.
During the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries,
the nimbus became more dense, narrower, and extending
less beyond the head; it had, till then, been transparent,
but now became opaque. It was nothing more thenceforth
than a rude disk, a kind of plate, a sort of circular pillow
painted or sculptured behind the head. It no longer, as in
the preceding periods, permitted the sky and the surround
ing landscape to be seen through it. . It was a thick wall,
not transparent glass. Such is the nimbus given to God,
his saints and angels, in the cathedrals of Paris and of
Chartres. # In the admirably carved basement decorating
the Sainte Chapelle at Paris, both saints and angels are
represented; and the nimbus worn by them is luminous,
very elegant, and painted in brilliant colours. But the
Sainte Chapelle, as a monument, is an exception; it is a
* Liber Precum, suppl. lat. 641. This curious MS. may belong to the
ninth century; it has generally been assigned to the eleventh.
+ See the “History of God,” Fig. 52.
# See Fig. 29, representing Liberty.
royal edifice, in which one might imagine the genius of the

East to have found a place of rest.
During the whole of the fifteenth, and the opening of the
sixteenth century, Gothic art was on the decline, and finally
expired; the elegance by which it had been characterised
during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, was lost;
it became heavy and materialised, sculpture degenerated into
vulgarity in its choice of types, and architecture into coarse
ness of outline.
Simultaneously the nimbus also became materialised; till
that time it had continued to be of large dimensions, but
thenceforth it became narrower, more confined, and, above all,
more solid. Previous to that epoch, and even throughout the
fourteenth century, it had been regarded as an aureole, a light
emanating from the head. This idea was most clearly defined
up to the twelfth century, it continued to be expressed, but
more clumsily, till the fifteenth; nevertheless the intention
of figuring a light was clearly manifest. In the fifteenth
century, on the contrary, the form of the nimbus only was
preserved; its signification was entirely lost, and it seemed
rather to be regarded as a head-dress. The aureole became
gradually more and more condensed; the light solidified
and extinguished; and the nimbus itself transformed into
a large cockade, or a sort of casquette, placed upon the
head of a saint, or of God himself, and inclining sometimes
to the right ear, sometimes to the left. The nimbus of
God or of the saints was worn precisely as some persons,
our villagers more especially, affect to wear their head
tire. The stained glass of the latter part of the fifteenth
century, several windows for example in the churches of
Troyes and Châlons-sur-Marne, present nimbi, which
are." reality nothing more than a sort of tire for the
head.
In the Cathedral of Amiens, on the stalls which were
erected in 1508 (the date is there given), is a youthful
figure of our Saviour teaching in the Temple, and wearing
above the ear one of those solid nimbi, worked, and re
sembling an embroidered cap (casquette). The annexed
plate is taken from the same stalls, and represents Christ
ascending to the Temple, whither he is conducted by
St. Joseph and St. Mary. The nimbus, as may be seen, is
actually a head-dress, the exterior plate ornamented like

that of a casquette of cloth.*
Not one among all the angels
sculptured or painted in the
church of Notre Dame de Brou,
at Bourg, has a nimbus; nor is
there a single nimbus on either
of the stone statues.
A small wooden statuette, re
presenting Christ teaching in the
Temple, has indeed a nimbus, but
it is of the casquette form, similar
to that in the stalls at Amiens
Fig.RESEMBLING
33.—CHRIST,AwitH A NIMRUs
Cathedral. A few nimbi may,
FLAT CAP, or however, be remarked in
-
the
CAsquet TE. painted
windows.
From a carving on wood in the
stalls of Notre Dame d'Amiens.
painting
On one window is a s
AWI cent. of the Assumption of the Virgin,
in which the apostles are deco
rated with a nimbus, resembling, with the exception of the
barbest and cylinder, the hat of the Bressane peasant girls.
This nimbus is even ornamented on the plane, and at the
outer edge.
All these examples belong to the first half of the sixteenth
century; the nimbus after that period either disappeared al
together in France, or was changed into an actual head-dress.
I say in France, because in Italy, at that period, and even
for more than a century previous, the nimbus was correctly
represented.:
At the Renaissance, notwithstanding the reverse has been
asserted to be the fact, the delicate idea and the elegant
manner of depicting the nimbus prevalent in earlier times
was revived; the Italian Renaissance was 100 or 150
years earlier than the French Renaissance. The nimbus,
* This drawing represents our Saviour, seen from behind, ascending the
steps of the Temple.
+ “‘Barbes, des bandes de toile ou de dentelle, qui pendent aux cornettes
des femmes.”—Dict. de l’Academie.
# See below, in the “History of the Glory,” a plate of the Virgin, taken
from Orcagna's magnificent picture of “The Last Judgment.” Mary, seated
like her Son, Jesus Christ, in an elliptical aureole, is represented with her
which had fallen so low, and become so materialised and

degraded, began again to rise; it succeeded in obtaining once
more that ethereal subtlety, which, towards the end of the
fourteenth century, it had aspired to reach in vain. At
Brou, where the nimbus is, in general, so completely material,
there is on one of the painted windows a figure of Mary
Magdalene at the feet of her risen Lord, who commands her
not to touch him (Noli me tangere). The figure of Christ
is illumined by a nimbus £ of clusters of flame.
From that period the ingenuity of the artist is exerted
to make the nimbus completely expressive of the idea which
it was originally intended to convey.
It is reduced to an outer circle only, the field of the disk
is altogether omitted or suppressed, as amongst the Pagans
and during the first ages of Christianity, and thenceforth
it becomes transparent like that of the Byzantine “Night”
above mentioned.
The circle is regular and firm like the edge of a vase, or
perhaps it is merely an uncertain wavering line, resembling
a circle of light.*
On the other hand, this circular line often disappears, the
frame or circumference of the entire disk is removed and
the internal field alone retained; the framework being con
sidered too coarse, too thick, and, as it were, unworthy to
enclose the electric light emanating from the head. It is
a shadow of flame, circular in form, but not permitting
itself to be circumscribed. In a platet, which will be
given in the History of the Holy Ghost, and which re
presents God pronouncing a blessing on the world, at the
moment when the Holy Dove moves upon the face of the
waters, the outer circle of the divine nimbus has disappeared,
head surrounded by a host of rays, extending even beyond the circumference

of the glory. The head of the Virgin diffuses on all sides a brilliant radiance.
Figs. 67 and 74.
* See, for Italy, the “Disputá;” for France, the magnificent manuscript of
“Anne de Bretagne,” in the Bibliothèque Royale. Few of the nimbi in this
MS. are in the form of a disk; circular nimbi, on the contrary, with a firmly
marked outer line, are seen in abundance, and several with trembling
uncertain lines resembling a misty light.
+ Fig. 112. The Holy Ghost as a Dove; it is worthy of remark that
the nimbus of the Dove is still solid and cruciform. Trans.
although the rays are of equal length, and terminate in the

form of a circle.
On other monuments these rays are long or short, disposed
either alternately or irregularly. In the beautiful paintings
on wood at Amiens, called “Tableaux dupuys de la confrérie
de Notre Dame,” the Virgin Mary is represented with a
nimbus of luminous rays, some long and others short. The
infant Christ himself is similarly nimbed, but with the
addition of the rays being longer and floriated at the ex
tremity, and which thus form the cross. The circumference
of the nimbus, which serves in other instances to unite the
rays, is here altogether omitted.”
Both the circle and the disk are
often omitted in the nimbus of
Christ, and nothing is retained
except the cross, which marks his
divinity.
The cross is formed of three
plumes or jets of light, rising from
the summit of the head, and the
temples, as in the charming infant
Christ, subjoined, which is taken
from a MS. of the sixteenth cen
"'t t that period also, luminous

Fig. 34. circles, drawn in perspective, first
£ £
Miniatur . MS. ada emSelVeS to the movements
*:£ * : '. head. The “Disputá” affords
several very fine examples; the
following is a form that occurs frequently in Italy in the
sixteenth century. The subject is a head of St. Peter.
The monuments which afford instances of these and other
varieties of the nimbus, are within reach of all the world.
The churches of Paris for example, from Saint-Germain
* See l'Atlas et l’Album des Arts au Moyen Age. M. du Sommerard,
who possesses one of the Amiens Pictures, has produced with success admirable
copies of those celebrated paintings, which tend to prove that the Renaissance
in France took place earlier than the sixteenth century; and that our style of
oil painting on wood is national, not exotic. The Amiens Pictures, which are
of the fifteenth century, preceded the irruption of Italian artists into France.
t See MS. 920, Bib. Roy.
des-Prés,to Saint-Sulpice, including the cathedral, the Sainte

Chapelle, Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, Saint-Eustache, and
Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, afford the most satisfactory evidence
on all these points. Every form and variety of the nimbus
may be found in abundance upon the
sculptures and painted windows which
decorate these edifices, and which
embrace a period of seven, or perhaps,
nine centuries.
At length, following the common
course of all things, the nimbus
vanished. At the close of the six
teenth century, not only Saints, the
Wirgin and the Apostles, but the
angels, God the Father, and even Fig. 35.
Jesus Christ, were despoiled of that
- - - - • * A NIMBUS DRAWN IN PER
characteristic attribute. If the nimbus SPECTIVE, FoRMED BY
- - - I
was still casually seen to illumine £" " "
Some statue or effigy, it was simply The “Disputs of Raphael.
because the artist, struggling against
fashion, attempted a return to ancient usages. A host of
monuments dating from that period, and extending down
to our own, exhibit divine personages, whether angelical
or canonised, without any nimbus * Thus, the close of
the middle ages was marked by a repetition of the same
peculiarity which had attended their commencement: God
and the Saints were alike destitute of the nimbus.
In the first centuries of the Christian era, it had not yet
sprung into existence: in the latter part of the fifteenth
century its existence had already terminated:t Take, for
instance, the angel, and apply the same example to God and
* See, in the “History of Jesus Christ and of the Trinity,” an example
(Fig. 126) of the Divine Persons, taken from a stone sculpture in the
environs of Troyes. This bas-relief belongs to the end of the sixteenth century,
and represents the Trinity crowning the Virgin Mary after her Assumption.
Neither Mary, the two Angels who have carried her to Heaven, nor the three
Persons by whom she is crowned, present the slightest appearance either of the
nimbus or the glory. Nothing could be more completely human, more coldly
real.
+ The Breviary of Salisbury, in the Bibliothèque Royale, and of the year
1434, illustrates the indifference with which the nimbus was regarded at that
period. In the picture of “The Lord’s Supper,” Christ has a nimbus, but it
all the saints. In the “History of the Angel” a design is

given, taken from a Sarcophagus, belonging to the earliest
ages of Christianity; it represents two creatures of human
form with wings, supporting books, upon a frieze, the centre
of which is filled #
a cross patée; another design is
from a MS. of the sixteenth century, and gives two angels,
supporting the armorial bearings of the Cardinal of Lorraine,
Archbishop of Rheims. In the first, the angels are not as
yet invested with the nimbus; in the second, it is no longer
applied; but in both examples the angels resemble the
enii of the ancients, of whom indeed they appear to exercise
nearly all the functions.
In the present day, however, when Christianity is better
understood, and studied with more intelligence than formerly,
the use of the nimbus has been revived. But the present
age is one of eclecticism, and anterior forms and ideas are
adopted, without regard to the confusion attendant upon the
amalgamation of incongruous elements induced by this
spirit of universal and arbitrary adaptation.
Our artists employ the circular or triangular nimbus, the
disk and the aureole, almost at pleasure; being little versed
in archaeology, they place the cross in the nimbus of ordinary
saints not entitled to such an honour, or, on the other
hand, represent the Deity with a plain nimbus, destitute
of the divine symbol of the cross. Thus in pictures of the
Holy Family, St. Joseph frequently has a cross in the
nimbus, while that of the infant Saviour is without. The
artist, with one stroke of the pencil, robs Christ of his
Divinity, and bestows the symbol of Deity upon one who is
but an ordinary mortal.
is not cruciform. In that of “The Annunciation,” the Holy Ghost also has a
nimbus, without a cross. There are numerous angels in this manuscript,
which is, in truth, peculiarly rich in miniatures; but not one amongst them
has a nimbus of any description.
THE AUREOLE. 107
THE AUREOLE.
The aureole, as has been said above, is a nimbus of the

entire body, in the same manner as the nimbus is the
aureole of the head. The word aureole is derived from the
Latin aureola, the diminutive of aura, a breeze, zephyr,
breath; aura also means day and light, because the rising
light of day is ushered in by the morning breeze, or perhaps
bright rays and flame, which are as it were the efflorescence
of light and day. Horace employs that word to signify, a
sweet odour, or slight perfume.
Aura, comes from the Greek a pa, a gentle wind, zephyr,
exhalation, vapour, aurora in short. These meanings may
all be reduced to one only, luminous breath—indicating
precisely the nature of the aureole, which is itself a flame,
and expressed, in Iconography, by undulations surrounding
the body, or by lines, intended to represent rays of light.
The aureole and the nimbus are identical in their nature,
which is that of a transparent cloud or a solid light. The
luminous atmosphere, described by Virgil as encircling the
goddess Minerva, and which he expresses by the words
“nimbo effulgens,” was undoubtedly an aureole, rather than
a nimbus.*
The aureole is an enlarged nimbus; the nimbus, a dimi
nished aureole. The nimbus cinctures the head; the
aureole surrounds the entire body. The aureole seems like
a drapery, a mantle of light, enveloping the entire body from
the feet to the crown of the head. The word aureole is
much in use in Christian Iconography, but its signification
is vague and undefined, and it is applied sometimes to the
* HEneid, book ii., v. 615:—

“Jam summas arces Tritonia, respice, Pallas
Insedit, nimbo effulgens et Gorgone saeva.”
“Nimbo effulgens. Nube divina. Est enim fulvidum lumen quod deorum
capita tinguit (sic).” Such are the expressions of Servius, the commentator of
Virgil, who lived in the fourth century. (See edition of Virgil, 4°. Geneva,
1636, p. 260.)
ornament of the head, sometimes to that of the body. In

the present work it will be employed in a more limited
sense, and will refer only to that large nimbus which usually
enframes the entire body of Christ, and sometimes also of
the Virgin. This kind of nimbus has, by some antiquaries,
been termed the “Vesica Piscis,” but a term so gross
deserves to be expunged from every refined system of
terminology; it was invented and employed even to abuse,
by English antiquaries. This term, in other respects also,
is faulty and incorrect, for the aureole as will presently
be shown, often varies greatly in form. It has some
Fig. 36.—God IN AN AUREoLE of QUATREForLs.

Fresco, from the apse in the crypt of the Cathedral of Auxerre, end of the xII cent.
times been called the “divine oval” or “mystical almond;”

the word “mystical” would seem at the first glance to
intimate a symbolic intention, the correctness of which,
one may reasonably venture to doubt. Besides, the aureole
is very frequently neither an oval, nor an almond, but
TEIE AUREOLE. 109
simply a nimbus like that of the head. The head is

round, the nimbus round; the human figure when erect
forms a kind of elongated oval, and the aureole is usually
elongated, somewhat in the form of an oval. But when the
person is represented sitting, the oval is contracted into a
circle,” and sometimes into a quatrefoil, in which case the
four salient or projecting parts of the body, the head, the
legs, and the two arms, have each their particular lobe, or
section of the nimbus, and the torso is enclosed within a
frame in the centre of the quatrefoil.
The above engraving is taken from a fresco placed at the
back of the great crypt which extends beneath the choir
and sanctuary of the Cathedral of Auxerre. Two candle
sticks of seven branches shine within the aureole of God:
without it, are painted two angels, bearing censers, and the
four symbols or attributes of the Evangelists, one of which,
however, the lion, is destroyed. In the centre of the
western rose of the Cathedral of Chartres, Christ is painted,
seated in a similar manner, within an aureole of quatrefoils,
and judging the human race. Each lobe of the quatrefoil
is better filled, and the intention is even more clearl
marked, than at Auxerre; because Christ, instead of holding
in his left hand the book, which rests upon his knees, and
raising the right hand in the air, as in the fresco at Auxerre,
extends both hands horizontally to show his wounds to the
sinners whom he condemns. The hands being thus extended,
the two lateral lobes of the aureole become imperatively
necessary.
The name of Byzantine nimbus has also been given to
the aureole; and this denomination is much better suited to
its nature, which, in fact, is that of a true nimbus; but the
epithet Byzantine is open to one serious objection, as
seeming to attribute to the Greek school and the Byzantine
style, as if it had issued from thence, or had been there
most frequently employed, a form which is neither peculiar
to that school nor to the style, and which belongs quite as
justly to the Latin Church and the Western style. We
"At St. Savin, near Poitiers, in the porch and the crypt of the church, God
is painted in fresco. He is seated, inscribed within an aureole, an entire circle,
: the field of which is greenish. In the nave is a figure of God, represented
*nding, and, therefore, in an oval aureole.
shall therefore restrict ourselves to the term aureole, in

preference to any other, and we venture to hope that it
may henceforth be generally employed in the terminology of
Christian Archaeology.
THE FORM OF THE AUREOLE
The form of the aureole, as has been seen, is very varied;

that most commonly to be met with is ovoidal at the base
and pointed at the summit; not blunted as in a true oval.
This form seems well fitted to eneircle a figure in an erect
position. The aureole is either a vestment of light,” or a
radiation of light from the body. In the first case the
aureole clings closely to the form of the body, which it
clothes as with a garment; in the second it also assimilates
itself to the form of the body, but is detached from it like
rays drawn outwards from a centre. The points of the
ovoid are general acute, but in some instances obtuse, in
order that they may adapt themselves more perfectly to the
outline of the £ and £ or, perhaps, the oval, shortened
from the summit to the base, envelopes the trunk only, being
elongated above by a vaulted lobe and below by a lobe of a
similar form, both of which are intersected by the oval of
the trunk. In the following example, taken from a MS. of
St. Sever, of which we have already spoken, a cloud with four
undulating lines encircles Jesus, who is descending from
heaven. This cloud takes exactly the form of the feet,
the trunk, and the head. It adapts itself in a remarkable
manner to the shape of the head, which might almost be
said to be incrusted with it, the aureole resembling a sort of
mould from whence the entire body seems to have received
its form.
The external edge, confining the entire field of the
aureole, is, amongst the Italians, regular and geometrical,
like all the lines adopted by Christian art in Italy. It might
be compared to a frame, cut out by a workman with a plane,
in proof of which see the plate of the “Ascension,” taken
from an Italian Manuscript, see ante, fig. 2.
* “Deus . . . . . amictus lumine sicut vestimento.” Psalm ciii., v. 2.
THE FORM OF THE AUREOLE. 111
Amongst ourselves, as has been shown by the Manuscript

of Saint Sever, the aureole is generally an undulating line,
Fig. 37.
THE LORD IN AN AUREOLE OF CLOUDS, WHICH TAKE THE FoRM of THE BODY.
Miniature of the x cent.; MS. de St. Sever, Bibliothèque Royale.
figuring the clouds or aerial vapour;" for the field of the

aureole is nothing more than the heaven itself, the abode of
God. It is in fact to God that the aureole is usually
* Christian artists represent water and vapour, fire and clouds, in the same
Inanner
restricted; to God the Father, the Son, and sometimes to

the Holy Ghost.
But in this latter case, and especially before the fourteenth
century, the Holy Ghost belongs to the Trinity, and neces
sarily accompanies the other two Divine persons. In the
fifteenth century the edge of the nimbus is frequently filled
with angels, just as the frame of a picture is ornamented
with arabesques. Thus a painting on wood, in the church
of the abbey of Saint Riquier, representing the Assump
tion, shows in the upper part of the picture, or, as it were
in heaven, the Trinity ' to receive Mary, who is
lifted up by angels and borne away into heaven. The Holy
Trinity appear in the bosom of an almost circular aureole,
and a £ of angels glitters in the band of the circle.
The magnificent “Cité de Dieu,” translated by Raoul de
Presles, and now in the Bibliothèque de Sainte Geneviève,
presents several examples of similar aureoles surrounding
the Deity, and carpeted with cherubim and seraphim of
azure, flame-colour, and gold.
When God is represented sitting within an aureole, his
feet are frequently placed upon the rainbow; a second
rainbow supports his back, and a third forms a pillow for his
head. This is a fine idea, especially when the field of the
aureole is blue, studded with golden stars; and the frame
greyish and undulating, like clouds.
The two rainbows of the head and back are often sup
pressed, for the Deity needs no support; in this case the
rainbow of the feet is sometimes replaced by a carpet of
gold, starred with silver. See a fresco belonging to the com
mencement of the thirteenth century, and which still exists
in the tower of Baugency, representing Christ holding a
book in the left hand, and in the act of blessing with the
right.”
This conception is less exalted than the preceding; still
it is grand, for the carpet may be intended £ heaven, with
a ground of gold, gemmed with silver stars; in most in
stances, instead of a carpet, we have a stool, as at Chartres,
* This fresco, now half ruined, and which ought to be restored by Govern
ment, has been copied by a young artist of Orleans. The drawing is in the
possession of M. A. Duchalais.
THE EORM OF THE AUREOLE. 113
on the tympanum of the Porte Royale.* We here recog

nise the third motive, or manner of treating this subject,
the most material of all; it is merely a rude literal trans
lation of that passage in the prophet Isaiah; COELUM SEDEs
MEA; TERRA AUTEM scABELLUM PEDUM MEORUM.f. At St.
Denis, in the tympanum of the central door of the western
porch, the feet of Christ rest upon a stool; the lower part
of the body is circumscribed by an aureole, but a cross is
planted in the interior of the aureole, against which the
Sovereign Judge is leaning; this design is very good, and
very rare in this part of the twelfth century.
The stool supporting the feet of God, who is represented
seated on a throne, and surrounded by an aureole, is very
frequent. Thus in the frescos of St. Savin, near Poitiers,
God is three times represented surrounded by an oval or
circular aureole, and three times his feet rest upon a stool.
This stool, more or less ornamented en creux, and in relief,
is not a “chauffoir” as has been asserted. Nothing is to be
found in Holy Writ, which could countenance the adoption
of so vulgar an idea, while the footstool (scabellum) is very
clearly indicated. Besides, the form prevents any mistake
of this kind. The design given below, Fig. 38, is taken from
a fresco, in the west wall of the great church of the convent
of Salamis, known under the name of Panagia Phanéroméni.
It exhibits Christ, descending from heaven, to judge the
world; the aureole surrounding him is circular, a variety
already presented in Fig. 16, and it is upheld by four
cherubim, at the four cardinal points. The field of the
aureole is divided by symbolic squares with concave sides,
intersecting each other; the feet of the divine Judge rest
on a circular line, intended to represent a rainbow; a second
rainbow forms his seat. This painting is of the eighteenth
century; in France it would probably belong to the thir
teenth, for the Greeks have made no progress in art during
the last five or six hundred years. The explanation of the
design, from this remarkable fresco, is to be found in the
words of David: “He bowed the heavens also, and came
down; and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon
* Monography of the Cath. of Chartres; drawing of M. Amaury Duval.
+ Chap. vi., v. 1.
I
a cherub, and did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings
of the wind.” “O Lord my God, thou art very great,
thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest
thyself with light as with a garment; who stretchest
out the heavens like a curtain. Who layeth the beams
of his chambers in the waters; who maketh the clouds his
chariot; who walketh upon the wings of the wind; who
maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire.”+
Dess in E A SALA N11 NE PAR PAVL DVRAND
Fig. 38.—GoD, IN A CIRCULAR AUREoLE, RADIATING witHIN, AND INTERSECTED BY

syMBoLIC squaREs with CoNCAve sIDEs. God is sITTING on A RAINBow;
HIS FEET RESTING ON ANOTHER.
Fresco in the great Convent of Salamis; xv.111 cent.
The field of the aureole is sometimes lighted by two stars,

shining near the head of the divine person whom it incloses;
one is on the right, the other on the left. When the field of
the aureole is narrow, and the sitting figure in the act of
* Psalm xviii. 9, 10. f Psalm civ. 1–4.
blessing with the right hand, that hand occupies the place
of one star, and both are necessarily placed on the left. The
entire field is sometimes gemmed with stars, like the sky on
a clear night,” but this is not common. The number of the
rays or points of the stars, varies; some being four in
number, f some five, six, seven, or even eight.S The left
hand star sometimes has fewer rays than that on the right.
When this is the case the left star is intended for the moon,
and the right for the sun, although both are represented
under the same form. The sun and moon are almost invari
ably introduced into representations of Christ's ascension
into heaven, and of his descending upon the earth at the
last judgment; the stars also are sometimes seen. The sun,
moon, and stars, presiding over the scene of Christ's
ascension, have already been distinctly shown in Fig.
16; the magnificent tympanum of the Cathedral of Autun,
sculptured in the twelfth century, represents the Last
Judgment, in a similar manner, with the sun on the
right, and the moon on the left hand of Christ, the Judge
of the world, who is inscribed within an elliptical aureole."
In Byzantine, and modern Greek paintings of the Trans
figuration, the aureole surrounding the Saviour offers a
singular peculiarity of construction. It is in the form of
a wheel; six rays, diverging from the centre, or nave of the
wheel, extend to the felloe at the circumference; but instead
of terminating there, as in an ordinary wheel, they are
* “Histoire de l'Art par les Monuments,” by Seroux d'Agincourt;
sculpture; plate 2. This design represents an altar-front of the Cathedral
of Città-di-Castello, in Italy, and which was presented, in 1143 or 1144, by
Pope Celestin II. In the centre, within an oval aureole, appears Christ
with the cruciform nimbus; on his left, the Moon's crescent; on his right,
the Sun spreads his glistening rays; and, in the field of the aureole, shine
Stars, either with five points, or five lobes, or in the form of a rose.
+ See the altar of St. Guillaume, at Saint-Guilhem-du-Désert, described
and designed by M. R. Thomassy, in the “Mémoires de la Société Royale des
Antiquaires de France,” tom. xiv., p. 222.
# See the personification of the Air, or of Music, a drawing of the thirteenth
century, in a Pontifical, MS. in the Bibliothèque de Reims.
§ Witness a Virgin of silver repoussé in my possession.
| See the personification of the Air, MS. de Reims.
"I See a very fine drawing of this tympanum, executed by M. Victor Petit,
which forms part of “L’Atlas des Arts au Moyen Age,” of M. du Sommerard.
It is one of the most valuable engravings in that rich collection.
I2
rolonged so as to reach, one as far as Moses, the other

£ the third to St. Peter, the fourth to St. John, and t
fifth to St. James. These persons alone, according to t
Greek Fathers, were present at the transfiguration or me
morphosis. The sixth ray is absorbed and concealed by t
body of Christ himself. The figure of Christ is affixed
this wheel-like glory, and might be supposed to be nailed
an instrument of torture; for the martyrdom of St. Geor
who suffered death upon the wheel, is thus represented
This singular arrangement is very rare in the west;f it
seen only in buildings, which seem to betray at least
indirect Byzantine influence; as for example, the church
Notre Dame de Chartres, whence the following drawing
taken, and which was copied from one of the three gre
Romanesque windows of the western porch. -
In Sicily, on the contrary, and in that portion of ancie

Magna Graecia where the rites and religious offices of t
Greek Church are still observed, as well as in several oth
localities, the transfiguration is constantly treated in th
manner; we may notice particularly, in illustration, t
fresco paintings in the Chapel Royal at Palermo. T
aureole there is elliptical, not circular, but its rays a
equal in number to those at Chartres, and fall or rise
a similar manner, as they issue from the divine person
the transfigured Saviour.
Besides the circles, the oval, and the quatrefoil, of whi
we have just spoken, the form of the aureole presents seve
other varieties. Being a sort of luminous shadow,
embraces the form of the person, and is frequently divid
into two; the upper section being smaller in diamet
confines the head and bust, reaching to the waist, where
is intersected by the lower division, which is somewl
* See, in the Cathedral of Chartres, the Martyrdom of the warrior
George, painted on a window in the nave of that church; and the s
martyrdom, sculptured on the south porch, on the basement or pedestal
statue representing that Saint.
+ The manuscript of Herrade, Hortus Deliciarum, in which the ir
ence of the Byzantine school is clearly discernible, contains a minia
painting of the Transfiguration. Rays of silver issue from the body of Chi
they are sixteen in number, eight on each side. But these rays are not
nected by a circular line; they form a wheel without the felloe. The
Byzantine type is not strictly observed.
broader, and descends from the waist to the feet. This

aureole is composed of two superimposed intersecting circles,
Fig. 39.—THE TRANSFIGURATION; CHRIST IN A whEEL-SHAPED AUREoLE.

Painted Glass of the xII cent.; Chartres Cathedral.
cut away at the point of intersection, and resembling inform

the vertical cup of the gourd carried by pilgrims. It is from
this configuration in particular, that antiquaries have derived
the name of “Vesica Piscis,” but it is far less common
than the elliptical or ovoidal form. The term alluded to
has, therefore, in addition to its impropriety, the disadvantage
of expressing only one unimportant variety; a double reason
for rejecting it altogether.
The circle below is sometimes narrower, that above wider;
it is then a gourd reversed; the upper circle is sometimes
open, the lower closed, the feet resting on the closed circle,
118 CHRISTIAN ICONoGRAPHY.
while the head appears at liberty to move to the right or

left, unchecked by a frame. At other times, the lower
circle is open, and that above closed; or, both the upper
and lower portions are open, and the aureole composed of
parallel lines more or less irregularly placed, but which
never touch, just like the asymptotes, in geometry, which
never meet the curves to which they belong.
These varieties, and some others, are still more distinctly
illustrated in a Psalter preserved in the Bibliothèque Royale,
and belonging to the close of the twelfth century.* The
miniatures adorning the conclusion of this Manuscript
appear to have been executed in Italy during the fourteenth
century. This great variety of aureoles would be one more
argument added to the treatment, colouring, design, costume,
and general tournure of the persons represented, in
confirmation of the opinion that the manuscript in question
is Italian.t
Persons who suppose the aureole to be a symbolic
representation of certain natural forms, a kind of maternal
bosom, in which the Deity appears to float, will find an
insuperable difficulty in accounting for these varied and
heterogeneous forms. For it will be necessary to explain
for what reason God the Father, who is born of none, who
begets, but was not begotten, should be inclosed in that
aureole as well as the Son and the Holy Ghost.
The aureole, when in the form of a circle, or an almond,
may remind Pagan antiquaries, of the IMAGINES CLYPEATAE,
so common amongst the Romans, and even with the Greeks
also."
In a manuscript belonging to the Bibliothèque Royale
there is a figure of God armed with a sword and carrying
arrows; it is a half-length, in relief, and within a circle like
a buckler, resembling in every point those figures on bucklers
which are constantly seen upon Roman sarcophagi.
* Suppl. fr. No. 1132, bis.
+ See frescos 27, 58, 80, and others. Italy is the country of archaeological
variation; that is to say, of movement. The art is, with us, more uniform, and
the imagination less active.
# In the “Greek Iconography” of Wisconti, the poets Sophocles and
Menander project thus in imagines clypeatae from a disk pierced like a
dormer window. In the sixteenth century, at the time of the Renaissance,
this motive was singularly in favour, and very frequently employed in decoration.
An engraving * given below, in the History of God the

Father, represents the Deity within a medallion, and like
a Pagan God holding a bow, arrows, and a sword. He is
personified as the God of strength and of battle. The
drawing is copied from the Psalter of the twelfth century
mentioned above. It becomes easy, therefore, to trace one
source of the aureole in Roman Archaeology, if it be
remembered that busts of Christ are frequently placed in the
front of basilicas of Pagan form; precisely in the same spot
where the rose-window was afterwards pierced by Gothic
architects; or where Romanesque architects, before the time
of Gothic art, opened an “oculum;” or, at an earlier
period still, the place of the open oculum was occupied by
a blank oculum containing a figure of Christ and the four
evangelical attributes. Notre Dame de Poitiers, built in the
twelfth century, still bears traces of this early custom; Christ
is there seen surrounded by the evangelical symbols, and
inclosed in a kind of oval, an oculum, or blank rose-window.f
S. Paoli fuoridelle Mura, before the disastrous conflagration
of 1823, and St. Peter's at Rome, before its destruction by
Paul V., when it gave place to the St. Peter's of the present
day, both contained a series of Roman pontiffs painted in
fresco, at very ancient epochs. The portraits were all half
lengths, framed in a circular field, and resembled the
embossed figures upon the old Roman bucklers.
The aureole is most frequently oval in form; but the
oval is sometimes formed by intersecting branches of trees,
which open and leave a vacant space, and then, crossing
again, form a sort of double ogive, one above, the other
below or reversed.
Nearly all genealogical trees, particularly those of the
* Fig. 51.
+ See the numerous designs in the porch of Notre Dame de Poitiers.
“With regard to this mode of representing Christ in half-length,” says
M Raoul-Rochette (Discours sur l'Art du Christianisme, note 2, p. 25),
“copied from the images on a buckler, see Buonarotti, who cites, in illustra
tion, a mosaic, now destroyed, but then in the grand arch of S. Paolo fuori
delle Mura (Dittico sacro, &c., p. 262). This custom continued in vogue till
the seventh century, as is proved by the paintings in the Oratory of Santa
Felicità, discovered in the Baths of Titus, in the year 1812, in the upper part
of which a similar half-length figure of our Saviour was discovered.”—
Guattani, Memorie Enciclopediche, &c., t. i. tav. xxi.
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in which the ancestors of

Christ and of the Virgin are ranged in order, one above the
other, are thus disposed.*
Each oval contains an ancestor, a king. Christ seated on
a throne and blessing the world with his extended right
hand, is placed at the summit. The following design is
taken from the Psalter of St. Louis.t. One entire page of
the manuscript is occupied by a genealogical tree of this
description.
Fig. 40.—CHRIST IN AN ELLIPTICAL AUREoLE roRMED or BRANCHEs

Miniature of the xIII cent.; Psalter of St. Louis.
The summit alone is here given, with the highest oval, in

which Christ is enframed. The Holy Spirit is seven times
* See St. Cuthbert's Church, Wells.
+ The MS. belongs to the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal.
THE APPLICATION OF THE AUREOLE. 121
repeated in the outer edge of the oval, because on Christ

were conferred the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. Each of
these spiritual gifts is represented under the form of a dove,
and inclosed within a circular aureole. The superior Spirit—
he who commands the others, and who is placed at the top
—is not only inclosed within an aureole, but has also a nimbus
encircling the head. Still the nimbus of this chief Spirit is
not cruciform, which must be either an error of the artist, or
an imperfection in the miniature. The doves ought each to
have a cruciform nimbus, as personifying the divine qualities
of the Holy Ghost. This fault has been avoided in a painted
window on the left of the nave of the Cathedral of Chartres.
It gives a representation of the Virgin with the infant
Saviour in her arms. The gifts of the Holy Ghost, under
the form of doves, and borne upon rays of flame-like red,
converge towards the head of the divine child. The doves
have each a cruciform nimbus.
THE APPLICATION OF THE AUREOLE.
The aureole cannot be said to belong exclusively to God;

still, except in the instances about to be considered, and of
which an explanation will be given, the aureole is an attri
bute especially characteristic of divinity. It is in fact the
symbolic token of supreme power, of energy, exalted to the
highest possible degree. It ought, therefore, to be given
before all to God, who in himself is properly and intrinsically,
the centre of omnipotence, while his creatures, however lofty
may be their rank and degree, hold it only from him, like the
moon, which shines but with the borrowed radiance of the sun.
The Virgin, however, the first in honour among pure
human creatures, ranking immediately after God him
self; Mary, rendered superior to saints and angels by the
functions she performed, and the homage that has been
rendered her, is frequently, and most appropriately, invested
with the glory. •
In this drawing the aureole is oval, with obtuse points.

Elsewhere the point is sharp, and formed by intersecting
branches, as in genealogical trees; or it is a cloud, enveloping
122 CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY. .
Mary in an oval, which takes the form of her body, and

seems to carry her to heaven as in the Assumption.” In
Fig. 41.—MARY, IN AN ovaLAUREoLE, INTERSECTED BY ANOTHER, ALso ovAL,

BUT OF SMALLER size.
Miniature of the x cent.; Liber Precum, Bib. Roy.
the Last Judgment, painted in the Campo Santo by Andrea

and Bernardo Orcagna, the Virgin, like Christ, is depicted
sitting upon a rainbow, within an elliptical aureole; the
* See in Notre Dame de Paris, a bas-relief affixed to the north side wall,
representing the Virgin carried by angels up to heaven; the Virgin is framed
THE . APPLICATION OF THE AUREOLE. 123
mother is no less honoured than the son, who is at her side.

In the sixteenth century, the aureole is generally freed
from its edge or framework of clouds. The field alone
remains, and is formed of flamboyant rays," or of rays
alternately straight and flamboyant, emanating in every
direction from the body of the Virgin. Thus it is seen that
Mary is invested with the aureole under four particular
conditions. Firstly, when she holds the divine infant in
her arms; secondly, at the Assumption, when carried by
angels into heaven; thirdly, at the last judgment, when she
implores the clemency of Christ for man; fourthly, when
represented with the attributes of the woman of the
Apocalypse—a prophetic symbol, of which she is the
reality. In the first instance, of which Fig. 43 furnishes
an example, we may suppose the aureole to be given in
honour of her son rather than herself; in the second the
aureole appertains entirely to herself; in the last judgment
she is sometimes without an aureole, but this attribute is
invariably given, and is most perfect, when to her is applied
that passage in the Apocalpyse,—“A woman clothed with
the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a
crown of twelve stars.”f
Sometimes, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and
in the fifteenth and sixteenth more especially, at which time
ancient traditions became degraded, and were finally lost, the
aureole degenerated into a mere symbol of the apotheosis of
holy persons. Thus, a glass painting at Chartres, of the
close of the thirteenth century, represents St. Martin,
Archbishop of Tours, carried up to heaven by two angels, in
in an oval of clouds. In the Campo Santo at Pisa, in the Last Judgment,
the Virgin, like her Son Jesus Christ, is sitting on a rainbow, and surrounded
by an aureole. See Fig. 74.
* See the bas-relief on the tympanum of the south gable of the Cathedral
of Reims. In Fig. 43, the aureole is composed of rays alternately straight
and flamboyant.
+ Apocalypse, xii. 1. The following inscription is found on a painted
window of the sixteenth century, in the Church of Notre Dame de Moulins:
“Haec est illa de qua sacra canunt eulogia; sole amicta, lunam habens sub
pedibus, stellis meruit coronari duodenis.” The window on which this inscrip
tion is painted represents Mary holding in her arms the Infant Jesus, which
clearly proves the woman in the Apocalypse to be the emblem of the Holy
Virgin, as the bleeding lamb is of Christ.
an aureole of fire. In illuminated manuscripts of about the

time of the Renaissance, Mary Magdalene is represented
in a state of divine ecstasy supported in the arms of angels,
above the holy ointment or “Sainte Baume,” and in a similar
manner encircled by the divine aureole. We must, there
fore, be careful not to confound pictures of the Magdalene
with those of the mother of God—the exaltation of
Fig. 42.-SouL or sAINT MARTIN IN AN ELLIPTICAL AUREolk.

Painted Glass Window of the xIII cent, Cathedral of Chartres."
Mary Magdalene with the assumption of the Virgin.

The grotto, the age of the saint, and other characteristic
* Saint Martin, in the above engraving, is naked, according to the customary
mode of depicting souls; but elsewhere, even at Chartres, in the glass window
THE APPLICATION OF THE AUREOLE. 125
features, will sufficiently mark the distinction between

them.” The honour of the aureole had, it appears, been
decreed to an ordinary saint, long before the thirteenth
century. We read, in fact, in the Life of St. Benedict, who
died in 590, that he one day saw the soul of Germanus,
Bishop of Capua, carried up to heaven by angels in a globe
of fire.t. The globe of fire, is in fact an aureole, although
it no longer enveloped the living body, but the soul of the
saint; and in truth, such a soul seems to assimilate itself in
some measure to the Deity. The soul of St. Martin, in the
representation of his apotheosis at Chartres, is also carried
up in an oval aureole, red, or the colour of fire.:
The aureole is so completely the attribute of supreme
power or divine omnipotence, that the angels themselves,
which of all God’s creatures seem most nearly allied to the
Creator, are yet not invested with this mark of dignity.
In some cases, of which the miniatures of illuminated MSS.
offer numerous examples, the angels are comprehended
within the aureole of God, when they attend him either at
the Creation, on mount Sinai, or at the last judgment; but
the aureole does not properly belong to them; it is the attri
bute of God, and the angels seem as if absorbed in the
resplendent luminous atmosphere, radiating from His glo
rious person. One curious and remarkable coincidence may,
however, be noticed in a painted window in the south tran
sept of the cathedral of Chartres.
representing the History of St. Remi, the soul of the Bishop of Reims is
completely clothed. We are told, in the Life of Saint Francis Romaine (Acta
SS. des Bollandistes, 2nd vol. of Mars), that the soul of St. Ambrose of
Sienna ascended to heaven clad in pontifical robes.
* See the “Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art.” Translator.
+ “Widit Germani, Capuani Episcopi, animam in sphera ignea ab angelis
in coelum deferri.” (Acts SS. ord, S. Bened, 1 vol., Wie de Saint Benoit.)
It is in this manner that Saint Ouen (Wie de Saint Eloi, dans d'Achery
Spicilegium, tom ii., p. 113,) relates the death of Saint Eloi, his friend; and
he thus describes the resplendent aureole, the spherical light, the pharos sur
rounding the soul of the Saint as he ascends to Heaven: “Inter verba
orationis flagitatum a superis emisit (Eligius) spiritum. Statim vero cum esset
hora prima noctis, visus est subito velut pharus magnus ingenti claritate
resplendens ex eadem domo coruscando conscendere, atque inter mirantium
obtutus sphaera ignea crucis in se similitudinem praeferens, velocique cursu
densitatem nubium praeteriens, coeli altitudinem penetrare.”
# See painted window in one of the chapels in the apse, on the south side.
On this window, belonging to the thirteenth century, is a

painting of the celestial hierarchy, or the distribution of the
angels into nine choirs. Each choir of angels is character
ised by a peculiar attribute; the Thrones, represented by
two great angels with green wings and sceptres in their
hands, and enclosed in a crimson aureole of elliptical form,
are the first and most elevated of the three groups. The
Thrones alone are honoured with this badge; now these
angels, as their name indicates, are the depositories of
Almighty power. This fact affords further confirmation of
the assertion that the aureole is the peculiar attribute of
God, for the Deity in delegating his authority to thrones
delegates to them at the same time a portion of his
Majesty and glory.”
THE HISTORY OF THE AUREOLE.
The nimbus, as has been said above is frequently wanting.

It seems scarcely to have existed among the early Christians,
and is not observable on the sarcophagi and frescos of the
catacombs; it disappears altogether at the close of the
middle ages.
. The aureole, which is, in fact, only a larger form of the
nimbus, is naturally subject to the same historic changes;
nor is it found on any of the earliest Christian monuments.
The reader may refer to the drawing, Fig. 32, ante, taken
from the Christian sarcophagi found in the catacombs. This
engraving represents God the Father, beardless, condemning
Adam to till the ground, and Eve to spin wool; to the one
* St. Dionysius, the Areopagite (De Celesti Hierarchid, cap. xv., p. 198),
says, that the angels are sometimes robed in clouds. The aureole surrounding
the thrones at Chartres may be intended to figure the clouds. In fact, the
aureole encircling God, the Virgin, and the souls of the saints, is nothing
more than the cloud on which these divine and holy persons ascend and
descend. At Aix-la-Chapelle, in the centre of the crown given by Barbarossa to
the Cathedral there, and still suspended above the tomb of Charlemagne, the
Archangel Michael is seen, enclosed in an aureole of quatrefoils, like the figure
of Christ at Auxerre, given above (Fig. 36.) The Archangel is descend
ing from heaven, to combat the enemies of Peace; for, in singular contrast
to the warlike spirit of Charlemagne, and of Barbarossa, the legend on the
crown proclaims the blessedness of the peaceful: “Beati pacifici, quoniam
filii Dei vocabuntur,” are the words of the inscription, taken from the Sermon
on the Mount, (Gospel of St. Matthew, v. 9.)
THE HISTORY OF THE AUREOLE. 127
he offers a lamb, the fleece of which she is to spin into

garments; to the other, ears of corn, imaging those which
man is to cultivate by the sweat of his brow. God is not
invested either with the nimbus of the head or the aureole
of the body. Fig. 18 is equally remarkable for the absence
of that characteristic attribute.
The aureole is even later in its appearance than the
nimbus, which was adopted, in most of its varieties, be
fore the aureole had been introduced; the latter was
discontinued, also, before the nimbus fell into disuse, so
that its existence was but of limited duration. Even in the
middle ages, when the nimbus, unless accidentally forgotten,
was constantly employed, the aureole was not invariably
added. It is therefore undoubtedly a rarer form, and of
more brief existence than that around the head. See,
in the History of the Trinity, a drawing, Fig. 144, taken
from the Manuscript of the Duc d'Anjou, Bibliothèque
Royale, thirteenth century: the Trinity has a cruciform
nimbus, but the aureole has already disappeared.
About the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the nimbus
loses its exterior border; the outer line also, uniting the rays,
is often abridged. The same may be said of the aureole;
the circumference disappears and the field alone remains.
The field is striated with simple or flamboyant rays, and
sometimes with rays alternately straight and flamboyant.
A drawing, Fig. 150, given below in the History of the
Trinity, taken from a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Royale,
of the end of the fifteenth century,” represents the Trinity
under three figures of human form; the Father, like a pope,
holding in his hand the globe; Christ, as the crucified,
bearing his cross; the Holy Ghost, under the figure of a
young man, with the divine Dove, his appropriate symbol,
resting on his head. All the three have the cruciform
nimbus; even the dove is glorified with that mark of honour.
Flamboyant rays, or in other words, the aureole, emanate
in streams of light from the three divine persons. These
rays are not united, but escape freely, unconfined by any
line of circumference. The same may be observed in the
following figure.
* L'Aiguillon de l’Amour Divin, in 4°., Nos. 5094 and 7275.
128 ChRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY,
This drawing represents Mary with the infant Christ

in her arms. The Virgin and Child are both within a
Fig. 43.--MARY AND JESUS IN AN AUREOLE OF STRAIGHT AND FLAMBOYANT RAYS.
Miniature of the xv.1 cent. Bibliothèque de Sainte Geneviève.
white ovoidal aureole, the circumference of which is fringed

with rays, some straight and others flamboyant. Christ and
his mother rise from the mystical Lily of the tribe of
Judah.*
* This engraving is copied from a miniature of the sixteenth century,

manuscript No. 460, in the Bibliothèque de Sainte Geneviève. It will be
seen that the Mother and Divine Infant both wear the circular nimbus, but
that of Jesus is not cruciform. Errors of this kind are of frequent occurrence
in the sixteenth century.
THE GLORY. 129
THE GLORY.
The term Glory, as we have said, is employed to express

the union of the nimbus and the aureole, as the word hand
implies the union of the fingers which compose it. It
seemed absolutely necessary to find some generic word
comprehending both species combined, and this word we
shall borrow from the vocabulary of Iconography, first
giving a precise definition of its meaning.
The word “Gloria” is, according to our definition, formed
of an onomatopoeia, or of the two sounds or exclamations
expressed by the two principal vowels, which in combination
with the three consonants form the word “Gloria.” This
word in ordinary language implies an extraordinary splendour
surrounding every individual, who has rendered himself illus
trious by noble £ lofty ideas, or sublime works. Alex
ander, the conqueror of Asia; Caesar, who subdued Europe;
Aristotle and Plato, rulers of the intellectual world; Homer
and Virgil, who still excite all imaginations; St. Vincent de
Paul, who inflamed all hearts with love, and worked prodigies
of charity; Phidias and Raphael, who produced masterpieces
of sculpture and painting; these, with many others in every
station and sphere of human activity and genius, are men
of brilliant reputation, and crowned with glory.
In the earliest ages of the world, when language was in
its infancy, and ideas were expressed chiefly by gestures and
exclamations, the appearance of genius such as that above
named was hailed by an enthusiastic people, with cries of
admiration, with those sounds which grammarians call
vowels, and such especially as are most sonorous, most noisy,
and therefore, most in accordance with the predominant
feeling of those by whom they were uttered. Now amongst
vowels, the o and a are the two most sonorous; if uttered
successively and repeated several times without interruption
they become blended together, and modified. The modi
fying link is furnished by the consonants g and l which
£ the o; and for the same reason an r is introduced
efore the a, and coupled with the vowel i—a mute vowel,
employed to facilitate the enunciation of the resonant a.
K
It is possible that the word gloria, like bravo, in which

the o follows the a, is merely a forcible exclamation expres
sive of the homage addressed to men of genius.
But, whatever may have been its first origin, the word
itself distinctly expresses the splendour, or moral light,
surrounding every illustrious individual. When it was first
thought desirable to give this radiance a material form
through the medium of painting or sculpture, to render it
visible to the eye and sensible to the touch, it was repre
sented by a circular line enclosing the entire body, and by
another circle, forming the nimbus of the head.
We give the name of glory to this combination of the
nimbus and aureole, because it is a word which perfectly
conveys the signification, and has by long use become
almost consecrated, in ordinary language, to the idea of the
nimbus. In fact, the word glory, is still popularly applied
to that form; it is given to those great suns displayed in the
eastern end of churches, that is to say to those radiations of
gilded wood, with which the back of the Sanctuary is some
times decorated.* Besides the word glory is often applied
in Holy Writ, to the rays of light escaping from the £
of God, or to clouds surrounding Him on his descent to
earth. Thus Ezekiel says, “Then Ibeheld, and lo, a likeness
as the appearance of fire; from the appearance of his loins
even downward fire; and from his loins even upward, as the
appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber. . . . And
behold the glory of the God of Israel was there.”t . . . . .
“And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the
cherub whereupon he was.”: “Then the glory of the
Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold
of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and
the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory.” $
Thus David in the Psalms, says that God shows himself
in his glory, and it is even declared that the glory of God
resembles flame. ||
* See the sanctuary of the Cathedral of Amiens, and that of St. Roch, at
Paris. + Ezekiel, viii., 2, 3. # Ezekiel, ix., 3.
§ Ezekiel, x., 4. “Et elevata est Gloria Domini desuper Cherub ad
limen domus; et repleta est domus nube, et atrium repletum est splendore
Gloriae Domini.”
| Exodus, xxiv., 17. “Erat autem species Gloriae Domini quasi ignis ardens.”
THE NATURE OF THE GLORY. 131
In a number of scriptural texts, Jesus is spoken of as de

scending in glory and majesty at the end of the world to
judge the quick and dead. Whenever the scenes referred to
in these texts are depicted in sculptures, stained glass, or the
miniatures of manuscripts, at all times when God is repre
sented as the centre of a radiating light, or surrounded by
clouds, those radiations, or clouds, assume precisely the
circular form to which we give the name of glory. It is
by encircling the Deity with similar undulating or geome
trical lines to which we give this name of glory, that
Christian artists have sought to mark the Divinity revealing
himself to Christ and his prophets,” at the last judgment.
The design, Fig. 37, shows Christ thus descending from
heaven to earth; he is surrounded by clouds, and, within
them, by the glory. The inscription, “Dominus in nubibus,
et vident eum inimici ejus et qui pupugerunt,” leaves no
doubt on this point.f The miniature belongs probably to
the ninth or tenth century. It is taken from a manuscript
now in the Bibliothèque Royale, but belonging originally to
the Abbey of Saint Sever in Gascony.
THE NATURE OF THE GLORY.
There can be no doubt that the nature of the nimbus, and

of the aureole is the same; or that the element constituting
both is fire, or flame, which may be termed the efflorescence
of fire. The last design (Fig. 43), proves this most decisively
with regard to the aureole, and two engravings (Figs. 67
and 74) given below, taken from the paintings in the
Campo Santo, are equally conclusive in regard to the nimbus.
* Ezekiel, in his prophetic visions, employs the most decisive expressions.
Read and compare the different verses of the first chapter. These extraordi
nary texts, explain most vividly the Glory of God; the waving character and
circular form of that Glory; the mysterious wheels and the symbolic animals
by which they are accompanied, have been constantly rendered in sculpture
and painting, at every period of Christian art.
+ Rev. i., 7. “Behold He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see
Him, and they also which pierced Him.” The text of the manuscript differs
slightly from that of the Apocalypse. David, Psalm xviii., 2, says, “His
pavilion round about Him were dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies;” a
iiteral explanation of the Glory in the manuscript of Saint Sever. 2
K
The aureole of the head and that of the body, encircling the
deities of the Hindoos, is represented under the form of
luminous rays, or wavy plumes. At the birth of Zoroaster,
that pure emanation of the divinity of the ancient Persians,
his body emitted so brilliant a light, that the entire chamber
was illuminated by its radiance.* Krishna also, when
being nursed by Devaki, his mother, lighted up the room
in which he passed his infancy by the rays emitted from
his head, and which were rendered more brilliant still by
others emanating from the head of his mother t
Fire sparkles on the head, and is emitted from the body
of Maya, at the moment when the sea of milk flows in two
rich streams from her bosom. In the Buddhist books in
the Bibliothèque Royale, pious Buddhist saints are often
encircled by an oval or circular aureole, from the circumfer.
ence of which, straight or flamboyant rays extend on every
side. § Amongst the Greeks,
Romans, and Etruscans, all the
constellations, the sun, the
moon, and the planets when re
presented under the humanform
are surrounded either by rays
or by luminous circles, exactly
resembling our nimbi and aure
oles. || We have already seen
the sun and moon; the plate
annexed is a head of Mercury,
Fig. 44. who may be recognised by his
Mercury wiri. A circular snows little wings and his caduceus;
Roman sculpture. his nimbus resembles that of a
Christian saint."
These rays and circles are the emblem, or, to speak more
* Religions de l’Antiquité; par M. J. D. Guigniaut; vol. i., p. 317.
+ Ibid., pl. cah. i., No. 61.
# Ibid., pl. cah. i., No. 103. The drawing of this Goddess is given
above (Fig. 12).
§ I owe my information respecting these valuable works to the kindness of
M. Stanislas Julien.
| See the Planisphère of Bianchini, in the Musée of the Louvre; “L’Anti
quité expliquée,” de Montfaucon, passim, &c.
"| Antiq. Explia'ée, tom. ii., pl. 224, p. 414.
correctly, the image of light; for when these constellations,

instead of being personified are represented in their natural
character, they are equally sur
rounded by them. Paintings have
been recently discovered in Egypt,
in which the sun is depicted shed
ding forth rays, to the extremity
of which a hand is attached; *
thus with the exception of the
hands the Holy Ghost is repre
sented on our monuments, when
at Pentecost he descended in the
form of tongues of flame upon
the heads of the apostles.t
Among the modern Persians,
the Arabs, and the Turks, the
heads of all superhuman per
sonages whether good or evil,
whether akin to Mahomet or to
Eblis, are surmounted by pyra
mids of flame, rising, according
to the nature of fire, with the
points in the air, as may be re
marked in the annexed example.
The subject, a king crowned with
flame, is taken from a fine Persian
manuscript in the Bibliothèque #:
Royale.f
There can be no doubt that it" ": Bibliothèque - - - - -
is a flame which appears to sur

round the head of this king, for in another Hindoo manu
* Journal des Savants, numéro d' Octobre, 1840; article de M. Letronne.
+ Cloister of St. Trophimus, at Arles; capitals, in St. Madelaine de
Wezelay; several miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, in the Bib. Roy.
The grand cupola of St. Mark's, at Venice, contains one of the most remarkable
instances of these tongues of flame, attached to the point of a luminous ray,
and resting on the brow of the Apostles. The magnificent mosaic with
which this cupola is lined, represents the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the
Apostles. In the Acts of the Apostles, (i. 3) we read: “Apparuerunt illis
dispertitae linguae tanquam ignis.”
# See also a Persian manuscript of the Bibliothèque Saint Geneviève,
entitled, Medgialis ; and the “Livre des Augures,” a Turkish manuscript
script, in the Bibliothèque Royale, a widow is represented

burning herself upon the funeral pile of her husband, and
the flames of the funeral £ are exactly similar to those
rising from the head of the Persian king above-mentioned.
The “lambere flamma comas” of Virgil comes next in sup
port of our theory; then the sphere of fire enveloping the
soul of Germain, Bishop of Capua, and the soul of Saint
Eloi; the face of Moses and the luminous horns which
lighted his brow when he descended from Mount Sinai,
after having conversed with God; God himself, who is like
a furnace, and makes Sinai smoke and tremble at his pre
sence; * and a number of texts, from which I quote the
following:—“On a sudden the blessed Egidius was ravished
in spirit, and he saw the soul of Consalvus, freed from its
fleshy encumbrance, and shining with a dazzling radiance;
it was carried away by the ministry of angels, across the
immensity of space.”f
Thus on the châsse of Mauzac, in Auvergne, the soul of
St. Calminius, under the form of a naked infant, is borne
away by two angels. The soul is inscribed within a perfect
£, cut into four lobes, two of which adapt themselves
to the form of the shoulders, and two to that of the hips. A
hand, the hand of God, appearing against a cruciform nimbus,
is extended from the clouds to receive the approaching soul.
“On the side of the wall, within which repose the conse
in the Bibliothèque Royale, and which was written and illuminated for an
Ottoman princess. The Medgialis, contains a picture of a Holy Man with a
nimbus of golden flame, with green and red threads, giving audience to two
Demons. The “Livre des Augures,” which is rich in pictures of Demons,
contains one which will be given below, with a nimbus of flame like the
Persian King, and the Holy Man in the Medgialis. These flame-formed
nimbi resemble the peculiar configuration of the Turkish capitals; the same
principle of decorative ornament is applied, but in the capitals, the base of the
pyramid or the cone is truncated and reversed, in compliance with the law of
construction. May not a Turkish column be said to resemble an immense torch,
ignited at its capital?
* Ecodus, xix., 18. “And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke,
because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended
as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.”
+ “Widit Consalvi animam, terrena mole jam deposita, fulgentissima luce
radiantem, per immensi aeris hujus spatia angelorum manibus sursum ferri.”
(Bollandistes Act. SS. 3 vol. de Mai, p. 412. Wie du B. Egidius, précheur,
né en Portugal, en 1190.)
* THE NATURE OF THE GLORY. 135
crated remains of St. Anthony, a painter had traced the image

of that saint. He was preparing to adorn the head of the
figure with a crown of gold, and in the act of hollowing out
the wall for that purpose," when behold, through the open
ings he had made, there shone on a sudden an ineffable and
precious light; it flashed upon the face of the painter. Unable
to endure the intolerable radiance reflected in his eyes, he
was on the point of falling to the ground; but, sustained by
devotion, he persevered, and was enabled quickly to com
plete his work.”f The radiation of the nimbus is here
distinctly alluded to.
In Flodoardt we are told, “A ray of light descended
from heaven to crown St. Remi, while a divine liquor shed
itself upon his head, embalming it with celestial perfume.
At this sight, the assembly of the bishops of the province
proclaimed him without hesitation, and he was consecrated
Bishop of Rheims.” . It would seem as if the Christian his
torian had borrowed from the text of Virgil, who informs us
that the hair of the youthful Ascanius was caressed by a
flame. In both instances the light prefigured a glorious
destiny: royalty to Iülus (Ascanius), and almost the eccle
siastical dominion to St. Remi. Light descended from
heaven in a similar manner upon the head of St. Léger, a
celebrated bishop, who was martyred by the orders of Ebroin,
shining upon his forehead as in the centre of a circle.'
Glories reserved especially to God and to the Virgin
* This practice of modelling the nimbus before painting it is ancient and

well attested, as is proved by the above extract. It is invariable in Greece
and Italy, and may be seen in the Sainte-Chapelle, at Paris, on the reredos
of St. Germer, and in the Church of St. Julien de Brioude.
+ “In latere muri ubi sanctae ejus (S. Antonini Abbatis Surrentini)
reliquiae continentur, in imagine ipsius designata, cum pictor coronam inauratam
capiti circumponere pararet, parietem, prout necesse fuit, cavabat. Et ecce per
rimas factus lux inaestimabilis et inenarrabilis subito emicans vultum dolantis
faciebat. Quam per intolerabiles radios oculorum acie reverberata non
sustinens, ruinam dare in terra minabatur, sed tamen pro devotionis intentione
confirmatus, opus festinanter consummavit.” (Acta SS. Or. S. Bened, 5 vol.,
Wie de St. Antonin, Abbé de Sorrento, ver. 820; written by an anonymous
writer of Sorrento.)
t Histoire de l'Eglise de Reims, liv. i.
§ Wie de St. Léger, évèque d’Autun, by an anonymous cotemporary, a
monk. Translated by M. Guizot, Collection des. Historiens de France.
derive their origin from two texts of the Apocalypse. The

first relates to Christ descending to judge the world: “Be
hold he cometh with clouds: and every eye shall behold
him, and they also that pierced him,” exclaims St. John.
“And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto
the Son of Man, clothed with a ent down to the foot,
and girt about the £ a golden girdle. His head and
his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his
eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine
brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice was as
the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven
stars; and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword;
and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.”
With regard to the Virgin Mary, of whom the woman of
the Apocalypse, persecuted by the dragon, has been con
£ as a symbol, we have already seen that she had the
sun for her garment, the moon for a footstool, and was
crowned with the twelve stars.t. Not the £ alone,
but the Apocryphal books also, have furnished artists with
the idea of the nimbus or aureole, that glorious radiance
encircling the face and form of the Virgin. One of
the most important of these books thus relates the par
ticulars of her death and interment. Angels having placed
in her coffin the mother of their Lord, the Apostles raised
the precious burden upon their shoulders, and transported
* Rev. i., 7, 12–16.
f “Amicta sole, et luna sub pedibus et in capite ejus corona stellarum
duodecim.” Apocalypse, xii., 1. Amongst the charming figures representing the
history of the Virgin, in the Church of Solesmes, an Eulogium of Mary is
inscribed, beside the beast with seven heads. The termination of the panegyric
is as follows:—“O tu mystica a Johanne visa mulier amicta sole, habens sub
pedibus lunam, id est affectionibus per vanitatum contemptum dominari; et
in capite tuo coronam stellarum duodecim moralium, seu omnium virtutum
perfectionem, habensque in utero tum mentis, tum corporis, quasi speculo et
rorida nube, sapientiam Dei se in eis efformantem.” The woman of the
Apocalypse is certainly employed to symbolise the Virgin Mary, as has been
already pointed out in describing the painted window at Moulins. The
manuscript of Herrade (Hortus Deliciarum) contains a most beautiful example
of this mystical woman, against whom the beast vomits forth a stream. The
woman is standing on the crescent of the moon, and her figure seems resting
against the disk of the Sun; a smaller disk, a nimbus, cinctures her head,
and she wears a Byzantine crown. This diadem is adorned with twelve stars,
in the manner of diamonds. (Peintures et Ornements des Manuscrits.)
it to the tomb in the Walley of Gethsemane.” “Before the

bier of the Virgin Mary was borne the miraculous palm,
which diffused a brilliant light around. All nature seemed
attentive to the spectacle. At the moment when the body
was removed from the house, a brilliant cloud appeared in
the air and placed itself before the Virgin, forming on her
brow a transparent crown, resembling the aureole, or halo,
which surrounds the rising moon.”f
Nothing can be more resplendent than the descriptions
contained in the texts quoted above; nothing can more
decisively prove that the glory is light embodied in painting
or sculpture. Nothing in created nature is more brilliant
than the sun, the moon, the stars, white wool, snow, gold,
polished steel, brass or gold melted in a furnace. For this
reason the monuments themselves display aureoles, chan
nelled by streaks of flame, within which God and the Virgin
are enclosed. Sometimes the entire glory is formed of flame,
and rays emanate from every point as from a common centre.:
The eucharist in our churches appears luminous in the
bosom of those sacred vessels (ostensoirs) of gold which are
displayed on high festival days. From the circumference of
these metallic aureoles, called also suns, innumerable rays
are seen to emanate, in precisely the same manner as from
the aureoles already given, surrounding images of God
and the Virgin. Even the cross, painted on a gold ground,
as in the mosaics of Italy and Greece, sheds light on all
sides, being formed of rays of precious stones, or of stars,
whence its name, “crux gemmata,” “crux stellata.” Dante
gives the following description of the living cross and the
crucified, whom he had seen in paradise:—
Qui vince la memoria mia lo’ngegno;
Che 'n quella Croce lampeggiava Cristo
Si ch'io non so trovare esemplo degno.
* See the bas-reliefs enchased in the north side wall of Notre Dame de
Paris. The Death, Funeral, Assumption, and Coronation of the Virgin, are
there sculptured in detail. It is a translation into stone of the Apocryphal
book above mentioned.
+ “De Transitu B. Mariae Virginis, ap. Fabricium Codex Apocryphorum
Novi Testamenti.” See also the Apocryphal books collected by Thilo.
: “And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire.”
Exodus, xxiv., 17.
Machi prende sua croce e segue Cristo

Ancor miscusera di quel ch'io lasso,
Wedendo in quell' albor balenar Cristo.
Di corno in corno, e tra la cima el basso
Si movean lumi scintillando forte
Nel congiungersi insieme enel trapasso.
Cosi si veggion qui dirittee torte
Veloci e tarde rinnovando vista
Le minuzie de' corpi lunghe e corte
Muoversi per lo raggio, onde si lista
Tal volta l'ombra, che per sua difesa,
La gente con ingegno ed arte acquista."
Having named Dante, whose writings comprehend the
entire written art of Christendom, just as the imitative art
seems concentrated in the cathedral of Rheims, it will be
well to make such further extracts from his sublime poem,
as will further illustrate the subject under consideration.
The Paradiso is replete with light, encircling every saint,
precisely in the same manner as on earth; the soul is
enveloped by the material frame, or rather, all those saints,
the blessed Virgin, and the Apostles; confessors and martyrs
are but lights reciprocally kindled and inflamed. The great
poet says, for example:
*
Quale ne' plenilunii, e ne' sereni
Trivia ride tra le Ninfe eterne
Che dipingono 'l ciel per tutti i seni.
Vid'io sopra migliaia dilucerne
Un Sol che tutte quante l'accendea
Come fa’l nostro le viste superne;
* “Here memory mocks the toil of genius. Christ

Beamed on that cross; and pattern fails me now.
But whoso takes his cross, and follows Christ,
Will pardon me for that I leave untold;
When in the fleckered dawning he shall spy
The glitterance of Christ. From horn to horn,
And 'tween the summit and the base did move
Lights, scintillating, as they met and pass'd.
Thus oft are seen with ever-changeful glance,
Straight or athwart, now rapid and now slow,
The atomies of bodies, long or short,
To move along the sunbeam, whose slant line
Checkers the shadow interposed by art
Against the noontide heat.”
Cary's Dante, Paradise, c'. xiv., 1. 103.
per la viva luce trasparea,

La lucente sustanzia tanto chiaro
Che lo mio viso non la sostenea.”
Dante had already said, (in the preceding canto), speaking

of various saints,
* * Vidi cento sperule chensieme
Pius’abbellivan con mutui rai.
>k sk *k >k >k >k 2k
E la maggiore, e la più luculenta,

Di quelle margherite innanzi fessi
Per far dise la voglia mia contenta.f.
If we turn from poetry to history, we shall there find, that
Jesus at his transfiguration was surrounded by a glory; this
glory was formed of light, and has been so represented by
Christian artists in paintings of that subject. What says
the Evangelist? “Jesus taketh with him Peter, James,
and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high,
mountain apart; and was transfigured before them; and his
face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the
light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and
Elias talking with him.” (Matt. xvii. 1–3.)
“But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with
sleep; and when they were awake they saw his glory, and
the two men that stood with him.”f (Luke ix. 32.)
* “As in the calm, full moon, when Trivia smiles
In peerless beauty, 'mid the eternal nymphs,
That paint through all its gulfs the blue profound;
In bright pre-eminence so saw I there
O'er million lamps a sun, from whom all drew
Their radiance, as from ours the starry train;
And through the living light, so lustrous glowed
The substance, that my ken endured it not.”
Cary's Dante, Paradise, c”. xxiii, l, 25.
+ “I saw
A hundred little spheres, that fairer grew
By interchange of splendour. I remain’d
As one, who fearful of o'er much presuming
Abates in him the keenness of desire,
Nor dares to question; when, amid those pearls,
One largest and most lustrous onward drew,
That it might yield contentment to my wish.”
Cary's Dante, Paradise, co. xxii, l.23.
# The face and brow are illumined by the nimbus, the vestments are
This transfiguration, changing the Son of Man into a

resplendent Deity, recals to the mind those words of
Solomon, which indeed have already been applied to Christ
by all the fathers of the Church, beginning with St. Paul:
“For she [wisdom] is the breath of the power of God, and a
pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty; there
fore can no defiled thing fall into her. For she is the bright
ness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the
power of God and the image of his goodness.” (Book of
Wisdom, vii. 25, 26.)
St. Paul, in allusion to this passage, calls Jesus “the
brightness of His glory.” * Combining all the facts
here quoted, with the monuments, of which engravings
have been given, in which Christ is seen shining in the
midst of an aureole, whether circular, oval, elliptical,
or of the quatrefoil form, we can no longer doubt the
nature of the aureole to be igneous, and that the flame,
which under various forms surrounds the head or the entire
person, is a special attribute, expressive of the divinity of
the Creator, the sanctity of angels, the virtue of the Virgin,
and of innocent souls, creatures who, more than any
other created beings, assimilate with the Deity. I am,
therefore, justified in my assertion, that the nature of both
the nimbus and the aureole is that of light; that the nimbus
forms a luminous adornment for the head; and the aureole
is the dazzling garment of the body. It seems a fine idea,
to have selected fire, as the chosen attribute of human
power; the sign of apotheosis, and the symbol of divine
omnipotence. Fire is the strongest, the most mysterious
and irresistible of all elements; it is thus defined by
Dionysius the Areopagite:
“Fire exists in everything, penetrates into everything, is
received by everything. Although it sheds a full light,
still it is at the same time hidden. Its presence is unknown,
unless some material be given to induce the exertion of
its power. It is invisible, as well as unquenchable, and it
has the faculty of transforming into itself everything it
touches. It renovates everything by its vital heat; it illu
embraced within the aureole, and the whole forms a complete glory. See
St. Matthew, xvii.; St. Mark ix. 3, and St. Luke, ix. 29–32.
* Hebrews, i. 3: “Splendor gloriae.”
mines everything by its flashing beams; it can neither

be confined nor intermingled; it divides, and yet it is
immutable. It always ascends . . . it is constantly in
motion . . . . it moves by its own will and power, and sets
in motion everything around it. It has the power of seizing,
but cannot itself be taken. It needs no aid. It increases
silently, and breaks forth in majesty upon all. It generates,
it is powerful, invisible, and omnipresent. If neglected, its
existence might be forgotten; but on friction being applied
to certain substances it flashes out again, like the sword
from its scabbard, shines resplendent by its own natural
properties, and soars into the air. . . . . . .
“Many other powers may yet be noticed as belonging to
it. For this reason theologians have asserted that celestial
substances were formed of fire, and thus created as nearly as
possible in the image of God.”
The Deity would thus seem to be only an immense furnace,
breathing upon Adam, and infusing into his body a soul, or
divine ray; an emanation from his holy light descended in
tongues of flame upon the Apostles. He is a brasier of
living fire shedding forth upon all his saints an aureole,
which seems as it were to be a breathing from himself. The
sun, in short, becomes the finite and visible image of that
infinite and invisible flame which constitutes the divine
essence. Power, therefore, a member severed as it were
from the divinity, ought to be expressed materially by a
flame, the composition of the divine substance.
A few words must be added in explanation of the last
mentioned idea.
God has no material body: the Deity is purely spiritual.
Whenever men have desired to give a sensible or palpable
existence to Him, who is immaterial and invisible, it has
been thought fitting to invest Him with a body, formed
of the most subtle and etherial elements. If this body of
man be animated clay, his soul, made in the image of God,
and in truth the very breathing of divinity, participates in
the nature of fire and flame. Fire, which is one of the
visible manifestations of electricity, enters into the formation
of the body of God, as bones and sinews do into that of
man. For this reason God, in the Bible, in the gospel, and
* De Calesti Hierarchia, xv. 193, 194, édition d'Anvers, 1634, vol. i.
in Dante's “Divina Commedia,” is constantly described as

surrounded by fire, flame, or rays issuing from his body, as
water is thrown upwards by a fountain. Under his visible
form God is a light: his most constant natural symbol,
that under which he is in the East most frequently
adored, is the sun, the centre, to mankind of all light and
radiance. When our Saviour says, “I am the light of the
world,” (St. John viii., 12; xii., 46.)* the words are to be
taken as much in the literal as in the figurative sense.
In the East, kings, emperors, and prophets are considered,
not merely as delegates of Divinity, in which light they are
regarded amongst us, but as emanations from the Deity, as
the immediate sons of God, and almost as being themselves
incarnate gods. Carrying out this idea, the sun being
adored as the visible symbol of God, these same kings,
emperors, and prophets are hence regarded as descendants
of the sun. Such are Zoroaster among the Persians,
Manou among the Indians, Confucius among the Chinese,
and Hermes among the Egyptians.
In those royal scrolls with which the temples and obelisks
of Egypt are covered, and which have been correctly deci
phered, the Pharaohs are styled sons of the sun, sons of
God. Such also are the Persian Magi.
God being light, and the sun His image, the sons of God,
or of the sun, the kings of Persia and Egypt, the emperors
of China, and possibly even the emperors of Constantinople,
might be supposed to inherit from God their Father some
share of that light of which He is himself composed. God
and the sun both shed forth rays, and their children may be
expected to do so likewise, and therefore wear the nimbus,
the material form of that radiation.
Amongst the colder people of the West, kings do indeed
reign by the grace of God, but they are not regarded as the
sons of God, and their heads are therefore rarely adorned b
the nimbus.t Saints, on the contrary, being considered,
from their virtues and actions, as immediate emanations
from Divinity, are appropriately decorated with a nimbus,
* “Ego sum lux mundi. Ego lux in mundum veni, ut omnis qui credit
in me in tenebris non maneat.”
't It must be observed that in a gallery of kings (from which we have
extracted figures of Charlemagne and Henry the Lame), painted on glass, and
although it is always less luminous, less rich, than that of

God himself. In addition to this, they are often also
enveloped in the glory of God, which lights them up with
dazzling radiance. Thus in our own cathedrals, the western
porch is frequently pierced by an immense circular opening,
to which is given the name of rose window. The bay of the
window is filled with coloured glass, arranged in four, five,
or six concentric circles, diminishing in extent in proportion
to their proximity to the centre. God, seated on # throne,
or the Virgin holding in her arms the infant Saviour, shines
resplendent in the central circle. A cordon of angels
surrounds the central group; then the patriarchs; after
them apostles, martyrs, and confessors, each in separate
rings or “cordons; lastly the external cordon or outer edge
of the circumference is filled by virgins. All these persons
are framed in medallions of glass, as transparent and
luminous as the saints themselves, and resembling circles
of rubies, emeralds, or sapphires, studded with diamonds.
These rose windows are glories, embracing an entire world,
encircling a multitude instead of girdling a single individual.
The same may be observed of sculptures: the vaultings of
porches are divided into several concentric semi-circles, into
several rings or cordons, each restricted to one particular
body of saints. Dante has himself given the name of “rose”
to those circular expansions of light, in which the saints are
represented ranged in a divine effulgence, emanating from
in the north side aisle of the Cathedral of Strasbourg, all these kings, without
exception, have the nimbus. It seems fitting that Henry, who was a Saint,
should wear the nimbus; it may also be correct for Charlemagne himself, who
was canonised (although by an anti-Pope, it is true), to be thus distinguished; but
the nimbus cannot be given, as a symbol of holiness, to Charles Martel, who
lavished the wealth and offices of the clergy on his brutal and libertine soldiery.
The legend relates, that for these his evil deeds, Martel, after death, was
devoured in his tomb by the devil. It cannot certainly be held to be symbolic
of holiness when worn by the terrible Frederic Barbarossa, who was excom
municated, who created anti-Popes, led a scandalous life, and is said to have
been the author of an impious, if not atheistical work. Yet both Charles
Martel and Barbarossa, in the painted glass at Strasbourg, are represented with
very large rich nimbi; they must, therefore, have been decorated with that mark
of honour rather as political chiefs, delegates of God, emanations of the eternal
sun, than in the character of Saints. This curious circumstance would alone
suffice to prove these windows to be Byzantine, even were not that fact dis
tinctly proved by the costume of these emperors and kings, from the crown of
the head down to the very sandals.
the centre, which is filled by the splendour and brilliancy of

God himself. I must claim permission to close this para
£ with an extract from the “Paradiso” of Dante, which
will suffice to prove that the nimbus, aureole, and glory are
images of light reduced to form by the pencil:—
“Evidi lume in forma di riviera
Fulvido di fulgori, intra due rive
Dipinte dimirabil primavera
Dital fiumana uscian faville vive
E d'ogni parte si mettean ne' fiori
Quasi rubini ch'oro circonscrive;
“Poi come inebriate dagli odori
Riprofondavan se nel miro gurge
E suna entrava, un'altra usciane fuori.
x x *k x sk
* * * “Il fiume elitopazii

Ch'entrano ed escono, e'l rider dell'erbe.
Son dilor vero ombriferi prefazii;
says Beatrice to Dante. The poet adds:—
* * * “Chinandomi all onda,
Esi come di lei bevve la gronda
Delle palpebre mie, cosi mi parve
Di sua lunghezza divenuta tonda.
Por come gente stata sotto larve
Che pare altro che prima se si sveste
La sembianza non sua, in che disparve;
Cosi mi si cambiaro in maggior feste
Li fiori e le faville, si ch'io vidi
Ambo le corti del Ciel manifeste.”*
The stream having thus become round, and the surface,

which at first was long, having been gathered up into a disk,
x “I look'd,
And in the likeness of a river, saw
Light flowing, from whose amber-seeming waves
Flash’d up effulgence, as they glided on
"Twixt banks, on either side, painted with spring,
Incredible how fair; and from the tide
There ever and anon outstarting flew
Sparkles instinct with life; and in the flowers
Did set them, like to rubies chased in gold;
Then, as if drunk with odours, plunged again
Into the wondrous flood, from which as one
Re-entered, still another rose.
>k zk :k *k
This stream; and these, forth issuing from its gulf

And diving back, a living topaz each;
TEIE NATURE OF THIE GLORY. 145
the poet goes on to relate what he perceived in the Rose,

and continues:–
“In forma dunque di candida rosa

Mi si mostrava la milizia santa
Che nel suo sangue Cristo fece sposa;
Ma l'altra, che volando vede e canta
La gloria di Colui che l'innamora,
E la bontà, che la fece cotanta;
Sì come schiera d'api, che s'infiora
Una fiata, ed altra si ritorna
Là dove il suo lavoro s'insapora,
Nel gran fior discendeva, che s'adorna
Di tante foglie, e quindi risaliva,
Là, dove il suo amor sempre soggiorna
Le facce tutte avean di fiamma viva,
E l'ali d'oro, e l'altro tanto bianco
Che nulla neve a quel termine arriva.
Quando scendean nel fior,di banco in banco
Porgevan della pace e dell'ardore
Ch'egli acquistavan, ventilando il fianco.
Nè'l interporsi tra 'l disopra e 'l fiore,
Di tanta moltitudine volante
Impediva la vista e lo splendore;
Che la luce divina è penetrante
Per l'universo, secondo ch'è degno
Sì che nulla le puote essere ostante.”
With all this laughter on its bloomy shores,

Are but a preface, shadowy of the truth
They emblem; notthat in themselves,the things
Are crude ; but on thy part isthe defect,
For thatthyviews not yet aspire so high,
2: k k
-------------------------- bending me
To make the better mirrors ofmine eyes
In the refining wave; and asthe eaves
Of mine eyelids did drink of it,forthwith
Seem'd it unto me turn'd from length to round.
Then as a troop of maskerswhen they put
Their vizors off, look other than before;
The counterfeited semblance thrown aside ;
So into greater jubilee were changed
Those flowers and sparkles,and distinct I saw
Before me, either court of Heaven displayed.”
Cary's Dante, Paradise, canto xxx., l.61, 58.
“In fashion as a snow-white rose, laythen
Before my viewthe saintly multitude,
OF THE GLORY: ITS ORIGIN AND NATIVE COUNTRY.
Nothing now remains to be inquired into but the origin

of the glory, and the place and exact period of its birth.
It is impossible to speak with certainty of the epoch at
which the use of the glory was first introduced; but it
appears to be at least as ancient as the most ancient system
# religion. Both the nimbus and aureole are found repre
sented on those primitive Hindoo monuments, which are
considered to be among the earliest existing in the world.
The Egyptians were not strangers to the use of the
glory; for the large lenticular disk surmounting the heads
of several Egyptian divinities, certainly resembles a
nimbus : * it is usually painted either in white or red
(the most luminous of all colours), and is peculiarly well
Which in his own blood Christ espoused. Meanwhile

That other host that soar aloft to gaze
And celebrate his glory, whom they love
Hover'd around; and like a troop of bees,
Amid the vernal sweets alighting now,
Now, clustering, where their fragrant labour glows,
Flew downward to the mighty flower, or rose
From the redundant petals, streaming back
Unto the stedfast dwelling of their joy.
Faces had they of flame, and wings of gold;
The rest was whiter than the driven snow;
And, as they flitted down into the flower,
From range to range, fanning their pluny loins,
Whisper'd the peace and ardour, which they won
From that soft winnowing. Shadow none, the vast
Interposition of such numerous flights
Cast, from above, upon the flower, or view,
Obstructed aught. For, through the universe
Wherever merited, celestial light
Glides freely and no obstacle presents.”
Cary's Dante, Paradise, co. xxxi, l, i.
* Ciampini (Vetera Monimenta, pars 2). “Hunc orbem Egyptii in summo
capite simulacrorum suorum locabant . . . . . abillis Romanos sumpsisse licet
suspicari, et variasse, habita decoris ratione, quod capiti cui divinum quid inesse
putabant, eo situ corona aptaretur.” The Romans have thus transformed a
globe into a disk.
THE GLORY: ITS ORIGIN AND NATIVE COUNTRY. 147
defined, and well coloured, on an Egyptian painting in the

Musée of the Louvre.*
It has been remarked above, that in a fresco in the
Church at Montoire (Fig. 14), the Saviour bears on his head
a sort of sphere, or Egyptian disk, divided into circles, like
those on the globe of the world. The Egyptian Harpocrates
is constantly figured with a nimbus.t
The nimbus was in frequent use, also, among the Greeks
and Romans. In fact, in the paintings found at Hercu
laneum, Circe, appearing to Ulysses, is depicted wearing a
nimbus precisely as the Virgin Mary and saints are usually
represented in Christian art. The sorceress is thus drawn,
adorned with the glory, at the moment when Ulysses, sword
in hand, attempts to force her to restore his companions,
who had been transformed by her sorceries into hogs, to
their proper form. A Cassandra and a Priam; three
guests seated at a table, in a triclinium, all of which are
painted in the Virgil of the Vatican; $ a woman on a Greek
vase, engraved in the “Antiquité Expliquée” of Mont
faucon ; various personages painted on Greek vases, in the
collection of the Louvre; the bust of the Emperor Claudius;|
the Emperor Trajan sculptured" on the arch of Constantine,
* Musée Charles X., salles Egyptiennes.
+ Antiquité Expliquée, tom. iv.
# Antiquité Expliquée, tom. v., p. 113.
§ Montfaucon (Antiquité Expliquée, tom. xiii., pl. 35, p. 84) takes this
woman for Proserpine; everything concurs to prove that she is intended for
Diana, or, rather, for the Moon, the Goddess of Night. See, in fact, Seroux
d'Agincourt (Recueil de Fragments de Sculpture antique enterre cuite, pl. 28);
and in L’Atlas Allemand de la Symbolique de Creuzer, pl. 44, a repre
sentation of the Sun and Moon, each in a car drawn by four horses, and rising
from the sea, to give light to the world. The Moon, whose horses are guided
by the winged genius of Sleep, has the same nimbus, the same tournure and
costume, and is of the same age as the Proserpine of Montfaucon. The Sun
has a nimbus like the Moon, and a profusion of short rays emanate in the form
of elongated pearls, from several circular cordons or rings. See, again, in
the Musée Charles X, salles Etrusques, one of the large Greek vases placed
on a marble table in the centre of the hall.
| Antiquité Expliquée, tom. v. p. 162.
* The arch of Constantine is enriched with the spoils of that of Trajan, who
is represented in bas-relief offering a sacrifice to Apollo. Trajan has around
his head a circle of luminous gold, such as was formerly placed by painters on
the heads of our own Saints. The Romans also gave it to their gods and
L2
in three different places; the Valentinian, found in the

eighteenth century in the bed of the Arve; * the Emperors
Maurice and Phocas, engraved upon their medals; an
immense number of figures, both Greek and Roman, repre
senting the sun, under the form of a young man, and the
moon under that of a woman; the different constellations;
the Apollo on the medals of Rhodes; the radiating sun
upon the Roman “as;” t the astronomical divinities of the
planisphere of Bianchini; t the other gods of the ancient
Pantheon; and Pan, the chief of those gods, leading on
the Satyrs in their dance, and who is called the luminous
Pan; $—all the figures just enumerated, whether belonging
to history, allegory, or religious myths, have a nimbus
exactly resembling that which adorns the head of John the
Baptist, of angels, and of Christ. Lastly, Servius, as has
been seen above, asserts the nimbus to be a luminous fluid,
surrounding the head or person of the gods. Wirgil himself
referred to the nimbus, when he spoke of the flame
emperors; this circle was called nimbus, Pliny says, with respect to this
nimbus, that Trajan deserved, but that Caligula had usurped it. (Antiquité
Expliquée, vol. vi., pl. 179 and 183.)
* On a discus of silver found in the ancient bed of the Arve, near Geneva,
in 1721, Walentinian is depicted with a nimbus: he is making largesses to his
soldiers, and holds in his hand a figure of Victory, winged, and with the feet
resting on a globe. (Antiquité Expliquée, tom. xiv., pl. 28, p. 51.)
+ Antiquité Expliquée, vol. xiii., pl. 47.
# Musée du Louvre, salle de la Melpomène. This relic was found upon
the Aventine Mount, in 1705; it is called the planisphere of Bianchini,
because first published by that learned Italian astronomer. The Pagan gods
engraved upon it have their heads encircled by the nimbus. It presents
Egyptian figures of the Décans, subaltern deities, to each of whom Egyptian
astrology assigned the government of ten days in each month: thus placing three
Décans under the influence of each of the twelve signs, they obtain thirty-six
Décans. The Zodiac, in the Cathedral of Athens, has thirty-five figures
only; one is wanting, and, what is more worthy of remark, the others have no
nimbus. It is singular, that the Egyptian deities in the planisphere of
Bianchini have no nimbus, while it is given to the corresponding Greek deities.
Can it be possible, that notwithstanding the presence of the globe of which we
have spoken, the nimbus was unknown to the Egyptians, and in use only
amongst the Greeks, who must, in that case, have derived it from the Hindoos?
Every form of the nimbus is found in India; the aureole also is there seen, at
least in its rudimentary state.
§ Antiquité Expliquée, vol. xi, pl. 55, p. 166. The Pan has two horns
on his brow, and wears a nimbus, formed of numerous short rays, arranged in a
circle. All the Roman nimbi vary greatly in form.
>
descending from heaven upon the head of the little Iülus,

as if to caress and kiss his hair. We subjoin the passage of
Virgil to which allusion has already been made; it perfectly
explains the nature of the aureole, and recals the two
luminous horns which Moses had upon his brow,” and that
resplendent countenance by which the Hebrews were
dazzled and alarmed, when their lawgiver descended from
Mount Sinai after his long conference with the Deity:—
“Ecce levis summo de vertice visus Itili
Fundere lumen apex, tactuque innoxia molli
Lambere flamma comas, et circum tempora pasci.
Nos pavidi trepidare metu, crinemque flagrantem
Excutere, et sanctos restinguere fontibus ignes.t.
The aged Anchises, who was versed in Egyptian lore and

oriental symbolism, far from being alarmed at the sight, like
the other persons who were present, was filled with great
joy. He raises his eyes and hands to heaven, imploring
Jupiter to grant that the happy fortune presaged by this
augury may be realised. Anchises well knew that that
aureole of light, or terrestrial apotheosis, announced that
his grandson should be the future sovereign of a great king
dom and the founder of a potent empire.:
The native country of the glory will be found in the East;
* “Widebant faciem egredientis Moysis esse coRNUTAM.” Exodus, xxxiv., 35.

+ AEneid, book 2nd. In the manuscript Virgil, in the Watican, from which
Seroux d'Agincourt (Histoire de l’Art par les Monuments, pl. 23, de
l'Atlas de la Peinture,) has had several miniatures engraved: the head of
Ascanius is represented as surrounded with flames, and the terrified domestics
are endeavouring to extinguish with water the miraculous conflagration, while
old Anchises, on the contrary, is seen filled with joy, addressing to Jupiter
his fervent prayers and thanksgivings. There is in the same manuscript a
miniature of the Sun, rising to light the toils of the husbandmen and shep
herds. The Sun is in the form of a young man, beardless. From the head
of that personified star rise pencilled streaks of light, linked together by a
circular line, the circle of the nimbus; but these luminous plumes are powerful,
and dart beyond the circle. The figure of the Sun is similar in every respect
to that of Christ (Fig. 8); the only difference is in the number of the
rays, the nimbus of the Sun projecting five clusters of light, that of Christ
only three. (Histotre de l'Art parles Monuments, Peintures, pl. 20.)
# It would seem that Virgil borrowed his poetical fiction from the pages
of history; for the future elevation of the young slave, who subsequently
the glory comes from the East, where light also has its birth;
ex Oriente lux. Not only because the glory is a material
image of light, but more especially because it shows itself
there much earlier than with us, and is also much more
frequently employed there than in the West.
Both the nimbus and the aureole appeared in the East
long before the rise of Christianity;” they rose with the
religions of India, Persia, and Egypt; with Brama, Siva, and
Vishnoo; with Maya, Sacti, and Devaki, and all the male
and female pantheon of India, with Ormuzd and Zoroaster;
with Iris, ' and Osiris; and with the astronomical
decans of Egypt and of Greece. The Christian religion did
not invent, but £ that symbolic figure. Thus
much for the period of antiquity, properly so called. In
more recent times, in the period dating from our own era,
the earliest and most constant use of the nimbus may still
be traced to the East, to Asia, and Constantinople.
M. de Saulcy gives an engraving of a silver medal of the
Emperor Anastasius, who reigned from the year 491 to 518.f
The emperor is standing, holding a globe in his left hand,
and with a nimbus. Before and after Anastasius is a con
became king, under the name of Servius Tullius, was announced in a similar
manner by a flame encircling his head. Servius, the commentator, makes the
following curious observation upon the “lambere flamma comas” of Virgil:
“Item hoc quoque de igni [sic] ad Servium Tullium pertinet. Nam cum
Tarquinius cepisset Wericulanam civitatem, ex captiva quadam in doma ejus
natus est Servius Tullius Hostilius; qui cum obdormisset, caput ejus subito
flamma corripuit. Quam cum vellent restinguere, Tanaquil regis uxor,
auguriorum perita, intelligens augurium, prohibuit. Flamma puerum cum
somno deseruit. Unde intellexit eum clarum fore usque ad ultimam vitam.”
(Servius, Commentaire sur le Livre l l de Virgile, p. 263 of the 4°. edition,
printed at Geneva, 1636.)
Compare the Roman poet and Eastern historian with the Western tradition
of St. Remi and St. Leger, whose future fate was in like manner foretold by
flame descending upon their heads; the stories are identical. Remark also
the expressions enmployed by Servius, the coumentator, who says that the
light with which the head of the young slave was encircled announced that his
whole life should be brilliant (clarum) and illustrious. The material radiance
was a presage of the ideal splendour, and the nimbus became actually the
image of an illustrious destiny and the emblem of light.
* See “L 'Antiquité Expliquée,” “Les Religions de l'Antiquité,” “Le
Planisphère du Louvre,” “L’Atlas Allemand de la Symbolique de Creuzer,” &c.
+ Essai de Classification des Suites monétaires Byzantines. Metz, 1838,
pl. 1, fig. 3.
tinued series, not only of emperors, but also of empresses,

all adorned with the nimbus.* The nimbus is found in all
modern antiquities of the East, if that expression may be
used.t. It is never seen in the West, and in Italy, upon the
sarcophagi, which are the most ancient of Christian
monuments. On them, neither God nor the apostles, nor
any of the saints have the nimbus; and yet at that very
period it was given to Constantine and Helena, to Anas
tasius and Justina, to Justinian and Theodora, Tiberius
Constantine, and his wife Anastasia. In the most ancient
frescos, and even the earliest mosaics, the nimbus is not
ordinarily given to divine or holy £ If ever seen
on mosaics which appear to date from the sixth century,
as on those in the churches of San Vitale, and Santo Appol
linario-in-Classe at Ravenna, § its appearance may be
accounted for by the fact that those mosaics were executed
by eastern, or rather Byzantine artists, and that they
represent Justinian and Theodora, who reigned in Con
stantinople.
Historical facts and ancient monuments concur in demon
strating the nimbus to be of Eastern origin. This assertion,
supported as it is by history and archaeology, may be yet
further confirmed by physical facts and observations founded
on the nature of the soil in those regions.
That the nimbus is a luminous fluid has been abundantl
proved. In the fifteenth century, with us, this mystic £
tire, adorning the heads of the saints, appears, in the monu
ments cited, like an expansion, or unfolding of flam
boyant rays, or the beams of a glowing sun. . Now every
image, allegory, symbol, or metaphor even, must be borrowed
from the imagery, or, to speak more correctly, from the
reality of nature. The ideal is transformed into the cor
* The Emperors of Constantinople were always figured with a nimbus, up
to the taking of that city by Mahomet II, 1453. (Monuments de la Monarch.
Franc. discours préliminaire.)
+ Constantinopolis Christiana, by Du Cange; Vetera Monimenta, by
Ciampini.
+ £ Bosio, Roma Sotter. ; Vetera Monimenta, by Ciampini, Thesaurus
Veterum Diptychorum, Gori; Vasi Antichi di Vitro, by Buonarotti, passim.
An exception in the case of frescos has been noticed above.
§ See M. de Sommerard, Album des Arts au Moyen Age.
152 ChriSTIAN ICONOGRAPHY.
oreal. I feel therefore convinced, that the nimbus was

t attached to the heads of intelligent and virtuous
persons, from its analogy with that radiation which we may
observe to be exhaled by natural objects in the most mature
and energetic periods of the year. In summer, during the
hours of noon-tide heat, everything radiates in the fields;
all nature emits light; a brilliant vapour rises from the earth,
floating around the ears of corn, and the topmost branches
of the trees. This flame plays around plants, like that
which caressed the hair of the youthful Iülus, or the young
Servius Tullius, or which descended on the heads of Saint
Remi, and Saint Léger. Every branch and flower, every
group of trees, the summit of each distant hill, or rocky
eminence, seems gilded by an aureole—a kind of natural,
and universal nimbus. Now what with us is but an acci
dental appearance,—what in our climate is seen but rarely,
at certain seasons, and on certain sultry days of intense
heat, is in the East of habitual occurrence. -
Summer, in the East, is, comparatively speaking, eternal;

and the heat during every period of the year is intense.
Consequently, objects emit light at all times; plants and
animals, houses and men, all are encompassed by a flicker
ing flame-like luminosity of atmosphere.
“Aderbijan, a large country in Persia, is famous for its
sources of naphtha, and the soil is charged with resinous sub
stances. Bitumen there floats upon the surface of the lakes,
and frequently when, in the midst of a gloomy night it be
ConneS £ is seen to escape suddenly in brilliant flame,
and the spectacle thus afforded is well calculated to exalt
the imagination. Men who were still in a state of semi
barbarism, and little capable of tracing to physical causes
the origin of that flame, naturally saw in it an immediate
manifestation of divinity.” In Arabia Petraea, God appointed
a column of fire to guide the Israelites into the promised
land, where Sodom and Gomorrah had, at an earlier period,
been engulfed in a lake of fire. In Egypt, and in Africa, the
desert is transformed into pools of fire; the sand boils in
the plains, like water in a cauldron; and the Saracens of
Tunis when fighting against St. Louis flung handfuls of
* Religions de l’Antiquité, vol. i., p. 319.
THE CHARACTER OF THE GLORY. 153
earth into the faces of the crusaders, just as in our own

times red-hot balls and shells are used. Fire and light are
in the East what humid vapours and fogs are to us—a per
manent phenomenon, endowed with a fearful power.
It is not then surprising that the idea of illumining with
a nimbus the heads of distinguished persons, of strong men,
of men of genius, or of holiness, should have arisen in that
country earlier than in the West. It seems very natural
that a phenomenon so usual and constant should have been
honoured by art, and that a reality of every day should,
in the East, have been invested with a metaphorical
signification. -
THE CHARACTER OF THE GLORY.
Not only was the nimbus adopted at a much earlier period

In the East than in the West, but it was also much more
lavishly given there than with us; in fact, except in the few
rare instances about to be noticed, its use here is restricted
entirely to God and the saints; in the East few heads are
without it. Every emperor, every king, prince, and even
their consorts, are dignified with this glorious attribute: it
seems inherent in the persons themselves. Justinian, who
is not a saint, has a nimbus. In the Musée of the Louvre"
there is a carved cup of Arabic workmanship, which was
formerly kept in the chapel of the Chateau de Vincennes.
The figures on this vase represent hunters, in pursuit of
stags and wild beasts; all these huntsmen without exception
are invested with the nimbus, and what is even more re
markable, those who appear to be the chiefs amongst them
are encircled, together with their horses, by a large circular
aureole. The beautiful vases, procured from China and
Japan, which we see exposed for sale in old curiosity shops,
often exhibit figures of persons of secular character adorned
with the nimbus.
It sometimes even surrounds the head of those monstrous
and fantastic beasts, which seem to growl at us from our
brilliant porcelain, and bear so strong a resemblance to
Christian devils, or the open-mouthed gurgoyles of our
* Salle des Bijoux.
cathedrals. In the Buddhist volumes belonging to the

Bibliothèque Royale, some good and even evil genii, are
honoured with the nimbus. A Greek psalter with many
curious and beautiful miniatures (No. 139 in the Biblio
thèque Royale) contains a number of different figures, all
adorned with the nimbus. First come the prophets,
Isaiah, Jonah, Nathan, Samuel, Moses, and the prophetess
Anna. There is little in this to excite astonishment, for the
same individuals frequently have a nimbus in the West also,”
and although not generally styled saints by the Latin
Church, yet possess all the attributes of true holiness; but
each historical subject in the manuscript is accompanied b
allegorical £ serving to explain the history related.
Thus beside King David stand figures of Wisdom and
Prophecy (Xopia, IIpopuria), personified by two tall genii,
clad like women, giving inspiration to the Poet and Prophet
King't In the same manner, David repentant is attended
by the genius of Repentance; when killing the lion who
had attacked his lambs, he is assisted by the powerful
genius of Strength. Prayer assists £ in his en
treaties for a prolonged life, and Night watches the disasters
of Pharaoh, who is being drowned in his passage through
the Red Sea. All these genii, who in other respects have
the antique form, are adorned with a nimbus—blue, yellow,
red, or rose-colour. The kings themselves, both David and
Hezekiah, wear the nimbus; so even has Saul, a king who
was guilty of suicide; and, what is still more surprising,
* The Cathedral of St. Nizier de Troyes; the beautiful Church of St.
Urbain, in the same city; the north porch of the Cathedral of Chartres; and
some other churches, contain figures of Prophets and Prophetesses executed
in painting and sculpture, all invested with the nimbus. At Chartres, Aaron,
Moses, and Melchizedek may be observed with the nimbus. A proof still
more convincing is furnished by the painted glass window in the same cathe
dral, representing the History of Roland and the expedition of Charlemagne
into Spain, in which both Charlemagne and Roland are invested with the
nimbus. It is true that Sarius, “Vitae Sanctorum,” enrols Roland and Oliver
among the saints, and consecrates to them one chapter of his book, under the
title of “De Sanctis Rolando et Oliviero, e sociis eorum.” Yet St. Roland
is not named in the Martyrology. The Cathedral of Chartres presents many
ascertained and singular points of affinity with the East, which well deserve
to be examined.
* See an engraving of this subject in the History of the Holy Ghost,
Fig. 110.
Pharaoh,-the impious king of Egypt, at the moment when .

he is engulfed in the abysses of the Red Sea,—has a nimbus,
and even a golden nimbus resembling that of David himself,
or Hezekiah; finally the terrible King Herod, that monster
by whose command all the young children in his dominions
who had been born at the same time with our Saviour were
slain, is invested with a nimbus in a mosaic in the church
of Santa Maria Maggiore, the work of a Greek artist. And
the scene in which he is introduced is precisely that of
the massacre of the innocents! It cannot therefore be
denied that the nimbus is most prodigally given by the
Byzantines," and indeed in every region of the East.
The nimbus is not there, as amongst us, exclusively the
symbol of holiness; it is also, and more particularly, an
attribute of power generally, or of virtue, taking that word
in its most enlarged signification, which, properly speaking,
is that of strength. The nimbus is not there confined to
the qualities of the soul, but is also extended to express
physical strength and vigour, intellectual £ and autho
'' however acquired, and whether employed for good or
evil purposes. This assertion is supported in a very curious
manner by several monuments of western art, those most
especially in which we trace any influence of Byzantine or
oriental genius. Take for example the parable of the wise
and the foolish virgins, sculptured in the Cathedral of Rheims.
The wise virgins have the nimbus, to which they seem justly
entitled, and they are contantly figured with that attribute,
as having been admitted by Christ into paradise: but at
Rheims, the foolish virgins also have the nimbus—a sin
circumstance, and very rarely to be observed elsewhere.f. It
• In the Illuminated Bible of San Paoli fuori-le-Mura, which dates from
the ninth century, we find Joshua, at the passage of Jordan, drawn with a
nimbus. Balaam, an infidel and prevaricating prophet, has a nimbus, even
at the moment when his ass is stopped by the angel of God, who commands
the Prophet, instead of cursing, to bless the people of Israel.—(Hist. de l'Art
parles Monuments, Pl. 43 and 44; “Atlas de la Peinture.”)
+ These virgins are in the north porch, in the vaulting of the left
entrance. In the vaulting of the west porch in the Cathedral of Laon, the
series of Virgins are represented in a similar manner, the five foolish having a
nimbus as well as the five wise. The Cathedral of Laon is the parent of that
at Rheims, and I am not aware that this singular peculiarity exists anywhere
except at Rheims and Laon. It may possibly be there owing to Byzantine
influence, and this idea is supported by several other facts analogous to these,
cannot of course be their folly which is thus honoured and

canonised, but rather their virginity; for these unhappy
women, however foolish they might be, were not the less
virgins; and virginity, in the East especially, is a peculiarly
sublime virtue.
Notre Dame de Rheims, in most of its sculptures and
throughout its painted glass, exhales, as it were, a Byzantine
spirit, replete with grace and ideality. A manuscript in the
Bibliothèque Royale contains a miniature of the taking of
Christ, at the precise moment of his betrayal by the kiss of
the traitor Judas; our Saviour's nimbus is cruciform ;
St. Peter, who is cutting off the ear of Malchus, has the
nimbus, and most appropriately, for Peter is a hero and a
saint. Judas, too, has a nimbus, although every devout
Christian would recoil with horror if the title of saint were
applied to Judas Iscariot.
ut Judas it should be remarked is not merely a covetous
person, a traitor, and an apostate; with all this, but, which
is here more important far, he is an apostle. Now the
apostleship being a sublime office, emanating immediately
from God, the nimbus—which we must remember, is in the
East an attribute of dignity and power, whether exerted
for good or evil–ought, unquestionably, to illumine the
brow of Judas. In the West it is the ordinary attribute
of sanctity alone, and Judas, even at the Last Supper,
and with still greater justice, on the Mount of Olives, is
destitute of the nimbus.*
* Yet M. le Comte Auguste de Bastard (Peintures et Ornemens des

Manuscrits) gives several examples of western design in which Judas is
invested with the nimbus. M. de Bastard has made outlines of several
beautiful miniatures of a manuscript of the thirteenth century, known under
the name of “Manuscrit de Limoges,” because brought from St. Martial. In
the Last Supper, Judas has a golden nimbus, exactly like that of Christ.
Herod, too, has a golden nimbus, at the very moment when he is represented
as in great perplexity, and making contemptible grimaces, while the Magi
inquire where the new-born King of the Jews is to be found. It would be
interesting to know whether this manuscript, belonging as it does to a province
bordering on countries covered with churches that are unquestionably of
Greek and Byzantine origin, may not have been executed under the influence
of certain Byzantine or oriental ideas. When one sees in Périgueux, Angou
lême, Saintes, Cahors and Le Puy, at Solignac, Souillac, and Bourdeille,
cathedrals, abbeys and parish churches with vaulted cupolas like St. Mark's
The manuscript in the “Bibliothèque Royale” may have

been painted by a miniaturist either of Byzantine origin,
affection, or education.
In the apse of one of the numerous small churches with
which the city of Athens is crowded,” is a fresco painting
of the Last Supper. All the apostles have the nimbus,
Judas not excepted; but those of the good apostles are of
some bright, glorious colour, white, green, or golden yellow,
while that of Judas is black. Judas is an apostle, and,
therefore, has a nimbus; but his heart is black, and the
nimbus appears clad in mourning.
The Byzantines, however, go farther still; and even
Satan is represented with a nimbus. An old illuminated
Bible, containing miniatures of the ninth and tenth cen
turies, has a picture of Job,t sitting mournfully upon the
at Venice and St. Sophia's at Constantinople, we easily admit the possibility
of certain Byzantine principles having been infused into Limousin. About
the year 977, or 987, when Venice was entirely Byzantine, a colony of
Venetian merchants established themselves at Limoges, and kept up a constant
communication with their native country. One of the streets in Limoges is
still called “Rue des Wenitiens,” from having been the residence of these
merchants. Excavations recently made at St. Martial, at Limoges, have led
to the discovery of Venetian coins, having on one side “Sanctus Marcus,”
and on the reverse “ . . olo.” Can this have been Dandolo, as is sometimes
imagined; ort ather Orséolo, a Doge who, at the close of the tenth century,
abdicated and retired into France, to the monastery of Saint Michel de Cusan,
in the diocese of Perpignan? The Abbey of St. Martin, at Limoges, was
rebuilt by Bishop Hilduin in 1010; the Venetians assisted him in this work,
and supplied him with money. In the latter years of the eleventh century,
Mark and Sebastian, an uncle and nephew, both of a noble Venetian family,
founded the convent of l'Artige, distant two myriametres from Limoges.—
(Labbe, Nova Bibliotheca MSS. Latino, tom. ii., p. 278.) Lastly, in 1421,
a woman, Jeanne Aldier, employed a Venetian artist to construct a Holy
Sepulchre, or monument, in St. Pierre de Limoges. M. Felix de Werneille
is about to publish a valuable work on the existing Cathedral of Perigueux,
the ancient Abbey-church of St. Front. As his researches are to comprise
all the churches with domes now existing in France, it is to be hoped that
some light will be thrown on the Byzantine School in the West, and on the
influence of oriental ideas in our own country. The question is one of the
most complicated in our national archaeology, and has hitherto been one of the
least considered.
* Athens, in the month of August, 1839, contained at least eighty-one
churches; I visited and counted them myself: since that period, two or three
which had been greatly injured during the War of Independence, and which
were then in a ruinous condition, have been completely demolished.
+ Bibliothèque Royale, Bibl. MS., No. 6. See next Illustration, Fig. 46.
ruins of his house, while Satan stands before him exulting

in the destruction he has caused. In another miniature,
the infernal being is seen burning Job with a red-hot
goad, which renders the body of the patient one immense
wound. The Satan dancing on the ruined house, and
the Satan wounding Job, have each a nimbus like that
ordinarily given to a guardian angel, or consoling spirit.”
Fig. 46.—SATAN, witH A CIRCULAR NIMBUs, ToRMENTING Jors.

Miniature of the x cent.; Bible No. 6, Bib. Roy.
The example here given represents Satan standing before

Job, who is seated sadly on the ruins of his house. The
* Satan does, in fact, resemble an angel—those angels, more especially, who
are painted in other parts of the same manuscript. Thus, in a miniature
representing Elijah carried up to heaven in a chariot drawn by horses of fire,
demon is nimbed, and holds in his hand a brazier, wherewith

to set on fire the habitations he has overthrown.
Lastly, a manuscript Apocalypse," with miniatures be
longing to the close of the twelfth century, represents the
Dragon with seven heads, conquered by St. Michael; the
serpent with seven heads, pursuing the woman into the
desert; and the monster of the sea shaking seven heads
above his frightful body. The heads all have nimbi of
yellow or green, as would be the case with the most
renowned saints in Paradise. That the Apocalypse was
certainly painted either by a Byzantine artist or by one
who had visited Byzantium, is sufficiently proved by the
crescents emblazoned on the angelic bucklers, and the
Arabic cupolas surmounting the buildings represented.t
an angel stands behind the car, like a pilot on the poop of a vessel. That
angel exactly resembles the Satan in Fig. 46; like the evil genius, he has
bird-like wings, and a nimbus of a simple circular thread; he is almost naked,
clothed only with a short petticoat, covering the hips and loins. The only
perceptible difference is, that the angel has nails on his feet, and Satan has claws.
* Bibliothèque Royale, No. 7013.
+ Crescents and cupolas are neither Arabic nor of Mussulman origin, as
has been supposed. The Turks who took Constantinople, in the fifteenth
century, found in that city the crescent surmounting various buildings; it had
been introduced as blazon into what may be called the arms of Constantinople,
as early as the time of Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, that is to say,
about the fourth century B. c. They found there also the beautiful domes of
St. Sophia, of the Church of the Holy Apostles, and of several other churches.
Copyists rather than inventors, the Mussulman conquerors appropriated to
their own use both the domes and the crescent; one became a principal
characteristic feature in the architecture of their mosques, the other the sole
figure of their blazonry, exactly as had been the case in Byzantium. For this
reason, a Byzantine miniaturist, or one who had visited Byzantium, in the
twelfth century represented crescents and cupolas, long before Byzantium had
fallen into the hands of the Mahometans. Constantinople having been
conquered, the crescent and the cupola were adopted by the Turks, and soon
became general among other Mussulman nations; besides, it is probable that
Mahometans, whether in Egypt or in Syria, had long before copied the
Christian cupolas of Alexandria and Damascus. Many ideas and facts have
been vulgarised by Mahometan nations, and by the Arabs amongst others, but
very few have been by them created. They certainly owe us far more than
we have received from them. Five-and-twenty years ago it was the fashion
to assert that Christendom and the West had been constantly under the
dominion of the same Mussulman nations who subjugated Spain. According
to that theory, Gothic Architecture, the ogive arch, chivalry, mathematics,
physics, alchemy—in a word, arts, manners, and science, descended to us
The engraving given below is taken from a fine manuscript

with miniatures, in the Bibliothèque Royale.* . It repre
sents the seven-headed monster of the Apocalypse, the
leopard, with claws like a bear. His heads have a nimbus
of blue, and one-that in the centre, the smallest in reality,
but unquestionably the greatest in its hierarchical import
ance, and sovereign of the others—has a crimson nimbus of
the colour of fire.
One of the heads is without a nimbus: it is undoubtedly
intended for that, which, as we are told in the Apocalypse,
was wounded to death.t
The nimbus being recognised amongst oriental nations as
symbolic of power and dominion, a head in the last agonies
of death is of course destitute of that symbol. When any
individual is in full vigour he is appropriately honoured with
the nimbus, but when enfeebled, unable to resist an attack
—when overpowered by sickness or death—he is then consi
dered to be degraded and £ despoiled of the
aureole. This seems very reasonable. In the romanesque
frescos of St. Savin, near Poictiers, many instances of
Byzantine influence are to be discovered: principally,
amongst others, the great Dragon of the Apocalypse, repre
sented at the moment of his attacking the woman, who had
brought forth a man child destined to rule all nations
(Rev. xii., 13, 15); then the same monster, when he
in his turn is assailed by St. Michael and his angels
from the Arabs. At present, all such errors have been refuted. The proofs
in regard to architecture are most abundant. Our ogive style is completely
different, and was probably of earlier date than that of the Arabs; the horse
shoe arch, the invention of which was formerly attributed to the Arabs, has
lately been discovered in Asia, by M. le Wicomte Léon de Laborde and
M. Ch. Texier, in Christian monuments, bearing dates engraven on stone,
earlier than the seventh century. The minaret even, which is as indispensable
a feature in Mahometan as the bell-tower is in Christian temples, may
possibly not belong to Islamism; it is found in churches on the banks of the
Rhine,—churches which derived their plan and inspiration from St. Sophia,
and which may easily have borrowed staircase-towers and minarets, as
indispensable parts of their plan and decoration. As to our chivalry, M. J. J.
Ampère, in his Lectures on French Literature, has satisfactorily proved it to
be indigenous, and quite unconnected with Arabic chivalry.
* Psalterium cum Figuris, Suppl. fr. 1132.
+ “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death.”—Rev.,
xiii., 3.
THE CHARACTER OF THE NIMBUS. 161
(Rev. xii, 7, 8, 9). In the first picture this red dragon

is full of strength and power; it vomits forth from its
jaws a flood of water to engulf the woman. There, of
course, he is, and ought to be, nimbed; he has a yellow
nimbus, a nimbus of the colour of gold, exactly like that of
the angel who snatches the infant from the fury of the mon
ster: but in the second picture, when attacked by angels,
and on the point of being thrown to the ground and finally
subdued, his head is already divested of its nimbus, his brow
no longer emits rays of light, because his power is at an end.
The western rose window in the Sainte Chapelle, at Paris,
resents the same peculiarities. The beast with seven heads,
£ with horns and crowns, is there repeatedly figured.
Each head has a nimbus, because the monster is adored
by infidels, and because with his tail he draws down a third
part of the stars from heaven. He is here all powerful, in
the very zenith of his might and triumphant daring; but
when conquered by the angel who has the key of the bottom
less pit—when chained and sealed for a thousand years, van
quished, imprisoned, and degraded—he is despoiled of the
nimbus and bears on his heads only the royal crown.”
It has now been fully shown that in the East the nimbus
is constantly symbolic of power, whether of good or evil—
whether vested in a fiend or an archangel, in guilt or virtue
—whether the individual represented be a God, or the
Arch-Traitor himself; if powerful and famous he is unques
tionably entitled to the nimbus. The same idea passed into
the West at the time of its intercourse with Constantinople,
but it never became naturalised, and the inclination to
employ the nimbus merely as a mark of personal holiness
and moral virtue finally gained the ascendant. We have
been more sparing in our use of an attribute which we had
borrowed, not created; and in truth, the riches most
prodigally lavished are usually those which flow for us
immediately from the fountain head. Still at Troyes,
Rheims, and throughout the entire province of Champagne,
from the days of Wille-Hardouin and Joinville, down to our
own, a breeze from Byzantium and the East has been felt
* This painted window dates from the era of Charles VIII., whose cipher is
inscribed upon it, surmounted by a yellow crown, in imitation of gold,
M
- ( o:
~~~~
Z- / -
~
#0 % o o of
© d
© o :
\ °2
Fig. 47.—THE BEAST wiTH SEVEN HEADs; six HAVE THE NIMBUS, AND THE
SEVENTH, BEING woundED To DEATH, is wiTHoUT.
From a Miniature of the xII cent. “Psalterium cum figuris.” Bibliothèque royale.
ON THE COLOUR OF THE AUREOLE. 163
awakening and nurturing a host of oriental ideas and

imagery. It will be sufficient to mention a painted glass
window of the sixteenth century, which lights the nave of
the cathedral of St. Nizier de Troyes. The beast with seven
heads and ten horns is there also represented, and the
nimbus, the oriental attribute of power, encircles each of
those heads. An engraving of it will be given in the History
of the Devil.
ON THE COLOUR OF THE AUREOLE.
Both the nimbus and the aureole being designed to convey

the idea of a luminous efflorescence, investing the head and
the person generally, its colouring in carved or painted
monuments ought to be that of light itself. This then we
should expect to find would be the case in the mosaics,
frescos, coloured glass, miniatures of manuscripts, and his
torical tapestries. But the hues of light are ever varying; like
water, it becomes tinged with various colours, according to
those of the different objects reflected in it, or its own peculiar
intensity. Stars, the most brilliant sources of light, emit scin
tillations of blue, violet, red and white; cerise-red and white
red are gradations of light highly valued by natural philo
sophers. Light, when decomposed in the prism, presents
seven principal elements, which, when combined, form an infi
nite number of tints or gradations. The glory, possessing
as it does all the properties of light, will consequently vary
like it in colour from a deep blue to the most brilliant
white. Thus the aureole and the nimbus are sometimes
coloured blue, violet, red, yellow or white; but yellow, the
colour of gold, has ever been esteemed the most precious and
costly, and frequently also the most radiant of all colours:
gold, of which it is a type or imitation, was regarded as
light consolidated. Consequently the nimbus and aureole,
those of the Deity more especially, are most commonly
yellow or gold colour. Hence representations, whether
ancient or modern, of the sun, are coloured yellow. The
sun, too, is generally yellow, except indeed when painted red
with any particular view. Homer describes Apollo as having
hair of gold, and the blond (golden) or yellow-haired Phoebus
seems no less popular than the blonde or golden Ceres.
M2
164 CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPIIY.
The colour of the nimbus is occasionally symbolical,—a

fact which is proved by the black nimbus, the “nimbeen
deuil’” given to the traitor Judas : still, in numerous
instances, it is purely hierarchical. The form therefore of
the nimbus having been ingeniously rendered the vehicle of
a strongly marked hierarchical distinction, it seems appro
priate that the intention of the form should be heightened
and still further carried out by the colouring. To cite an
example in illustration. The public '
of Strasbourg
contains a magnificent manuscript, to which reference has
already been made." If tradition may be credited, this
great work was written and painted by Herrade, Abbess of
the Convent of Sainte Odile, in Alsace. It is an Encyclo
pedia of all the sciences known and practised in the middle
ages, and appears to be the precursor of the admirable work
of Vincent de Beauvais, entitled “Speculum Universale”
(“Miroir Universel.”) Towards the conclusion of the manu
script is a painting of the celestial courts, of Paradise in short.
Christ is drawn above, in the highest place, with a nimbus
and crown of gold; then come the nine orders of saints
intermingled with angels, and disposed in the following
order:—Wirgins,t apostles, m s, confessors, prophets,
patriarchs, the chaste, the married, and lastly the penitent.
The four first orders, the most exalted of all, have the
nimbus of gold. Prophets and patriarchs, the saints of the
Old Testament, and who knew the truth imperfectly only,
through the veil of metaphor and allegory, have a nimbus of
silver. The nimbus of the chaste is red; that of the married
green; and that of the penitents, yellowish, but slightly
tinted. Colour is evidently employed, in these instances, as
* See Ante, Page 50, also Page 116, note.
+ Observe, that Virgins, elsewhere generally the last, as in the Cathedrals
of Paris, Rheims, and Chartres, are here at the head of the celestial hierarchy,
immediately succeeding God, and above the Apostles and martyrs. We feel
persuaded that the manuscript was the work of a nun, and for the use of a
convent. So, in the portal of the Cathedral of Paris, the principal church of a
city in which pre-eminence of place has ever been assigned to superiority of
intellect, confessors rank above martyrs, which is, in fact, an anachronism, as
well as a singular exception to the invariable practice of Christian Art. These
irregularities in the sacred hierarchy, these artistic heresies, so to speak, should
be noticed with care; for they may possibly lead to important moral and
historical results.
ON THE COLOUR OF THE AUREOLE, 165
an hierarchical medium; it loses its brilliancy in proportion

as it descends from a lofty to an inferior grade, after which
point the title of saint is no longer awarded, and the persons
represented are regarded only as ordinary mortals.
It may be observed, in conclusion, that the hierarchy of
colours might easily, in ideas of the middle ages, have allied
itself with symbolism. Gold is the most radiant of all
colours, and it is here awarded to saints, of the highest
eminence. Silver, the colour of the moon, which, though
inferior to the sun, is ever his constant attendant, stands
next in rank; then red, or fire colour, the attribute of those
who struggle against passion, which is inferior to the two
metals of gold and silver, to the sun and the moon, being
merely an emanation from the former; then green, the
colour of hope, appropriately assigned to married persons;
lastly, a sort of yellow, an equivocal tint, partly white and
partly yellow, a mixed colour given to saints who had for
merly been sinners, but, by prayer and penitence, had again
become acceptable in the sight of God. Such is the hier
archy of symbolism; it might be styled a materialised
system of the Hindoo doctrine of emanation.
It has already been observed that the colour of the
nimbus and aureole is sometimes, but not invariably, sym
bolic. It will not indeed be correct, constantly to seek a
meaning in the colour; nor must we form an exaggerated
idea of the importance to be attached to it: for, in numerous
instances, it may easily be proved to be without signification.
Take, for example, the frescos of St. Savin. In them the
Deity is repeatedly drawn, either with the nimbus only, or
with the nimbus and aureole combined. The field of the
nimbus is sometimes red, with white cross-lines; red, with
yellow cross-lines; yellow, with green lines; yellow, with
red lines across; yellow, with blue; or dark blue, with
cross-lines of a lighter shade of the same colour. The field
of the aureole is, in one instance, yellow; in two others,
greenish. To seek a mystical meaning in each of these
various colours, would be an useless labour; it may possibly
be decided at the most, that yellow and red predominate in
the colouring of aureoles, that the yellow is gold colour, and
the red that of the sun or of fire; but nothing further can
be elicited.
PART II.
–-
THE HISTORY OF GOD.
GoD is a pure spirit, invisible, but everywhere present. God

is eternal and immeasurable; infinite in duration as in immen
sity. He is supreme in power-supreme in goodness—
supreme in intelligence. Single in essence-triple in person:
God is the creator, master, and disposer of all things.
Such, according to the doctrines of Christianity, is the
true definition of the supreme Being, the great first cause
of all existence. This invisible Being, art has attempted
to exhibit, through the medium of paintings and statues;
this infinite Being has been reduced by art to certain
finite proportions: at the command of man, this spirit has
assumed a visible body; this eternal Being has seemed to
have an existence in time. The various representations of
God, painted, carved, or sculptured by Christian artists at
different periods of our era, will now be described, together
with the various portraits, through the medium of which
sculptors and painters have transmitted to us their ideal
conception of l' Godhead.
One in substance, indivisible in nature, God, nevertheless
is, as we have said, threefold in person. It is the union of
these three persons or “hypostases” which constitutes the
perfect fulness of Divinity. “Deus trinus unus,” says
Lactantius, in his concise and orthodox language.*
* Ancient philosophy had already said, by the mouth of Plato in the
Timaeus, “Unity is divided into three, and the trinity is united in one.”
Dante says also
“Quell' uno e due e tre che semprevive,
E regna sempre in tree due ed uno,
Non circonscritto e tutto circonscrive.”"
“Him who lives ever, and for ever reigns,

In mystic union of the Three in One,
Unbounded, bounding all.”
Cary's Dante. Paradise, Canto xiv., l. 28.
GOD THE FATHER. 167
The Christian religion gives to each divine person in the

Trinity a different name and a separate office: art on
its part has invested each name with an appropriate and
special form, and represented each person, and characterised
each office, by distinct attributes.
The first person of the Divine Trinity is called the Father;
the second the Son; and the third the Holy Ghost. They
have all three been represented by artists either singly
or conjoined. It will therefore be expedient to study them
at first, one by one, and trace their iconography separately,
and then to unite them under one head, and in the same
chapter, under the appellation of the Holy Trinity.
GoD THE FATHER.
God the Father, as is recorded in history, frequentl

made himself manifest in his intercourse with mankind.
It is true, nevertheless, that the Father in revealing himself,
at the same time revealed the Son and the Holy Ghost;
still certain actions are attributed more particularly to the
Father, than to the other two persons. Every action in
which that divine energy, which corresponds to what we
call strength and power, is principally manifested, is per
formed by the Father; the other two energies, corresponding
to love and intelligence, seem to belong preferably to the
Son and the Holy Ghost.
Historically considered, the Father is the most frequently
manifested in the Old Testament, the Bible * properly so
called, while the Son is especially present in the Gospel,
and the Holy Ghost appears sometimes in one and some
times in the other. It might be said that the Bible refers
more especially to the history of God the Father, and the
Gospel to that of the Son.
Thus, the Father was the creator of heaven and earth—
* Throughout the present work, as has been already seen, we have dis
tinguished the Old Testament by the name of the Bible, and have given that
of Gospel to the New. The word Bible ought strictly to mean a collection of
all the sacred books, of those of the New Testament as well as of the Old;
but we have preferred adopting the language most commonly in use, and have
restricted the name of Bible to the canonical books of the Old Testament.
of plants, animals, and men. He it was who accepted the

offering of Abel and rejected that of Cain—who punished
mankind by the deluge—who over-turned the projects of
the builders of Babel—who called Abraham to faith in him
—who gave to Moses the tables of the law—who guided
the Hebrews in the desert and led them towards Canaan—
—who fought with the enemies of his chosen people—
inspired prophets and judges—gave wisdom to Solomon
and goodness to Hezekiah. It was he who brought the
Jews into captivity and afterwards restored them to
liberty. Lastly, He it was who sent the Archangel Gabriel
to the Virgin Mary, and commanded him to announce to
her that she had been elected as the chosen mother of
his Son.
The Old Testament appears indeed to be the theatre in
which God the Father chiefly displays his power. Jehovah
is declared to be the Creator of the world, and the two
other persons of the Trinity are scarcely mentioned. Their
presence is intimated in several passages, particularly in
the “Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem
nostrum.”* Still these expressions are quite open to
controversy. Besides, in a multitude of very clear and
explicit passages, the Father, and the Father alone, is
named. In the Old Testament, the Father reigns almost
indivisible: He speaks, He shows himself to man, acts,
' and rewards: He converses with Adam, Cain,
oah, Abraham, and Moses, with kings and prophets;
He is with them, in the midst of them: He is felt, seen,
and heard everywhere; each verse speaks of Him.
In the New Testament, on the contrary, God the Father
almost completely disappears, and retires to the second rank:
He is rarely seen, and seldom heard. The arena seems en
tirely occupied by the Son. Twice the voice of the Father is
heard in the distance; at the Baptism and the Transfigura
tion of Christ he speaks, saying, “This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased;” t, but he immediately appears
to resume his impenetrable silence. When Christ in his
agony of blood cried to him for succour, exclaiming, “Abba,
Father, take away this cup from me.” (St. Mark xiv., 36),
* Liber Genesis, i., 26. ‘f St. Matthew, iii., 17; xvii., 4, 5.
GOD THE FATHER. 169
it is not God but an angel who appears unto him

strengthening him. When nailed to the cross, the divine
victim exclaims, “My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?” (St. Mark xv., 34.) Not one word of
consolation descends to him from heaven. God the Father
is silent, and even the angels hold their peace. Such is the
lesson derived from the first reading of the sacred text;
such the literal rendering of Holy Scripture.
Artists, guided rather by history than by abstract and
logical dogmas of theology, understood Scripture in this
literal sense, at least at the end of the Gothic period; and
in every scene of the Old Testament, God the Father is
figured to the exclusion in some measure of the Son and the
Holy Ghost. Still it was not till the end of the fourteenth
century, and principally in the fifteenth and sixteenth, that
God the Father was thus depicted by painters and
sculptors. Another singular fact which marked the earlier
ages well deserves consideration, and is confirmed by various
archaeological examples.
It is easy to understand how the Son, the Father, and the
Holy Ghost might concur in the same actions, and manifest
themselves at the same time in the various histories of the
Old Testament, because the Trinity is doctrinally indivisible,
and every work done by one of the three persons is
performed collectively by the three at once. From the
moment, however, that one single person is represented,
it would seem fit that the Father only should be shown at
the Creation," as the Son should appear at the Passion, and
the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. It seems an extraordinary
thing to represent the Son alone creating Adam and Eve.
Historically speaking, it is an anachronism, for the Son,
Jesus Christ, had not then been born in his human nature.
Still, nothing is more common than to see Jesus taking the
place of his Father, and creating the world alone, commanding
Noah to construct the ark, arresting the hand of Abraham
when on the point of sacrificing Isaac, and speaking to
Moses from the midst of the burning bush.
* The question is here considered under its historical bearings alone; for it
will instantly be proved by theology that the Son ought to occupy the place
which artists of the fifteenth century and of the Renaissance assigned to the
Father.
Further, it would seem that when artists designed to

represent God the Father as conversing * with Abraham,
Moses, the prophets, and the kings, fear and awe
restrained them £ a delineation of the whole person,
and a small part only has been represented; the hand, for
instance, or sometimes even the face; but more rarely the
bust, and scarcely ever the entire person. Thus the figure
of the Son either supplants that of the Father, in represen
tations of works recorded to have been performed by the
latter, or the smallest possible portion of the Father's
person is shown, or he is altogether absent or almost
entirely veiled; one might perhaps say, superseded. These
two facts are parallel, and, indeed, almost identical. But
before entering upon any explanation, it will be well to
prove them by Iconography, and to demonstrate first, that
Christ is represented instead of the Father in works of
which the latter is more especially the author, and, secondly,
that the Father, if it be He whom the artists designed to
represent, reveals his presence only by a hand, an arm, or a
face, the remainder of the person being concealed.
In the first place then, Christ is represented instead of
the Father.
In a subsequent chapter, which will be devoted to the
history of the Son of God, an enumeration will be made of
the characteristic features of age, physiognomy, costume,
attitude and attributes, by which he may be recognised.
It will be sufficient to mention here, that Christ shows
himself under two perfectly distinct forms. Either, as on
ancient sarcophagi, on certain Greek frescos, and in some
sculptures of our own country, executed under the influence
of Byzantine genius, he is youthful, beardless, an adolescent
of from fifteen to eighteen years of age, the feet sandalled,
seldom bare, with long hair descending upon the shoulders,
and no nimbus; t or, as is more commonly the case, par
* On the sarcophagi in the Vatican, and the frescos of the Catacombs, the
earliest figured monuments of Christianity, nothing is shown of the Father
Eternal except a hand issuing from the clouds. See Rom. Sotter passim,
particularly, pp. 45, 59, 73, 231, 339, 363, 367 of the Italian edition.
Rome, 1633.
+ See Figs. 17, 18, two portraits of the Saviour, both beardless; in
the first, the feet are sandalled.
GOD THE FATHER. 171
ticularly in the countries of Western Europe, he is about

thirty or thirty-three years of age, as at the period of the
crucifixion, with a long face, a fine short beard, hair of
moderate length and parted over the forehead, the counten
ance sweet but melancholy, the nimbus divided by a cross,
the feet bare, and the robe and mantle long. On seeing
either of these two figures, both of which are consecrated to
the Saviour, it is impossible to mistake or to confound them
with any other person.
Besides, not only is the expression of the face suf
ficiently characteristic to distinguish him, but his name is
frequently written at his feet, or around his head, some
times at full length, at others, abridged or contracted into
a monogram.
Now in a number of monuments representing the creation,
and all those biblical scenes in which God the Father is the
chief actor and author, it is not the Father who is pour
trayed, but the Son, who may easily be recognised by the
hieratical type or character of his physiognomy, and the
name, painted or graven. Christ, as has just been said, is
thus represented youthful and beardless, on a multitude of
white marble sarcophagi belonging to the first epochs of
Christianity from the fourth down to the eighth century.
There can be no doubt that the figure is intended for that
of Christ, for among the subjects depicted on those sarco
phagi we find the raising of Lazarus, the cure of the man
born blind, and the paralytic, the multiplication of the bread,
the conversation with the Samaritan woman, the triumphant
entry into Jerusalem, the appearance before Pilate, and the
preaching to the apostles; now the person represented as
thus raising the dead, healing the blind, multiplying the
loaves and fishes, speaking, triumphing, standing before
Pilate in the judgment-hall, and preaching, is the same
beardless youth of whom we have spoken;—it is Christ in
his adolescence. Sculptured on the same monuments, how
ever, and generally on the left side, are subjects parallel
with the above, which are then on the right; God
is here seen condemning Eve and Adam to labour,
speaking to Noah, arresting the hand of Abraham, giving
the law to Moses; and God is invariably represented
by the same young beardless adolescent, who, in the
opposite compartments raises Lazarus from the dead, and

sends his apostles to preach throughout the world. It is
God the Son who here takes the place of the Father.
In Fig. 32, (God, beardless, giving to Eve and Adam
a lamb and some ears of corn,) is a figure precisely re
sembling the divine youth, without a beard, with long hair
descending upon his shoulders, and sandalled feet; in this
picture God is condemning Adam to till the ground, which
will bring forth ears of corn similar to those of which he
presents him a sheaf; and Eve is to spin into wool the fleece
of the lamb which he presents to her.
This drawing is taken from a sarcophagus in the Vatican.
One might perhaps imagine the God speaking to Adam
and Eve, to £ intended for God the Father, although it
may appear singular to see the “Ancient of Days,” as he
is called in the Bible, and by the Greeks (3 taxabs róv
huepāv) scarcely past the age of infancy; and it might
possibly be thought that, adhering in this respect to the
practice of the ancient Greeks, the early Christians had repre
sented God the Father, or Jehovah, youthful and beardless
in order to indicate the unchangeableness of the Deity, who
never becomes old, but lives on in perpetual youth. But
the plate annexed” leaves no doubt that it is indeed Christ
who is represented presiding over the work of creation,
and throughout the entire cycle of Genetical history;
for God is there represented creating Adam, the first
born (ABău 6 mporón Aarros), and this God is no other
than Christ, as is proved by his name *C, XC, inscribed in
the field of the circular aureole whence he appears to
spring.f - • -
The manuscript of Panselinos! is if possible even more

explicit and decisive. In the instructions given in that
work to artists, on the proper method of representing
Moses before the burning bush, the following features are
* The painting was originally copied from an ivory, carved probably in the
twelfth or thirteenth centuries. It is given by Gori in his Thesaurus veterum
diptychorum, vol. ii., p. 160.
* Seroux d'Agincourt (Histoire de l'Art par les Monuments) produces
another example similar to that here given by Gori.
# Epumveta Tis Zarypapulcis. Second part.
GOD THE FATHER. 173
indicated, and the picture is drawn in words as follows:–

“Moses loosing his sandal; around him, sheep. Before
Moses is the burning bush, in the midst and on the summit
of which the Wirgin and Child shine resplendent. Beside
Fig 48—THE CREATOR UNDER THE FIGURE of CHRIST, NoT of THE FATHER.
Fresco painting, Ix century. Gravé en ivoire xII ou xIII siècle.
Mary is an angel, looking towards Moses. On another side

of the bush, Moses is again represented standing, with one
hand extended, and holding a rod in the other.” The
Greeks not only substitute Christ for God the Father, but
even the Virgin, and that, too, more than eleven hundred
years before her birth. Our western art, has more than
once followed the direction of Byzantine art, or at least
appears to agree with it. To cite but two examples;—at
Rheims, on some tapestry of the sixteenth century, and at
Saint Saviour of Aix, on a picture attributed to King René,
Moses is seen prostrating himself before a green bush,
whence issue tongues of flame. On the tapestry in the
Cathedral of Rheims, we read, in verses woven into the

wool:—
Comment Moyse futtres fort esbahi
Quant aperceut le vert buisson ardant
Dessus le mont de Horebou Synal,
Et n'estoit rien de sa verdeur perdant.”
Lastly a manuscript belonging to the latter portion of the
fourteenth century, and which is now in the Bibliothèque
Royale, t contains a picture of God appearing to Moses in
the midst of lightning on Mount Sinai, and another of
God, with the head emerging from the clouds at the
moment when Moses raises his hands to him, imploring
aid against the Amalekites. In both miniatures God is
young and completely beardless. In , the frescos of
St. Savin, near Poictiers, God is seen giving the tables of
the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, or speaking to Noah, or
creating the world; God in each of these pictures has the
figure of Christ; his age from thirty to thirty-five, the hair
young and fair, the countenance full of sweetness. This
God is Christ, no longer beardless as in the manuscript of
which we have just spoken, but having reached the age of
his ministry and public life; it is certainly not intended for
God the Father.
On hearing the name of the Almighty, the idea one forms
of the person so designated is that of the entire Trinity, in
whom resides the fulness of divine power, or that of God
the Father, to whom the attribute of strength and energy
seems more peculiarly to belong; but that title does not
suggest the idea of Christ, the incarnation rather of self
devotion and charity. Yet, the Greeks, within those great
cupolas which are raised above, the central portion of their
churches, delineate a gigantic figure of the Almighty or
Pantocrator, as they style the Father, painted in fresco, or
in mosaic gold ground. God, from the summit of the
artistic heaven, appears to bless the faithful with his
* How Moses was very greatly astonished
When he saw the green bush burning
On the Mount of Horeb or Sinai,
And yet of its verdure nothing losing.
+ Biblia 6829, Cf. Bible 6. Bibl. roy. Observe also the miniature
representing Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, in the fiery furnace.
GOD THE FATHER. 175
extended right hand, while in the left he holds a book.

The figure, if intended for that of the Father, the “Ancient
of Days” appears rather youthful; yet from the words
“ó Tavrokpárop,” written in large characters, one is tempted
for a moment to imagine, notwithstanding the cross with
which the nimbus is adorned, that it is indeed “ó Taxatós róv
juspóv.” But we are speedily undeceived, for below the
first inscription, and :
above the shoulders of the figure,
shine in still larger letters, Íd Kč ("Imaows Xplorös), Jesus
Christ. Then, on the open book in his hand, we read what
Jesus said himself in the Gospel. “I am the light of the
world.” For other reasons, too, the figure, even if it were
not so fully characterised by the name and inscription,
would evidently represent Christ, not God the Father.”
In the Cathedral of Chartres (north porch, central arch)
the Creation, as related in the Book of Genesis, is sculptured
in minute detail. Now, in Genesis, as has been said, the
Father, the Creator, is Jehovah: neither the Son nor the
Holy Ghost are mentioned unless they are signified in the
words, “Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem
nostram,” “Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness;” “Et spiritus Dei ferebatur super aquas,” “And
the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
(Gen. i., 26, 45.) The Father it is who speaks—who
approves his own work—who creates man, and from him
fashions womant—who pronounces the prohibition and
addresses the reproof. In the history of the Creation
sculptured at Chartres, God is represented thirteen times,
and in thirteen different bas-reliefs. The God represented
in each, is not the Father; it is not Jehovah, but the Son,
about thirty years of age, adorned as has been before
* The following engraving was taken from a fresco painting in the principal
church of the convent of the Isle of Salamis. At Mistra, and in the Cathedral
of Athens; at Meteora, in Thessaly; at Mount Athos, in Macedonia; at
Daphne, near Athens, and on the road to Eleusis; at Saint Luke, in Livadia,
at the foot of Mount Parnassus, the same thing is constantly to be seen. Now
the paintings in these different localities comprise a period of thirteen centuries,
from the days of Justinian down to our own. In 1839, in the month of
November, I saw, on Mount Athos, one of these very figures of Christ,
painted as Pantocrator.
+ “Et aedificavit Dominus Deus costam, quam tulerat de Adam, in
mulierem.”—Gen, i., 22.
described with the beautiful glossy hair overshadowing his

shoulders and with the delicately shaped double-forked beard
E.P.H. DvaAN D. Ex-Pic.1 v R, G Rae.c. s.
Fig. 49.—JEsUS CHRIST (NoT THE FATHER), As THE ALMIGHTY.

Fresco Painting at Salamis, of the xvi.II cent.
descending from the chin. The Creator here is in every

point similar to the Pantocrator described above.
The Bible of Charles le Chauve contains illuminated
miniatures, delineating the entire creation. The Creator
is there represented not more than twenty years of age;
he is beardless, and already appears with the nimbus,
though the nimbus is not as yet cruciform. The feet are
bare, the sandals usually seen upon the sarcophagi having
already disappeared. In the hand is a long staff. The
#
ather.
is clearly intended for God the Son, and not the
The Nicene Creed, it is well-known, declares all things

to have been created by the Word, the Son of God, and
art, as we shall find, has remained dutifully faithful to that
dogma. But in other subjects where the presence of God
the Father is clearly pointed out, or at most, the Word not
yet made flesh, it is still the person of Christ that we see
represented. In the time of Isaiah the prophet, Christ the
incarnate God was not yet born; consequently, whenever
in the Old Testament, God is described as appearing to
or addressing him or other prophets, it is Jehovah or God
the Father who appears and speaks,—and historically con
sidered, it can be no other person of the divine Trinity.
Still in the Cathedral of Chartres, God is not merely
removed from the work of Creation, which the Son is repre
sented as accomplishing, but Jesus, not the Father, is also
expressly delineated, appearing to the prophets, and con
versing with them. Thus, on the basement of one of the
pillars supporting the vaulting of the north porch, the
prophet Samuel is represented standing; God is in the act
of revealing to the youthful prophet his intentions with
regard to the house of Eli, and the judgments he is about
to bring upon the high priest and his children. (1 Kings,
iii., 11, 14.) In the Cathedral of Rheims, God is repre
sented giving to Isaiah his mission, to announce the
principal revolutions which were to disturb the kingdoms of
Judah and Israel, and to proclaim the birth of the Messiah
and the deliverance of the children of Jacob. The figure
should have been that of Jehovah, since it was he who
conversed with Isaiah on the future birth of the Messiah, his
son,” and it was he, also, who spoke to Samuel, a prophet who
was never permitted to see Christ on earth. Still, the age, the
features, and countenance, clearly prove it to be intended,
not for the Father but the Son; but the possibility of any
mistake is precluded, and the intention of the sculptor at
Chartres clearly testified by the word XPITVS deeply graven
in the stone beneath the figure not intended for Samuel.t
* Isaiah. See the prophecies passim, especially chapters vi., vii., xi., xiv.
+ The name is written as above; the three first letters are Greek, the last
three Latin, and the S which should have divided the Greek from the Latin
letters is forgotten entirely. This may have been occasioned by custom,
symbolism, or ignorance, but I feel inclined to attribute it rather to habit, or
N
Not only is it God the Son, who according to Christian faith

and the doctrines of theology, hight indeed have revealed
himself to Samuel; but it is the Christ, it is God made man,
who seems thus to have appeared on earth more than a
thousand years before his human birth.
The Greek manuscript of Panselinos (‘Epunveia ris Zoypa
qukis) agrees completely with the western sculptures at
Rheims and Chartres, for we there find under the title of
“The Vision of Isaiah,” the following description of the
composition and the treatment of it, enjoined to Byzantine
inters.
“A grotto;—within it clouds and a brilliant light; Christ
in the midst, seated like a king on a lofty throne. His right
hand is in the act of benediction, in the left, he holds a
scroll, on which is written “Whom shall I send, and who
will go amongst this people?’” (Isaiah vi., 8.) It cannot
therefore be doubted that the name of Christ, is inscribed
in that book, as well as in the porch of Chartres Cathedral,
in which place the subject seems imperatively to require
the presence of the Father, or at least of the Eternal
Word.
Amongst the Greeks, not only is the Son substituted for
the Omnipotence, but also for the Wisdom of the Father.
The Greeks of the lower empire, dedicated to the Deity,
under the name of Saint Sophia, the most beautiful, the
richest and greatest of their temples; the parent indeed of
all the Byzantine Churches. It might have been supposed
that this epithet was intended to apply to the entire Trinity
united, £ not to one single person, or in the latter case,
that it would belong rightfully to God the Father, and to
the Holy Ghost especially, but less peculiarly to God the
Son. The very reverse appears to be the case. At Lyons, in
the library of the palace of St. Peter, is a very curious
manuscript, enriched with miniatures of the twelfth, or
perhaps even of the eleventh century. The first of these
even to ignorance, many proofs of which are given by sculptors, and by those
of Chartres among the rest. In the “Creation of Heaven and Earth,”
sculptured in the same porch, the artists or workers in stone have written
terrem instead of terram. Must this be regarded as an error, or does it prove
that at the time when Chartres Cathedral was built, the a was pronounced
like an e, as is still the case in certain provinces of France?
miniatures, is an allegorical representation of the Ency

clopedia of the middle ages. The principal sciences are
ersonified by women, whom God, St. Sophia, inspires with
intelligence and science by a breath, just as by a breath
he gave life to the clay of which he had formed the figure
of Adam. Saint Sophia is a youthful personification of
the Deity, about thirty years of age, slightly bearded, and
with a cruciform nimbus. The figure is unquestionably
intended for the Christ. To avert the possibility of
mistake, the painter, like the sculptor of Chartres, would
have done well to engrave the name of Jesus above that
of Sancta Sophia.”
2:
'.
5
Fig. 50.—JESUS CHRIST As SAINT soPHIA.

Miniature of Lyons; xII cent.t
We not only find the Father, to be in many instances

supplanted as it were by the Son, but even when depicted,
* This manuscript is the “Psychomachie” of Prudentius; it contains a great
number of miniatures representing the Vices and Virtues. The taste of the
middle ages inclined to allegorical pictures in which science and morality
were so figured as to exhibit their mutual dependence. The alliance between
the good and true was often perfected by the addition of the beautiful, and
art was then summoned to crown Instruction and Virtue.—(See the Porches of
Notre Dame de Chartres.) Andrea Pisano sculptured the Arts and Sciences
in the Campanile of Santa Maria del Fiore at Florence, and Giotto completed
them by the addition of the figures of Apelles and Phidias, the personifications
of Painting and Sculpture. To these Luca della Robbia added the personifica
tions of Grammar, Philosophy, Music, Astronomy, aad Geometry.
* This figure of St. Sophia is represented dispensing complete science and
N 2
a trifling portion only of his person is seen. Christ is

painted and sculptured at full length, in every attitude, of
every age, and under every possible aspect; but the Father
is either absent, or his presence revealed only by a small
portion of his person. Sometimes a hand only is seen, some.
times the hand and the forepart of the arm; then the entire
hand and arm, afterwards the face is attempted, and lastly
the bust; but many years elapsed before a full-length figure
of Jehovah was ever attempted. I do not pause here to
dwell upon a fact so singular, as it will be treated at length
in a separate paragraph.
The rank assigned to God the Father, in early Christian
monuments, is frequently not very honourable, the Son
taking precedence of the Father. It must be remembered
that in the ideas of the middle ages as well as in our own.
the rank, or place occupied by different figures, is not
without a meaning. The precedence granted to one person
rather than another, has a peculiar signification. Thus the
left hand is inferior to the right, the lower part to the upper,
the centre is more honourable than the circumference. Aword
or two on this subject may be of use in calling the attention
of antiquaries, and inducing them to notice particularly the
place occupied by any objects, men or things, which they may
meet with in their researches. The fact is of unquestionable
importance.
wisdom under the symbol of the two different kinds of manuscripts which
formed the only medium through which knowledge was then imparted. Th
two forms were that of the rouleau, which the figure appears to hold in th
left hand, and the book, properly so called, which is in the right. The book
being of greater importance in size, and also capable of containing mor,
matter, was regarded as symbolic of the loftiest wisdom. Gulielmus Durandus
a famous liturgist,” asserts that the roll only, was placed in the hands of thi
Old Testament Prophets, because they saw the truth but imperfectly, an
through the veil of metaphor, while the Apostles, to whom the truth wa
fully revealed, carry books. The remark is of the highest importance in regar
to Christian Iconography, although there exist many exceptions to the fact, an
many Apostles, even the Evangelists, hold only rolls, while the Prophets ol
the contrary have large books; another proof, in confirmation of others alread
quoted, that we must not always rely implicitly on the mediaeval writers o'
symbolism, Durandus, John Beleth, Jean d’Avranches, and Hugues d
St. Victor.
* Rat. div. off, lib. i., cap. 3.

The left hand is inferior to the right. In stained glass

windows, or in sculptures, Christ is often represented
enthroned on clouds, his back supported by the rainbow.
On his left, we find the tables of the law, resting on the
ark of the covenant; on his right, upon an altar, the books,
written by his apostles. In fact the Bible has always been
placed on the left, and the Gospel on the right. An early
English abbot, who caused the church of his Convent to be
decorated with paintings, selected for the north, or the left
hand, scenes from the Old Testament; and for the south,
or the right hand, scenes from the New. The subjects
sculptured on the two side-porches at Chartres comprehend
the entire cycle of religious themes. On the north porch,
which is on the left hand looking towards the apse, are
placed figures taken from the Old Testament; on the south
or right-hand porch, characters belonging the Gospel, from
the advent of the New and Christian world, down to the
Last Judgment.” Lastly, according to the Psalm, God, to
do honour to the conqueror, Jesus, who had subdued Satan
and redeemed the world, desires him to sit down at his right
hand. The lower part is less honourable than the upper.
A king, a pope, or conqueror, is elevated on a buckler, a
throne, or a chariot. Below, on the compartments of the
basement, are figures of saints, represented as living, militant,
performing the actions recorded of them, and accomplishing
their work upon earth; while in the vaulting above, the
same saints are seen after death, triumphant, and admitted
into paradise. In the lower part they are simply men,
above, they are glorified beings or saints. Lastly, at Chartres,
completely at the summit of the great western gable, elevated
no less than fifty metres above the ground, Christ is repre
sented, with extended hands, blessing the world outspread
beneath his feet.
* See Introduction, p. 16. Vasari, Vies des Peintres, translated by

MM. Leclouché et Jeanron, in the life of Giovanni Cimabue, vol. i. p. 41,
says as follows: “Cimabue adorned with fresco paintings the upper part of the
walls of the church of San Francisco d’Assisi. On the left of the altar he
placed sixteen subjects taken from the Old Testament, and on the right,
opposite to them, sixteen taken from the lives of the Virgin and of Christ.”
Tradition appears to have been invariable on this point, from the period of
Benedict Biscop down to that of the sculptors of Notre Dame de Chartres and
the great Italian master, Cimabue.
The centre, again, is more honourable than the circum

ference. In the vaulting of a cathedral, or the field of
a rose-window filled with stained glass, the centre is always
assigned either to God, the Creator and Judge, or the Virgin
Mary, the first of all created beings. Then follow the
different orders of angels, commencing with the seraphim
who hold the highest rank of all, and closing with angels
the lowest in degree of the whole heavenly hierarchy; ther
apostles, martyrs, confessors, and lastly virgins, who being
women, and less eminent in virtue than the saintly orders
who precede them, are placed in the exterior cordon of the
circumference. It is thus shown that in proportion to the
distance between God or the centre, and the person repre
sented, the essence of the latter becomes less subtle, the
materiality '' and virtue grows more attenuate
The hierarchy thus figured in rose-windows, and sculpture.
on the vaulted roofs of cathedrals, exhibits in a palpable
form, as has been before observed,” the system of ethics
and cosmogony embodied in the Hindu doctrine o'
emanation.
There are exceptions to this Christian hierarchical arrange.
ment, but they rather confirm, than disprove, the truth ol
my assertion. Thus in the central door of the western
porch of the cathedral at Paris, the different orders o'
persons supposed to be in the enjoyment of paradise, are
arranged in hierarchical order. God is in the centre—his
fitting place; next him are the angels, then follow the
apostles; but instead of martyrs, who ought properly to
stand next in rank to the apostles, confessors are seer
to present themselves; the martyrs are consequently
lowered, and confessors elevated by one degree; and, pro.
bably for the following reason:—At Paris the capital o
intellect, a man, whose mind is enlightened by intelligence
is considered superior even to one who has given his life fol
the faith. A saint who diffuses his belief throughout the
world, is more frequently beloved than the martyr, whose
faith is watered by his blood. A similar fact occurs in the
Manuscript of Herrade, Abbess of Sainte Odile, which was
referred to in giving the history of the aureole. Virgins
who everywhere else, at Paris, Rheims, and at Chartres
* Chapter on the Glory, p. 143.
hold the lowest rank, are here placed at the head of the
celestial hierarchy, immediately after God and before
apostles, martyrs, or confessors, the latter of whom, at
Notre Dame de Paris, rank first. The manuscript was
written and the illuminations executed by a woman, a
religieuse, and for the use of women, the sisters of her
convent. These women, being nuns and virgins, thought to
pay themselves honour, by assigning to their patronesses so
noble a rank, and thus to become the artisans of their own
lory.
''has thus been shown that the left, the lower parts and
the circumference are less honourable than the right, the
top, or the centre. This being determined, the following
facts have been observed, relating either to the place
occupied by God the Father, and the Son in sculptured
monuments, or to the manner in which they have been
represented. Notre Dame de Paris, a building which is
open to the inspection of the world, will furnish us with a
type for all other such monuments.
In the north porch of Notre Dame de Paris, of which the
period is about the end of the thirteenth century, the
presence of God the Father is intimated only by his hand
displayed in one of the bands or cordons of the vaulting at
the point of the junction (brisure) or apex of the arch, while
in an interior cordon the sun is placed before him. In the
south porch, the head of the Father is given, but on the
exterior cordon of the vaulting, where it is exposed to all
the injuries of rain and wind, while mere angels are placed
in the inner cordons and sheltered from the action of the
weather. On the left door of the west porch, the Father is
altogether omitted, while the figure of the Son is full length,
and the size of life. -
At the central door, the face only of the Father is shown,

and seems almost strangled between the intersecting points
of the cordons of the vaulting, within which cordons are,
respectively, the canopies which over-crown the martyrs and
patriarchs. The head appears to have been placed in that
spot merely to fill up a vacancy, and because owing to a mis
calculation of the space to be filled up, a certain portion
remained blank. In the door on the right, the figure of the
Creator is completely banished to the exterior and least
honourable cordon, and even there placed in a narrow an

inconvenient situation just at the intersection of the pointe.
arch; God the Son, on the contrary, is placed in the interior
carefully protected from the effects of rain and wind: he i
represented under the figure of a lamb, two angels bear him
triumphantly in their arms, and raise him, as it were, upon
throne of clouds. Ample space might have been foun
in a lower cordon for the Holy Ghost, but the Hol.
Ghost also has been sacrificed by the artist, who has fille
the vacancy in preference, with a large angel, holding i.
each hand a napkin, on which two little naked souls ar
seen standing.
In the sculptures of Notre Dame de Paris, we can indee
discover but little reverence for the Father Eternal; but, ol
the other hand, a thousand tendernesses are lavished on th
Son; His are all the honours, His the glory of the triumph
He is represented of colossal size, not merely the bust, bu
the entire person; seated on a throne in the central door
judging the world at the end of time.
On the right door, He is represented as a child, at Hi
mother's knee. On the left He is a man, standing, attending
the death-bed of his mother, whom, in an upper compartment
He is afterwards seen crowning. The events of the life o
Christ down to the flight into Egypt, are represente
on the tympanum of the north porch, while on the pie
between, # is seen, presenting the Saviour to the adoration
of the faithful. In the south porch, He is seen in the clouds
appearing to St. Stephen, who is being stoned to death,
e receives upon His knees the precious mantle whicl
St. Martin divided in order to give half to the beggar o
Amiens. At the Porte Rouge He is crowning His mother
He crowns her again on the bas-reliefs, enchased in the
side wall on the north; on the same side He is again seer
judging the world. The screen inclosing the choir, in the
* We are told in the Acts of the Apostles, vii. 55, that St. Stepher
saw the divine glory and Jesus standing on the right hand of God; “Widi
gloriam Dei, et Jesum stantem a dextris Dei;” and again; “Ecce vided
coelos apertos, et Filium hominis stantem a dextris Dei.” In the portal o'
Notre Dame de Paris, where this scene is represented, the Father ought
certainly to be present as well as the Son; as the figure of Jesus alone appears,
we must again conclude that the Father is superseded.
interior of the church, offers at one view all the principal

incidents in the life of Christ, from His birth to the resur
rection. In the alto-rilievos, which have not been broken
down to make way for the modern screen or “grille,” Christ
is represented thirteen times, at every period of His life.
He is ever the polar star, towards which all other sculptured
figures turn, as the needle to the pole. The Father, on
the other hand, is seen but once in the entire series,
and then the face only is seen, with the arm extended at
the moment when Jesus exclaims, “Take away this cup
from me.”
Finally, when the figure of God the Father is actually
brought upon the scene, the part assigned to him is frequently
ridiculous, rude, hateful, and even cruel. Thus, on the
capital of a pillar, in Notre Dame du Port, at Clermont,
God is represented striking the guilty Adam with his
clenched hand; a strange and most improper manner of
reproving him for the crime he had committed; while an
angel at the same time seizes our poor first father by the
beard and plucks it out. The actions, both of God and of the
angel, are marked by extreme brutality. In the Bibliothèque
Royale is a Latin manuscript, adorned probably with Italian
miniatures, and in one of these, God is represented as
himself expelling Adam and Eve from paradise, and driving
them before him with blows of an arrow, precisely as in the
Iliad, Apollo is represented pursuing the Greeks! Such a
part might be well suited to Apollo, a man rather than a
God, and full of human rage and passion; but we feel
Indignant that any artist should dare to attribute such a
character to Jehovah. A Psalter in the Bibliothèque Royale,
belonging to the close of the twelfth century, contains several
figures, representing God, holding in his hand a bow and
arrows, a spear, and a sword: he appears, indeed, to be the
mighty God, the God of armies, the God of battles, the
Jehovah of the Hebrews, but not the God of Christians.
One of these figures is given on the next page.*
* It belongs to the eighteenth Psalm, in which the Divine wrath is spoken
of as red like burning coal, and dark and cloudy as a fall of hail; it is also said
that God breathes out his indignation in smoke and flames, and that, after
having crushed his enemies with the thunderbolts, he kills them with arrows.
“Ascendit fumus in ira ejus, et ignis a facie ejus exarsit; carbones succensi
God Almighty is represented in this miniature with the

countenance of the Son, no portrait of the Father having
at that period been attempted.
The figure, however, is un
doubtedly intended for Jehovah,
slaying his enemies with arrows,
judging all flesh with the sword,
according to the words of the
Psalmist given below. With
a peculiar refinement, and as
if to impart to the figure of
the Deity, an expression more
than ordinarily warlike, he is in
scribed within a medallion, and
Fig. 51.—JEHow AH, As THE God of forms one of those “imagines
-
BATTLE8. clypeatae’’ of which we have

Italian Miniature; close of the already spoken in the history
xii cent."
of the aureole.t
The art has made Jehovah thus awful, as if with the
design of rendering the contemplation uninviting to the
mystical taste of the middle ages, and to attract all hearts
in preference to Jesus Christ the God of charity and love.
Self-sacrifice, and devotedness, are fundamental doctrines of
Christianity, but strength, whether from a reaction of the
mind in opposition to the Pagan doctrines, or from a feeling
of aversion to the feudal system, and the power of the
nobility, has always inspired repugnance. It seems, conse
sunt ab eo. Et misit sagittas suas et dissipavit eos; fulgura multiplicavit, et

conturbavit eos.” “There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out
of his mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it.”—Ps. xviii., 8. “Yea,
he sent out his arrows and scattered them, he shot out lightnings and dis
comfited them.”—Ps. xviii., 14.
* The engraving is taken from a MS. Psalter in the Bib. Roy. suppl.
fr. 1132, bis. -
+ P. 118 and 119. The circle within which God is painted is not only
regarded by Christian artists as a buckler, an idea borrowed by them from
Greek and Roman artists, but the nimbus itself was by them regarded as a
buckler, defending the head. The Manuscript of Herrade, Hortus
Deliciarum, is explicit on that point, as will be seen by the extract given
below. The nimbus thus appears to be a kind of religious casque, or helmet.
It is so defined by Gulielmus Durandus, the liturgist, in his Rat.
Div. Off.
quently, as if artists had been deficient in the respect to

which the Father is properly entitled, or in other words,
had not held in due reverence that part of the Divine
nature, which we regard as the representation of strength
and omnipotence.
God the Father, in short, is either entirely absent from
sculptured monuments, or if introduced, some insignificant
portion only of his figure is exhibited, and that small portion
even, is either not honourably placed, or is made to act an
incongruous and undignified part. The Son, on the contrary,
is constantly present, even in scenes in which he ought not
properly, to be represented; he is always worthily depicted
and honourably placed. These facts may be explained by
several concurring causes, all of which will be here given,
as forming an integral part of the Archaeological history of
God the Father.
The first of these causes was probably the hatred felt by
the Gnostics for God the Father; the second, the dread
which prevailed amongst the followers of Christ lest they
should appear to recal the idea of Jupiter, or to offer a
pagan idol to the adoration of ignorant Christians; the
third, that identical resemblance between the Father and
the Son, which various texts of Holy Scripture appear to
intimate; the fourth, the incarnation of the Son, who is
the speech or Word of the Father; the fifth, the absence
of any visible manifestation of Jehovah, a fact which is con
firmed by various texts of Scripture; the sixth and last,
the difficulty all artists must have felt in imagining or
executing so awful and sublime an image.
We notice in the first place, the hatred borne by the
Gnostics to Jehovah; which would most naturally prejudice
the iconographic representations of the Father.
In the first centuries of the Christian era there arose a
violent heresy against God the Father, or Jehovah. Secta
rians, taking up the study of the Old Testament rather like
men whose minds were blinded, than those who were endued
with the full light of intelligence, discovered, that for having
transgressed one prohibition, Adam and all his race had
been condemned to death; that for crimes, the magnitude
of which they refused to acknowledge, mankind had
perished in the deluge; that the Israelites, to expiate their
murmuring in the desert, had died by the envenomed bites of

fiery serpents; that twenty-four thousand men had perished
on one occasion by the command of Jehovah, as a punish
ment for having been seduced by the beauty of the daughters
of Moab, and offering incense with them to their gods; that
he people, to atone for the pride of David, his chosen king,
had been visited by a plague, which destroyed in a brief
eriod, no less than seventy thousand of them.
Misled by the outward, literal signification of these facts,
the Gnostics instead of seeking to comprehend the imperious
political reasons, or the profound mystical dogmas which
prompted them, became irritated against Jehovah. The
new sect rose in revolt against a god who had commanded
Samuel to cut in pieces the king of the Amalekites, Agag,
whom Saul had spared—they were indignant against that
servant of the Lord, the aged Elisha, at whose command,
bears, sent by God, devoured the children who had insulted
the prophet, and mocked him for his baldness. Passing
from facts to ideas, from history to prophecy, the Gnostics
inflamed their rebellious feeling against Jehovah by the
perusal of that passage of Isaiah, in which the Lord, pro
mising deliverance to Israel, bids the prophet exclaim:
“I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and
they shall be drunken with their blood as with sweet wine.”
(Isaiah, xlix. 26.)* They were irritated to exasperation
by another text, in which the same prophet announces that
God would descend from heaven in his anger, to slay all
mankind.
The Gnostics rejected every explanation of these texts—
obstinately determined not to understand that justice, so
terrible and rigorous, was imposed by the character of the
Jews, not by that of God himself, they closed their eyes to
those passages of Deuteronomy in which Moses, before
dying, gave his final instructions to the Jewish people, and
recapitulated the crimes of which they had been guilty,
it “Et cibabo hostes tuos carnibus suis; et quasi musto, sanguine suc
inebriabuntur.”—Ibid., lxvi., 15, 16. “Quia ecce Dominus in igne veniet
et quasi turbo quadrigae ejus, reddere in indignatione furorem suum, e.
increpationem suam in flamma ignis. Quia in igne Dominus dijudicabit
et in gladio suo ad omnem carnem, et multiplicabuntur interfecti :
Domino.”
contrasting their hardness of heart, ingratitude, infidelity

and murmuring, with the patience, equity, and long-suffering
of God. They read again the verses in which it is said,
“A fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the
lowest hell” (Deut. xxxii. 22); “The sword without and
terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the
virgin, the suckling also, and the man of grey hairs” (Deut.
xxxii. 25); but they erased from the same chapters, the
verses in which Moses reminds the Hebrews that God had
“kept them as the apple of his eye,” that “as an eagle
stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth
abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:
So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange
God with him.” (Deut. xxxii. 10–12). The dying lawgiver
seems as if he would have addressed the Gnostics, when he
exclaims: “Oh that they were wise! that they understood
this, that they would consider their latter end” (Deut.
xxxii. 29). But the Gnostic heretics hardened their hearts,
they refused to comprehend; they held in execration God
the Father, and the severe justice inculcated in the Old
Testament. That insensate sect denied Jehovah to be God,
but regarded him as a fearful tyrant, thirsting for blood and
eager for the death of his creatures; as a father, jealous of
his son, and condemning him to the humiliating punishment
of the cross. They broke down his images, and placed in
their stead those of Christ, their favourite deity, and forbade
that any representation of God the Father, should in
future be attempted, either in sculpture or in painting.
M. J. J. Ampère, in his “Literary History of France,” makes
the following observations:*—“There are certain Gnostics
who seem to ally themselves with Judaism, but their Judaism
is hellenised, platonised, if I may so speak, by Philot The
opinions of Cerinthus, one of the most ancient Gnostics,
resemble in many points those of the old Jewish theology.
Still Gnosticism was continually becoming farther estranged
from Judaism, and ended by proclaiming a violent opposi
tion and furious hatred against Jehovah. Struck with the
* Hist. Litt. de la France, vol. i., pp. 178-180.
+ The germs of Gnosticism may be recognised in Philo; he speaks of
Ofons, and amongst them of Sophia, Wisdom, whom the Gnostics made the
mother of all creatures, but Philo's language is purely metaphysical.
difference between the Old and New Testament, unable

reconcile the exclusive and merciless God of the Jews, wil
the benevolent and universal God of the Christians, Marcic
supposed Jehovah to be an inferior and evil demi-god, th
enemy of good, the enemy of the Word, the enemy of Chris
inciting Judas to betray him, and finally causing h
crucifixion.
“The Ophites, another Gnostic sect, influenced by simil
feelings of aversion, considered the God of the Jews n
only as a wicked, but as an unintelligent being; th:
God, whom they called Jaldabaoth, expected accordin
to them, the advent of a carnal Messiah, and when th
true Messiah appeared did not recognise him. Th
Messiah went to seat himself on his right hand, sti
without being recognised, and thence attracts to himself th
rinciple of life inherent in all created beings, with th
intention of destroying the vicious creation of Jaldabaot
and making £ return into the bosom of infinil
unity. The Ophites gave a strange interpretation of th
fall of man through the temptation of the serpent; accor
ing to their account, Jaldabaoth, the wicked demi-g
adored by the Jews under the name of Jehovah, was jealou
of man, and wished to prevent the progress of knowledg
but the serpent, the agent of superior wisdom, came
teach man what course he ought to pursue, and by wh:
means he might regain the knowledge of good and evil: th
Ophites consequently adored the serpent, and cursed th
true God, Jehovah. It seems probable that the part he
assigned to the serpent, was prompted by certain remini
cences of the Phoenician and Egyptian religions, in whic
the serpent was reverenced as a beneficent being. Anoth
sect had the name of Cainites, because, influenced by th
same spirit, they reverenced Cain, and indeed all those wh
had been reproved in the Old Testament, and even held
honour the cities which were struck with the thunderbol
of heaven, and overwhelmed by the rain of fire.”
Sooth to say, the art appears to have imbibed these heretic
opinions, for even in its earliest works, on sarcophagi, fresco
mosaics, consecrated glass, and old ivories, the figure of Gc
the Father is rarely seen, or if seen it is imperfect, an
sometimes actually degraded. The art seems long to hav
preserved an ill feeling towards Jehovah, nor was it until

a much later period, and by very slow degrees, that she
decided on making a fitting representation of the Father.
We cannot be astonished to find that Gnosticism should
have penetrated into Christian arts, and exercised a powerful
influence, even on our western Cathedrals. M. Raoul
Rochette has, in fact, proved the most ancient images of
Christ, the Virgin, and the chief Apostles, to have been of
Gnostic fabrication, and from that source, impure as it was,
we probably derived the portrait of Christ, of his mother,
and of the disciples.” It must no longer be supposed that
the art has always been perfectly orthodox; one simple obser
vation will suffice to prove the contrary. From the time
when the apocryphal books were first condemned by Pope
Gelasius I. in the fifth century, down to the sixteenth,
when that condemnation was repealed by Pope Paul IV.,
all, without exception, have been frequently condemned;
during the entire course of the middle ages, the pontifical
authority was constantly exerted against the apocryphal
books. The judgment of the Popes was supported by the
the most holy and enlightened minds in Christendom.
Saint Athanasius, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Saint Augustine,
Eusebius of Cesaraea, and Tertullian amongst others, and
the ecclesiastical writers Baronius, Bellarmine, Ellies du
Pin, Le Nain de Tillemont, seem at a loss for expressions
sufficiently severe to be employed in stigmatising this
legendary poetry. A compilation of apocryphal works,
made by Fabricius, is headed by a collection of all the
judgments and censures which had invariably, and at various
times, from the third century down to the seventeenth, in
clusive, been levelled against the apocryphal books. Pope
Gelasius affirms Leuticius, or Leucius, the most prolific of
legendary writers, to have been a disciple of the devil;
Eusebius of Cesaraea, declares the Apocrypha to be absurd
and impious; Saint Athanasius requires them to be rejected
as “spurii; ” Paul IV. proclaims them unworthy of faith,
and rejects them with other condemned writings. Le Nain
de Tillemont asserts Abdias the first Bishop of Babylon,
* Discours sur les types imitatifs qui constituent l’Art du Christianisme,
in 8vo., Paris, 1834, pp. 17 and 18 amongst others.
and author of the “Combat of the Apostles,” one of the

principal apocryphal books, to have been a mere inventor,
a fabulist. Ellies du Pin concurs in opinion with Tillemont,
and pronounces the apocryphal legends unworthy of belief,
filled with follies, tales and fables. The apocryphal legends
have been repeatedly condemned, anathematised, declared to
be uncanonical, and yet most of the subjects painted on the
stained glass windows, or sculptured in the portals of our
Cathedrals, are taken literally from the apocryphal books,
and even from the most celebrated amongst them, from
those which are most distinctly named in the Anathemas;
as, for example,—“l'Evangile de l'Enfance,” “La Petite
Genèse,” the “Combat des Apôtres,” and “l’Evangile de
Nicodème.” At Chartres, the life of Saint John the Evan
gelist, painted in the south-side aisle, the lives of Saint
Thomas, Saint James, and Saint Simon, of Saint Jude, Saint
Peter, and Saint Paul, which decorate so brilliantly the
windows of the apse, are all extracted from the “Combat
des Apôtres,” a work which has been condemned as a mere
collection of fables.
St. Augustine rejects the cruelty of St. Thomas, as
recorded in the Apocrypha, and yet it is sculptured in the
Church of Sémur, and painted in Bourges' Cathedral.” It
must be acknowledged that subjects taken from heretical
books, anathematised by the Church, and originally com
posed by Gnostics, were, and are still, painted on glass, or
carved in stone, in the most sacred part of our grandest and
most Catholic edifices.
It is therefore easy to believe that the hatred of the
Gnostics to God the Father, may long have survived and
have been propagated in the hearts of Christian artists; and
if Jehovah appears to have been ill treated by the art, it
may be accounted for by the fact, that she was animated,
although perhaps unconsciously, by a Gnostic impulse.
To this first reason may be added the great dread then
prevalent of making an Idol.
Jehovah, God the Father, is the God of strength, the
God of armies and of battles;f the God who spreads terror,
* Legenda aurea, “De Sancto Thomo apostolo.”
+ Sce in the Bible, and more especially in the Psalms, the warlike and
violent epithets given to Jehovah.
and before whom mankind must always tremble.* Jupiter,

who dethroned his father, overthrew the Titans, and pro
posed to the assembled gods to carry them suspended from
the end of a chain, is also called the god of strength and of
battles.
The analogy between their attributes was so obvious,
that to make a portrait of God the Father, was almost like
making one of Jupiter, and would have seemed like solicit
ing the adoration of Christians for an image that would
remind them of the great Olympic Idol, held in so much
veneration by the Pagans. The inclination to represent
God under the character of Jupiter was so strong that, in
the earliest ages of the Church, attempts were sometimes
made to give the physiognomy of Jupiter even to Christ
himself, to that mystic Lamb, who is the personification of
the Divine attributes of gentleness and charity, f not that
of strength. We are told, in fact, that a Christian artist
once attempted to draw a head of Christ after that of an
image of Jupiter, but his hand became suddenly withered,
and could not be restored to its natural state, except by the
prayers and miraculous intervention of Gennadios, Arch.
bishop of Constantinople.: There was consequently some.
* “In thy fear will I worship towards thy holy temple.”—Ps. v., 8,
“Adorabo ad templum sanctum tuum in timore tuo.” “Pavete ad sanctuarium
meum,” is the Judaic inscription sculptured on the pier of the central door ol
the western porch at St. Germain l'Auxerrois.
+ “Jesus cum dilexisset suos quierant in mundo, in finem dilexit eos.”—
“Sicut dilexit me pater et ego dilexi vos. Manete in dilectione meå.”
“Having loved his own that were in the world, he loved them unto the end.”—
St. John, xiii. 1. “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you;
continue ye in my love.”—St. John, xv. 9.
# Theod. Hist. Eccles, lib. i., cap. 15; S. Joan. Damas. De imaginibus,
orat. iii., p. 386, 387. The text of Theodoret is as follows: “Pictori cuidam,
qui Christi Domini pinxerat imaginem, manus ambae exaruerunt. Ferebatur
autem. Gentilis cujuspiam hominis jussu hoc opus, sub nomine Salvatoris specie
ita pinxisse, ut capillis ex utraque oris parte discretis facies nullatenus tegeretur
(ea utique forma qua pagani Jovem pingunt), ut ab iis qui ipsum viderent
Salvatori adorationem offerre existimaretur.” Dante, in the fourteenth century,
calls Jesus, Sovereign Jupiter.—Purgat. Canto vi.
“O summo Giove,
Che fosti ’n terra per noi crocifisso.”
At the chronological extremity opposed to that of Theodoret, and almost at our
own era, the ideal of Jesus Christ is still sought in the features of Jupiter. In
o
thing of danger in fixing the genius of artists and the

devotion of the faithful on a figure like that of the first
erson of the Trinity, who would undoubtedly have been
invested with the features and attributes of the Father of
the Pagan deities; there was less danger as regarded Jesus,
whose life, attributes and physiognomy were so far removed
from any resemblance with those of Heathen divinities.
And when an artist forgot himself, as did he of whom
Theodoret speaks, justice was inflicted upon him suddenly
and miraculously.
Still that circumstance did not prevent artists from
adopting and repeating a type with which the ancients were
unacquainted; that of a God-Man, dying for the salvation of
mankind. It was scarcely possible to confound the Redeemer
with any Pagan deity, and there was comparatively little
danger in attempting to depict him.
Even the most rigid of the Iconoclasts, could not maintain,
against representations of Christ, the same arguments, which
they urged so vehemently against those of the Father, and
thus it becomes easy to account for the few existing
pictures of Jehovah, and the great number of those of
Jesus Christ.
The third reason is the supposed identity and resemblances
of the Father and the Son, inferred from various texts of
Holy Scripture. “He that seeth me, seeth him that sent
me.” “I and my father are one.”f “The father is in me,
and I in him.”!
fact, Poussin, who had made for a noviciate of Jesuits a picture of St. Francis
Xavier, and was reproached with having given the Saviour the character of
Jupiter Tonans, replied that he could form no conception of Christ with
the visage of a hypocritical devotee, or like the Père Douillet (Collection des
Lettres du Poussin, Paris, 1824, p. 95). If then, in our time, (and the
“Last Judgment” by Michelangelo is an additional proof of the fact,) artists
have so far forgotten themselves as to represent the lowly Jesus under the
figure of Jupiter, we have so much the stronger reason for supposing that, in
the earliest ages of Christianity, at a time when the art was still struggling
against the types of Pagan deities, the inclination to represent Christ as
Jupiter Tonans was more difficult to resist. It must have been, as I imagine,
with a view to avoiding this danger, that early Christian artists were forbidden
to attempt any representation of God the Father.
* “Qui videt me videt Eum qui misit me.”—St. John, xii. 45.
+ “Ego et Pater unum sumus.”—St. John, x. 30.
# “Pater in me est et ego in Patre."—St. John, x. 38.
Artists, applying these texts in their literal meaning,

constantly represented God the Father under the figure of
the Son. When in the sculptures at Chartres, in the fresco
paintings of Saint Savin, near Poitiers, in the frescos of the
Campo Santo, in a number of manuscripts, and even on
the early Christian sarcophagi, Jesus is seen creating Adam
and Eve, speaking to Noah, to Moses, or to Isaiah, the
person is probably intended for God the Father, under the
form of the Son, because, in seeing the Son, we see the
Father also; because the one who took upon him a human
form and was seen amongst men, is the image of the other
whom men have never seen. “Who is the image of the
invisible God, the first-born of every creature.” (Colossians,
i. 15.) *
Another text, founded on one of the most strictly funda
mental doctrines of Christianity, still further encouraged
the substitution of the Son for the Father in figured repre
sentations. St. John in the first chapter of his Gospel,
declares that Jesus, the divine person who became incarnate,
is the Word, the Word of God. “And the word was made
flesh.”f (St. John, i., 14.)
Consequently, in every religious theme, in which the
Deity is described as speaking, the person to be represented
is not that of the Father, but of the Son. The Father, may
indeed, act, but it is by the Son that he speaks. We are,
consequently, less astonished to recognise the features of
Jesus, and not Jehovah, in the Divine person who is repre
sented talking with Isaiah in the Cathedral of Chartres, and
who on our gothic windows and in old illuminated manu
scripts, is seen conversing with the prophets, reproaching
our first parents with their disobedience, or accusing Cain
of the fratricidal crime he had committed, scenes which are so
constantly repeated in ancient sculptures and on sarcophagi,
for in all those subjects the Deity speaks, and Jesus is the
Word of God made flesh. Besides, in the book of Genesis,
we are told that God created all things by his word; God,
in fact, does not confine himself to thinking merely, he
speaks; when creating the light, the firmament, the lumi
naries, plants, animals, and man, God says: “Let there be
* “Quiest imago Dei invisibilis, primogenitus omnis creaturae,” in the
words of St. Paul. + “Werbum caro factum est.”
o 2
light, and there was light” (Gen. i. 3); “Let us make man
in our image, after our likeness” (Gen. i. 26). Theolo
gians consequently affirm, that as Jesus according to
St. John was the divine Word, therefore Jesus created the
world, because the world was formed out of nothing, at the
word of God. So Gregory of Tours, at the opening of his
“History of the Franks,” says, “In the beginning God
created in his Christ, who is the beginning of all things;
that is to say, God in his Son created the heaven and the
earth.*
Thus the Nicene Creed, which is said or sung daily at
mass, declares that all things were created by the only Son
of Godf The entire Trinity did most assuredly concur in
the work of creation, but the Son was the especial agent,
the chief actor; and to him the work is chiefly, if not
solely attributed. Thus when we find artists, rigorously
theological like the sculptors of Chartres Cathedral or the
painter of the Church of St. Savin, instead of representing the
entire Trinity, exhibiting one divine person only as engaged
in the work of creation, that person ought to be Christ, not
God the Father, nor the Holy Spirit. In the fifteenth
century, and at the Renaissance more especially, theological
principles were losing their influence, and at that period,
consequently, the Father is most frequently represented
creating the world, and not the Son or the Word.
Besides, theology became at that time subordinate to
history, and the incarnation of the Son of Man, being chrono
logically later than the creation, scruples seem to have arisen
with regard to the propriety of representing him in that and
similar subjects, and the father was substituted in his place.
Till at length, art grown bolder and more daring, was not
sorry to have an opportunity of attempting the imposing
figure of Jehovah; and sought to realise its conception of
that sublime and ideal type. In the paintings of Raphael,
the God who creates the world, and brings order out of
Chaos, is not the Son, but God, the venerable Father, with
snow-white beard, and a countenance fraught with power
* Hist. Ecclesiast. Franc, lib. i., No. 1. “Dominus coelum terramque in
Christo suo . . . in filio suo formavit.”
t “Jesum Christum, Filium Dei, unigenitum . . . per quem omnia
facta sunt.”
and energy. When once a figure of the Father had been

achieved, it was represented in every biblical scene. Men
no longer cared to ascertain whether the Son had or had not
created the world, and spoken in the character of the Word
of God, to the persons named in the Old Testament; they
confounded the Word which is eternal, with the incarnate
Jesus who was born in time; they said to themselves that
the Old Testament history preceded the birth of Christ, and
that whenever in that history God is spoken of the Father,
not the Son, is intended; and consequently, the Father,
not the Son, ought to be represented. This reasoning was
in conformity with chronological, or rather historical truth
in its human sense, but theological truth was thereby com
pletely set aside. Raphael was the first, who in painting for
the Popes subjects from the Old Testament, the Creation
for example, and other scenes in which God is present,
departed from the true Christian doctrine, by representing
the Father. Every painter or sculptor, who in our days would
represent the work of Creation, ought, rightly, to intimate
the presence of the entire Trinity; but were he to select one
person only, instead of the whole Trinity, that person ought
certainly to be the Word—the Son of God. The heresy of
the Gnostics, and the peculiar dogmas of Christian theology,
have had greater influence than any other causes on Christian
Iconography, in occasioning the rarity of portraits of Jehovah,
and the great number of those of Christ.
An additional reason, too, but purely aesthetic, has
assisted to produce the same result. It is possible that this
result may have been influenced by a motive diametrically
opposed to that of the Gnostics.
The idea of a God, creator of the universe and sovereign
master of all created beings; a God, whom the most daring
imagination can but very imperfectly picture to itself; a
God, who by one ray from his eyes kindled the light of day,
and with one breath from his mouth called animals and plants
into existence;" the idea of such a God, and of attempting
to frame his image, might well cause the earlier Christian
artists to shrink from the task, since even Raphael himself
interpreted it but imperfectly, and the greatest poets of the
* “Qui coelum palmo metitur, ac terram manu continet et pugillo aquam
claudit.”—Opp. S. Joh. Damas.
*: day are dazzled by its grandeur and sublimity.

ut Jesus Christ had been seen by man, his countenance
had been described at length, and even his portrait achieved,
and the temerity of representing him seemed therefore
less appalling. Whether, then, from the difficulty of repre
senting God the Father, or from a feeling of religious dread
and respect of his awful majesty, artists dared not grapple
boldly with that subject, till many years had elapsed, and
numerous preliminary trials had been made.
It must however be acknowledged in conclusion, that the
early Christians, until the fifth and sixth centuries, were
rather ill disposed towards images in general; all were in a
measure iconoclasts, some in a greater, others in a less
degree. They had but recently abandoned Paganism, the
religious system of which consisted almost entirely in fabri
cating and adoring images and statues; besides which,
Christianity owed its origin to Judaism, a religion by which
every representation or image, whether of God or man, was
rigidly proscribed; we must not, therefore, be astonished to
find that in order to separate Christians more determinately
from idolaters, and to approach a little nearer to that ancient
law of God, which was not destroyed but fulfilled in Christ,
the Church resolved to restrain the zeal of Christian artists
and to prevent them from representing the Divinity in
sculpture or in painting as often as they might otherwise
have desired.
A singular circumstance may be cited in confirmation of
this fact. St. John Damascenus was certainly far from
being an iconoclast, since his discourses against the icono
clasts and Leo the Isaurian have been compared to those of
Demosthenes against Philip. Yet even he positively
declares that the essence of the Divine nature ought not
to be represented, since it hath never been revealed to
human eye.” But he permits the Son of God only to be
figured, because “He, in His ineffable goodness, became flesh,
appeared upon earth under a human form, conversed with
* God said to Moses, “Non poteris videre faciem meam; non enim videbit
me homo, et vivet.”—Exodus, xxxiii. 20. “Thou canst not see my
face, for there shall no man see my face and live.” Moses in his turn says to
the Hebrews: “Locutusque est Dominus ad vos de medio ignis. Vocem
verborum ejus audistis, et formam penitus non vidistis.”—Deut. iv. 12.
men, took upon Him our nature, our heavy, material body,
the form and colour of our flesh. We are not therefore in
error,” adds he, “when we represent His image, for we desire
to see His face, and we thus behold it enigmatically, and as
it were through a glass.”
Thus, even Damascenus, so bold, so eloquent, in defending
the images of Christ, is restrictive with regard to those of
the Father.
If artists venture to represent the Father, it must be
under the aspect of the Son, for the Father and the Son are
one, and he who hath seen one, hath seen the other also.
Christ, in the Gospel of Saint John, speaks thus of himself:
– “I and my Father are one.” (John, v. 30.) “I am
in the Father, and the Father in me.” (Saint John,
xiv. 11.)
These different texts were supposed, during the middle
ages, to refer, not to the divinity of the Father, which is
identical with that of the Son, but also, and more particularly,
to his form and features. Until the close of the thirteenth
century, God is represented as assuming the form of his
Son, in order to manifest himself to the world.
Such are the principal reasons to be adduced in explanation
of a fact, so singular and interesting to the student of
Christian Iconography: such the circumstances by which we
would account for the rarity of portraits of the Father, and
the numerous existing representations of the Son; together
* The following extracts are from St. John Damascenus:—“In errore
quidem versaremur si vel invisibilis Dei conficeremus imaginem; quoniam
id quod incorporeum non est, nec visibile, nec circumscriptum nec figuratum,
pingi omnino non potest. Impie rursum ageremus si efformatas a nobis
hominum imagines Deos esse arbitraremur, iisque tanquam diis divinos honores
tribueremus. At nihil horum prorsus admittimus. Sed posteaguam Deus, pro
ineffabilibonitate sua, assumpta carne, in terris carne visusest, et cum hominibus
conversatus est; ex quo naturam nostram corpulentamque crassitiem, figuram
item et colorem carnis suscepit, nequaquam aberramus cum ejus imaginem
exprimimus.—Ex quo Werbum incarnatum est, ejus imaginem pingere licet.”
The great theologian permits the “Word” to be depicted, because the Word
was made flesh; but, as God the Father has been seen by no man, it is for
bidden to attempt a representation of him: “Dei qui est incorporeus,
invisibilis, a materia remotissimus, figurae expers, incircumscriptus et incom
prehensibilis, imago nulla fieri potest. Nam quomodo illud quod in aspectum
non cadit imago representarit?” (See the works of St. J. Damas, Paris
edition, 1712, fol. vol. i. Oratio secundo, De imaginibus.)
200 CHRISTLAN ICONOGRAPHY.
with the substitution, in numerous instances, of Christ fo

Jehovah, and the honour and reverence apparently take
from the Father to be lavished on the Son. Although them
can be no doubt that artists felt considerable difficulty i
forming an adequate conception of the figure of the Father
still it was rather a feeling of resentment, a sentiment
hostility to strength and violence, by which the art wi
deterred from attempting any representation of God th
Father, and not so much as might be imagined from the fa
that God the Father, having never openly manifested himse
to the world, the art dared not represent him, and knew no
what form to attribute to him. The latter was indeed rathe
a pretext than a reason. In the first place God the Fathe
had more than once showed himself visibly in the history
the Old Testament: he was seen by Moses in the burnin
bush: he appeared to the Patriarch Abraham, under th
form of an angel, more majestic than the other who accon
panied him: and to the Prophet Ezekiel, he appeared und.
the figure of a man, seated on a throne, and encompasse
with glorious light.*
Besides Christian art would not have shrunk from th
task of creating a visible form as the interpretation
symbol of an invisible substance; such a theme presente
on the contrary, a magnificent opportunity for the exercis
of its glowing imagination, in investing with materiality th
most elevated, the most sublime of all existing ideas, i
clothing the divinity with form and substance. Such a them
would unquestionably have been appropriated by the a
with joyous alacrity, ever ready as it has been to give
body to impalpable ideas, and to invest with life so man
visionary and metaphysical abstractions.
How many beautiful allegories have been created by th
art-sculptured forms of men and women, personifications
liberty, promptitude, courage, faith, hope, charity, cowardic
avarice, the liberal arts, the Jewish religion, the Christia
religion, the rivers of the terrestrial paradise, and an infinit
* Ezek, i. 26, 27. “And upon the likeness of a throne was th
likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.” “Et super similitudine
throni, similitudo quasi aspectus HOMINIS desuper.” In xliii. 3, Ezeki
says again that he saw God under the same form. “Species secundu:
aspectum quem videram juxta fluvium Chobar.”
PORTRAITS OF GOD THE FATHER. 201
number of others. If then, art has given us no repre

sentation of Jehovah, it is probably because she wanted the
will to attempt it, not the power.
In short, Gnosticism on the one hand, and theological
dogmas on the other, had far more potent influence than
any other causes, in occasioning the extreme rarity of
portraits of God the Father.
The Archaeological History of the first person of the
Trinity, is necessarily very limited. We now proceed to
trace it through its different periods.
PORTRAITS OF GOD THE FATHER.
During the first centuries of Christianity, even as late as

the twelfth century, no portraits of God the Father are to
be seen. His presence is intimated only by a hand issuing
from the clouds, or from heaven.
The hand is sometimes entirely open, and darting rays
from each finger, as though it were, if we may be allowed
the expression, a living sun. These rays are symbolic of
the grace and favour shed forth by God upon the earth.
The hand is most frequently seen in the act of blessing, the
three first fingers being extended, while the little finger and
that adjoining it are closed." In the annexed engraving
the hand is represented as blessing and emitting rays at
the same moment. -
This engraving is taken from a Greek manuscript, and

the form of benediction is Greek,f being given, not with the
* The position of the fingers ought always to be carefully noted. The
Greek benediction differs in certain points from the Latin ; consequently, the
Greek form of benediction, if observed on a Latin figure, or the reverse, would
be of great historical interest.
t Bibliothèque Royale. Psalterium cum figuris, Greek, No. 139. In
the History of the Nimbus, p. 100 and p. 28, note, we made mention of the
transparent nimbus of this beautiful figure of Night (NTE), of which the style
is completely antique, or rather classical; the veil gemmed with stars,
which she raises like a canopy above her head, and the torch reversed, which
shows her to be the enemy of the day, complete the allegory. The Prophet
Isaiah stands between this personification of Night and that of the dawn.
Aurora, or daybreak ("Op6pos), is a little genius, a child of about four years old,
almost naked, holding a lighted torch, erect, and not reversed. The Prophet
Fig. 52.—THE DIVINE HAND, EMITTING RAYs of LIGHT, BUT wiTHoUT A NIMBUs.
Greek Miniature of the x cent.
three first fingers open, as in the benediction of the Latin

being supposed to be at the close of night and the opening of the day, Night is
full-grown, and the day small and in its infancy. Night, which shines
church, but with the forefinger extended, the middle and

little finger bent, while the thumb is crossed upon the third
finger so as to form a chi (X).
The hand is undoubtedly intended for that of the Father,
since a similar hand is seen presenting to Moses the tables
. of the Law, arresting the arm of Abraham, when he is about
to sacrifice Isaac, and appearing in the sky at the moment
when Christ is baptised, and also at the transfiguration,
when a voice is heard from heaven, saying, “This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The historical
nature of the subject, and not any characteristic attribute,
must therefore be our guide in determining whether the
hand be that of God the Father, or whether it belongs to
either of the other divine persons of the Trinity, or even to
an angel or a saint.
Still a distinctive characteristic is very frequently added
to that drawn from the historical subject, in order to prevent
s* the hand of God from being confounded with that of an
angel or a saint, or with that of the Son or the Holy
Ghost.
It has, in fact, been fully shown in the Introductory
Chapter,” that the cruciform nimbus was employed to dis
tinguish God from any of his creatures; any personage
adorned with that attribute, may, without hesitation, be
infallibly affirmed to represent one of the three Divine
with a borrowed light, has less energy than Day, which gains light and warmth
by the immediate agency of the sun; Night is here, therefore, feminine, and
Day masculine, and so also the gender of the names which distinguish them is
feminine for the one, and masculine for the other. This singular miniature is
an interpretation, by painting, of the numerous passages in which Isaiah des
cribes the power of God, and the mission with which he had been charged by
Him. “Ecce Dominus Deus in fortitudine veniet, et brachium ejus domina
bitur.”—Isa. xl. 10. “Dabo in solitudinem cedrum et spinam, et myrtum,
lignum olivae; ponam in deserto abietem, ulmum et buxum simul.”—Isa., xli.
19. “Ut sciant hi, qui ab ortu solis, et qui ab occidente, quoniam absque
me non est; ego Dominus et non alter. Formans lucem et creans tenebras.”
—Is., xlv. 6, 7. “Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand,
and his arm shall rule for him.”—Isa, xl. 10. “I will plant in the
wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, the myrtle, and the oil tree: I will set
in the desert the fir-tree, and the pine, and the box-tree together.”—Isa,
xli. 19. “That they may know, from the rising of the sun, and from
the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and thcre is none
else. I form the light, and create darkness.”—Isa., xlv. 6, 7.
* Nimbus, ante, p. 38—66.
Persons, except in the few rare instances already noted, and

which will generally be found to originate either in the
ignorance or negligence of the artist. Thus the hand is
often seen, resting against a nimbus, divided by a Greek
cross, and it then indicates one of the three persons of the
Trinity. If the Son and the Holy Ghost be also present,
there can be no doubt that the hand is intended to symbolise
the presence of the Father. The following engraving repre
-4 Ni |- N.Z
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Fig. 53.--THE HAND OF GoD THE FATHER, NEITHER EMITTING RAYs, NoF ENCIRCLED
WITH THE NIMBUS, BUT ENTIRELY oPEN.
Latin Miniature of the Ix cent.
sents the baptism of our Saviour.” Christ is standing in

the water, and the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove,
descending upon his head; the right hand of God is extended
* This engraving is taken from the Liber Precum, Bibliothèque Royale,
suppl. lat. 641.
from the starry heaven, interpreting to the eye, the words

recorded in the Gospel: “This is my beloved Son.” There
is no room for hesitation—the hand is, and can be, no other
than that of God the Father.
Reasoning therefore from analogy, whenever a hand is
seen extended from heaven, whether emitting rays, or in the
act of blessing, even should the other persons of the Trinity
be absent, which is frequently the case, we may be sure that
the hand is really that of God the Father, even though it be
not marked with the cruciform nimbus. Thus, then, as the
name of Christ is contracted into one or two letters, J. C.,
so the entire person of Jehovah is contained in one single
member, in the hand. The hand is a kind of monogram,
employed by sculptors and painters.
The hand, up to the twelfth century, represents the Father
exclusively; still, in the second and third periods of Christian
art, during the Gothic epoch and that of the Renaissance,
even at the time when the Father is represented in half
length, or full length, the hand is occasionally seen, and
continues to maintain its ground, even till the seventeenth
century. It is seen with several varieties, all rather
archaeological, than chrono
logical, most of them having
appeared nearly at the same
period.
The hand is either in the
act of blessing, with two or
three fingers only extended,
as in Figs. 20 and 52; or it is
bestowing (Donatrice), that
is to say, entirely open, and
shedding from each finger
rays of light, signifying
favour and acceptance, as in
Fig. 22, and in other and Fig. 54.—THE Divine HAND, RESTING ON
£e givenof hereafter
History in the ":"
God the Son; Or £" rch of
porch of the Cathedral of Ferrara
it is at the same time blessing and bestowing (Donatrice),

half open, and emitting rays, as at Fig. 52. The hand is
sometimes without any attribute, particularly at those epochs
distinguished by the absence or rarity of the nimbus: or it

is surrounded by a nimbus, usually intersected with cross
lines, like the nimbus of the head; or occasionally, either
from ignorance or forgetfulness, the cross lines on the nimbus
are omitted. In the frescos of the catacombs, on the ancient
sarcophagi, and in the earliest mosaics, the nimbus of the
hand is invariably absent. Figure 52, given above, contains
a hand without a nimbus; in the preceding engraving, the
hand will be seen to rest upon a cruciform nimbus.”
In the series of mosaics, we not unfrequently find the
fore part of the arm attached to the hand. This is what is
termed in heraldry, dextral or sinis
tral, according to whether the hand,
attached to the arm, be the right or
the left hand.
The annexed drawing represents
the Divine hand, inscribed within a
crown, which it seems to offer to
our Saviour; the Holy Child is in
His mother’s arms.t
Fig. 55.— THE DIVINE HAND, The crown here offered by the
£ £" " Father to the Son, is still the dis
Latin Mosaic of the Ix century. tinction awarded by God to vir
tuous men; it is that crown of life
which he makes the recompense of virtue.
* The hand in this plate is giving the Latin not the Greek benediction.
The position of the fingers does not appear to be intended in our church to be
symbolic; but with the Greeks the forefinger extended is designed to resemble
an I, the middle finger is bent into the form of C, the ancient sigma of the
Greeks; the thumb and third finger being crossed make an X, and the little
finger is rounded into a C : thus forming IC—XC, the Greek monogram of
Jesus Christ (ImgovC XplotovO). This hand is sculptured in the tympanum
of the Cathedral of Ferrara, and appears, from its position, to belong to some
person on earth, who, standing in an exalted altitude, blesses the individuals
placed beneath him. In Fig. 20, a hand is given, in a very different
position, descending apparently from Heaven, instead of being raised from
earth. In the western gate of the Cathedral of Sens is a Divine hand applied
upon a cruciform nimbus; it appears to descend from Heaven, and from the
summit of the vaulting, blesses a whole cordon of martyrs, who ascend on the
right and left, along the branches of the ogive.
+ Vetera Monimenta, 2nd part, Fig. 53. A mosaic in the Church of
Santa Maria Nova, which dates from 848. Bosio (Rom. Sott., p. 133) gives
an engraving of God offering a crown with each hand to two saints.
PORTRAITS OF GOD TIIE FATHER. 207
In the Manuscript of Herrade is figured a moral ladder,

reaching from earth to heaven; at the summit, on the highest
step, the hand of God, issuing from the clouds, presents a
triumphal crown to Wirtue, or Charity, which having sur
mounted all obstacles, has gained the threshold of heaven.
In the book of Herrade, God appears to be granting a reward
to human virtue; in the Latin mosaic, he does homage to
the holy self-devotion of the sacrifice of Jesus.
From the time of the birth of Christ to his return to
heaven after the resurrection, the hand of the Father was con
stantly near to direct, bless, and sustain the steps of the Son.
When, at the baptism of Jesus by St. John, a voice is
heard from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son,” a
hand, the hand of the Father, is seen to issue from the
clouds, as if, by the aid of art, to interpret to the eyes the
words just uttered.” When, in the Garden of Olives, the
Saviour, weighed down by unutterable sorrow, exclaims,
“My Father, take away this cup from me,” (Mark xiv. 36.)
a hand, the hand of the Father, is extended from heaven to
bless and to console his Son.f
When, at the crucifixion, Jesus in his death agony calls
on the Father in these despairing words,—“My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me: ” we discover, traced upon
the summit of the cross, a hand, the hand of the Father in
the act of benediction.j:
Lastly, when Jesus re-ascends to heaven after His death and
* See Fig. 53.
* The subject is usually represented thus; but on the stone screen enclosing
the choir of Notre Dame de Paris, the entire head and the hand of the Father
are visible.
3: See, amongst other examples, a painting on glass of the twelfth, or
perhaps even the eleventh century, adorning the apsidal gallery of St. Remi
de Rheims. The head of St. John, with a nimbus surmounted by two
heliotrope flowers (Fig. 3), is taken from that window. M. du Sommerard
is in possession of an enamel belonging to the twelfth century, in which Christ
is represented crucified; above the cross a hand appears, as in the window at
Rheims—the hand of the Father—whose being present at the death of his Son
is thus indicated. The hand has neither rays nor a nimbus. The presence
of God is more distinctly manifested in a miniature taken from a copy of Latin
Hours, belonging to the fourteenth century—MS. 459 of the Bibliothèque
St. Geneviève. At the crucifixion there given, the Father is seen in the
clouds; a half-length figure of an aged man, with long beard and hair—he is
entirely blue, like the clouds and sky surrounding him, from whence he is
looking down upon the sacrifice of his Son.
passion, holding in His hand the cross of the resurrection, the

Father extends to Him his right hand, and seems in a manner
to assist Him to rise; this latter subject is frequently seen in
illuminated manuscripts,” and may be explained by the two
verses of Alcuin, subjoined, and which were placed immedi
ately under a painting of the Ascension:—
“DEXTERA quae Patris mundum ditione gubernat,
Et Natum coelos proprium transvexit in altos.”+
These Divine hands play an important part, not only in
figured monuments, but in the text itself. , St. Mark of
Athens, a hermit of Lybia, died in the fourth century, and
his beatified soul was carried up to heaven on a white
napkin, and there received by the great hand of God, who
placed it in Paradise:
Saint Eucher, Bishop of Lyons, in the fifth century, says,
that by the hand of God, the divine power is implied.S. The
regal power is indicated by the hand of justice, || and thus
the same idea reigns in the religious and the civil systems.
St. Prosper of Aquitaine also speaks of the hand of God,
which forms and models Jod as a sculptor does a statue."[
It seems, in fact, as if this motive originated with the Old
Testament, for a number of biblical passages make mention
of the hand by which all things were made, and which is
* A manuscript in the Bibliothèque Royale, suppl. lat. 648, of the eleventh
century, contains a picture of Christ flying up to heaven with extended hands
and arms. Jesus, who has a cruciform nimbus, is looking towards the right
hand of the Father, who blesses him by opening the three first fingers. Below
are the Apostles and the Virgin Mary, whom two angels, hovering between
heaven and earth, undoubtedly address in these words: “Wiri Galilaei, quid
statis aspicientes in coelum ? Hic Jesus qui assumptus est a vobis in coelum,
sic veniet quemadmodum widistis eum euntem in coelum.” “Ye men of
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is
taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen
him go into heaven.” Acts, i. 11.
+ See in Baluze (Miscellanea, vol. iv.) the different verses composed by
Alcuin, to explain the miniatures in a Carlovingian manuscript.
# Bolland. Mars, vol. iii., Vie de St. Marc.
§ Liber Formularum Spiritualium, cap. i. “Per manum Domini ipsius
potestas demonstratur.”
| See Mabillon, p. 421. Hugues Capet holds in his right hand a “hand of
Justice,”—this hand is in the act of blessing, Latin form, in every respect like
the hand of God, Fig. 54.—Trans.
"| Exposition des Pseaumes, ps. cxviii., at the word Jod.
-
- - -
symbolic of that Supreme power” which fashioneth man as

a potter doth clay.f
In the opening of his vision, Ezekiel says, “And when I
looked, an hand was sent unto me; and lo, a roll of a book
was therein; and he spread it before me; and it was written
within and without,”: Lastly, in the sublime hymn of the
Libera, the last final prayer of the Church for those who
are no more, the departed exclaims, “Oh! my brethren, do
ye at least, have pity upon me, for the hand of God hath
touched me.”$ For the same reason, and by analogous prin
ciples of symbolism, the arm, which is the emblem of God,
is also made to figure the divine power collectively. When
the arm is seen therefore upon our windows, in miniatures
of manuscripts, and on the summits of our ogival arches, we
are reminded of a passage of the Canticle sung by the
Virgin Mary on meeting her cousin Elizabeth: “He hath
showed strength with his arm: He hath scattered the proud
in the imaginations of their hearts: He hath put down the
mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low '#'
In short, all the numerous texts contained in the Old an
New Testaments, seem to be condensed into the one motive
so often adopted among Greek Christians, and which repre
sents the souls of the just, little naked human beings, pray
ing with joined hands in the great hand of God; this hand
issues from the clouds, whence it appears to have descended
* “Omnia haec manus mea fecit et facta sunt omnia, cujus summa potestas.”
“For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been,
saith the Lord.” Isaiah, lxvi. 2.
+ “Sicut lutum in manu figuli, sic vos in manu meå, domus Israel.”
“Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house
of Israel.” Jeremiah, xviii. 6.
# Ezekiel, ii. 9: “Et vidi, et ecce manus missa ad me, in quâ erat
involutus liber et expandit coram me qui erat scriptus intus et foris.”
Ezekiel says again, viii. 1-3, “Etcecidit ibi super me manus Domini Dei. ***
Et emissa similitudo manus apprehendit me in cincinno capitis mei, et elevavit
me spiritus inter terram et coelum.” “The hand of the Lord God fell there
upon me. * * * And he put forth the form of an hand and took me by a
lock of mine head; and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the
heaven.”
§ “Miseremini mei, vos saltem amici mei, quia manus Domini tetigit
me.”
| “Fecit potentiam in brachio suo; dispersit superbos mente cordis sui.
Deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit humiles.” St. Luke, i. 51, 52.
P
to earth to take the souls of the righteous, and return with

them to heaven and Paradise.*
|Io
Fig. 56—THE SOULS of THE RIGHTEoUS IN THE HAND OF GOD.
From a Greek Fresco of the xVIII cent.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, God the

Father, is no longer content to show merely an arm or a
hand; he displays first his face, then the bust, and at length
the entire person. In the annexed engraving the face of
God is seen, issuing from the clouds.t
* The above plate is taken from a fresco in the church of the great Convent
at Salamis. “Animae justorum in dextra Domini.” These paintings have
furnished several drawings for the present work, for although they date only
from 1735, they exemplify perfectly the system of Byzantine compositions. In
Greece, indeed, the art has remained stationary ever since the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, so that paintings executed even in the eighteenth century
are still of immense archaeological value. An inscription which I copied,
states that the paintings mentioned above were executed by Georges Marc, of
the city of Argos, assisted by three of his pupils, in the year 1735. The
school of Argos is now extinct, and nearly all Greek Christian artists have
taken refuge in Mount Athos.
+ From a manuscript of the fourteenth century, in the Bibliothèque Royale,
Heures du Duc de Berri, folio 65. The scene represented is that of Christ
in the garden of Gethsemane; God the Father looks down from the clouds,
and appears to console the Divine victim.
Still the Father has as yet no countenance peculiarly his

own, no features appropriate to himself; an inscription is
-P-O
Fig. 57.—THE FACE OF GOD THE FATHER, witH THE FEATUREs oF THE SON.
From a French Miniature of the xIV cent.
required, unless the subject itself clearly points out that the
figure must be designed for Jehovah, rather than Jesus.
Otherwise, and for the reasons cited above, the figure of the
Father might be mistaken for that of the Son: for the age,
costume, attitude and expression of both are alike. Like
the Son, but with less propriety, the Father wears the
cruciform nimbus, a nimbus marked by the cross on which
Jesus died. In the church of St. Saturnin at Toulouse, is a
marble bas-relief on the basement of the sanctuary, repres
enting the Father Eternal enclosed in an ovalaureole, with a
pearled edge. The figure is certainly intended for the
Father, for he is attended by a cherub, around whom is
engraven the following inscription,—“Ad dextram PATRIs
cherubin stat cuncta potentis.” Now this figure of God
the Father, with the cherub on his right hand, is completely
beardless, like the figures of the Son, of which examples*
have been already given. His head is encircled by a cruci
form nimbus, on the transverse branch of which the letters
a, o, are inscribed.f. The features are soft : the expression of
* See Figs. 8, 17, and 18.
+ I am indebted for these particulars to M. Ferdinand de Guilhermy. As
a pendant to the cherub on the right hand of the Father, a seraph is placed
on the left. The two angels are precisely similar; it would be impossible to
distinguish them without the inscription. Round the seraph is written,
“Possidet inde sacram seraphin sine fine sinistram.”
the countenance, benevolent. He is surrounded by the four

attributes or symbols of the Evangelists, and holds an open
book, on which are inscribed certain words of the Gospel;
the salutation in fact, addressed by Christ to his Apostles,
“Pax vobis.” The figure is similar in every point to that
of Christ, as represented on ancient sarcophagi, on the early
frescos in the catacombs, and the most ancient illuminated
manuscripts.
How then can these attributes and characteristics be
reconciled with the inscription declaring the figure to be
that of God the Father, not the Son? The Divine person
at St. Saturnin bears a striking resemblance to the youthful
image of God, given below, and which we can not affirm
with certainty to be intended for the Father rather than
the Son.
>
Fig. 58.—God, BEARDLESS; EITHER THE soN or THE FATHER.

French Miniature of the x1 cent.
If intended for God the Father, it would have been proper

to represent him with a beard: if for the Son, the Resur
rection Cross, or the Book of the Gospels ought to have been
substituted for the globe. This drawing is taken from a

manuscript at Beauvais, containing a treatise on the Genesis,
written by St. Augustine. Now in this treatise, the Son is
not mentioned, but the Father only, the Almighty God,
who, according to the Apostle's Creed, was in an especial
manner, the Creator of heaven and earth.*
It seems, therefore, fair to believe, that the figure is in
tended for that of God the Father: yet hidden as it were
under the aspect of the Son, the Father as yet having no .
peculiar countenance or physiognomy.
Nevertheless, as early as the fourteenth century, in mini
atures of manuscripts, more especially, we can detect the
tendency, strongly prevalent amongst artists, to give to
Jehovah a special form and character. Nothing can be
more curious than to observe the timid and progressive
efforts of an art which, till then, had either felt no desire to
attempt the representation of God, or had been incapable of
delineating the Omnipotent Divinity, God the Father, the
Creator. There is a constant struggle to mark his charac
tesistics more distinctly, and to separate them more entirely
from those of the Son. It is like being present at the birth,
and watching the development of the semblance of the
Father Eternal. First, as has been shown, the figures of
the Father and Son are identical; it is impossible to distin
guish between them. . The similitude is as perfect as
that between two copies of the same work. Thus in
Fig. 6, where the creation of Adam is represented as per
formed by the co-operation of the three Divine persons, it
is absolutely impossible to decide which is intended for the
Father, and which for the Son. In the preceding plate, the
Father is beardless, as is commonly the case in representa
tions of the Son; in that subjoined, both are bearded, and
cannot be distinguished one from the other. Is it the Father
who is seated, and receiving the Son? but he holds in his hand
the Resurrection Cross, the invariable attribute of the Saviour.
* The treatise of St. Augustine is entitled de Genesi ad litteram.

M. l'abbé Barraud, Professor of Christian Archaeology, in the grand seminary
of Beauvais, is decidedly of opinion that the person represented in the vignette
is intended for God the Father. The frame-work around the figure forms an
O, the first letter in the treatise, which opens thus: “Omnis divina
Scriptura.”
Is it then the Son who is seated ? but this would place him
on the left of the standing figure, and, according to Scripture,”
the Son’s place is on the right of the Father. Besides,
the age and aspect of both figures are the same.t
Fig. 59.—GoD THE FATHER, AND GoD THE soN, witH FEATUREs ExACTLY
IDENTICAL.
French Miniature, of the commencement of the xIII cent.
In the succeeding period a slight difference becomes per

ceptible; the two persons are still of the same age, the same
complexion, and the outline of the features is similar, but
* “Sede a dextris meis.”
+ This drawing, rather smaller in size, is contained within the letter D, in
the Psalm, “Dixit Dominus Domino meo;” it forms part of a MS. Psalter
in the bibl. de Chartres.
in the one they are more strongly marked, as indicating

greater energy; in the other they are more delicate, and
have an expression of greater gentleness. They might be
termed twins, and to them may appropriately be applied
I-föUEENE:
Fig. 60.—THE FATHER, REPRESENTED As SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT TO THE SON.
French Miniature of the close of the xIII cent.
those words of Ovid, “Non facies una nec diversa tamen.”

In the above engraving, taken from a manuscript, dating
from the latter years of the thirteenth century,” the Father
* Bibl. roy. Heures du duc d'Anjou. The drawing represents the
Trinity; the Father and Son are united by the Holy Ghost, who connects
one with the other by touching them with the tips of his extended wings.
may be recognised by the globe in his hand, and the Son by

the book. Besides which, the position of the Father on the
left hand, while the Son is on the right, tends still further
to mark their individual character. In the face itself, very
little difference is perceptible; yet the figure of the Son
seems perhaps more slender, that of the father stronger and
more powerful; the head of Christ may possibly be rather
more elongated, that of the Father rounder.
The shades of difference are, as yet, extremely difficult to
seize; nevertheless, it is possible to define them with greater
precision than formerly: the figures are still those of
brothers, but no longer of twins; a year, or perhaps more,
intervene between them; the contrast next begins to show
itself. The beard and hair of the Father are longer and less
abundant; the receding muscles give prominence to the
cheek-bones, and the face is marked with numerous lines
and furrows; the Son continues of the same age, which he
had reached in the thirteenth century, that is to say about
thirty or thirty-three years of age.
All these singular iconographic changes were made in the
course of the fourteenth century, but about 1360, the idea
of paternity and filiation became irrevocably fixed, and
shows itself more and more clearly down to our own time,
where it has received its most £ development. There
is no longer any possibility of mistake. Jehovah is clearly the
Father of Jesus, and as such is supposed to be more aged
than his Son, by twenty-five, thirty, or even forty years.
At the commencement of the fourteenth century, the figure
of the Father is still too youthful to permit the idea of any
appropriate distance of age between him and the Son, but in
the sixteenth, and particularly at the Renaissance, the
relative proportion of age is natural, and correctly preserved.
In the following engraving, taken from a manuscript
belonging to the close of the fourteenth century,” the
characteristic features of the Father are well marked. Like
the head of a family between his two children, the Son is
seated on his right, the Holy Ghost on his left; the
Father is twenty or twenty-five years older than Christ, and
forty or forty-five more than the Holy Ghost. Besides, the
* Roman des trois Pélerinages, folio, 226 verso. Bibl. Sainte Geneviève.
Father seems still further exalted above the other persons

by the royal crown upon his head; and the place of honour
which he occupies, together with the globe which, like an
Tmperor, he holds in the right hand, confirm the superior
dignity already indicated by his age and the dimensions of
the head.
L -pAVL. nVRAND.
Fig. 61.—GoD THE FATHER, DISTINCT FROM THE soN AND HoLY GHOST.
French Miniature; end of the xIV cent.
From this time forward, God the Father appears to have

a face and figure peculiarly his own, and of which he is never
after deprived. The theological idea succumbs, over
powered by historical truth and human realities. We have
reached the period of materialism. The dogma, asserting
the Father and Son to be co-eternal; absolutely, mathema
tically, of the same age, was discarded; the artist looked out
into actual nature, and observing every father to be twenty
or five-and-twenty years older than his son, chose to depict
the Son of God as twenty or five-and-twenty years younger
than God himself. In #. design which follows, where God
the Creator is seen creating Eve from the rib of Adam,” the
Father, and not the Son, is plainly intended. .
Fig. 62.—GoD THE FATHER, THE CREATOR, As AN old MAN AND A Pops.
From a French stained glass window of the xv.1 cent.
Thenceforth, in pictures of the Creation, we shall always

* Painted window of the sixteenth century, in Ste. Madeleine de Troyes.
The Father is in papal robes, and wears a tiara encircled by three royal crowns,
'ike that of the Roman Pontiff.
trace the same Divine figure; aged, sometimes even extremely

old; the “Ancient of Days,” as we find him constantly
represented. Art has at length succeeded in delineating
the figure of God the Father.
But it must also be observed that, before the fifteenth
century, the principle of the equality of the three persons
constantly predominates in representations of the Trinity.
The £ of the three persons of the Trinity is as
strikingly marked as possible. The Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, as will be seen in the Chapter on the Trinity, are
exactly of the same age; they wear the same robes, are
adorned with the same kind of nimbus, and have sometimes
the same attributes. -
In the fifteenth century, and with still greater reason in

the sixteenth, artists aimed more particularly at displaying the
difference between them. Thus the three persons are either
distinct, and represented separately, as in the Manuscript of
“l'Aiguillon de l'Amour divin” or they are blended and
incorporated one with the other, as in a copy of Dante,
printed at Florence in 1491. In the first case, and this may
be remarked as early as the end of the fourteenth century,
the Father is an old man of from sixty to eighty years of
age; the Son a man of thirty or thirty-five; the Holy Ghost
a youth of from twelve to eighteen.” In the second case,
the three persons have one body only and two arms for the
three; the right hand is raised in benediction, the left
hand bears a large globe, which belongs to the three persons
collectively; a single nimbus encircles the head. Equality
is distinctly represented: but on this single trunk there are
three heads, and the three faces are completely distinct one
from another. The Father, for instance, is always aged;
the Son a man of mature age; the Holy Ghost is always
adolescent.
In the thirteenth century, when the three Persons of the
Trinity are treated as equal, the Father cannot be dis
tinguished from the Son, and usually has the same cha
racteristics of age and person, as the Sont. In the fifteenth
* See the Roman des Trois Pélerinages, an illuminated manuscript of the
fourteenth century, mentioned above, Page 216.
+ Several examples have already been given, especially Figs. 6 and 1 l;
and sixteenth centuries the reverse may be sometimes ob

served: the Son appears to have grown old, and to assume the
age of the Father. The Son follows, the Father appears to lead.
Amongst other examples of this, we shall quote a picture of
the Trinity, taken from the beautiful folio manuscript in the
Bibliothèque de Sainte Geneviève, containing the translation,
by Raoul de Presles, of the “Cité de Dieu.”
The Father and Son are united by the Holy Ghost, which,
under the form of a dove, touches the two Divine persons
with the tips of the extended wings. The Father is in the
Papal robes, as he is frequently drawn at that period; his
countenance that of an aged man, with long hair and flowing
beard. Christ, on his right hand, seems almost like a re
flection of the Father's image, for his age is nearly the
same; the beard may, perhaps, be slightly less in length, but
not a shade of dissimilarity can be discovered either in the
features or hair; the tiara and nimbus, worn by Christ and
the Father, are precisely similar.”
Even the figures of the Holy Ghost, who is almost invari
ably represented as an adolescent, seldom, as having attained
the age of manhood, follow the general movement ofthe epoch,
and are sometimes of the same age as those ofthe Father.f The
middle ages may, therefore, be divided into two periods, with
reference to God the Father. In the first, anterior to the
fourteenth century, the figure of the Father is confounded
with that of the Son; the Son is treated as all-powerful, and
the Father is invested with his image and likeness. In the
second period, extending from after the thirteenth down to
the sixteenth century, Christ loses his ascendancy in icono
graphic assimilation, he succumbs to the Father, whose
form, he in his turn assumes, and becomes like him, aged
and wrinkled.
With regard to the Holy Ghost, when invested with the
others will be given below in the “History of the Trinity.” Proofs of the
fact are most abundant.
* A plate from this miniature will be given in the “History of the Holy
Ghost,” Fig. 143.
f “City of God.” Translated by Raoul de Presles, Bibliothèque St.
Geneviève. In the manuscript of the Duc d’Anjou, is a picture of the Trinity,
in which the Holy Ghost has the countenance of an old man, like the two
other Divine Persons.
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD THE FATHER. 221
human form, he is absorbed in the first period by the Son,

in the second by the Father: he experiences, but never
influences, the iconographic revolutions which take place
around him. The figure of the Holy Ghost is left to the
pleasure of the artist.
In conclusion, from the first ages of Christianity down
to our own day, the esteem in which the Father is held,
appears to have been progressively increasing. His portrait
was at first interdicted through the influence of Gnostic
heresy; then given cautiously and timidly, disguised as it
were under the lineaments of the Son; next, rejecting all
extraneous accessories, he appears in his own character, and
distinguished by peculiar features and aspect. Raphael, and
last of all the Englishman Martin, invested him at length
with a solemn and and awe-inspiring physiognomy appro
priate only to the Almighty Father and Creator.
Having now arrived at the period in which the Father
assumes his own peculiar character and countenance, it next
becomes necessary to point out the signs and attributes by
which the first Person of the Holy Trinity may be distin
guished from the other two.
CHARACTERISTIC ATTRIBUTES OF GOD THE FATHER.
Previous to the eleventh century, the presence of the

Father was always intimated by a hand extended from the
clouds, either in the act of benediction, or grasping a crown;
neither the Son nor the Holy Ghost were ever thus
represented.
In the twelfth century, when the face of God is first
introduced, it cannot positively be defined as the Father's,
nor is it possible so to attribute it with any degree of
certainty, unless the Son and the Holy Ghost are also
present.
In this latter case, the attributes of the other two persons,
serve indirectly to characterise the first; if one holds a cross,
and the other a dove, the third, whether with or without any
attribute, must undoubtedly be the Father.
But this is not the place in which to dwell on the
distinctive attributes of the three persons of the Trinity

united in one scene; they will be reserved for the chapter
on the Trinity.
The orb, or globe of the world, although it is sometimes
given to the other two persons, rarely indeed to the Holy
Ghost and rather more frequently to Christ, is restricted
almost exclusively to the Father; probably, because the
Father was regarded as the principal agent in the work
of Creation, or because power appears to be his peculiar
attribute. Still this characteristic is not positive, as it is
occasionally bestowed on the other two persons. In the
Life of Jeanne d'Arc, it is stated that that heroine bore in
her hand a white standard adorned with fleur-de-lis, upon
which was the figure of God, with the world in his hands;
on the right and left were angels, each holding a fleur-de-lis.
It is vexatious that this standard cannot be more decisively
described or restored by archaeology, and the figure of God,
proved to be intended for that of the Father, and not the Son.
However, notwithstanding the great gentleness of dispo
sition manifested by Jeanne d'Arc, we must suppose the
figure to be intended for that of God the Father, as he is
more frequently seen with the globe than the Son, and
above all, he is the God of armies and of battles.
Neither is the book a characteristic that will serve to
distinguish the Father, for it is placed indifferently in the
hands either of the Father or the Son, and is even more
frequently given to the divine Word, to Him who came to
bring the Gospel to mankind.*
The cruciform nimbus and bare feet belong equally to
either of the three persons, and not to any one in particular,
but the triangular or lozenge-shaped nimbus is reserved
ordinarily to the Father; it is seldom worn by the Son, and
even more rarely given to the Holy Ghost.t
Everything hitherto therefore, seems vague. Indeed,
during the second period, which extends from the twelfth to
the fourteenth centuries, whenever God the Father is depicted
alone and not in the Trinity, it is almost impossible to
decide whether the figure is intended for him or for the Son.
* Fig. 61 represents the Father with a crown, the Son with a book, and
the Holy Ghost without any attribute.
* See the Chapter on the Nimbus, pp. 59–65.
In the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, on the

contrary, the characteristic attributes of the Father become
more numerous and precise.
In works carefully executed, the age assists greatly in
recognising the Father; the hair and beard are longer in
the first person than in either of the other two; the face
might be pronounced that of a man of fifty, sixty, or some
times even eighty years old. The head is much larger than
that of the Son, and, more particularly, than that of the
Holy Ghost; this latter fact which is very interesting, is
not invariable, but it is notwithstanding, tolerably frequent.
It seems as if the head, like the body, were made to grow
larger with age, even when physically speaking, neither
head nor body would in the natural course of physical
existence continue to increase, but on the contrary, rather
diminish and waste away.
This then, may be considered as a rude and entirely con
ventional mode of indicating more advanced age. A drawing,
taken from a manuscript in the Bibliothèque de Sainte
Geneviève, of the end of the fifteenth century, will be given
in the chapter on the Trinity; * in it the head of the Father
is nearly twice the size of that of the Holy Ghost, and
about one-third larger than that of Christ. In Fig 61,
we discover the earliest germ of this interesting fact.
Towards the close of the fourteenth century, during the
whole course of the fifteenth, and in the first years of the
sixteenth, men exerted their ingenuity to discover some
method of representing the Deity in a manner worthy of
himself. Impossible as it was to interpret by the mere
expression of countenance, and the moral sentiment, the
creative omnipotence and sovereign power of him, by whom
the world was made, and is still governed, they sought in
the political world some type best fitted to convey the idea
of supreme power, and with this social emblem they invested
the Divinity, in order to render his supremacy more sensible
to our eyes. In Italy the Pope is the most exalted type of
unlimited power: he is in himself infallible, he has absolute
sway over the consciences of men, and their bodies and souls
are subject to his regal and pontifical power. He is the
representative of God on earth, the master of emperors and
* See Fig. 123.
kings. To the Italians, the Pope is the all-powerful griffin

described by Dante, who without any effort or movement of
the wings, moves onward the car of the Church; he is the
energetic animal, partly eagle and partly lion, which draws
the world after it: his is the two-fold nature of Priest and
King, spiritual as the heavenly eagle, and temporal like the
terrestrial lion, to whom all are forced to yield.*
In Germany, the Emperor, not the Pope, possesses
supreme authority; there every attempt on the part of the
Pope to elect, depose, punish, or reward emperors, is
regarded as an usurpation.
The imperial power is in Germany the visible expression
of an invisible Providence. In France the Pope is revered,
the Emperor enjoys his meed of honour, but the executive
power is vested in the King, who is in fact the absolute
sovereign in his dominions. Thus, then, in Italy, where the
Pope was supreme, God was appropriately represented with
the papal attributes; in Germany, where the Emperor is
chief, he wears the imperial robes; while in France he is
represented as a kingt The same course has been pursued
in England and in Spain.
In England, where the Pope has long been held in low
esteem, it was impossible to represent God the Father with
the insignia of the papacy; in Spain, on the contrary, where
the authority of the pontiff was equal at least to that of the
king, the Father is as frequently seen in one character as in
the other.
It is thus, in fact, that God the Father is usually pour
trayed among the various nations above mentioned; still it
must not be supposed that God is never represented in Italy
as king or emperor; never as Pope or king in Germany;
nor as emperor or Pope in England or in France; but such
* Purgatorio, canto xxix. The Pope, as pontiff, has limbs of gold in that
part of the body in which he has the form of a bird; in the other, the royal
quadruped, he has limbs of mingled white and scarlet. The allegorical triumph
of Christ and his Church, so richly described in Dante, and so splendidly
painted in the window of Notre Dame de Brou, appears never to have been
understood by the translators or annotators of the Divina Commedia. The
griffin has latterly been understood to mean Christ, but it does not appear to
have occurred to the commentators that to make Jesus draw the car of the
Church is to impose upon him an office unworthy of God.
+ Above, Fig. 61, an example is given of God the Father as king.
instances are not in reality very numerous, and are excep

tions to the general rule. Any figure of God the Father, if
free from foreign influence, or the mystical ideas generally
prevalent at the period, or peculiar to the artist himself, will
undoubtedly bear the impress of local differences, and be
tinged with the historical colouring referred to above. In
France for instance, pictures of God the Father as Pope are
occasionally seen; but only in convents subject to ultra
montane influence, or at some period when the reigning
Pope was highly popular;—perhaps at the time of our wars
in Italy, or when the artist himself held the papacy in
more than ordinary reverence.
Even at such times, and under such peculiar circum
stances, the French invariably protest against the idea of
assimilating the Eternal Father with the Pope who is only
his vicar, as degrading the Supreme God into a being
with delegated authority. Either not daring enough, or
incapable of creating a new type, French genius strove at
least to elevate the Deity, and raise him far above the papal
power. The papal tiara is adorned, according to the period,
with one, two, or three crowns, the number of which signify
the degree, or, mathematically speaking, the power of the
sovereignty. The same idea was adopted by the French,
and in figures representing God the Father as Pope, his head
is surmounted by a tiara of three crowns, that number being
considered symbolic of the plenitude of sovereign power;
but, growing bolder, they increased the number of crowns to
four or even five, signifying thereby that God was infinitely
superior to the Pope.
The stained glass windows of Saint Martin-ès-Vignes, at
Troyes, contain several of these curious examples, and the
plate annexed, which has been engraved, and which was
taken from the Church of St. Martin, presents one of these
figures of God the Father holding the Saviour nailed to the
cross. The Father is robed in an alb, a tunic, a scarf, and
wears a tiara, like the pope; but upon the tiara rise in stages,
no longer three crowns only, but five; all decorated with
floriations and fleurs-de-lis, like those of our French kings.”
* The chaussure of God in this figure is worthy of notice. In Christian
Iconography, the feet of God the Father, as well as of the Son and of the
Q
226 - * CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY,
In Champagne, therefore, God is superior, by two crowns, to

the Pope.
Fig. 63.—GoD THE FATHER, As Pope, witH A TIARA of FIVE CRowNs.

A French Painted Glass Window of the close of the XVI cent.
In France, God the Father appears habited in the costume

of a king, prior to his appearance in that of a pope. The
Apostles, are nearly always bare; in this picture he wears slippers, in order to
heighten the resemblance between him and the Pope. A singular peculiarity
Divine King wears the royal crown just as we see it worn

by Philip of Valois, John the Good, and Charles the Fifth;
like our Emperor Charlemagne, he grasps the golden orb or
sphere, and is arrayed in the long robe and mantle; but his
head is encircled by a cruciform nimbus, and the feet are
bare, because in fact, he is God. It is by this royal crown
and orb, combined with the flowing beard which marks his
great age, that we may distinguish the Father from the Son.
One of these attributes alone would not perhaps be suffi
cient, because, as has been said, the globe is often given to
the Son, and so also is the regal crown. This latter ensign
is less common on the head of the Son, for he is generally
bare-headed, or else wearing a crown of thorns.
The Father, in the character of king, accompanies us
through the whole of the fourteenth century, while during
the fifteenth he is most commonly figured as pope. In the
latter character he is usually robed in the alb and cope; but
the latter is often omitted. As pope, it must be acknow
ledged that the figure of the Father is sometimes pleasing,
but never venerable; it excites contempt rather than respect.
In proof of this, I need only mention that effigy of the
Father, which commences the series of statues in the inclo
sure of the choir of Notre Dame, at Chartres.
An artist who was capable of forming statues of men so
severe in character, and of women so graceful in form, was
certainly not wanting in the power to have given a more
worthy representation of God the Father; yet his figure
there sculptured, is robed in a garment apparently designed
may be noticed in a MS. in the Bibliothèque Royale (Biblia Sacra, No. 6829),
belonging to the close of the fourteenth century, and richly adorned with
miniatures. In a picture representing Aaron after the purification, by which
he is prepared to become a worthy priest of God, the Deity is represented with
one foot bare and one covered by a black slipper or sandal. Can this be
intentional, or is it an error? I do not feel competent to decide, but should
rather conclude it to be an error on the part of the artist. The absence of
the Holy Ghost will also be remarked in the picture of the Holy Trinity taken
from the window at Troyes; and it will be fully discussed in the chapter
specially devoted to the History of the Divine Trinity. The original artists,
as well as the copyists of the middle ages, were often liable to error... Copyists
omitted or altered a word; sculptors and painters forgot or denaturalised some
characteristic attribute; and we rarely find a series of subjects in which the
artist has not altogether omitted one or two. 2
Q
for another, and which is both much too long, and much too
ample; his aged head is oppressed with the weight of the
tiara; a cope envelopes his shoulders; his body seems impri
soned by the alb; a stole hangs ever his meagre thighs, and
lastly, the face is furrowed with dry and impotent wrinkles.
Neither fulness of days, nor the experience of years
appears to have caused the senility of this figure; but
rather an untimely decrepitude and wasting of the muscles.
The face is not old; it is simply worn out. The eyes are
small, dim, and expressionless. In the picture of the
Trinity,” in which the Holy Ghost bears on his head the
symbolic dove, the Father whom we find there represented,
also in the character of pope, is really painful to behold.
He is a feeble old man, with scarcely strength sufficient to
hold the globe of the world; and who grasps the hand of
the Holy Ghost rather as a support for himself, than as a
means of indicating their union. The head is bowed upon
the breast, like that of an infirm old man, the cheeks are
hollow, the face elongated. In the “Cité de Dieu,”f the
Father has a long white beard; but like an old man worn
out by age, the head is quite bald, with the exception of a
single tuft of hair upon the forehead.
It is most curious to observe how profoundly, and yet
how lucidly, works of art reflect the ideas of the epoch in
which they were executed. When society was governed by
the clergy, that is from the fifth to the ninth century, the
art is found grave and austere; faces, whether in sculpture
or painting, are imprinted with one universal character; and
never are they seen to relax into a smile. From the ninth
to the thirteenth century, during the period of feudal
sway, the attitudes become stiff; something arrogant is re
marked in the general bearing, something of audacious
daring in the expression; the features throughout bear the
impress of courage, but mingled with harshness and severity.
Subsequently, from the thirteenth century down to the
fifteenth, when the bourgeoisie had taken root, and propa
gated themselves in the emancipated communes, the art
* The figure is given below (See Fig. 150) in the history of the Holy
Ghost, represented in the human form.
+ Manuscript in the Bibliothèque de Sainte Geneviève, 10th, 11th, and
21st miniatures.
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD THE FATHER. 229.
bent before their influence. The stiffness that had pre

vailed in the preceding epoch was succeeded by varied
action; the savage character degenerated into the familiar,
and nobleness of features into vulgarity. The ideal was lost
in the real.
Artists then sought in living types models for the repre
sentation of God the Father, and by this base anthropo
morphism, our monuments became crowded with figures of
# transformed into a mortal, and subject to all the low
passions of humanity. Yet the type of man at this period
was furnished by the “bourgeois” of the middle classes, striv
ing to imitate the noble, whose rank they aspired to gain, and
consequently still wearing some semblance of elevation of
mind, and displaying an eager desire for distinction. But
between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a nameless
crowd, a populace in rags, with garments torn, and marks of
poverty in figure and in habiliments, their physiognomy and
outward expression invariably common, and too often rude
and barbarous in soul, broke loose upon the political and
artistic world. The irruption of this vulgar crowd troubled
the course of aesthetics, and its dull, heavy countenance
intrudes on the most elevated ideal conceptions, even on
that of the Blessed Virgin; Mary was represented only as a
great, vulgar woman, and as such she may yet be seen in all
monuments of that period.
The great Italian artists of the Renaissance, Perugino,
Raphael, and Michelangelo, were at last sent into the
world commissioned to create that magnificent ideal of
Jehovah, the Eternal God, the Divine old man who made
the earth tremble at his frown, so admirably superior
even to the classic Jupiter. With the Renaissance
then, the classic ideal reappeared, and it was in truth
much required. The genius of the Renaissance re-ascended
to the source of all things, to the original type of Christianity
as well as of Paganism, and the fountain-head is ever
more limpid and pure than the river's mouth. The
aesthetic stream, which, during the two preceding periods
had been polluted by the vulgar bourgeoisie was purified by
the Renaissance; God the Father was re-juvenised, or rather,
like all the other Christian types, ' a complete
transformation. Jehovah was despoiled of the tiara, which
230 CHRISTIAN 10ONOGRAPHY.
gave him the appearance of a pope and made him a vicar of

God rather than God himself, and his shoulders were once
more covered with long flowing hair, snow-white yet
powerful and abundant. When contemplating these figures
of God the Father produced by artists of the Renaissance,
either in painting or in sculpture, we feel, like Job, a
thrill of awe and terror; we confess the imposing and
sometimes fearful spell, which binds us, when in the presence
of a man of genius, on whom we gaze perhaps for the first
time. This glorious divinity, this magnificent old man, so
powerful, so serene and unmoved, is in very truth the
ancient of days, the IIaMaids row huépov of the Greeks.
The Renaissance may then be regarded as the epoch in
which God the Father triumphed over the forgetfulness,
insults, heresies, barbarity, and coarseness of preceding ages.
The Divine sun had at length gained strength to penetrate
the mists of jealousy and vulgarity which during the chrono
logical epochs just enumerated, had been heaped up around
him. For nearly three hundred years since the of*:
the Renaissance, the first person of the Trinity has con
tinued to hold the most elevated rank. This re-action,
although somewhat tardy,” has nevertheless, produced monu
ments of some merit; but as it is not our intention to go
beyond the sixteenth century, or the Renaissance, properly
so called, it will be enough to notice here the indications by
which it was preceded. The “Disputá,” as well as other
paintings of Raphael's, contains a most beautiful figure of
God the Father. Jehovah, as represented by Raphael,
forming the great luminaries of our world, and with one
hand darting the sun into illimitable space, whilst with the
other he throws the moon into her appointed place, is
indeed an admirable creation. The painter, Martin, in his
Cosmogony, designed from the description given in Milton's
* In Italy, where the art has ever been more prompt in her efforts, an
attempt at reaction had already been made in the fourteenth century. Thus
a carving on wood, executed at that period, a copy of which will be given
below, Fig. 133, gives a figure of the Father half issuing from heaven, to
bless the Saviour, who is being baptised by St. John in the river Jordan.
God the Father is a finely-conceived old man, and seems already to give
promise of the admirable works of great Italian artists in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries.
“Paradise Lost,” has even surpassed Raphael, and I regret

that the limits imposed upon this work forbid my giving an
engraving of his splendid picture. -
The doctrines of theology were thenceforth but lightly

regarded. Men were ignorant that no personal representa
tion of God the Father ought properly to be attempted,
since, strictly speaking, no man hath seen or can see him;
they knew not, or had forgotten, that Jesus being the Word,
the speech of God, it would be fitting to represent the Son,
whenever God was recorded to have spoken. They clung
in preference to historical reality, and introduced the figure
of God the Father, in every scene taken from the Old
Testament; at the Creation, on Mount Sinai, at the election
of kings or judges, and the sending forth of prophets.
God the Father is present also in some scenes taken from
the New Testament, at the baptism, the passion, the cruci
fixion and ascension of his Son. Finally, in the sixteenth
century, the Deity was figured only by his name, inscribed
within a geometrical figure. The triangle, as has been said
§ %
§ %
s %
=
==
Fig. 64.—THE NAME of JEHovAH, INSCRIBED wiTHIN A RADIATING TRIANGLE.

Carving on wood of the xvil cent.
in the chapter on the nimbus, is the linear emblem of God

and of the Divine Trinity. The name of God, or Jehovah,
was inscribed in Hebrew letters within the triangle, and both

the name and the figure were placed in the centre of
a radiating circle, symbolic of eternity.
God the Father, or Jehovah, here occupies the field of
the triangle, or the Trinity, which is itself contained within
the circle of Eternity. This abstract formula became very
£ and in a number of churches even of the present
ay, these letters, the triangle, and radiating circle, shine in
resplendent gold in the centre of those glories which we
have already described, or else in the middle of the high altar,
on the veil of the chalice, on the apron worn by bishops, the
hood of the cope, or the back-hanging of the chasuble.
A most brilliant example of this figure may be seen on
some beautiful tapestry of the sixteenth century, preserved
in the treasury of the Cathedral at Sens. The engraving
given above was taken from the church of Hautvillers near
Rheims. In the centre of the glory which adorns the
further end of the sanctuary, in the chapel of the Palace
at Versailles, shines a divine and luminous triangle, nearly
resembling that given above.
After the chapter on the nimbus, the aureole and the
glory, little remains to be said of those attributes in reference
to God the Father. The nimbus of Jehovah is circular, and
stamped with the cross; but Raphael and the Italians some
times represent the Father with a square nimbus, as the
“Ancient of Days;” and sometimes it is lozenge-shaped,
triangular or radiating. At other times the nimbus disap
pears; even the aureole ceases to be seen, and a liquid light,
or rather a flood of rays, sometimes straight, sometimes flam- .
boyant, or undulating, emanates from the entire person of
Jehovah. We here seem to approach the Holy Scriptures,
and the idea which great poets, such as Dante, had formed
of the Deity. In the Old Testament, God walks constantly
surrounded by fire and flame. When Ezekiel perceived
Jehovah, in the likeness of a man, he said, “Then I
beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire; from
the appearance of his loins, even downward, fire; and
from his loins, even upward, as the appearance of bright
ness, as the colour of amber.” (Ezek. viii. 2.)
Dante gives the following dazzling description of that
divine light in which saints and angels are enveloped:—
ATTRIBUTIES OF GOD THE FATHER. 233
Lume è lassuso, che visibil face,

Lo Creatore a quella creatura
Che solo in lui vedere ha la sua pace.
E si distende in circularfigura
In tanto, che la sua circonferenza
Sarebbe al Sol troppo larga cintura.
Fassi di raggio tutta sua parvenza,
Reflesso al sommo del mobile primo,
Che prende quindi vivere e potenza;
E come clivo in ačqua di suo imo
Si specchia quasi pervedersi adorno
Quando è nel verde e ne'fioretti opimo;
Sì soprastando al lume intorno intorno
Vide specchiarsi in più di mille soglie
Quanto da noi lassù fatto ha ritorno.
E se l'infimogrado in se raccoglie
Sìgrande lume, quant'è la larghezza
Di questa rosa nell' estreme foglie?
La vista mia nell'ampio e nell' altezza
Non si smarriva, ma tutto prendeva
Il quanto e'l quale, di quell'allegrezza.
Presso e lontano lì, nè pon, nè leva;
Che dove Dio senza mezzo governa.
La legge natural nulla rilieva
Nel giallo della rosa sempiterna
Che si dilata rigrada, e redole
Odor di lode al Sol, che sempre verna,
Qual è colui, che tace e dicer vuole,
Mi trasse Beatrice.*
There is in heaven a light whose goodly shine

Makes the Creator visible to all
Created, that in seeing him alone
Have peace; and in a circle spreads so far
That the circumference were too loose a zone
To girdle in the sun. All is one beam,
Reflected from the summit of the first,
That moves, which being hence and vigour takes.
And as some cliff thatfrom the bottom eyes
His image mirror'd in the crystal flood,
As if to admire hisbrave appareling
Of verdure and of flowers; so round about,
Eyingthe light, on more than million thrones,
Stood eminent, whatever from our earth
Has to the skies return'd. How wide the leaves,
Extended to theirutmost, of this rose,
Whose lowest step embosoms such a space
Of ample radiance! Yet nor amplitude
Nor height impeded, but myview with ease
It was in the centre, at the very heart of this luminous

eternity that the Deity shone forth. Dante no doubt wished
to describe one of those roses with a thousand petals, which
light the porches of our noblest cathedrals;* the rose
windows, which were contemporaneous with the Florentine
oet, and which he had no doubt seen in his travels in
£ There in fact, in the very depth of the chalice of
that rose of coloured glass, the divine majesty shines out
resplendently.
From every step of the corolla, disposed in the form of an
amphitheatre, from each hierarchical cordon of the rose,
innumerable hosts of angels, the souls of patriarchs, judges,
kings and prophets, and lastly those of apostles, martyrs,
confessors, and virgins, seem to rise in successive rings, as
if reflected from, and delighted to see their images repeated
in, the central source and fountain of light.
GOD THE SON.
If the image of God the Father was exposed throughout

the entire course of the middle ages, to the ill-will, and
even to the insults of heretics; and suffered from the inca
pacity and vulgarity of artists, far different was the treat
ment experienced by the Son. Jesus is the author of
Christianity; from Him, and not from the Father, the new
religion derived its name. Christians consequently looked
up to him with gratitude, as children to a parent. In the
affections of men as well as in art, which is but the mirror and
material expression of ideas, the Saviour Christ has reigned
Took in the full dimensions of that joy.
Near or remote, what there avails where God
Immediate rules, and nature, awed, suspends
Her sway? Into the yellow of the rose
Perennial, which, in bright expansiveness
Lays forth its gradual blooming, redolent
Of praises to the never-wintering sun,
As one, who fain would speak yet holds his peace,
Beatrice led me.
Cary's Dante, Paradise, Canto xxx, l. 100.
* Especially at Paris, Rheims, and Chartres.
GOD THE SON. 235
gloriously from the era of the catacombs down to the present

day. He is the Divine Person to whom the art has ever
rendered, and does still render, the highest honours. Not
one single Church was ever especially erected by Christians
in honour of God the Father, while, on the other hand, a
considerable number were early dedicated to Christ under
the title of St. Saviour," Saint Cross, Saint Sepulchre, or
Saint Anastasia. The cathedral at Aix is dedicated to Saint
Saviour, that at Orleans to Saint Cross. The celebrated
church at Florence, in which lie the remains of Dante,
Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Galileo, is called Santa Croce.
Churches of the Resurrection, or of Saint Anastasia are
abundant in the East. Churches of Saint Sepulchre are
common in France, where chapels of that title are also very
numerous. At Cambridge and at Northampton, in Eng
land, are two circular churches, called Saint Sepulchre.
It would even appear that the Church of Saint Sophia at
Constantinople, was dedicated rather to the Divine Wisdom
of Christ than to that of the Father, or to the Holy
Trinity.t. At Paris, the Church of Val-de-Grâce is dedicated
to the Infant Jesus.
Even at the present day, at the conclusion of each psalm
in the service of the Church, two verses are sung, a sort of
“refrain,” announcing that the psalm is over, and that the
“antienne” or completion of it is about to begin. These
verses are well known, “Glory be to the Father, and to the
Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is
now, and ever shall be, world without end.”:
It is a glorifying of the entire Trinity; but in the diocese
* Churches, abbeys, villages, towns, and even cities, bear the name of
St. Saviour; a large village in the Department du Nord, near Valenciennes, is
called “Saint Saulve.” Jeanne d'Arc, when on the point of being burned to
death, at Rouen, asked in her last moments, for a cross, and one was brought
to her from the neighbouring parish of “Saint Sauveur.”—Michelet, Hist. de
France, vol. v., p. 172. A church dedicated to St. Saviour is still standing
at Redon. France formerly contained twenty-three abbeys dedicated to
Saint Sauveur, that of Redon included.
+ “Jesu nascenti," as we read in the inscription traced upon the frieze of
the porch.
: Gulielmus Durandus (Rat. Div. Offi, lib. v., c. 2) declares the two
verses of the Gloria Patri to have been composed by St. Jerome, and sent
by him to Pope Damasus, who commanded them to be sung in the Psalms.
of Rheims, the name of the Father when pronounee

passed over without any special notice. Scarcely, however,
the first syllable of the word “Filio” been uttered than
choristers rise and incline themselves reverentially tow.
the high altar, the priests and chanters make their obeisa
by removing their caps, and the congregation bend devo
before the Divine name. They rise, reseat themselves,
again cover their heads. Then follows the name of
Holy Ghost, and it is passed over without more atten
than that of God the Father.
In the Gloria Patri the name of the Father prece
indeed that of the Son, but the reasons of this precede
are genealogical, not reverential. It serves to express
reciprocal relation of the Divine persons, not any diffel
degree of honour or of worship.
When the name of the Father, or of the Holy Ghos
heard from the pulpit, not the slightest movement is
ceptible amongst the congregation; but when the nam
Jesus Christ is pronounced, the men immediately bend t
heads to do him honour, and the women sign themse
with the cross from the head to the breast, and from
shoulder to the other.
We are told, as a singular fact with respect to New
that he invariably removed his hat when the name of
was mentioned in his presence. No one now uncovers h
self at that name only; but whether from the early relig
feelings implanted by maternal influence, whether from
dition or reflection, few men, however slight may be t.
religious feelings, can hear the name of Christ withou
thrill of reverence and respect. The sentiment is perh
involuntary, but that reason alone renders it more power
“At the name of Jesus,” says St. Paul, “every knee s
bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and thi
under the earth.”*
* “Ut in nomine Jesu omne genu flectatur, coelestium, terrestrium

infernorum.”—Phil. ii., 10. When the Nicene Creed is sung, accordin
Durandus (Rat. Div. Off, cap. xxv., de Symbolo), “ut cum dicitur il
homo factus est, debemus genua flectere, quia Christum hominem factur
pro nobis crucifixum adoramus.” Even at the present day we bend the k
or, at least, bow profoundly. M. l'Abbé Gaume, who has done me the fa
to revise the proofs of my work, bids me observe that the honours pai
GOD THE SON. 237
It would appear, as if in Jesus Christ the entire essence of

Deity were comprehended.*
The cruciform nimbus was, as has been already said, a
sign characterising equally the Son and the other two Persons
of the Trinity; but the cross itself is an attribute belonging
immediately to Christ, and which the Father and the Holy
Ghost have derived from him. Besides, the fulness of being,
or omnipotence, ought not properly to belong more to Christ
than to the Father and the Holy Ghost, for it resides in the
Trinity, and is not the special right of any single person. If
either of the three persons were to be regarded as appro
priating that attribute in preference to the others, it would
assuredly be rather God the Father.t. And yet, among the
Jesus are not rendered to him as the second person in the Trinity, or as the Son
of God, but rather because he died for our salvation. Christ considered only as
the second person of the Trinity, does not receive greater homage than the Father
or the Holy Ghost. It is before the name of Jesus only that we prostrate our
selves, for that name reminds us immediately of the author of our redemption.
When we name the Son of God, the Word, or even Christ, we do not bend
any more than at that of the Father or the Holy Ghost. If in the diocese of
Rheims any inclination is made at the Filio in the Gloria Patri, it is a singular
exception; for in other churches the reverence is made at the conclusion of
the Gloria, and in honour of the Trinity, of the three divine persons united.
M. l'Abbé Gaume is of opinion, that equal honour has always been paid to
each of the three Divine persons, that the Son has never been more highly
esteemed, either in worship or in theology, than the Father or the Holy
Ghost. I bow respectfully to his opinion, and would willingly have erased
from my manuscript what has been already said, and what will in future be
stated, in opposition to his decision; but to do this would have been im
possible, without re-writing several entire sheets of the impression. Not one
or two passages alone would have required modification, but the spirit of the
whole chapter must have been transmuted. I have therefore preserved it as
originally written, adding merely the observations here made, but I shall
reserve what I had intended further to advance on this subject.
* Of the twelve clauses of the Apostles Creed, one only, of four words,
relates to the Holy Ghost (“credo in Spiritum Sanctum"); one, of nine
words, bears reference to the Father (“credo in IDeum patrem omnipotentem,
creatorem coeli et terrae); but five entire clauses are devoted to Jesus Christ,
comprehending, in fact, more than half of the Creed.
+ “Credo in Deum patrem, omnipotentem, creatorem coeli et terrae, et in
Jesum Christum filium ejus unicum,” &c. The Apostles Creed, therefore,
especially attributes power to God the Father. All Christian tradition agrees
on that point; in the chapter relating to the Trinity, a quotation from
Richard de Saint-Victor will be given, which may be considered conclusive on
that point. Dante (Divina Commedia, canto x. “Paradiso") says also, that
the Father created, and still governs the world.
Greeks particularly, the source of being is assigned frequently

and almost exclusively to Christ. Thus, in the domes of the
lofty Byzantine cupolas, the gigantic figure of the Almighty,
the Pantocrator,shines forth from the golden background; the
word Almighty, which in our minds calls up the idea of the
Father rather than the Son, or of the Holy Ghost, seems
somewhat incongruous when connected with a countenance
belonging apparently to a man of thirty years of age, with a
beard of short fine hair, and features youthful and gentle in
expression.
The image may be intended for the Father, under the
character of the Son, as a strict observance of theological
dogmas would seem to require; but, in addition to the
inscription “ó IIavrospárop,” we read also fê XC.
There is no possibility of mistake. It is Christ represented
governing the Greek church, as he sways the world.
Besides, on the bars forming the cross of the nimbus, the
letters 6 &v are inscribed. Christ is therefore at once both
“the being” and Almighty power. The beautiful Greek
manuscripts in the Bibliothèque Royale, contain numerous
miniatures, which might be adduced in verification of the
above fact.*
It appears, then, that Christ has been more honoured than
the Father. An additional proof is furnished by the
language usually employed in speaking of him. God the
Father is not spoken of as our king and sovereign, although
these titles are constantly used in reference to the Son.
Before the name of Christ we prefix the title of “Our Lord,”
as in speaking of the Virgin Mary, we add that of “Our
Lady.” It seems, in fact, that there are two persons to
whom our hearts owe especial allegiance, the Virgin Mary
and Jesus, the Mother and the Son. These are the two
living stars, which shed their rays upon Christianity.
The God whose person is more peculiarly esteemed and
most frequently figured in Iconography, is unquestion
ably Jesus. He has been, without a single intermission,
* See amongst others the Greek manuscript of 1128. Gulielmus Durandus,
remarks, in the Rationale, lib. i, cap. 3, that even in the Latin Church,
omnipotence is ascribed to Christ. He says . . . . “Imago Christi . . . . .
picta ut residens in throno, seu in solio excelso, praesentem indicat majestatem,
quasi dicat, Data est ei omnis potestas in coelo et in terra.”
GOD THE SON. 239
represented at every era, and under every possible form.

Works of art are ever the proof and counterpart of religious
belief. At the time when the hand of God only is shown,
Christ is depicted at full length, and of every age; beard
less or with a beard, of the age of eighteen, or that of thirty.
It is necessary however to say, that he was almost constantly
represented at that period, under the figure of a beautiful
and adorable youth of about fifteen or eighteen years of age,
beardless, with a sweet expression of countenance, and long
and abundant hair flowing in curls over his shoulders: his
brow is sometimes encircled by a diadem or a bandeau, like
a young priest of the pagan gods; this is, in fact, a very
favourite figure, and has been frequently treated by the art
with partial affection.” At a very different period of time,
namely, in the fifteenth century, when the idea of God was
disfigured in artistic representation, and degraded to the
condition of a pope, worn out with old age and decrepitude,
Jesus still preserved all his beauty, his radiance and dignity.
Italian art has ever been precocious, and one, or perhaps
two hundred years in advance of ours, and the portrait of
God the Father was consequently, conceived and executed
in Italy one or two centuries earlier than in France. Yet
Buffalmacco, in the first half of the fourteenth century, when
* See various sarcophagi drawn in the Roma Sotterranea, édition de
Rome, 1632, pp. 285, 293,295. Also many sarcophagi found in the Aliscamps
at Arles, and now scattered throughout various cities of the South, particularly
at Marseilles and probably also at Toulouse. In the small town of St. Maximin,
at Tarascon, and Clermont Ferrand, I have seen sarcophagi, on which the Saviour
was sculptured beardless. In a village of the arrondissement of Rheims, and
even in the Cathedral of Rheims, are sculptures of the tenth and thir
teenth centuries, in which our Saviour, in company with the pilgrims of
Emmaus, after the Passion, and in the waters of Jordan at his baptism, is
represented under the form of the same graceful youth. On the west wall
in the interior of the Cathedral of Rheims, Christ is represented beardless.
He is appearing to Moses from the top of the burning bush, youthful and
smiling. Beardless still, and invariably serene in aspect, he passes before the
crowd to whom St. John points him out, in these words, “Behold the Lamb
of God.” It seems indeed fitting that that divine lamb in human form should
be represented as of tender age. Finally, Jesus is beardless when descending
to be baptised in Jordan, by St. John the Baptist. The sculptures above
described, and all those covering the western wall of the cathedral, are chefs
d’aeuvre that will bear comparison with the finest statues of antiquity. In
action, expression, and design, they are almost unequalled.
painting the walls of the Campo Santo at Pisa, still depicted

Jesus, and not the Father, creating the world from a
vacuum. It is impossible, in the figure of the Creator, to
discover any of the distinctive attributes of God the Father.
The youth, and abundant flowing hair, the small and scanty
beard, the sweetness of physiognomy, betray all the charac
teristic features of Christ.*
Fig. 65.—THE CREATOR, UNDER THE FoRM of JESUS CHRIST.

Italian Miniature of the close of the xIII cent.
In the following drawing, the Divine Person who, by the

hand extended, in the Latin form of benediction, and by the
* An engraving of this beautiful picture is given below, in the History of
the Trinity, Fig. 148.
GOD THE SON, 241
breath of his lips calls into existence the nine choirs of

angels, is still revealed under the figure of the Son, instead
of that of the Father.” The figure of the Deity is thirty or
thirty-five years of age only, and bears in his hand a globe,
symbolic of the world of his creation.
Thus then, during the entire course of the middle ages,
the Son of God was constantly depicted under every possible
form and character. We have not space to enter here more
fully into the archaeological biography of Christ in his human
relation; but a separate work will at some future time be
devoted to the personal History of Jesus, from his incarnation
in the womb '' the Blessed Virgin, down to the Ascension.
At present he will be considered solely as God, and as the
second person of the Holy Trinity. In the majority of the
engravings that follow, he will generally be seen engaged in
the exercise of his Divine, not of his human, functions. He
will be represented speaking to the Father, near whom he is
seated, creating the world, pronouncing sentence upon Adam
and Eve; or chaining Death, treading underfoot the lion
and the dragon, the asp and the basilisk; or, having com
pleted his earthly vocation, re-ascending into heaven, and
shining in the radiance of a glory in the bosom of Paradise
with his feet resting on the arch of heaven; or borne on the
wings of seraphim through the immensity of space, blessing
the world from the highest heaven; or standing on that holy
mountain whence descend the four mystical streams of the
Gospel, and from the summit of which he gives his law to
the universe, and presents his Gospel to the Apostles; or
he is judging mankind at the end of time, or lastly, dwell
ing in the bosom of the Trinity, between the Father and
the Holy Ghost. He will also be shown under the form of
* Our engraving is taken from the Psalterium cum Figuris, suppl. fr.
1132, Bibliothèque Royale. It will be observed that there are nine choirs
of angels, grouped in threes; the arrangement is allegorical, and is explained
in the Celestial Hierarchy of St. Dionysius the Areopagite. It will be noticed
at length in the History of the Angels. We may remark, however, in antici
pation, that the nine choirs are in our engraving identical; it is impossible,
from the absence of any special attributes, to distinguish the Seraphim,
Cherubim, and Thrones, in the first group; the Dominions, Virtues, and Powers,
in the second; the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels, in the third. The
Greek artists characterised the different orders of angels with much greater
precision.
R
a lamb, or that of the good shepherd, because the sym

bolism of such representations divests them of every human
characteristic.
In some few designs, however, he will be shown as man,
born of the Virgin, plunged into Jordan and baptised by
St. John; or, again, nailed to the cross, and expiring in the
presence of Mary, his mother, and of St. John, his friend;
for each of these various designs will be found to determine
some point of Divine Iconography. Several varieties of the
Cross will also be given, for the Cross alone, without the
crucified Lord, is symbolic like the lamb; still we repeat,
that the present inquiry is devoted to the second person of
the Trinity, to the Son of God alone, not to the God-Man,
the crucified redeemer, Jesus Christ.
HISTORY OF THE PORTRAITS OF GOD THE SON.
The same reasons that were alleged against any material

representation of the Father could not be advanced against
the representations of the Son. In the first place, the Son
had become incarnate; his features had been seen by all
mankind; there was nothing to prevent men from represent
ing them.
“Since,” says Damascenus, “he who is invisible, has been
pleased to assume a material body, and to make himself
visible to man, his image may be made. Since a being, who,
as God, from the excellence of his nature,” has neither
substance, dimensions, nor quality, has condescended to
take upon himself the form of a slave, and subjected himself
to the conditions of quantity and quality; since he has
clothed himself with a corporeal figure; that figure may be
represented in paintings by you. Show, therefore, publicly,
the God who was pleased thus to manifest himself, paint
for us his ineffable humanity, his birth in the womb of the
Virgin, his baptism in Jordan, his transfiguration on Mount
Tabor, the sufferings by which we were redeemed, the
miracles which, while accomplished by the aid of the body,
* This little sentence appears in the Latin text, but is omitted in Didron's.
HISTORY OF THE PORTRAITs OF GOD THE SON. 243
were the manifestation of his divine nature and power; his

sepulture, through which we were saved; his resurrection
and ascension into heaven: let them all be described by words
or colours, in books or in pictures.” The Gnostic heretics
on their part, were no less devoted to God the Son, and
lastly, theology declared that all things had been created
by the Son, or the Word. All these various causes combined
to render the early portraits of Jesus Christ numerous in
the extreme. -
The Gnostics, in their enmity to God the Father, had

proscribed his image, but being favourable to the Son, they
painted and sculptured the figure of the Saviour, of all
dimensions, and under various forms. It even appears, as
M. Raoul Rochette has affirmed, that we are indebted to
Gnostics for the earliest portraits of Jesus.t “It was for
the use of Gnostics, and by the hand of those sectaries, who
attempted at various times, and by a thousand different
schemes, to effect a monstrous combination of the doctrines
of Christianity with Pagan superstitions, that little images
of Christ were first fabricated; the original model of these
figures they traced back to Pontius Pilate himself, by a
hypothetical train of reasoning, which could scarcely deceive
even the most ignorant of their initiated disciples. These
little statues were made of gold, or silver, or some other
substance, and after the pattern of those of Pythagoras,
Plato, Aristotle, and other sages of antiquity, which those
sectarians were accustomed to exhibit, crowned with flowers
* “Quando is qui cerni non potest assumpta carnese conspicuum praebuerit,

tunc illius deformes imaginem. Quum ille qui in forma Dei existens, ob
naturae suae excellentiam, quantitatis et qualitatis et magnitudinis est exsors,
forma servi acceptà, ad quantitatem qualitatemque sese contrahens, corporis
figuram induerit, tum in tabellis eum exprime, palanque conspiciendum
propone qui conspici voluit. Ineffabilem ipsius demissionem designa, nativi
tatem ex Virgine, baptismum in Jordane, transfigurationem in Thabor, cruciatus
illos, quia cruciatus nos exemerunt; miracula quae cum carnis ministerio
patrarentur, divinam ipsius naturam et efficaciam promerebant. Salutarem
Salvatoris sepulturam, resurrectionem, ascensum in coelum, hoc omnia cum
sermone, tum coloribus describe, tum in libris, tum in tabellis.” (Opp.
S. Johan. Damasceni, Oratio tertia de imaginibus, vol. i., p. 349.)
+ Discours sur l’Art du Christianisme, par R. Rochette, in 8vo. pp. 15, 18.
M. R. R. quotes St. Irenaeus, St. Epiphanius, St. Augustine, Lampridius,
Jablonsky, Fueldner, Heyne, and Bottari. The quotations are all preserved
in the extract that follows the Discours. -
R 2
244 CHRIST1AN ICONOGRAPHY.
in their Conciliabula, and all of which were honoured with

the same degree of worship. Such, indeed, is the positive
assertion of St. Iraeneus,” confirmed, or at least reiterated
by St. Epiphanius.t. This superstition, which on the same
principle permitted painted images of Christ, was peculiarly
in vogue amongst the Gnostics of the sects of Carpocrates;
and history has preserved the name of a woman, Marcellina,
adopted by that sect, for the propagation of which she
removed from the farthest East, to Rome; and who in the
little Gnostic church, as it may be called, which was under
her direction, exposed to the adoration of her followers
images of Christ and of St. Paul, of Homer and Pythagoras.
This fact, which is supported by the serious evidence of St.
Augustine, is, besides, perfectly in accordance with the
celebrated anecdote of the Emperor, Alexander Severus,
who placed amongst his Lares, between the images of the
most revered philosophers and kings, the portraits of Christ,
and of Abraham, opposite those of Orpheus and Apollonius
of Tyana, and who paid to all a vague kind of divine worship.S
It cannot, therefore, be doubted, that this strange associa
tion originated in the bosom of certain schools of the
Neo-Platonists, as well as in several Gnostic sects, and we
may thence infer, that the existence of images fabricated b
Gnostic hands, induced Christians, as soon as the Church
* St. Irenaeus, Advers. Haeres. lib. i., cap. xxv., s. 6, édition de Massuet.
+ St. Epiphanius, Haeres. cap. xxvii., s. 6. See on this subject the disserta
tion of Jablonsky, “de Origine imaginum Christi Domini in Ecclesia
Christiana,” s. 10, in his Opuscul Philol. vol. iii., 394-396.
# St. Augustin, de Haeresib. cap. vii. : “Sectae ipsius (Carpocratis) fuisse
traditur socia quaedam Marcellina, quae colebat imagines Jesu et Pauli, et
Homeri et Pythagorae, adorando incensumque ponendo.” (See the dissertation
of Fueldner, upon the Carpocratians, in the Dritte Denkschrift der Hist.
Theol. Gesellschaft zu Leipzig., p. 267, et seq.)
§ AEl. Lamprid. in Alexandr. Sever cap. xxix. “In larario suo, in quo
et divos principes, sed optimos (et) electos et animas sanctiones, in queis et
Appollonium, et quantum scriptor suorum temporum dicit. Christum, Abraham
et Orpheum, et hujusmodi ceteros, habebat ac majorum effigies, rem divinam
faciebat.” Such is the lesson proposed by Heyne for the employment of this
text. (See the dissertation of Alexandr. Sever. Imp. religion, miscell. pro
bant., &c., in his Opuscul. Academ. vol. vi., p. 169-281 ; see also on this
subject the dissertation of Jablonsky, De Alexandro Sévero, Imperatore
Romano, Christianorum sacris per Gnostico initiato, in his Opuscul.
Philol. vol. iv., p. 38-79.
HISTORY OF THE PORTRAITS OF GOD THE SON. 245
relaxed in its primitive aversion to monuments of idolatry,

to adopt them for their own use.” Everything, indeed,
countenances the opinion, that from the commencement of
the third century, images of Christ were in circulation
among the faithful, at least among those of the lower order,
and particularly in Rome, where Gnosticism had made many
proselytes, and was at this period favourably received.”
The miraculous images, those not formed by the hand of
man, and therefore called “acheiropoiètes;” the impression,
whether real or apocryphal, imprinted on the veil of Saint
Veronica; the portraits attributed to Nicodemus, Pilate, or
Saint Luke; the portraits current in the time of Eusebius;
the statue, said to have been erected to Jesus Christ in the
city of Panéas, by the woman whom the Saviour cured of the
hemorrhöissis.t. All these facts, whether real or imaginary,
handed down by written tradition from the earliest cen
turies of our era, serve at least to prove that even in the
dawn of Christianity, the Son of God was often represented
both in sculpture and in painting. Saint John Damascenus
mentions a tradition, anciently believed, and current even in
his time, by which Jesus was himself recognised as the
author of one of his own portraits.
Abgarus, king of Edessa, having learnt, says Damascenus,
the wonderful things related of our Saviour, became inflamed
with Divine love; he sent ambassadors to the Son of God,
inviting him to come and visit him, and should the Saviour
refuse to grant his request, he charged his ambassadors to
employ some artist to make a portrait of our Lord. Jesus,
from whom nothing is hidden, and to whom nothing is
impossible, being aware of the intention of Abgarus, took a
piece of linen, applied it to his face, and depicted thereon
his own image. This very portrait, continues Damascenus,
is in existence at the present day, and in perfect preser
vation.:
* Such, we are told by M. Raoul Rochette, is the inference drawn by the
pious and learned Bottari, from the testimony quoted above, Pitture e Sculture
Sacre, vol i., p. 196; and that his opinion, formed in the bosom of orthodox
Catholicism, has been adopted by all Roman antiquaries.
+ Fabricius, Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti.
+ Opera S. Joh. Damasceni, vol. i., Oratio Prim. de Imaginibus, p. 320,
edit. de Lequien, Paris, 1712. “Antiquitus tradita narratio ad nos usque
At the same epoch, a minute verbal description of the

appearance of Christ was in circulation. The following
description, which is of great importance, was sent to the
Roman Senate by Publius Lentulus, proconsul of Judea,
before Herod. Lentulus had seen the Saviour, and had
made him sit to him, as it were, that he might give a written
description of his features and physiognomy. His portrait,
apocryphal though it be, is at least one of the first upon
record; it dates from the earliest period of the Church, and
has been mentioned by the most ancient fathers. Lentulus
writes to the senate as follows:—“At this time appeared a
man who is still living and endowed with mighty power; his
name is Jesus Christ. His disciples call him the Son of
God; others regard him as a powerful prophet. He raises
the dead to life, and heals the sick of every description of
infirmity and disease. This man is of lofty stature, and well
proportioned; his countenance severe and virtuous, so that
he inspires beholders with feelings both of fear and love.
The hair of his head is of the colour of wine, and from the
top of the head to the ears, straight and without radiance,
but it descends from the ears to the shoulders in shining
curls. From the shoulders the hair flows down the back,
divided into two portions, after the manner of the Nazarenes;
his forehead is clear and without wrinkle, his face free from
blemish, and slightly tinged with red, his physiognomy noble
and gracious. The nose and mouth faultless. His beard is
abundant, the same colour as the hair, and forked. His eyes
blue and very brilliant. In reproving or censuring he is
awe-inspiring; in exhorting and teaching, his speech is
gentle and caressing. His countenance is marvellous in
pervenit Abgarum scilicet, Edessae regem, auditis quae de Domino ferebantur,

divino succensum ardore, legatos misisse, qui eum ad se invisendum invitarent;
sin vero abnueret mandat ut pictoris opera imaginem ejus exprimant. Quod
cum sciret ille, cui nihil obscurum est, quique omnia potest, accepto panno, suae
que faciei admoto, propriam effigien appinxisse. Quae ad hac usque tempora
servatur incolumis.” Damascenus adds, pp. 631, 632, of the same volume,
“Quin et ipse omnium Salvator et Dominus, cum adhuc in terra ageret sancti
vultus sui expressam in texto lineo effigiem. Abgaro cuidam magnae Edesse
norum civitatis regulo per Thaddaeum apostolum misit. Divino namque sui
vultus absterso sudore, cuncta illius lineamenta in linteo servavit. Quam
effigiem praemagnifica celeberrimaque Edessenorum civitas ad hunc usque diem,
haud secus atque sceptrum regium retinens, praeclare gloriatur et exsulsat.”
HISTORY OF THE PORTRAITS OF GOD THE SON. 24.7
seriousness and grace. He has never once been seen to

laugh; but many have seen him weep." He is slender in
person, his hands are straight and long, his arms beautiful.
Grave and solemn in his discourse, his language is simple
and quiet. He is in appearance the most beautiful of the
children of men.”’t
The Emperor Constantine caused pictures of the Son of
God to be painted from this ancient description.
In the eighth century, at the period in which Saint John
Damascenus wrote, the lineaments of this remarkable figure
continued to be the same as they are to this day.
The hair and the beard, the colour of which is somewhat
undetermined in the letter of Lentulus, for wine may be
pale, golden, red, or violet colour, is distinctly £ by
Damascenus, who also adds the tint of the complexion;
moreover, the opinion of Damascenus, like that of Lentulus,
is decidedly in favour of the beauty of Christ, and the
former severely censures the Manichaeans, who entertained a
contrary opinion. Thus, then, Christ in taking upon him the
form of Adam, assumed features exactly resembling those of
* The Latin text is not sufficiently clear; strict grammatical accuracy
would perhaps require it to be thus rendered: “Personne ne l’a vu rire, et
pas même pleurer.” But the Gospel tells us that Jesus wept for Lazarus and
for Jerusalem. One of the tears shed by Christ was peculiarly honoured at
Vendôme, where it was preserved. Père Mabillon wrote a celebrated letter
upon that tear.
+ “Hoc tempore vir apparuit et adhuc vivit, vir praeditus potentia magna ;
nomen ejus Jesus Christus. Homines eum prophetam potentem dicunt;
discipuli ejus filium Dei vocant. Mortuos vivificat, et aegros ab omnis generis
aegritudinibus et morbis sanat. Wirest alta staturae proportionate, et con
spectus vultus ejus cum severitate et plenus efficacia, ut spectatores amare eum
possint et rursus timere. Pili capitis ejus vinei coloris usque ad funda
mentum aurium sine radiatione, et erecti; et a fundamento aurium usque ad
humeros contorti ac lucidi; et ab humeris deorsum pendentes, bifido vertice
dispositi in morem Nazaraeorum. Frons plana et pura; facies ejus sine
macula, quam rubor quidam temperatus ornat. Aspectus ejus ingenuus et
gratus. Nasus et os ejus nullo modo reprehensibilia. Barba ejus multa, et
colore pilorum capitis, bifurcata. Oculi ejus caerulei et extreme lucidi. In
reprehendendo et objurgando formidabilis; in docendo et exhortando blandae
linguae et amabilis. Gratia miranda vultus cum gravitate. Vel semel eum
ridentem nemo vidit, sed flentem imo. Protracta statura corporis, manus ejus
rectae et erectae, brachia ejus delectabilia. In loquendo ponderans et gravis, et
parcus loquela. Pulcherrimus vultu inter homines satos.”—Codex Apo
oryphus Nov. Testam. ab Fabricium, Hamburgi, 1703, 1° pars, pp. 301, 302.
-"
the Virgin Mary. “Lofty stature, thick eyebrows, gentle

eyes, well-formed nose, curling hair, figure slightly bent,
delicate complexion, black beard, face of the colour of wheat,
like that of his mother, long fingers, sonorous voice, and
persuasive language. He is most amiable in character,
calm, resigned, patient, invested with £ virtue that our
reason conceives to be appropriate to the Incarnate God.”*
In the West, a century later than the time of Damascenus,
Christ was always thus depicted. S. Anschaire, Archbishop
of Hamburgh and Bremen, who beheld Christ [in a vision],
described him as “tall, clad in the manner of the Jews, and
beautiful in face, the splendour of Divinity darted like a
flame from the eyes of the Redeemer, but his voice was full
of sweetness.t.”
Let us next examine the evidence afforded by authentic
monuments. We shall not rely altogether on the Gnostic
abraxas, nor the Christian tessera, whether of stone or
* Qui cum impollutis manibus formaverit hominem, homo ipse ex sancta

Virgine ac Dei genitrice Maria sine mutatione aut variatione factus, carni com
municavit et sanguini, animal ratione, intelligentiae et scientiae capax, trium
forte cubitorum magnitudine, carnis crassitie circumscriptus, nostrae simili
forma conspectus est, maternae similitudinis proprietates exacte referens,
Adamique formam exhibens. Quocirca depingi eum curavit (Constantinus
Magnus) qualiforma veteres historici descripsere; praestanti statura, confertis
superciliis, venustis oculis, justo naso, crispa caesarie, sub-curvum, eleganti
colore, nigra barba, triticei coloris vultu pro materna similitudine, longis
digitis, voce sonora, suavi eloquio, blandissimum, quietum, longanimem,
patientem, hisque affines virtutis dotes circumferentem, quibus in proprietatibus
Dei virilis ejus ratio repraesentatur; ne qua mutationis obumbratio, aut
diversitatis variatio in divina Verbi humanatione deprehenderetur veluti
Manichaei delirarunt.”—Opp. S. Joh. Damas, vol. i., pp. 630, 631. The
beard of Christ, at present generally approaching to red, was at that period
black.
* “Ecce vir per ostium veniebat, statura procerus, judaico more vestitus,
vultu decorus; ex ejus oculis splendor divinitatis, velut flamma ignis radiabat.
Quem intuitus, omnicunctatione postposita, Christum Dominum esse credebat,
atque procurrens ad pedes ejus corruit. Cumque prostratus in facie jaceret,
ille ut surgeret imperavit. Cumque surgens coram illo reverenter adstaret,
atque prae nimio splendore oculis ipsius emicante in faciem ejus intendere non
valeret, blanda voce illum allocutus est.” (Act. SS. Ord S. Bened., vol. vi.,
Vie de St. Anschaire.) St. Anschaire died about 864. His life was written
by St. Rembert, his disciple and successor. St. Anschaire, as will be observed,
mentions the costume in addition to the details contained in the preceding
descriptions, and dwells more particularly on the extraordinary brilliancy of
the eyes.
metal, nor even on certain pictures in the Roman cata

combs, all of which, abraxas, tessera, and paintings, bear the
image of Christ; for the date of these monuments has been
much contested, and is still doubtful. We propose rather
to consider the entire body of the most ancient Christian
monuments, as for example, the frescos in the catacombs,
the earliest sarcophagi, and most ancient mosaics; thence
we shall pass to illuminated manuscripts, the capitals of
Romanesque churches and vaultings, and the painted win
dows of Gothic churches. The following is the result of our
investigations:—
In the long series of monuments, two iconographic facts,
are seen to develope themselves side by side. The figure of
Christ, which had at first been youthful, becomes older from
century to century, in proportion as the age of Christianity
itself progresses. That of the Virgin, on the contrary, who
was originally represented in the catacombs as from forty to
fifty years of age, becomes more youthful with every suc
ceeding century, until, at the close of the Gothic epoch, her
age appears to be not more than fifteen or twenty. In
proportion as the Son grows older, the mother is represented
as more youthful. Towards the thirteenth century Jesus and
Mary are of the same age, about thirty or thirty-five years.
The mother and child, who have thus met, as it were, afterwards
separate, and thence continue to diverge still more widely one
from the other.” The youthfulness of Christ, which is re
marked on the most ancient Christian mouments, is a pre
dominating and very curious fact. On sculptured sarcophagi,
in fresco paintings and mosaics, Christ is represented as a
*In the Church of St. Peter, at Rome, we view with admiration a group of
the Virgin and dead Christ, sculptured by Michelangelo; it is the only
work to which the great artist has put his sign manual. “This chef d'oeuvre,”
says Vasari, “covered Michelangelo with glory, and extended his fame to
far distant countries. Yet there were some fools who pretended that the
artist had erred in giving so youthful a countenance to the Virgin. Were
these men ignorant that chaste, pure women, retain for a long period the
graces of youth? It was of necessity otherwise with the Saviour, who had
been called upon to endure all the vicissitudes to which humanity is subject.”
(Vasari Wies des Peintres, Vie de Michelange, trad. et annot.
MM. Leclanché et Jeanron, vol. v.) The explanation given by Vasari of the
Virgin's youthful appearance, and of the advanced age of Christ, is certainly
Curious.
young man of twenty years of age, or a graceful youth of

fifteen, without any beard, the shape of his face round, the
expression gentle, resplendent with divine youth, just as
Fig. 66.—FIGURE OF CHRIST, BEARDLEss.

Roman Sculpture of the Iv cent.*
Apollo was figured by the Pagans, and as angels are drawn

by Christians. You find him seated on a curule chair, like a
* This youthful figure of the Saviour is taken from the sculptures decorating
the celebrated tomb of Junius Bassus. Bassus died in 359, and the sarcophagus
dates apparently from the same epoch. Below the figure of Jesus above
described (who appears to be giving instructions to his two chief apostles,
St. Peter and St. Paul), is another figure of God, youthful and beardless, riding
on a she-ass, and about to make his entry into Jerusalem. His extreme
youth is, therefore, symbolic and not natural, for Christ, at the time of his
entering Jerusalem, on Palm Sunday, was at least thirty-three years of age;
according to St. Irenaeus, he was even older. Gulielmus Durandus says: “Et
nota quod Christus completis triginta duobus annis et mensibus tribus, vel,
secundum Chrysostomum, triginta tribus et dimidio, crucifixus est eadem die
qua conceptus est de Virgine, scilicet in sexta feria quae fuit octavo kalend.
Aprilis.” (Rat. Div. Off, lib. vi., cap. lxxvii., de die Parasceves, No. 28.)
youthful senator, wearing also the long Roman robe and toga;
or else he is standing on the mystic mountain, whence flow
the four sacred streams.” On his feet are sandals fastened
by little bands; the right arm is extended and the hand
open, while, in the left, is the ancient volumen either un
folded or rolled up. The figure is charming, but has no
resemblance to those which have since been hallowed by
Christian art.
The above picture of Christ might be supposed to repre
sent the Divine child teaching in the temple before he
began his ministry, and that the juvenility is natural and
not symbolic. But Christ is represented equally youthful;
with his feet resting upon heaven whither he has returned
after his Ascension; or giving his latest instructions to his
apostles; or condemning Adam and Eve to labour: all
actions performed either previously to his human birth or
subsequent to his death. He may be traced, in like form,
performing the miracles of his life; raising Lazarus from the
dead; curing the man born blind, the paralytic, and the
hemorrdöidal woman; blessing and multiplying the loaves
and fishes; and lastly, he is thus seen before Pilate, by whom
he is condemned to death. Now all the above events took
place during the public ministry of Christ after his baptism,
and when he was between thirty and thirty-three years old.
There can, therefore, be no room for doubt, that not the
child, but the man is intended; yet the man who, according
|
to historical records was more than thirty years of age, is
treated by the art as no more than twelve, fifteen, or
twenty. The art has, in this manner, interpreted an idea
which we shall try to make more distinctly evident; but
before going further, we must complete our notice of the
portraits of our Saviour.
During the first and second periods of Christian art; that
* “Quatuor Paradisi flumina, quatuor sunt evangelia ad praedicationem
cunctis gentibus missa.” (St. Eucher, in Genes, lib. i., cap. iii.; Cf. Bede,
Isidore of Seville, and G. Durandus.) Bede (in Genes, cap. ii.) says,
“ Quatuor Paradisi flumina, quatuor evangelistae.” In Fig. 23, we see
the Lamb of God standing on an eminence, from which the four symbolic
streams descend. Below, at Fig. 86, Jesus and his divine lamb are standing
together on the mountain of the four springs, and accompanied by six Apostles,
also figured by six lambs.
252 CHIRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY.
is to say, from the second or third centuries down to the

tenth, until the reign of the first Capetian kings, Christ was
most generally depicted youthful and beardless. But
Lentulus and Damascenus had not declared the Saviour to
be a man of mature age, with a thick, forked beard, either
black or of the colour of wine, in vain; for beside the
beardless figures just noticed, and at the very same period,
we find some figures not inconsistent, in any respect, with
the description of Lentulus, and representing Christ as a
fine man, of from thirty to thirty-five years of age, and with
a beard.
The sarcophagi, the paintings in the catacombs, the
ancient tombs at Arles, all present similar figures of Christ
of that age, and bearded, although they are far less nume
rous than the others, and strictly speaking, might almost be
called exceptions.” One of the sarcophagi in the Vatican
presents a highly interesting peculiarity.t Christ is there
represented in four different scenes: in one, that in which
he heals the hemorrhöidal woman, who throws herself at
his feet, he is bearded; but in the other three, in which he
gives his law to the apostles, predicts the denial of
St. Peter, and is brought before Pilate, he is young and
beardless. Down to the time of the Capets, the type of
youth, grace, delicate beauty, and charming benevolence,
predominates. Hroswitha, the celebrated nun of the con
vent of Gandersheim in Lower Saxony, still imagines Christ
under the form of a young man.S. In the comedy of
Callimachus, where she brings on the stage the raising of
Drusiana by St. John the Evangelist, that apostle, the
friend of Christ, says to Andronicus, the husband of
* Roma Sotterr, pp. 61, 63, &c. In the History of the Nimbus, and in that
of God the Father, we have given several figures in which Jesus is drawn
bearded: we shall meet with others also as we proceed.
t Engraved in the Roma Sotterr, pp. 85-87. The sarcophagus, Fig. 63,
shows the same fact. There, on Palm Sunday, and when before Pilate, Jesus
is beardless; but when giving his law to the Apostles he is bearded. This
Christ with a beard, is the same Christ with seven lambs, given below, Fig. 86.
# This subject has been given, Fig. 18.
§ See in the Bibliothèque Mazarine, “Opera Hrosvite, illustris virginis et
monialis germane (sic) gentis Saxonia orte, nuper a Conrado Celte inventa."
It is a small folio volume, exceedingly rare, with engravings and ornaments on
wood of the fifteenth century.
Drusiana, “See, Andronicus! the invisible God appears to

you under a visible form. He has assumed the features of
a beautiful young man.”
Lastly, towards the close of the tenth century, under the
Emperior Otho II, Christ is still an adolescent, a beardless
young man. But at the approach of the year, 1000, every
thing looked gloomy and overcast. The belief that the end
of the world was approaching was not perhaps so universally
prevalent as has been asserted, nor was its influence upon
art so great as has been imagined. Still, the events then
passing were sufficiently gloomy. Barbarism had scarcely as
yet been subdued; manners were rude; ecclesiastical society,
overrun by men of arms and exposed to violence, could no
longer be content with the young and merciful Deity, who
healed all infirmities, comforted all sorrows, and smiled be
nignly and constantly upon all. A God more severe was
needed, to terrify the descendants of those Normans who
had ravaged France with blood and fire. In the eleventh
century, therefore, and even as early as the tenth, Christ
was depicted by artists as a man of severe aspect, and melan
choly countenance. In the Last Judgment, Christ, con
demning the wicked, appears an inexorable judge. He
addresses himself not to the elect, but to the lost; instead
of re-assuring the former by his words, he is seen blasting
the latter with a glance. Christians seem to have felt a
pleasure in representing on sarcophagi, frescos, and even in
ancient mosaics, the miracles worked by Christ; the actions
of that benevolent life which had been passed in healing
diseases of the body, and soothing the anguish of the soul.”
The commencement only of the Passion had been indi
cated, and even from that commencement, the Lord's
Supper, the Agony in the Garden, the Betrayal by Judas,
the taking of Christ had been omitted, and nothing more
was shown of the condemnation than the moment in which
Pilate washes his hands, exclaiming that he is innocent of
the death of that just man. But from the tenth to the
twelfth century, men were content merely to indicate, to
pass lightly over, or even altogether omit, the miracles of
* We may constantly apply to Jesus at this period the “pertransit
benefaciendo” of the Gospel: “he went about doing good.”
charity, in order that every episode of the Passion might be

fully developed in minute detail from the commencement,
even to the Crucifixion. At the Last Judgment, Jesus is no
longer beardless, smiling, and sitting upon the symbolic
personification of heaven or of the world; but he appears
on the contrary, bearded, severe, and inexorable.
One theme which the earlier Christians held in peculiar
favour, and which is repeated even to satiety on the paint
ings and sculptures of the catacombs, disappeared altogether
after the commencement of the year 1000; it is that of the
| Good Shepherd.
Our feelings are touched in the primitive ages by that
passage of the Gospel in which Christ is compared to the
Good Shepherd, who leaves his flock in the wilderness, to go
in search of the one lost sheep, and having found it, lays it
across his shoulders, and notwithstanding the weight of the
burden, the length and difficulty of the way, brings it
back with joy to the fold.*
At that time men studied to represent the scene under
every possible variety, and with a thousand modifications,
invented chiefly to display more and more clearly the good
ness and love of the Saviour. But from the eleventh cen
tury down to the sixteenth, no further trace of this consoling
parable is to be met with on monuments, either of painting
or of sculpture. It would seem as if the heart of Jesus
had become hardened by the ingratitude of his sheep,
formerly so gentle and so beloved.t
Christianity had indeed passed its spring, the period
when everything smiles, and had entered on its summer,
when nature is powerful, but stormy; when everything
comes to maturity under the burning influence of the sun,
and when the rolling of the thunder strikes every imagina
tion with awe.
The end, which artists and the clergy had in view, in
making Christ youthful and smiling during the first period
of the art, and aged and severe in the second, was in the first
place to charm, and in the second to alarm the minds of men;
* Luke xv. 4–6.
+ See below, at Fig. 89, a drawing and remarks on the figure of the Good
Shepherd.
this is clearly seen from the following interesting history given

by Ordericus Vitalis, born in 1075, and who wrote the History
of Normandy in the first years of the twelfth century:—
“One day certain idle knights were playing and conversing
together in the hall of the Castle of Conches; they talked
as is usual in such company on different subjects, in the
presence of Madame Elizabeth. At length one among them
spoke thus:—“Not long since I had a dream with which I
was greatly terrified; I saw our Saviour hanging on the
cross, his body was all livid, and he himself tortured by
exceeding agony, and he looked upon me with a severe
and terrible aspect. As the knight related these things,
those who were there present exclaimed, ‘The dream is of
serious import, and doubtless sent as a dread warning; it
would appear to threaten you, on God's part, with some
fearful judgment. Then Baldwin, son of Eustace, Count of
Boulogne, made rejoinder, and said, “And I also, had recently
a dream, in which the Lord Jesus appeared, hanging upon
the cross, but looking brilliant and beautiful; he smiled
favourably upon me, and blessing me with his right hand,
made graciously the sign of the cross upon my head.’
Those present answered him and said, ‘Such a vision seems
intended to announce to you great favour and blessing.’
* * *Shortly after . . . . . while engaged on a certain
* *
expedition, the first knight received a mortal wound, and

perished without confession or viaticum. But Baldwin, son
in-law of Raoul de Conches, placed upon his right shoulder
the cross of the Lord, and, by the command of Pope Urban,
took part in the successful expedition or crusade against the
aganS . . . . . he was made governor of Ragès or Edessa,
and some years later, after the death of his brother
Godfrey, he possessed for a long period the kingdom of
Jerusalem.”*
Figures of Christ are at this period more frequently
terrible, like that seen by the cavalier who died without
Vaticum or confession, than brilliant and beautiful like that
described by Baldwin. Still there was no sudden transition
Orderici Vitalis uticensis monachi, Ecclesiast. Hist, lib. viii, ad annum

"90; pp. 688, 689 in Duchesne Hist, norm, script. See the excellent
"on of Orderious Vitalis, now being published by M. Aug. Leprévost.
from portraits almost invariably young, to those which are

constantly aged. In certain localities, more civilised in
manners, or more behind the prevailing habits, we sometimes
meet with figures of Christ, youthful and smiling. After
the twelfth century such exceptions become more and more
rare; the figures of Christ take a more gloomy character,
and he is more constantly visible in the scenes of the Passion,
and in the Last Judgment. He is, then, indeed, terrible;
and truly the “Rex tremendae majestatis” of our DIES IRAE;
he is almost the God of the Jews, willing that fear should be
the beginning of wisdom.”
In representations of the Last Judgment, sculptured on
the vaulting, or painted on the wheel windows of our cathe
drals, Christ appears insensible to the prayers of his mother,
who is placed on the right hand; of Saint John the Evan
gelist, the beloved disciple, and of Saint John the Baptist,
the Precursor, who stand on his left. He crushes the
wicked while exhibiting to them the wounds in his hands, in
his feet, and in his side; he drowns them in the blood flow
ing from those wounds. The Greeks, more hebraic than the
Latins, imagined a Christ even more terrible in aspect. The
Byzantine frescos on the western wall, within,f and even
on the exterior, of these churches, are usually representa
tions of the Last Judgment. Christ is there represented
seated on a throne, while the angels surrounding him tremble
in terror on hearing the awful maledictions that he launches
against sinners. Not only is God the Son judge, as amongst
ourselves, but he himself executes the judgment pronounced.
Scarcely has he uttered the sentence of reprobation, when at
the sound of his voice a stream of fire issuing from the
throne beneath his feet, consumes the guilty. These subjects,
treated in general with remarkable talent, are the literal
interpretation of a passage from the writings of Saint John
Damascenus, which is even at this day received as an
authority. §
* “Initium sapientiae timor Domini.”—Ps. cx. 10.
+ As in the principal church of the convent of Salamis, called Panagia
Phaneroméni.
# As in the great church of the convent of Watopèdi on M. Athos.
§ The following is the passaage alluded to: “Nam, rogo, ubi repraesentante
imagine secundum Christi Deinostri adventum inspexeris, quando veniat in
Eastern Christianity is far less gentle and benevolent in

spirit than that of the West. Thus, in the convent of St.
Laura, on Mount Athos, there is a half-length picture of Jesus
Christ, on a medallion from which flames are issuing; the
Son of God holds in his left hand an open book, in his right
a naked sword. When viewing a picture of this description,
we seem as if watching the revival of the spirit of Paganism,
of the religion of violence, or at least the Judaism of Moses
and Isaiah. It seems as if the Christ of Mount Athos offered
men the choice of belief or death, the book or the sword.
This picture is of the sixteenth century, and seems to betray
more especially a Mahometan spirit. The Greeks have
borrowed greatly from the Turks, and the Christ of St.
Laura affords an interesting confirmation of this fact; one
might imagine the Saviour to have assumed the semblance
of Mahomet. It was with the Koran in one hand and the
scimitar in the other that the mighty religious conquests of
Mahomet and his successors were actually achieved. The
manuscript of Panselinos, in conformity with Greek
taste and the writings of Damascenus, recommends artists
to make Christ terrible in aspect, in their paintings of the
Last Judgment; the following are the directions there
majestate ; angelos item innumera multitudine cum timore et tremore ejus
adsistentes throno; IGNEUM FLUMEN quod de throno egrediens peccatores
devorat.”—Opp. S. Joh. Damas, Oratio adversus Constantinum Cabalinum,
vol. i., p. 619. In the manuscript of Herrade (Hort. Delic.), which dates
from 1180, Christ is figured in the Last Judgment sitting on a rainbow; he
is encircled by an oval aureole, his pierced and bleeding feet supported by a
second rainbow; exhibiting his bleeding hands, and the open, bleeding wound in
his side. Under this awful form is written, “Deus manifeste veniet et non
silebit; ignis in conspectu ejus exardescet, in circuitu ejus tempestas valida.
Ignis ante ipsum precedet et inflammabit in circuitu inimicos ejus.” “Our
God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him,
and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.”—Ps. l. 3. “A fire goeth
before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.”—Ps. xcvii. 3. This
fire, according to Greek painters, and the quotation from St. John Damascenus,
issues from the feet of Christ, to envelope and consume the false prophets,
“qui per inspirationem et incantationem immundorum spirituum ventura
predixerunt, vel qui vera dixerunt et falsa operati sunt. Omnes superbi et
omnes facientes impietates erunt quasi stipula.” Everything here is strictly
in accordance with the opinions of the East, and Eastern art. The influence
of the Byzantine spirit must have been powerfully felt in the convent of
St. Odile, for the women and nuns of our country to have chosen so violent a
manner of representing the Last Judgment.
S
given:—“Christ is sitting on a lofty throne of fire; he is

clad in white, and darts his thunderbolt over the sun. All
the choirs of angels are seized with dread, and tremble
before him. With the right hand he bestows his benedic.
tion on the saints, but with the left he indicates to sinners
the place of torment. . . . A river of fire flows from the
feet of Christ, and the wicked are flung by demons into the
stream. . . . Prophets, with their rolls, stand on the right
and left of the scene of Judgment.” Malachi says: “Behold
the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the
proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble; and
the day cometh that shall burn them up saith the Lord of
Hosts.” (Mal. iv. 1.)
Dating from the second period, that is from the eleventh to
the sixteenth century, Christis always a man in the full vigour
of life, from thirty-five to forty years of age; he is invariably
bearded, never smiling, and his countenance, when not sad,
is serious. It is very rarely that we meet with a figure of
Christ beardless, or with a countenance unmarked by deep,
and perhaps, melancholy feeling. Still this anomaly may be
found in the Cathedral of Rheims, in a sculpture of the
close of the thirteenth, or perhaps even the opening of the
fourteenth century. The Cathedral of Rheims is, however,
an exception to all rules, and filled with peculiarities that
seem to contradict every other monument of the same
period.
During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, we
remark the first appearance and frequent adoption of an
iconographic theme, which will be noticed at length in the
chapter on the Trinity. God is at this period frequently
represented sitting in heaven and holding in his arms, the
Son affixed to the cross. Thus the crucified is not only seen
upon earth, where he expired, in the midst of agonies which
distorted his glorious body, but his cruel anguish is even
brought to sadden heaven. Thenceforth, the cross, the
instrument of his suffering, will rarely be found absent,
even when the Saviour is shown triumphant after death.
Assuredly the cross in the hand of Christ should be to
* “Epumveta rās (oypadpucis. Christ hurling the thunderbolt, recals the
idea of Jupiter Tonans.
s Christians what the rainbow in the clouds is to the

descendants of Noah, and to the human race; the rainbow
: announces that there shall be no second deluge, and the
Cross that the world, from henceforth, is redeemed. When
Noah quitted the ark, and also after the death of his Blessed
Son, God made an eternal covenant with man; He saved
his body at the deluge, and by the passion of Jesus he
redeems his soul. . Still the Cross, while it presents a
signal of peace to the righteous, is to the wicked a token
of wrath; it offers at the same time, a re-assurance and a
terrible warning.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the sadness of
preceding epochs is even more fondly indulged. The Ecce
homo, Crucifixes, exaggerated pictures of the Deposition from
the Cross, and of Christ in the Tomb, are really the fashion
of the time; but we must pass them over here with but
slight notice, for it must be remembered that we are now
considering the Son of God, in his divine, not his human
nature. Even in the crucifix itself, we trace a remarkable
progression of sadness. In the very earliest period the
Cross only is given without the Divine sufferer." Mention
is made in the sixth century of a crucifix executed at
Narbonne,t but this appears to be an unusual fact which is
noticed as an innovation. In the tenth century crucifixes
are occasionally seen, but the countenance of the crucified
Lord is gentle and benevolent; he is also clad in a long robe
with sleeves, the extremities of the arms and legs only being
uncovered.:
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the robe becomes
* The little image which placed itself miraculously upon the cross executed
by Mark, an artist contemporary with Diocletian, represented not the crucified
Saviour, but Emmanuel. Emmanuel, youthful and beardless, placed himself
on the cross, between the archangels Michael and Gabriel, but he was not
affixed to it. See Labbe, Concillorum Collectio maxima, vol. vii., col. 768.
Second Council of Nice.
+ “Est et apud Narbonensem urbem, in ecclesia seniore quae beati Genesii
martyris reliquiis plaudit, pictura quae Dominum nostrum quasi praecinctum
linteo indicat crucifixum.”—Greg. of Tours, De Gloria Martyrum, lib. i.,
cap. xxiii.
+ Similar figures of Christ abound in the cabinets of Christian antiquaries.
M. de Sommerard possesses several. The miraculous crucifix of Amiens,
called St. Saulve, is completely covered by a robe with numerous folds.
S 2
shorter, the sleeves disappear, and the breast is already

uncovered in some instances, the robe being scarcely more
than a kind of tunic.” In the thirteenth the tunic is as
short as possible; in the fourteenth it is nothing more than
a piece of stuff, or rather linen, rolled round the loins: and
up to the present time, the figure of Christ upon the cross,
has been constantly thus represented. At this period when
the countenance of the crucified Redeemer becomes more
sorrowful, and the impress of physical suffering is stamped
upon his divine form, he is at the same time divested of
the robe, and the slight garment by which he had been
protected. Some artists went even farther, and affixed
to the cross an image of Jesus without any covering what
ever; God, thus absolutely naked, is indeed a revolting
spectacle. Still I must acknowledge that I am not aware of
more than one instance in which Christ is figured completel
naked; it is to be found in a manuscript in the Bibliothèque
Royale.t. It is possible, nay probable, that the deficiency is
owing to an error of the miniaturist; still that error, while
restricting our assertion, does not the less serve to confirm
its truth.
It may then be affirmed, that from the sixth century down
to the fifteenth, the figure of the crucified is successively
divested of every kind of drapery, until reduced to a state
of almost complete nudity. The Son of God, even though
in heaven, even though reigning triumphant, after the
Ascension had sealed His victory over death, is still repre
sented with a crown of thorns on his head, and the cross in
his hand. In the thirteenth century he was clad in a robe
and mantle; after the fifteenth, he is often divested of the
robe, and but partially covered by the mantle, which leaves
* Examples are too numerous to be particularly quoted.

* Heures du Duc d'Anjou, p. 162. I fancy I have seen a second
example of this, in the Biblia Sacra, No. 6829. If I recollect rightly, a
Christ, entirely naked, is placed opposite to the miniature representing Eleazer
the High-priest sacrificing a red cow without the camp of the Hebrews. The
association thus intimated between Christ and the red animal, which was slain
to expiate the sins of the Israelites, has led to the representing of Christ with
red hair and beard, notwithstanding the quotations made above, from which
we learn that the complexion of the Saviour was brown. As a man, the hair of
Jesus may have been brown, but it is represented red in his symbolic character.
exposed the arms, legs and breast, and the spear-wound in

his side.*
Artists plunged lower and lower still into the depths of
a miserable materiality, until the time of Michelangelo, by
whom Christ is pourtrayed in the Last Judgment, under the
aspect of a Jupiter Tonans, and appearing from his gesture
as if prepared to chastise the human race with actual blows.
How melancholy is such an aberration of the mind in a man
of genius' degrading thus the entire Deity, and particularly
that one of the three Divine persons, whose ineffable love to
mankind makes him in very truth the most perfect type of
gentleness and mercy. The Florentine painter went farther
even than the text of Damascenus, and the Byzantine frescos,
for his Christ is devoid of dignity, while that of the Greeks
although harsh, is still noble. By comparing the paintings
of Michelangelo with the sculptured sarcophagi, and the
Christ on the tomb of Junius Bassus given above, we are
most strikingly impressed with the difference of epochs and
of ideas. How great is the difference between the inexorable
Christ of Michelangelo, and the merciful God depicted on
ancient sarcophagi. What centuries of misery and mis
fortune must have passed away in that same country before
the type preserved in the frescos of the catacombs changed
into that in the Sistine Chapel! but it was not possible to
pass without transition from one extremity to the other,
and these changes and transitions compose the archaeological
history of the Son of God. Michelangelo himself does
but give the latest interpretation of an idea which had
existed before his time, and it has been remarked with
justice, that the Christ of Michelangelo originated in that
which the painter Orcagna had placed in the Last Judgment
in the Campo Santo of Pisa, an engraving of which is given
below.
Michelangelo, it will be seen, copied the gesture of
Orcagna, but without understanding it. The Christ of the
Campo Santo is not in the act of menacing the guilty, he is
showing them, the wound in his side, which he uncovers
with his left hand, and the point of the nail in his right
* On funereal monuments of that period Christ is nearly always thus
represented.
|
Fig. 67.—THE SUPREME JUDGE.

Fresco of the Campo Santo of Pisa; xIV cent.
hand, which he raises and uncloses at the same moment.

Michelangelo imagined, in his rude, barbarous judgment,
that Christ was in the act of fulminating, when he is simpl
exhibiting his wounds. The Christ of Orcagna is £
that of Michelangelo is standing, and that attitude
imparts to his warrior God a character more terrible still.
Finally, the figure of Christ at Pisa, crowned with a tiara,
robed in sumptuous vestments, with the head flashing light,
is a pope, a god, and for that very reason pacific, and even
benevolent, but the Christ of the Sistine Chapel, bare
headed, and without either nimbus or aureole, is nothing
more than a man, and a man of the lowest grade. Never
has the image of God been more degraded than by the
severe Florentine artist.
From the period of the Renaissance down to our own,
men have sought to restore to the figure of Christ all its
early sweetness, its ineffably gracious and benevolent
expression, and artists have thus fallen into an error, the
very reverse of that into which Michelangelo had been
betrayed, so that they have produced tame and languishing
images of the Saviour, with fair hair, blue eyes, and in
expression sentimental, rather than serious or serene. Still
it must be acknowledged, that many praiseworthy attempts
are made to bring back the figure of Christ to the same
beautiful type, under which he was represented in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries. One cannot but view with
satisfaction this intelligent reaction, against the brutal
materiality and ferocity of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries.
We discover from what has been already said that types
of various character, and not, as has been erroneously
asserted, one single universal type, have been employed in
representations of our Saviour. Still, all these varieties
may be reduced under two heads: Christ is either youthful
and beardless, or he is bearded and has attained the age of
manhood. Figures of the Son of God from the first ages of
Christianity down to the twelfth century are distinguished
by youthfulness and grace, together with the absence of the
beard. From the twelfth century down to our own time, the
beard of Christ is more or less fine and short, his age about
thirty or forty. But between the eleventh and sixteenth
centuries we rarely meet with beardless figures of Christ,

while from the fourth to the thirteenth and fourteenth, the
beard is most usually seen. Beardless Christs are very rare
during the second period, while that attribute is frequently
given in the first, and even in the paintings found in the
catacombs.
It will be well to take the present opportunity of
examining that question concerning the beauty or ugliness
of our Saviour, which was so warmly canvassed during the
first ages of the Church.
Some among the early fathers, those of the African
Church in particular, have understood certain expressions of
St. Paul in an extended sense, such as they cannot properly
bear. The Apostle, writing to the Philippians, says thus,
“Jesus made himself of no reputation, and took upon him
the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”
A God, who becomes man, lays aside the Godhead, but he
may nevertheless clothe himself in a glorious human form.
The Christians of Africa, extreme in everything, exaggerated
the idea suggested by Saint Paul. They applied to the
human nature what by the Apostle had been intended only
of the divine. It must also be remembered, that they
attached much importance to the following text of the
Prophet Isaiah, who, in speaking of the Messiah uses the
following words: “He hath no form nor comeliness; and
when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should
desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were,
our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him
not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our
sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and
afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he
was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our
peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.”f
* “Semetipsum exinanivit (Jesus Christus), formam servi accipiens”. . . &c.
(Phil. xi. 8.)
* In the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, verses 2, 3, 4, and 5, we find the following
remarkable words: “Non est species ei neque decor; et widimus eum, et non
erat aspectus, et desideravimus eum; despectum et novissimum virorum,
virum dolorum et scientem infirmitatem,” &c. St. Peter (Epist. i. ii. 24)
says also, “Qui peccata nostra ipse pertulit in corpore suo super lignum, ut
HISTORY OF THE PORTRAITS OF GOD THE SON, 265
The African doctors understood these words literally, and,

notwithstanding the description given above, in which Christ
is said to have been a man of singular beauty, they main
tained that the Word in entering the world, took upon
himself the burden of all human wretchedness and misery,
with intent to heal it, and concentrated also in his own
person, all the hideousness of physical deformity, with intent
to transfigure it.
According to this doctrine, diseases of the soul should
have been outwardly typified by the deformity of the body,
and our blessed Lord would have been the most hideous of
the children of men. That body in which, according to this
doctrine, circulated all the venom of human misery, must
have become corrupted and disfigured; the discoloured skin,
attenuated muscles, wasted form, and impoverished con
tour, would have visibly testified the self-sacrifice of the
Redeemer. The Son of God would have been inoculated
with ugliness, just as a man who sucks a poisoned wound
becomes envenomed with the poison he imbibes.
Others, the fathers of the Latin Church in particular,
declared Christ to have been the most beautiful of mankind.
Though upon earth, he was still the Son of God, and God is
himself supreme in beauty. God is infinite in beauty as he
is in wisdom, goodness and power. The infirmities and
vices which he came to expiate had no power to sully his
glorious form, any more than a sunbeam that touches or
shines through an impure object can be polluted by the
contact. The apostles and saints who cured men of fevers, the
plague, and leprosy, who made the lame to walk, and raised
putrefying corpses to life, did not thereby contract either
corruption, deformity, leprosy, pestilence, or fever; why then
should Christ, whose mission it was to save man from damna
tion, and purify him from the taint of sin, have assumed the
livery of the vicious, or the deformity of guilt? Jesus, on the
contrary, killed death, and dispelled its accompanying horrors.
By his incarnation, in the womb of a virgin, Christ assumed
all the beauty and grace of humanity and divinity; divinity
still shone resplendent through the material body.
peccatis mortui, justitiae vivamus; cujus livore sanati estis.” “Who his own
self bare our sins, in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins
should live unto righteousness.”
Perplexed by these two opinions, so diametrically ''

antiquaries turned to the art itself to discover which side
had been preferred. But in their endeavours to solve that
interesting problem, books were consulted instead of monu
ments, people read instead of observing, and the conclusions
thus drawn were irreconcilable with the evidence afforded by
the monuments themselves. Christian artists cannot certainly
have been ignorant of the controversy that existed relative
to this question; it was impossible for them to avoid takin
part in it either directly or indirectly; they were compelle
to solve the problem, either in the one sense or the other;
and writers and theologians being at variance, artists also
divided themselves into at least two parties, one formed of
the partisans of ugliness, the other of the friends of beauty.
Consequently, in works of Christian art, we meet sometimes
with beautiful, and sometimes with deformed figures of
Christ.
The terms ugliness and beauty require no particular defi
nition; everybody attaches to those words certain ideas of
form, easily recognisable, and which it is impossible to con
found. Now, in the strict sense of these words, no figure of
Christ, in painting or '' at whatever period it may
have been executed, can be called absolutely perfect in
beauty, but above all, none really ugly are to be found. In
fact, these artistic representations of the Son of God are,
strictly speaking, neither ugly nor beautiful. They are simply
men, and as men, tolerably well proportioned, but not remark
able either for beauty or the reverse. Christ, when repre
sented as we find him on the monuments of the catacombs,
under the figure of a young and graceful youth, does not
appear to surpass in beauty other young persons of that age.
Any youth of from fifteen to twenty might equal in beauty
the youthful figure of our Saviour, graceful as it may be;
and when represented as aged and saddened, he is not more
ugly than any man of thirty or forty years of age. On
monuments of the thirteenth century, in the cathedral at
Paris, for example, on the tympanum of the left door of the
western porch, Jesus is seen with his apostles and disciples,
attending at the deathbed of Mary, his mother, and receiv
ing in his arms the departing soul of the Virgin, which takes
its flight towards heaven.
The figure here sculptured is neither more ugly nor more

beautiful than those of the attendant apostles, or of the
kings and patriarchs of the vaulting, who are ranged in
several cordons around the tympanum. What is more re
markable still, were it not for the nimbus with which the
head of the Saviour is encircled, it would be impossible to dis
tinguish him either from his apostles, or from his ancestors,
the kings and patriarchs in the vaulting; but around his head
is a cruciform nimbus, while the apostles have the plain
nimbus; and the personages of the Old Testament are with
out any nimbus or ornament whatever. Jesus is a man, and
as a man, like other men. At the Renaissance indeed,
artists sought to idealise, to beautify Christ; but their most
exquisite creations are not those of which he is the subject.
The forerunner of Christ, St. John the Baptist, both as child
and as man, is, in the works of Italian, German, and French
masters, as beautiful as the Saviour, whether man or infant.
St. John the Evangelist is often more beautiful than Christ,
his divine master and friend.
If an ugly figure of Christ should accidentally occur, we
can easily convince ourselves that it is not so much physiolo
gical, as arising from a want of skill in the workman. An
artist of bad taste and feeble execution, would make a bad
figure, simply because incapable of producing a good one,
and ugliness in such a case, must be attributed not to an
adherence to any particular doctrine, but to the defects of
the execution.” Upon inferior medals the figure of Christ
is ugly, on those which are valuable and finely worked, he is
beautiful. In other words, the Son of God is ill executed
on the former, and well executed on the latter; but strictly
and philosophically speaking, he cannot be called beautiful
nor the reverse.
Must it then be supposed that while the fathers of the
Church disputed concerning the mystical beauty or deformity
of our Saviour, artists were insensible to all that was passing
around them P While some amongst the former warmly
* See a figure of Christ, enamelled upon copper, of the end of the eleventh
century, now in the possession of M. du Sommerard. The workmanship is
rude in the extreme, and the excessive ugliness of the face, is carried out in
the remainder of the person, and even in the decoration. It is evident, at a
glance that the figure of Christ is badly executed rather than ugly.
espoused the cause of beauty, and others, with equal vehe

mence, supported that of deformity, would the art, which
seems in every epoch to have been the interpreter of men's
ideas, have remained neutral P that such was not, and could
not have been the case, proofs will immediately be given.
Artists, it is true, attend to the slightest rumour that
reaches their ears. Through the medium of dimension, line,
colouring, sounds, syllables and gestures; by architecture,
sculpture, painting, music, poetry, and dancing, they reflect
all images, however vague, which pass before their eyes.
They repeat, defining and enlarging, whatever they hear,
see, or touch; but while repeating they at the same time
make it their own, subjecting it to a series of transforma
tions, by which it becomes purified and embellished. They
had heard the audacious language of Tertullian: “Jesus
Christ was mean in aspect, and his human form not worthy
to be gazed upon; yet vulgar, ignoble, dishonoured as he is,
he is still my Christ whom I adore.” * They knew that
St. Cyril of Alexandria, speaking of the Saviour, had declared
him to be the most ugly of the children of ment
Vulgar artists, espousing the side of ugliness, would have
represented Christ as deformed, with exhausted organisa
tion, worn muscles, and ignoble expression; but ancient
traditions, perfected by the new sentiments introduced with
Christianity, yet lived amongst them. They perfectly com
prehended that a figure, though considered unworthy of the
divinity, might still be very beautiful for a man; and conse
quently that a God, under human form, beautiful as he
might be, would still be ugly as a God, provided the charac
ters of humanity were distinctly impressed upon his person.
Now of these characteristics, the beard is unquestionably
one of the most visible and striking; for its colour and form
give to the physiognomy a peculiar stamp, revealing the age
and temperament. Artists, therefore, when wishing to re
present Christ, divested of his god-like beauty, depicted him
* “Ne aspectu quidem honestus.” (Adv. Jud. cap. xiv.) “Nec humana.
honestatis fuit corpus ejus.” (De Carnat. Christi, cap. ix.) “Si inglorius,
si ignobilis, si inhonorabilis, meus erit Christus.” Adv. Marcian, lib. iii.
cap. xvii.
+ 'AAA' to elö0s abrob &rtuov čkAurov trapā travtas Tobs vious Tây
ăv6párov.—St. Cyril of Alexandria, de Nudatione Noe, lib. ii. vol. i. p. 13.
as a bearded man; their scrupulous intelligence figured

literally the energetic language of Tertullian, interpreting it
in the sense of humanity. Those on the other hand who re
jected that interpretation, and who contended for the beaut
of our Saviour's person, represented him without a beard,
E. F. H.-DVRAND.
Fig. 68.—CHRIST suFFERING; BEARDED, HUMAN OR UGLY.

Carving on Ivory; xII cent. Bib. Royale.
and, consequently, as free as possible from the attributes of |
humanity. In short, by the first, the ugly Christ was

regarded as a man; by the second, the beautiful Christ was

a God. To the one he was a being, bearing the marks of
age; to the others, the partisans of beauty, Christ was a
God neither of yesterday, to-day, nor to-morrow ; a God to
whom no precise age could be assigned, because he has been
for ever, and will exist to all eternity." The bearded Jesus
is the ugly Christ of the fathers of the Church in Asia
and more especially in Africa; the beardless Jesus is the
Christ of the fathers of the Latin Church, and of Western
art in general.
Works of art are all in harmony with the explanation just
given. Take, for instance, two subjects on the same monu
ment; a manuscript with carved ivory covers, both of the
same epoch. On the right cover, Jesus is seen on the cross,
as in the preceding engraving.
The feet are resting on a chalice f into which the blood is
* “Jesus Christus, heri, hodie, et in saecula.”—Heb. iv. 8. “Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, to day, and for ever.”
f It seems probable that this chalice is the Graal, so celebrated in mediaeval
romance; to the discovery of which Perceval consecrated his life, and exposed
himself to a thousand strange adventures. The Graal, it is said, was used at
the Last Supper, and in that very vessel the wine had been changed by Jesus
into his blood. Lastly, Nicodemus the converted Jew, or rather Joseph of
Arimathea, collected in that sacred chalice the blood that flowed from the
Saviour's wounds. In the course of after events, the mysterious Graal passed
into France, where it became the subject of numerous long epic poems. It is
said that the fable of these poems, and the origin of the Graal, may both be
traced to Bretagne, but there is no foundation for the opinion. The story of
the Graal was derived from the apocryphal books, all of which are of Greek or
Asiatic origin. In France, in Champagne, and at Troyes, the history of which
it is the theme was first developed, and this fine subject was borrowed by the
Bretons from the French. It is with the Graal, and all other epics of the
middle ages, as with the ogive style of architecture. The Gothic style
originated and developed itself in France, or, to speak more strictly, in Picardy,
Champagne, and the Isle of France: thence it passed into England,
Sweden, Germany, Italy, and Spain. With respect to the Graal, which was
for some time in our possession at Paris, under Napoleon, from 1806 to 1815,
it is now restored to Genoa, where it is carefully preserved in the treasury of
the cathedral, under the name of “Sacro Catino.” This precious chalice is of
glass, and not emerald, of a hexagon form, and furnished with two handles; it
is one mêtre fifteen centimetres in circumference: it was broken in the transit
from Paris to Genoa. In monuments with figures of the twelfth, thirteenth,
and fourteenth centuries, Christianity, personified under the form of a queen,
receives in a chalice, still the Graal, the blood flowing from the wounded side
of Jesus on the cross. Gori (Thes. Wet. Dipt. vol. iii. p. 116) has had an
intended to flow. He seems to turn one last look upon his

mother before giving up the ghost. Below, on earth, Mary
and St. John bewail the death, the one of her Son, the other
of his friend, and both of their God.* Above, in heaven,
the sun, girt by a circular and wavy aureole, and represented
under the form of a young man without a beard, and the
moon in the form of a woman, bearing a crescent on her head,
appear touched by the spectacle, and as if sympathising with
the agonies of the Lord of nature. On the opposite cover,
the left, the nimbus of Christ is cruciform, but unornamented;
and, as if in contrast, the Son of God is seated in heaven,
surrounded by an elliptical aureole, and adorned with a
nimbus, the circumference of which is decorated with pearls.
The four symbols of the evangelists, the angel, the eagle, the
lion, and the ox, attend the divine hero of the Gospel. On
engraving made from an ancient cover of a psalter at Fréjus, on which this
subject is represented. In this the Christian religion, standing below Jesus,
who is on the cross, holds a cup to receive the blood flowing from his feet, and
in addition to this, the blood from the hands is caught by the Archangels
Michael and Gabriel, each of whom likewise presents a chalice. In this
example we have three Graals instead of one. Besides Genoa, the cities of
Auxerre and Angers each claimed the honour of possessing the true Graal : it
is in fact possible that not one cup only, but several may have been employed
at the Last Supper, for different purposes. In the Ladye Chapel, at the back
of the apse in the Cathedral of Beauvais, is a stained glass window of the
thirteenth century, in the central rose of which a crucifixion is depicted.
Adam, who, according to the legend, was interred at the foot of the cross, *
rises entirely from the tomb : a greenish drapery is thrown over his head, and
round the loins. In his left hand he holds a golden cup, to receive the blood
flowing from the Saviour's feet. The attention of antiquaries is invited to
these various cups: with them the Graal originated; they contain the germ
of all those epics of which the Graal has been the subject. From the apocry
phal books in the first instance, from sculptured monuments, and the epics of
our Champenois and Picard poets, the Bretons have drawn with lavish hands
what are improperly termed their inventions. In the engraving given above,
the feet of Christ, instead of being crossed and fixed with one nail, are separate
and pierced with two. Previous to the thirteenth century, Christ was attached to
the cross, by three or four nails, indifferently. Gulielmus Durandus is in
favour of four nails, as was Gregory of Tours, long before his time. After
the thirteenth century the practice of putting only three nails was definitively
in the ascendant.
* St. John is bearded, as he is constantly represented by the Greeks;
while amongst us, he is a beautiful youth, still beardless. The ivory above |
mentioned is Latin, but the age of St. John, and the personification of the sun
as Apollo, and the moon as Diana, betray a decided Byzantine influence.
the right Christ is suffering; on the left he is triumphant.

Here he is attached to the cross, the infamous gibbet ; there
he is surrounded by the aureole, the badge of divine glory.
Nature, personified by mankind and the planets, appears at
P. H. D. V. RAND E
Fig. 69–CHRIST TRIUMPHANT; BEARDLEss, DivinE, on BEAUTIFUL.

Carved Ivory of the x1 cent.; Bib. Royale.
the opening of the manuscript to compassionate the suffering

and death of the Redeemer, and at the close the evangelists
HISTORY OF THE PORTRAITs oF GoD THE son. 273
symbolised by their attributes, celebrate his triumph, and
the lion of St. Mark roars with joy and happiness.”
In this plate, Jesus the Son of Man transformed into the
Son of God, dispenses to the world grace and knowledge,
grace with the right hand, which is raised in the act of
- benediction, knowledge from the books which he holds in
his left hand and in his lap. Science is here represented in
all its fulness by the square book and the roll or volumen;
these two, the only form of books then known, were in use
* “Marcus frendens ore leonis,” as say the symbolists of the thirteenth
century. “Marcus ut alta fremit vox per deserta leonis,” as we find it
written in an Evangeliaire of the ninth century, preserved in the Bibliothèque
de l'Arsenal. (Quatuor Evangelia theol, lat 33.) These expressions fully
justify the roaring of our lion. An Evangeliaire in folio, belonging to the
Sainte Chapelle at Paris to which it was presented in 1379, by Charles W.,
contains the following verses, in explanation of the four attributes of the
Evangelist:
“Quatuor haec Düm signant animalia Xpu:
Est homo nascendo, witulusque socer moriendo,
Et leo surgendo, coelos aquilaque petendo ;
Nec minus hos scribas animalia et ipsa figurant.”
Consequently these four attributes refer at the same time to Christ and to
his Apostles. As to the place which they occupy, and the books held by each
of the four, Gulielmus Durandus, in the third chapter of the first book of his
Rationale divinorum Officiorum, speaks of them as follows: “Quandoque
etiam circumpinguntur quatuor animalia secundum visionem Ezechielis et
ejusdem Johannis. Facies hominis et facies leonis a dextris, et facies bovis a
sinistris, et facies aquilae desuper ipsorum quatuor. Hi sunt quatuor evan
gelistae. Unde pinguntur cum libris in pedibus, quia, quae verbis et scriptura
docuerunt, mente et opere compleverunt.” Durandus confounds the tetramorph
of Ezekiel with the four separate attributes. In the tetramorph the eagle is
above, but the angel or the man is in the centre, and in this case the attributes
have no books. Durandus did not fully understand his own meaning, or,
perhaps, being ignorant of the actual representation, he wished to exaggerate
the importance of the “coelos aquila petendo.” Durandus always loves to
find an exaggerated symbolic meaning, even at the expense of reason. The
place, which, except in cases of error, the attributes of the Evangelists do, and
ought invariably to occupy, is the following: beginning with Christ as the
point of departure, the angel is on the right, and the eagle on the left,
above; the lion on the right, and the ox on the left, below; the nature of the
attributes, and the meaning they are designed to convey, renders this arrange
ment indispensable. To begin with the ascending line; the ox, which is the
heaviest and most rude, is placed below; the lion roars on the second step,
the eagle flies upon the third, and the angel rises superior to all. This order
is sometimes ignorantly inverted. Errors occasioned by ignorance are of no
greater importance than those daily committed by modern artists and church
restorers of the present day.
T
at the same period amongst the Roman people. Symbolists

of the middle ages, Gulielmus Durandus, amongst others,
declare that the roll signifies imperfect or partial knowledge,
and the square book perfect intelligence. For this reason,
he adds, the roll (volumen) is given by sculptors and
painters to the prophets, because to them the truth was only
partially revealed, seen through a parable as it were, or
imaged in a mirror; but apostles and evangelists, to whom
the truth had been clearly and fully unfolded, and who
taught it perfectly, bear the book instead of the roll.
Christ who came to complete what had already been begun,
who comprises in himself both the Old Testament and the
New, He whom prophets had foretold, and apostles gazed
upon, He who is the very incarnation of light and truth, is
properly represented as bearing at the same time, the book
and the volumen.”
The meaning here is clearly evident,f the artist has
intentionally delineated an ugly figure of Christ in the
sufferer on the cross, and a beautiful figure in the Saviour
triumphant on the throne of heaven. Now the first is
bearded, the second not so; consequently, the question of
beauty and ugliness, so long discussed by the fathers of the
Church, is here interpreted by Christian art, as referring to
the absence or presence of the beard. This circumstance
is decisive; it accounts for the bearded and beardless heads
of the Saviour, which are seen simultaneously on monu
* G. Durandus. Rat. div. Off lib. 1, cap. 3. Suger commanded the execu
tion at St. Denis of a stained glass window, on which various subjects were
painted, the description of which he himself supplied, and had written certain
verses in explanation of their meaning. One of the subjects, which is still in
existence, represents Christ, raising a veil, which concealed the personification
of the synagogue; the following verses, of which a few letters only remain,
explain this action.
“Quod Moyses velat, Christi doctrina revelat;
Denudant legem qui spoliant Moysen.”
The Old Testament, the Law of Moses, is a veiled doctrine which Christ came
to elucidate with the living light of truth; in Christ we see truth face to face.
This action of unveiling Moses and the prophets has given rise to several com
positions in painting; a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Royale has this same
subject twelve times repeated.
* It is more fully expressed in words in an ivory triptych, in the Cabinet
des Medailies, &c., in the centre compartment of which the same subject is
drawn, with the following inscription beneath it in Greek characters, “Tu as
souffert comme chair, comme Dieu tu delivres 1’’
ments analogous, both in style and period, to the frescos and

sarcophagi of the catacombs of Rome, and of the Aliscamps
at Arles.
Whenever we meet with a youthful, beardless, and smiling
figure of the Saviour, his feet resting on the personification
of earth or of heaven, or else standing on the mountain of
Paradise, or in the waters of Jordan, working miracles, or
appearing before Pilate, we may conclude that the artist,
being a partisan on the side of beauty as in the question which
has just occupied us, has made Christ beautiful, considering
him both as human and as accomplishing his evangelic
mission. Whenever, on the contrary, and this is frequently
the case, we see a bearded Christ, even though the functions
he performs are divine rather than human, when standing, for
instance, on the mountain of the four symbolic rivers, he
gives his parting instructions to his apostles; we may affirm
the artist to have been a partisan of the humanity of Christ,
and to have made him ugly, that is to say human.
The manuscript of the Bibliothèque Royale is far from
being the only monument in support of the solution just
given. In Saint Guillem-du-Désert, in Lower Languedoc,
there is still an altar, the front of which is formed of a
. black and white mosaic, representing the crucifixion on one
side, and on the other, Christ triumphant. The Christ
upon the cross is bearded and aged; but triumphant, that is
surrounded by the aureole, which is oval, as in the example
just given he is beardless and young. This curious work
dates probably from the eleventh century, and appears to
have been the same altar of Saint Guillem, which was
consecrated by a legate of Gregory VII.*
This discussion concerning the beauty and ugliness of
the Son of Man—or to speak as artists rather than as the
fathers, the question concerning Christ, regarded in his
divine and in his human nature—was of no actual importance,
nor had it any real influence, except during the first period
of Christian art, or from the fifth century down to the
twelfth. At that time a decisive part was taken, in favour
* Découverte et Réstitution de l'Autel de S. Guillaume, by M. R. Thomassy,
in the fourteenth volume of the “Mémoires de la Société royale des Antiquaires
de France.”
T2
either of ugliness or beauty, although the Church had itself

given no decision on that point, and in works then executed,
sometimes one system, sometimes the other, appears to have
the ascendant. Still the cause of beauty or of the divine
nature, which had in the commencement been the strongest,
finally yielded altogether about the twelfth, and more
especially the thirteenth century, which period was marked
by the exclusive triumph of ugliness, or the human nature.
A manuscript already cited,” which dates from the close of
the fourteenth century, contains a miniature of the priest
Eleazar sacrificing a red cow, without the camp of the
Hebrews, to avert the wrath of God. Opposite to this
miniature is one of Christ on the cross; “Jesus is entirely
naked,” says the commentary, “and his skin is ugly and
discoloured, because he bore our sins in his own body:
Christ is here not only bearded, but entirely naked, and the
colour of his skin is red; he is human, poor and ugly.”f
We find in this an additional proof of the gloom and
reality which then possessed the world, and passed from
society into art. Jesus even when exercising his divine
functions is almost invariably bearded. He has a beard
when ascending to heaven after the resurrection; when
seated at the right hand of his Father in Paradise; when
from the highest heaven, shedding blessing upon the earth,
and when descending from the clouds, to judge mankind at
the end of the world. With still greater reason he is
represented bearded when baptised by St. John, when
carried away into the desert to be tempted by Satan, when
preaching, entering Jerusalem, and when suffering death
upon the cross. In the engraving below, Christ is carried
by Satan to the summit of a mountain, whence the genius
of evil shows him all the kingdoms of the world, and the
glory of them. Satan tells Christ, that he will give him all
* Biblia Sacra, No. 6829.
+ The red colour of the hair, skin, and beard, is considered to be a mark of
ugliness. For the last three hundred years nearly, Christ has been drawn
with reddish beard and hair, in the idea of thus adhering more closely to the
Jewish type. The people are persuaded, in spite of early tradition and the
writings of S. John Damascenus, that Jesus was red complexioned, and in a
saying, very popular in Champagne and Picardy, the common people assert
that “Dieu a fait plus beau que lui parce qu'il était roux, tandis qu'il a créé des
hommes bruns, et des hommes blonds.
HISTORY OF THE PORTRAITS OF GOD THE SON.
that he sees spread before his eyes, if he will fall down and
worship him: and our Saviour replies—“Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” (St.
Matt. iii. 10.)
Jesus, as in all the preceding plates, is bearded, and has a
cruciform nimbus.*
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Fig. 70.—CHRIST BEARDED, TEMPTED BY SATAN.
French Miniature of the XII cent.
It is still more surprising to find humanity, and the beard,

by which it is symbolised, attributed even to God the
* This design is taken from a manuscript in the Bibl. Roy. (Psalterium cum
figuris, suppl. fr. 1132), dating from the twelfth century. Satan, in order the
more easily to force Christ to yield, is accompanied by an assistant, who clasps
the Son of God round the waist. This demon, by the assistance of his two
pairs of wings and great muscular power, evidenced by the two great horns on
his forehead, appears to have transported our Lord to the mountain. The
other, the chief Satan, with the tail of a viper, and a human face upon his
Father, and to the Holy Ghost, although neither had ever

been incarnate. But as has been said, Jesus draws into his
atmosphere, the other two persons; and as he is bearded.
the Father and Holy Ghost must be so also. In respect of
the Father, an additional reason has been given above, in
his being styled the Ancient of Days, and the long existence
of the Divinity is intimated by one of the marks of old age
a long and fine beard. The Holy Ghost is also represented
with a beard, to signify his being equal to the Father and
the Son, and that like them, he had eternity for his portion.
We shall see further, as we proceed in his history, that the
Holy Ghost was often figured by a youth, with but very
slight appearance of a beard, and even sometimes appears
in the form of a young child.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SIGNS, CHARACTERISTIC OF OUR

SAVIOUR.
Neither the age nor the countenance can be regarded as
permanent characteristics of Christ, for, as has been seen, his
age varies from fifteen to sixty. In the catacombs Christ is
constantly represented as an adolescent; upon stained glass
of the sixteenth century, he is often an aged man: a similar
uncertainty exists with regard to the features and all the
other external attributes by which Christ might be distin
guished. The death of the Virgin is sculptured on the
tympanum of the left door of the western porch of Notre
Dame de Paris, and it is impossible to distinguish the figure
of Christ from the Apostles there present with him, either by
the features, or the general expression. In several of our draw
ings, those more particularly of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, a similar degree of uncertainty prevails. The
vesture will not be found to present a better characteristic;
Christ is ordinarily clad, like his apostles, in a robe and
mantle. The royal crown that covers his head is not peculiar
stomach, holds a scroll, on which is written, “Haec omnia tibi dabo, si cadens
adoraveris me.” But Jesus, with an imperious gesture of command, declares
to Satan, Him whom he ought to adore, as is shown by the words of the roll
in his left hand, “Düm Deû tuū adorabis.”
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SIGNS. 279
to Christ; kings, certain virtues, certain liberal arts, as seen

in the Cathedrals of Chartres and Clermont-Ferrand, are
similarly crowned. The tiara is worn by him in common with
the Father, with Melchizedech, Aaron, and St. Peter. The
book, whether open or closed, which he holds in his left
hand, is borne also by the Apostles. Not one of these cha
racteristics will be found specially confined to Christ.
Still there are other attributes which distinguish him from
the crowd, even if they do not separate him exclusively from
all others. Bare feet are an unfailing characteristic of angels
and divine persons, and sometimes given to prophets, in
variably to apostles. I am of course speaking only of persons
represented clothed; for Job upon his dunghill, the beggar
Lazarus before the gate of the wicked rich man, the traveller
stripped by robbers and attended by the good Samaritan, the
prodigal son during a certain period of his existence, many
saints suffering martyrdom, and others besides, are naturally
drawn with bare feet, since they are otherwise almost entirely
destitute of clothing. But whenever a figure is represented
clothed, and certain characteristics recognisable as marks of
holiness, as, for example, the nimbus supplied, if the feet are
bare, we may confidently affirm that such a figure is intended
to represent a prophet, an apostle, an angel, or some divine
being. Still this attribute serves but very vaguely to dis
tinguish Christ, being shared by him with so many other
persons; it must be remembered besides, that on sarcophagi,
in ancient frescos, and frequently in very old mosaics Jesus
is represented with sandalled shoes attached to the feet by
thongs passing round and over the ankle. Christ is in the
Roman costume, even to the sandals. In the fifteenth
century it is by no means unusual to see Him with his
feet in rich shoes, especially when he is apparelled as high
priest or pope, of whom he assumes the entire costume.
In the fourteenth century likewise, particularly when
accompanying the pilgrims to Emmaus, Christ is often clad
like a pilgrim with a broad-brimmed hat, the pilgrim's staff,
Wallet, and strong shoes.” The same exception is made in
* A large statue of Christ, as Pilgrim, at Notre Dame de Rheims, is sculp
tured with shoes, like an ordinary saint, and a pilgrim's hat with wide borders,
" shelter the traveller from sun and rain: the nimbus stamped with a cross
"one serves to indicate the Saviour. In our medieval legends, Christ is
regard to St. James, the patron saint of pilgrims. The cold

reality and materialism of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen:
turies seemed to shrink from making St. James, who travelled
from Asia into Europe, or from Jerusalem to Compostella,
undertake the pilgrimage barefoot. Yet, between the sixth
and the fifteenth century, bare feet is an almost unfailing
characteristic, distinguishing Christ from confessors, martyrs,
virgins, and allegorical personages.
The glory, aureole, and nimbus, employed in the glorifica
tion of divine and holy persons, ought to be considered more
particularly as the attribute of Christ than of any others, on
account of the pre-eminent honours which have always been
paid to the second person of the Trinity. Early monuments,
in fact, always present the Son of God adorned with the
most resplendent nimbus, and the most luminous aureole.
Even in the womb of his mother, the Incarnate Word is
already surrounded with rays, as may be seen in the curious
example preserved in the following engraving.”
frequently made to assume the disguise of a pilgrim; to give a particular
instance, he may be seen crossing a stream in a boat, guided by St. Julian le
Pauvre and his wife. In pictures of this event, Christ is generally clothed like
the great Christ at Rheims. The cruciform nimbus is here the sole attribute
which characterises him, for the broad hat and the usual loose robe give him the
appearance of an ordinary pilgrim. (See a bas-relief, representing St. Julian,
which belongs to the close of the thirteenth century; it is now at Paris,
No. 42, Rue Galande. This interesting bas-relief was taken from the church
of St. Julian in that neighbourhood.)
* This drawing is copied from a painted window of the sixteenth century,
which may be seen in a small church at Jouy, a little village in the arron
dissement of Rheims. I saw at Lyons, in the year 1836, in the house of the
architect Pollet, who is since dead, two wooden shutters, on which was a
painting of the Visitation, executed in the fifteenth century. The Virgin and
St. Elizabeth, both with child, salute each other with affection. The painter
has had the boldness to represent upon each of the two cousins a little human
being, intended for Jesus and St. John the Baptist. The two infants also
salute each other. The little St. John seems to thrill with emotion, and bends
piously to receive the benediction bestowed by the scarcely perceptible fingers
of the Saviour. Pollet, at his death, as I have been informed, presented to the
city of Lyons these interesting pictures, which certainly have some affinity with
the painted window at Jouy, and will not be the least valuable of the curiosities
in the Musée at Lyons. Considered as works of art, independently of their
archaeological interest, these paintings are not without value. A subject,
exactly similar to that of Jouy, may be seen on an ancient enamel of Limoges,
now in the possession of M. l'Abbé Texier, curé of Auriat (Creuse), and cor
This aureole,formed of
rays alternately straight,
and wavy, or flamboyant,
resembles that given
above (Fig. 43.), except,
that in this the infant
Jesus seems immersed
alone in a luminous
oval, which is more dis
tinctly defined and ac
commodates itself more
completely to the con
tour of the body.
The form of the au
reole, encircling the
IDivine Word, is ex
tremely varied; elliptical,
ovoidal, circular, and
quatrefoiled, as in several
examples given above
(see, amongst others,
Figs. 36, 37, 38, 40); it
takes the most ample, as
Well as the most simple,
geometrical forms. The
aureole being a material
symbol of the divine
honours paid to Christ,
of the respect and ad
miration in which his
atonement and doctrines Fig. 71—JESUS IN A FLAMBOYANT AUREoLE.
were held, imagination, Painted Window (French) of the XVI cent.
among the Greeks more
especially, exerted itself to the utmost, in every sense, to
respondent of the Committee of Arts and Monuments. The Virgin is clad in
a white robe, thrown partly back, and leaving exposed an under-robe of red and
gold. God the Father, floating on the clouds of Heaven, blesses the mother of
his Son. Upon the womb of the Virgin a little naked human being, with
clasped hands, is represented, surrounded by a golden aureole. The figure of
Mary stands out prominently from the background, which is blue. She 1S
surrounded by the moon, a star, a tower, and a lily, &c., all attributes
employed to distinguish her, especially in the fifteenth century.
F. P.1+...ov f. A tro. F x . PIct v E -G R a. o.
Fig. 72.—Jesus As AN ANGEL, IN AN AUREoLE composed of TRIANGLEs.”

Greek Painting of the XV cent.
* These representations of the assembled archangels (hot wa£is rāv

&pxayyéAwv), presenting their youthful Lord to the adoration of the faithful,
invent and discover new forms of that attribute; seeking

thus to testify to the world the infinite love which they
bore to the Saviour. The triangle, as has been fully shown
(History of the Nimbus, p. 58–63), is the symbol of Deity;
two triangles indicate the Divinity even more strikingly,
and several designate the absolute, infinite omnipotence of
divine power.
Fig. 21 contains an example of a double triangle, but it
is employed as a nimbus only, and not as an aureole: the
bi-triangular attribute is given to the head only, not to the
entire body.
In the figure annexed we have four triangles, not two
simply intersecting each other, and from these four triangles
emerges the body of the Son of God. The three great
archangels, Raphaël, Michaël, and Gabriël, bear as if in
triumph” the youthful God, who, with both hands extended,
gives his benediction to the world. Jesus is represented
with wings, like those of the archangels, because he was the
messenger, the angel, “àyyeAos,” of the supreme will of God,
to use the magnificent expression of the Greeks.
The Greeks frequently blunt the points of the triangles,
or else connect them by a circular line of circumference;
they thus restore the form of a perfect circle to the aureole,
whence issues forth the youthful God. Fig. 38 contains a
divine figure, probably intended for God the Son, or at least
for God the Father, with the features and aspect of the
Son. This figure is seated in the centre of two squares, with
concave sides, having seven projecting triangular points; the
are very common among the Greeks. There is scarcely a church which does
not possess a painting of that subject, either in fresco or on wood, placed on
the division or iconostasis of the sanctuary. The three archangels, Michaël,
Gabriël, and Raphaël, seem, in the ideas of the Greeks, to comprehend in their
triple union, the military, civil, and religious power of the kingdom of heaven.
Raphaël is regarded as, and attired in, the vestments of a priest; and in that
character occupies the place of honour, being placed in the centre between
Gabriël and Michaël. Michaël, always clad and armed as a warrior, is com
missioned to combat demons and the enemies of God. Gabriël is the messenger
of peace, and sent, for example, to announce to the Virgin Mary that she was
to be the mother of our Lord. The difference of costume marks their separate
functions.
* The name of each archangel is figured, according to the Greek custom, by
the first letter of the name inscribed in the upper part of the nimbus.
extremities of these triangular points reach a circular line

uniting all.
Here we again recur to the “imago clypeata” already
more than once described, and of which several examples
have been given.*
The Christ is blessing (Fig. 38) with one hand only, and
sometimes, as in a painting in the Convent of Saint Laura,
the hand, instead of blessing, is armed with a naked sword.
The image, in such cases, is perfectly warrior-like, the circular
aureole as well as the nimbus assimilating completely with
the character of bucklers.
In the Manuscript of Herrade, we find the following
description: “Light
painted in the form of
a circle round the head
signifies that the saints
invested with it are
crowned with eternal
light and radiance. For
this reason, that it has
the form of a round
buckler, the saints being
shielded by the divine
protection as by a
buckler: hence it hap
pens, that they them
selves sing ‘Lord defend
Fig. 73.—Jesus Is A CIRCULAR AUREoLE: * with the buckler of
Silver Seal of Mount Athos. thy Will.’” + In the
•
annexed design, the

figure of Christ is more pacific in character; he holds a roll
in the left hand, and the right gives the benediction. He
has a circular aureole, contained within another, in which
the Virgin is inclosed.
* Especially Fig. 51.
+ “Lumina quae circa caput sanctorum in modum circuli depinguntur,
designant quod lumine acterni splendoris coronati fruuntur. Idcirco vero secun
dum formam rotundi scuti pinguntur, quia divina protectione ut scuto muni
untur; unde ipsi cantant gratulabundi: Domine ut scuto voluntatis.” .
(Hortus Deliciarum.)
# The above engraving is a copy of the seal affixed by the government of
The varied and splendid aureoles with which the person

of the Saviour is adorned, are certainly £ for
beauty; still they will not suffice to distinguish him from
other divine persons. Thus, in a preceding engraving
(Fig. 67) of Christ, taken from the Campo Santo, the Saviour
was seen, encircled by an ovoidal aureole, and sitting on a
rainbow. The circumference of the aureole, and the interior
of the nimbus, are striated with a number of lines, and
embroidered like a rich garment.
Mount Athos to all laws and decrees. This government is called “épistasie;”
it is composed of four monks, styled “épistates,” elected every year in the
month of May, by all the convents of the holy mountain. A perpetual
secretary completes this annual authority. The deliberations of the elective
power are not valid until the seal of the state has been affixed to them. The
seal is of silver, and divided into four equal parts; one of these pieces is deposited
in the hands of each épistate. When the deliberations are completed, each
épistate places his quarter seal upon the table, so as to form a half-ball. The
secretary takes the four quarters, and unites them by means of a key or a
screw with a handle, which is deposited in his care ; the seal thus recomposed
is blackened by the smoke of a candle, and the paper, on which the act is
written, is stamped with it. The secretary then divides the seal, returns to
each of the deliberators his quarter, and retains the key himself. A letter
delivered to me by the épistates was thus sealed; it was written in the month
of October, 1839, to recommend me to the different monasteries which I
purposed visiting. On the outer edge of the seal the following legend is
engraved, in Greek and Turkish characters: “Seal of the épistate of the
community of the Holy Mountain.” The four épistates are considered, from
the unanimity of their deliberations, as one single individual. The seal repre
sents the Virgin and the Infant Jesus. The whole of Mount Athos is
consecrated to Mary. Women, and even the female animals, are excluded
from Mount Athos; it is, and always has been, inhabited by men, and men
only. There are herds of goats, flocks of sheep, with horses and mules; and
in some convents, turkeys and cocks abound; but neither she-goats nor ewes,
mares, she-mules, hen turkeys, nor hens. Yet these very monks, notwith
standing their aversion to women, have placed their government under the
protection of a woman, and nearly all their monasteries are either dedicated to
the Virgin or commemorate some incident in her life. The two first convents
are dedicated, one to the Nativity of the Virgin, the other to her Dedication in
the Temple of Jerusalem. The last, which is at the bottom of the peninsular
of Athos, is consecrated to the Death or the Assumption of Mary. Even in
those convents which are not absolutely under the protection of Mary, one or
more churches are consecrated to her. Mount Athos desired to throw off the
dominion of women, and yet the entire mountain, the dwellings and churches,
the monks and their acts, are governed and protected by a woman. Not one
single festival in honour of the Virgin, from her nativity down to her death,
and her coronation in heaven, is suffered to pass without being celebrated in
every convent of Mount Athos. The worship of the Virgin Mary is carried to
a much higher point in the Greek than in the Latin Church.
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The head of Christ emits rays of so much power that they

force themselves beyond the edge of the aureole; and yet,
notwithstanding the care thus shown in specially honouring
Christ, and showing forth his glory, the attributes above
enumerated will not suffice to distinguish him from God the
Father, nor even from his mother, a mere created being. In
fact, in the very same fresco in the Campo Santo, in which the
figure of Christ is thus brilliantly shown, the Wirgin also is
depicted, and with equal brilliancy. Mary is seated on a
rainbow, and is surrounded by an ovoidal aureole; the radi
ation from her head exactly resembles that of her Blessed Son.
The field of the rainbow, the circumference of the aureole, the
power and number of the rays, are equal to those seen in the
figure of the Son of God.
The hands of Christ sometimes emit rays, as in the figure
in Sainte Madeleine de Wezelay, at the door of the church
properly so called;” but the Virgin is similarly represented,
shedding from each of her fingers rays of grace upon those
who invoke her assistance. A medal, recently struck in her
honour, represents her thus shedding streams of grace and
favour from each hand.
It has thus been shown that the various characteristics of
age, feature, costume, or the aureole, are not sufficient to
distinguish Christ, since his mother, and even ordinary
Saints, are often honoured in an equal degree; the nim
bus is a more certain characteristic. Jesus, except in certain
instances, mentioned in the history of that archaeological
Ornament, always has a cruciform nimbus. As the trans
Verse bars of this attribute are sometimes marked with the
words 5 &v, Rew, A and Q, or A, M, Q,t it is impossible to
confound the Saviour to whom they refer with any other
historical or allegorical persons. The three Divine Persons
* There are two buildings, the porch and the church; the statue alluded
to is at the door of the church.
+ In the poem of Rhaban Maur, De Laudibus Sanctae Crucis, figura 1,
Jesus is represented wearing a cruciform nimbus, on which the three letters
A M Q are inscribed; these three letters are the commencement, the middle,
and the end of the Greek Alphabet, because Christ comprises in himself the
past, the present, and the future. Rhaban conveys symbolically, what the
Byzantines express literally by the three letters 6 &v; but the same principle
is at the root of both forms of expression. God is the Supreme Being (5 &v);
he comprises, says Rhaban, the beginning, the middle, and the end of all; he
alone are entitled to a similar nimbus, and it pertains more

especially to Jesus than to the others. We thus learn by
degrees to distinguish Christ from others ; we draw him
gradually forth from the erowd around. With bare feet
alone he might have been confounded with angels, apostles,
and even prophets ; now, and by the assistance of a nimbus
thus characterised, we can pronounce the figure to be one
of the three persons of the Trinity, and most probably the
second.*
But when this person, thus decorated with the cruciform
was yesterday, he is to-day, he will be to-morrow. The poet Prudentius, in
his ninth hymn, says :
** Alpha et Omega cognominatur ipse ; fons et clausula,
Omnium quæ sunt, fuerunt, vel post futura sunt.”
Upon the archevolt of an ancient church in the island of Barbe, mear Lyons,
is an inscription in bad Latin, but carved in beautiful characters, of the eleventh
century :
“ Alpha vel 0, primus, finis michi convenit ergo.”
Christ is supposed to be speaking ; he holds a cross, with which he has
owerthrown a lion.
* The cruciform nimbus is indeed peculiarly applicable to Christ ; the
Father and the Holy Ghost seem, by adopting it, to pay homage to the Son,
and to assume his livery. The following quotation, which is transcribed
literally, will confirm all that has been said of the nimbus generally, and of
the nimbus of Christ in particular : “ Considerandum quoque est quod Jesus
semper coronatus depingitur, quasi dicat ; Egredimini filiæ Hierusalem, et
videte regem Salomonem in diademite quo coronavit eum mater sua. Fuit
enim Christus coronatus tripliciter. Primo a matre, corona misericordiæ, in
die conceptionis; quæ corona duplex est propter naturalia et gratuita, ideoque et
diadema vocatur, quod est duplex corona. Secundo a noverca, corona miseriæ,
in die passionis. Tertio a patre, corona gloriæ in die resurrectionis. Unde :
' gloria et honore coronasti eum, Domine.' Demum coronabitur a familia
corona potentiæ, in die ultimæ revelationis. Veniet enim cum senatoribus
terræ, judicans orbem terræ in equitate. Sic et omnes sancti pinguntur coronati,
quasi dicat filiæ Hierusalem : Venite et videte martyres cum coronis aureis
quibus coronavit eos Dominus; et in libro Sapientiæ (Sap. v.) : ' Justi
accipient regnum decoris et diadema speciei de manu Domini.' Corona autem
hujusmodi depingitur in forma scuti rotundi, quia sancti Dei protectione
divina fruuntur. Unde cantant gratulabundi ; * IDomine ut scuto bonæ
voluntatis coronasti nos.' Verumtamen Christi corona per crucis figuram a
sanctorum coronis distinguitur, quia per crucis vexillum sibi carnis glorifi
ficationem et nobis meruit a captivitate liberationem et vita fruitionem.''—
G. Durandus, Rat. Div. 0ff., lib. i., cap. 3. It is plain that Durandus com
founds the crown with the nimbus, or rather, he gives the same name to both.
Besides, he declares that the cruciform ° crown " distinguishes Christ from all
the Saints.
nimbus, bears the great cross of the Passion, or the small

Resurrection cross, and when from that cross there depends
a standard, dipped in the blood of the Divine Wictim; when
the person has no robe, but a simple mantle, which leaves
the arms and bosom bare, and is thrown open to show the
wound in the right side; when the personage with a cruci
form nimbus is clothed in the vestment of a Latin priest or
a Greek archbishop, both as priest after the order of Mel
chizedech,” and because he is the great archbishop officiating
in the Divine Liturgy;f when that person is surrounded by
the evangelical attributes; when near his head we see the
Latin monogram, I.C. or the Greek monogram, 1C. K.C.;
when he is marked with the stigmata in the feet, the hands,
and the side; when a crown of thorns is placed upon his
head, and a book, either open or closed in his hand; and
when, upon the pages of the open book, either of the follow
ing texts are inscribed:—
Pax vobis: §
Ego sum via, veritas, et vita: ||
* “Tues sacerdos in aeternum, secundum ordinem Melchisedech.” “Thou

art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech.” Psalm, cx, 4.
f 'Opéyas āpxtepews. Christ is thus depicted in the costume of an arch
bishop, receiving successively from the hands of a train of angels the different
instruments used in the sacrifice of the mass, which the divine high priest is
about to celebrate. The dome of the central cupola in the Greek churches is
almost always adorned with that magnificent subject called the Holy Liturgy,
“ā āyia Aetowpyta.”
# The book which Christ holds is sometimes closed, but more frequently
open. These two different modes of representing the mysterious volume are
thus explained by Durandus: “Divina majestas depingitur quandoque cum
libro clauso in manibus, quia memo inventus est dignus aperire illum nisi leo
de tribu Juda. Et quandoque cum libro aperto, ut in illo quisque legat quod
ipse est lux mundi, et via, veritas ac vita, et liber vite.” (Rat. div. Off lib. i.
cap. iii.) See in the Apocalypse, v., 5, an allusion made to the Lion of the
tribe of Judah.
$. This was the salutation usually addressed by Jesus to his apostles and
disciples. In the triclinium of St. John Lateran, in the Mosaic in the apse,
which was executed about the year 797, Christ is represented sending his
apostles forth to baptise. He is standing upon a little hill or eminence whence
flow the four mystical streams; he holds an open book, on which is inscribed
Pax vobis. (Ciampini, Vet. Mon., 2d pars, tab. 39, p. 128.) These words
of love are also engraven upon the book which is in the hand of a figure of God,
attended on the right by a cherub and on the left by a seraph, sculptured in
marble in the church of St. Saturnin at Toulouse.
| This is precisely the text quoted by Durandus, and taken from St. John
the Evangelist.
U
Ego sum lux mundi:*

Ego sum resurrectio: +
Quividit me, vidit et Patrem: #
Ego et Pater unum sumus: §
In principio erat Werbum: ||
’Ey& elul to pós toū koguo 5:"
in such cases as the above, there is no room for doubt:

the person of the Trinity thus represented must indeed be
the Christ, for all the attributes, all the texts relate to him;
and many of them could not possibly be considered as appro
priate to any other. After the numerous portraits of Jesus
Christ, given especially in the History of the Nimbus,” it
seems unnecessary to repeat in this place, those repre
senting the various characteristics which we have just
enumerated.
A subject, very frequently repeated in the twelfth,
thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, leaves no room for un
certainty with regard to the person occupying the chief
* St. Lorenzo at Genoa, on the tympanum of the principal entrance.
+ On a mosaic in the Church of St. Mark at Rome, the same from which
the figure of Pope Gregory IV., with a square nimbus, given in the History of
the Nimbus (Fig. 5), is taken. Christ is the central figure of the group; he
holds an open book, on which is written, “Ego sum lux;” “Ego sum vita;
Ego sum resurrectio.” See Ciampini, Wet. Mon., 2d pars., Fig. 37, p. 119.
+ From a mosaic of the sixth century, in St. Michele, at Ravenna.
St. Michele was built in 545.
§ The two latter inscriptions are given both together on a book held
by a figure of Christ in mosaic, in the Church of St. Michele, at Ravenna;
on the reverse is, “Qui vidit me, vidit et Patrem;" “Ego et Pater unum
sumus” on the front. In addition to the book, Jesus holds a cross
which is much taller than himself. See Ciamp., Vet. Mon., pars. 1st, p. 80,
tab. 24.
| Monuments bearing this inscription are so common that it seems
unnecessary to name them.
"| Upon most of the books held by the Greek figures of Christ the Panto
crator. (See Fig. 49.) In the MS. of Panselinos all the inscriptions
contained in the book held by Christ will be given: they are very numerous,
and vary according to the place in which the Son of God is drawn, and the
functions he is called upon to exercise. Thus, when he is “the Angel of the
lofty will of God,” we read either on the scroll, or on the book in his hands,
“I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave
the world, and go unto the Father.” (St. John, xvi., 28.) “Neither came I
of myself, for he sent me.” (Ibid. viii., 42.)
* * See particularly Figs. 7, 8, 15, and 17; other portraits yet remain
to be given, which will complete the description of the person of Christ.
position therein. Upon stained glass and in illuminated

manuscripts, executed more particularly during the three
centuries just named, a person is seen sometimes standing,
but more frequently sitting, around whom radiate seven
little doves. This person has bare feet, and might
perhaps, be taken for an apostle; but his nimbus is
cruciform, and he is consequently one of the Holy Trinity.
Now the doves are symbolic of the seven spirits of God,
and, according to Isaiah,” the Apocalypse,f and the doctors
of the Church, # the Son of God, Jesus the Saviour, was
more especially endowed with the seven divine spirits. Thus,
then, whenever we meet with a figure, whether youthful or
aged, bearded or beardless, with or without the nimbus, sur
rounded by the seven doves, we may boldly affirm it to be
intended for the Son of God. The subject may now be dis
missed for the present, as it will be resumed in detail in the
History of the Holy Ghost.Ş
One other indication may be mentioned, indirect it is true
and drawn from history, but still serving almost invariably to
point out the person of Christ. When, in any scene from
Gospel history, a certain figure is represented, as performing
the actions attributed to Christ by the Evangelists, such a
person, even though divested of every peculiar characteristic
hitherto pointed out, must be immediately recognised as in
* Isaiah xi. 1-3. + Rev., v. 6, 11, 12.
# Especially Rhaban Maur, “De Laudibus sanctae Crucis.” Fig. xvi., p.
312, first volume of his complete works.
§ In the Chapter on the Aureole, an engraving is given, Fig. 40,
copied from a miniature in the “Psautier de Saint Louis” preserved in the
Biblothèque de l'Arsenal. Jesus, seated in the midst of an aureole-like
oval of foliage, on the summit of the genealogical tree, is surrounded by
seven divine doves. In the Church of St. Denis, upon the painted glass
window given by the Abbé Suger to that Cathedral, the Son of God is
twice represented guarded by a nimbus of the Seven Spirits. The same
subject is painted on a window of the Sainte Chapelle at Paris, on the window
of a village Church near Rheims, on the north Rose-window of the Cathedral
of Chartres, &c. In the History of the Holy Ghost, two engravings are
£ven, one taken from a manuscript, the other from some painted glass in
Chartres Cathedral, representing the Seven Spirits mentioned by Isaiah in his
Prophecies. The Seven Spirits are also painted in the “Vergier de Solas,” a
"rious manuscript in the possession of the Bibliothèque Royale; indeed so
"merous are the monuments in which the Seven Spirits are shown
"imating and surrounding the Son of God, that it would be impossible to
"humerate them. 2
U
tended for the Saviour. The present portion of this work

on Christian Iconography is not, however, devoted to the
Word in his human nature, but solely in his character of
God. The history of the second Person of the Trinity here
given, embraces his infinite and eternal existence before and
after the incarnation; the question, therefore, must not be
entered upon here, but will be more fully developed in the
Evangelical History of Jesus. Besides, another subject,
which is frequently the theme of representation, must be
mentioned, as it appears to embrace the entire mortal
existence of the Saviour. It is the Triumph of Christ after
his Ascension. This apotheosis, so sublime in conception,
and frequently admirable in treatment, crowns the acts of
the Saviour's divine humanity. The gates of heaven had
opened to give egress to the Word, who went forth to
accomplish his mission upon earth; and three and thirty
£ later they again opened to admit the Son of Man, the
ncarnate God, returning to take his place by the side of his
Father, whither he is borne in triumph by saints and angels,
the Redeemer of the first, the Sovereign of the last. Such
is the subject, more or less rich in details and development,
which is constantly seen either in painting or sculpture upon
monuments of mediaeval art.
THE TRIUMPH OF CHRIST.
When the full time appointed was accomplished, 4004

years after the creation of the world, God the Father sent
his Son upon earth to live and die for men. God had pro
mised that a Redeemer should be found to expiate the guilt
of Adam, and when he judged that the fitting moment for
fulfilling that promise had arrived, he summoned his Son,
the Divine Word, to be both the organ and agent of his
supreme will. According to prophecy, the second person of
the blessed Trinity replied to this appeal in the words of
David, “Then said I, Lo, I come.” * The Son made
himself immediately the messenger of the will of his
Father; he offered himself as a sacrifice for the salvation of
* Psalm, xl., 7: “Tunc dixi: Ecce venio.”
THE TRIUMPH OF CHRIST. 293
the world, and accepted with eagerness whatever sufferings

were necessary to be endured in order to expiate the crimes
of the human race.
This act of self-devotion which was first conceived in
heaven, carried into effect upon earth, and finally completed
where first it had originated, has been constantly delineated
in works of art. What passed upon earth will be reserved
for the history of the human life of our Saviour; but it is
our intention at present to relate everything that preceded
and followed the incarnation of the Son of God. Both in the
Greek and in the Latin Church, that scene has frequently
been depicted, in which the Word appears to say to the Father,
“Lo, I come; ” but in Greece where ancient traditions and
early idealism are never lost sight of the subject is treated
with greater seriousness and beauty than with us. In the
semi-cupolas surmounting the side chapels of their churches,
a large beardless angel is often represented, either painted
in fresco, or worked in mosaic, with his long wings unfolded
to their fullest extent; the raiment of this beautiful creation
is charged with gold and precious stones, and he holds in his
hand a golden staff, as if prepared for a long journey. This
angel, with wings outspread, preparing to descend from
heaven to earth, is the Son of God. It is he who is to
become the man Jesus Christ; he wears on his head a
cruciform nimbus, like the persons of the blessed Trinity,
and upon the arms of the cross which divides the nimbus,
the following letters are written “6 &v.” He is represented
as an angel, because he has become the messenger (äyyeMos)
of the Divine pleasure. Around his head, these solemn
Words are graven; “o ATTEAox THX METAAH2 BorAHz.” This
angel of the supreme will is deeply impressive; it is, with
the Pantocrator of the grand cupolas, the most remarkable
figure ever conceived by Christian art in Greece. Pagan
art certainly had nothing more beautiful, and the type
might probably have borne comparison with the statue of
Jupiter Olympus, which is now lost.*
* M. Paul Durand found it impossible, during our journey in Greece, to
make a copy of one of these beautiful angels of the Supreme Will; I regret
being consequently unable to offer any specimen of this type, which was
invented by the Greeks, and has been executed by them only. Many of
these glorious angels may be seen in Greece, particularly at Mistra,
The same theme has been treated amongst ourselves in a

style less elevated but more human. The Word is no
longer a celestial being, a Divine messenger, as with the
Greeks, but a man, an infant, a poor human creature, naked,
feeble, suffering. He descends to earth, less to publish the
will of his Father, than to accomplish a painful pilgrimage;
it is in fact, under the name of “a pilgrimage ’’ that his
mission is announced. He sets forth then, a poor pilgrim,
taking a staff wherewith to support himself in his fatigues,
and a scrip to contain the provision necessary for his
journey. A manuscript of the fourteenth century, belong
ing to the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, entitled,
“Romant des trois Pélerinages,” * gives an account in verse
of the long and toilsome pilgrimage of Christ. The verses
are interspersed with miniatures which interpret the text to
the eye. Jesus, at the opening of the poem, is shown com
mencing his pilgrimage; he presents himself naked, under
the form of a child of ten years old, to his Father, who
addresses him in these words:—
En terre on iras l'aval
Auras assés poinne et traval,
Pour Adam de chartre getter
Et de ses peines délivrer.
Et plus de trente ans voyage
Feras et pelerinage
Avant que il soit la saison
De faire sa rédemption;
Car si homme très bien parfait
N'estoies quant feras le fait
De le racheter, complainte
En feroit justice enfrainte;
Meteora, Salonica, and Mount Athos. That in the convent of St. Barlaam, at
Meteora, is one of the most beautiful; it fills the apse of the north aisle,
and its pendant, in the south, is a figure of the Son of God, beardless, and which
is entitled 6’EuuavováA (Emmanuel). Isaiah, vii., 14. In the Guide de la
Peinture, that Byzantine manuscript from which I have quoted so freely, the
following directions are given: “Without the sanctuary, in the vaulting of
the transepts, represent the angel of the Supreme Will on a cloud, and sup
ported by four angels. He holds a scroll, on which is written ‘I came from
God, and I return to him. I am not come of myself, but it is he that hath
sent me. Write also the following epigraph, “Jesus Christ, the Angel
of the Supreme Will. In the second arm of the cross, let Emmanuel be
represented in the vaulting on a cloud, saying from a scroll, “The Spirit of God
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor.'"
* This Pilgrimage of human life was composed by Guillaume de Guilleville,
Si que pource que longuement

Tuferas pélerinement,
Bourdon et escherpete fault
Dont au moins prendras cy en hault
Ma potence ou t'appuieras
Et de quoy ton bourdon feras."
These verses are accompanied by the drawing Fig. 75,

which is to be found in folio 165 of the poem.
The little Jesus, previous to setting forth on his crusade,
receives, from his Father, the scrip, or “escarcelle” (a
large purse for money, in the original called “escherpe,”)
and the stick or staff, which is nothing more than the old
man's staff or crutch of the Eternal Father. There is
something touching in the idea of the Divine old man
thus sending forth his youthful son, who had willingly
devoted himself to death for the salvation of mankind, into
a world where he would be constrained to wander long, and
endure much labour and sorrow. It seems to flow from the
heart, and reveals a deep sentiment of love towards man;
but there is little of dignity either in the subject itself, or
in the manner in which it is treated.f. We here see an
monk of Chalis (no doubt Chaalis, a great Abbey in the department of the
Oise, near Senlis). This work belongs to the second half of the fourteenth
century, 1358; it contains 1st, Le Pélerinage de la Vie ; 2nd, Le Pélerinage
dél’Ame; 3rd, Le Pèlerinage de Jésus Christ.
* On earth, whither thou goest to descend,
Thou wilt have enough travail and suffering,
To free Adam from prison,
And deliver him from punishment.
And more than thirty years journey
Shalt thou make and pilgrimage
Before the season shall arrive,
To work out his redemption.
For if a very perfect man
Thou art not, when doing the deed
Of redeeming him, complaint
Will be made by offended justice.
And because for a long time
Thou wilt make pilgrimage,
A staff and scrip thou needest.
For which at least receive here above,
My crutch on which thou shalt lean,
And of which thou may'st make thy staff.
f The Father is here represented as a King; he is aged, adorned with the
instance of the fundamental difference between Christian

art in the east and in the west. In the east, in Greece, it
"p.o
Fig. 75.—THE word of God; A CHILD, NAKED, RECEIVING FROM HIs FATHER
THE STAFF AND SCRIP.
French Miniature of the xIV cent.
is colder, but more solemn; with us less severe, but more

common-place. There is greater gentleness in our figures of
Christ ; he is not made, as in Greece, the bearer and exe
cutioner of his own sentence. The stream of fire which is
to consume the condemned, does not flow from beneath the
throne of the Son of God. Judaism and Islamism have not,
cruciform nimbus, and with bare feet. He is distinguished by the bare feet
from all ordinary mortals, and the cruciform nimbus serves to distinguish him,
as well as the Son, from all created beings whether earthly or celestial, from
saints and angels. He is old, because the drawing is of the fourteenth
century, a period at which he takes a distinct physiognomy; he is a king,
perhaps, as has been already remarked, from being the work of a French
artist.
as in Greece, frozen the ideas of the Latin Church by their

harsh cruelty.
Jesus descends then upon earth, to perform his weary
pilgrimage. We shall some day give a detailed account, by
the aid of figured monuments, of that marvellous life of the
Incarnate God; but at present we pass it over entirely, and
hasten to the dénouement. Christ, by his powerful word
and quenchless love, treads underfoot according to the pro
phecy of David, the lion and the dragon: he walks upon
the asp and the basilisk: or, in other words, he tramples
upon the most formidable and cruel passions, figured by four
creatures chosen from the most terrible and gigantic of
ferocious animals, and the most venomous of reptiles.—
“Super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis; et conculcabis
leonem et draconem.”*
The figure on the next page is taken from a beautiful
Italian carving on ivory, supposed to be the work of the
tenth century, from the age of the Son of God, his costume,
and the form of the book which he carries in his hand.
The asp and the basilisk are here already dead, and Christ,
a beautiful youth and beardless, crushes under his feet the
lion and the dragon; t it is a modification of the sacred text.
This subject is extremely frequent in our cathedrals, but it
* “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the
dragon shalt thou trample under feet.” Psalm, xci. 13.
f With regard to the youth of Christ and his bare feet, Gori expresses
himself thus (Thes, vet. Dipty. tom. iii., pp. 30, 31) : “Quod vero Christus
in prima juventae suae aetate sculptus exhibeatur, hanc formam ei tributam
censent doctiores agiologi, quod hac specie cum humanitate clarius eluceat ejus
divinitas, ex Davidis prophetico testimonio et oraculo. Quod profert Paulus
ad Hebreos, i. 6. Dominus dixit ad me, Filius meus estu ; ego hodie genui
te. Et paullo post, Omnes' sicut vestimentum veterascent ; tu autem idem,
ipse es, et anni tui non deficient. Nudis quoque pedibus insistit, occultata
divinitatis suae majestate; sed statim aliis emblematibus quanta sit ejus virtus,
fortitudo ac potentia ostenditur, dum nudis pedibus conculcat animalia quaedam
teterrima ac ferocissima.” The figure fails, from inadvertence, to express the
roaring of the lion, which is extremely well rendered on the carved ivory; the
designer has omitted a characteristic which is rendered peculiarly necessary by
the circuit leo rugiens, quaerens quem devoret. Gori appears to consider the
bare feet as exceptions merely, and marking in the species divine power; he is
mistaken. This characteristic, as has been said, is an invariable adjunct, serv
ing to distinguish apostles, angels, and divine persons, from all others figured
in Christian art; it is a mystical symbol of the loftiest sanctity. The reasons
will be given in the History of Angels.
Fig. 76.—JESUS TREADING UNDERFoot THE SERPENT, THE BASILISK,

THE LION, AND THE DRAGON.
Italian Ivory; x cent."
is given with a host of variations. It is seldom that the

four satanic beasts are represented at the same time. At
* This ivory is from the Musée du Vatican; it is engraved in Gori,
Thesaurus vet. Dipty., tom. iii. p. 33.
Notre Dame de Rheims, in the north porch, on the pier of the

left door, is a superb statue of Christ, commonly known by
the name of the “beautiful God,” treading underfoot the
dragon only. At Notre Dame de Chartres, in the south
porch, on the pier of the central door, Christ treads under
his naked feet the lion and the dragon; but the asp and the
basilisk are not figured. In the western porch of Notre
Dame d’Amiens, on the pier of the central door, is a figure
of Christ resembling that at Chartres; but the dragon is
more clearly defined.
In all the subjects above described the Saviour is crushing
the powers of evil, the instruments and agents of Death;
but in the following design, taken from the Missal of
Worms,” he holds, enchained, the figure of Death itself.
Death, under the form of a dirty man, with dishevelled hair,
naked legs, and poor and scanty clothing, is chained by the
hands and neck, with an iron collar (carcan) and handcuffs.
To the iron collar is attached a chain, which Jesus holds
firmly in his left hand. With the right, the beardless God
threatens to thrust the end of the cross into the mouth of
Death. The human beast foams, vomits forth flames, and
writhes under the conquering feet, which trample on and
hold him down.f Jesus is about to slay Death; he seems
to address him, in those prophetic words from the Old
Testament which are chanted during Holy Week in reference
to the Passion of Jesus, and which purchased our redemption;
“Oh Death I will be thy plagues,”: (Hos. xiii. 14), or rather,
those words of St. Paul which are chanted on the same
* Manuscript in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Theol. Lat, No. 192, in fol.

This manuscript dates from the ninth or tenth century, according to the Cat.
in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal. I should rather think it, of the eleventh.
+ The figure of Jesus is as yet beardless, although the manuscript may be
considered as belonging to the eleventh century; yet he is aged, and his brow
seems wrinkled with years, rather than contracted by the exertion of his
struggle with death. The nimbus is already cruciform, while in the preceding
example it is still plain, or simply ornamented with a circle of arches alone.
In Fig. 66, Jesus is also beardless, but his face is much more youthful; the
Christ in the Worms Missal is rather shaven than beardless; that in the
Watican is beardless rather than shaven. The monument in the Vatican is
further removed from the middle ages and approaches nearer to the primitive
type than that of Worms.
it “De manu Mortis liberabo eos, de Morte redimam eos. Ero Morstua, 6
Mors; morsus tuus ero, inferne.”
occasion, and seem to form their Gospel corollary, “O

death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory !”
(1 Cor. xv. 55.)*
Thus victorious, Christ re-ascends to heaven, and gives
account to the Father of
the mission which had
been confided to him;
which he had voluntarily
imposed upon himself,
and gloriously fulfilled.
In the figure on the
opposite page he is seen
returning to Paradise, with
the scrip and staff which
he had taken at his de
parture. As a man, he
has grown taller; he was
an infant when he de
scended upon earth, and
is now thirty or thirty
five years of age. He
finds the Father seated
by the side of the Holy
Ghost, who is here in
the form of a man, not
as a dove. The Father
is in the character of
Fig. 77.—JESUS CHRIST CHAINS AND ovER
POWERS DEATH. King; that is, crowned - *
and holding the globe of

German Miniature of the x1 cent.
power, the Spirit, in that

of a doctor, or expounder of the Word, bearing the Book
of Wisdom: both have their hands raised, conferring a
* “Ubi est, Mors, victoria tua P Ubi est, Mors, stimulus tuus?” The
subject painted in the Missal of Worms appears to be taken from this passage
in the works of St. John Damascenus. “Quisnam est iste qui cruci affixus
est? Quis hic qui resurgit ac SENIS illius caput calcat? Nonne, cum per
imaginem erudiendo, respondes: Hic qui affixus est cruci, Dei filius est,
qui ad tollenda mundi peccata eo fuit supplicio affectus. Hic qui resurgit, ipse
est qui secum primum parentem Adam ob praevaricatonem lapsum mortuumque
ressuscitat, quique infernum tot jam seculis vinctum, a quo ille insolubilibus
vinculis ac vectibus in inferioribus terrae partibus tenebatur, proculcat.” (Opp.
St. John Damascenus, vol. i. p. 620.)
benediction according to the Latinform, on the third Person

of the Trinity.
Fig. 78.—CHRIST RETURNING FROM HIS PILGRIMAGE.*

A French Miniature; xIV cent.
Christ bows his head, his frame is bent, he leans upon the
staff, as if wearied with a mission which has cost him so
much labour and toil. From this attitude and the expression
* This miniature is in folio, 225 verso. Observe that each of the three
Persons has a cruciform nimbus; that of the Father, with a double line at the
edge, appears richer than that of the other two ; besides which the cross
branches in the nimbus of the Son approach more nearly to the outer line of
the disk than those in the nimbus of the Holy Ghost. It is scarcely to be
supposed that characteristics so trifling can have been intended to mark the
different relations existing between those three Persons; besides, in the original
miniature, the three nimbi are precisely similar. The difference is no doubt
owing to the inattention of the copyist. The book carried by the Holy Ghost,
and which is an attribute of intelligence, will serve to support an opinion to be
hereafter developed in the history of the third person of the Trinity. The
Father, drawing in a little on his seat, seems to make room for Christ, who will
thus be seated on his right; while the Holy Ghost occupies the seat on
the left.
of the countenance, it would appear indeed, as if the Saviour

regretted having engaged in so heavy a task. In fact, the
verses accompanying and interpreting this miniature, after
the manner of those attached to the departure, leave no doubt
as to the intention of the artist. The Son thus addresses
himself to the Father:—
“‘Père, dist Jhésus, ‘retourné
Suis a toy, et ai consummé
Ce que faire me commandas
Quant jus ou monde m'envoyas,
DON'T BIEN JEM’EN FEUSSE PASSÉ.
Enseignes t'en ayaporté
Si com aultres pélerins font
Qui en estrange terre vont;
De tielx denrées com a là
Je t'ay fait venir par dega,
NON OBSTANT QUE GRANS COUSTEMENS
J'AYE MIS ET GRANS DESPENS.
* * * + *
Aussi, dist Jhésus, ‘mon bourdon

Ayaporté, et est raison,
Ceme semble, que mis il soit
Avec l'escherpe cyendroit,
Afin que ne soit oublié
Comment pélerin ay esté.’”
The Father and the Holy Ghost consent to the request of

Jesus, and the latter hangs the staff and scrip on a nail in
* “‘Father, said Jesus, ‘returned
Am I to thee, and have fulfilled
What you commanded me to do
When to the world below you sent me,
Which I could well have dispensed with.
Tokens I have brought you,
As other pilgrims do
Who go into strange lands;
Of such wares as they have there
I have brought you some up here,
Notwithstanding that at great cost
I have procured them, and at great expense.
* * * *
Also,” said Jesus, “my staff

I have brought back; and it were well,
It seems to me, that it should be put
With the scrip in this place,
So that it may never be forgotten
How a pilgrim I have been.’”
the wall, just as a warrior in time of peace hangs on the wall

of his house his glorious arms:
“Ainsi fu accordé. La Sont;
Jamais remeus n'en seront.”*
Nothing can be imagined more trivial than the entire scene.

Christ is no more than an ordinary traveller; he regrets
having wearied himself for little or nothing, and declares in
the most common-place manner that he will never again
commence such a journey. It has, as he avers, cost him
dear, and he would gladly have avoided it.
While treating of the subject of the departure of the
second person of the Divine Trinity for the earth, we
believe we have already established at the same time the
grandeur of Greek art and the puerile simplicity of art
in the West. But in the Latin Church itself, though
certainly between two distinct nations, we shall be called
on to remark a similar irregularity and inequality in
merit. French art was common-place; Italian art of the
same period, had on the contrary, gained a remarkable
degree of elevation, and it rose almost to sublimity.
While in the “Pélerinage” of the Bibliothèque de Sainte
Geneviève, Christ is made to give vent to a burst of ill
placed regret, expressed in ordinary language; in a manu
script executed in Italy and now in the Bibliothèque Royale,
he conveys his meaning by a gesture only, without words.
The Almighty Father is seen in the centre of an oval aureole
traversed in every direction by jets of light, emanating from
the person of the Deity. The Divinity displays itself in an
universal radiance, emanating from every point of the cir
cumference of the Divine figure. The rude bench seen in the
preceding design, is here replaced by a kind of bluish rain
bow, on which the Father is seated. The scene is not laid
in a chamber, as above, but in the open air, on the summit of
a mountain enamelled with flowers. Jesus, as the crucified,
descending almost naked from the cross, (for he has no
covering except the short garment with which he was clad
upon the cross) appears in his Father's presence to render
an account of the mission which had been confided to him;
* “Thus it was granted, there they remain,
And will never be removed.”
Fig. 79.—JESUS SHowING HIs BLEEDING wounds To THE FATHER.*

Italian Miniature of the xiv cent.
* This drawing recals to mind, although but imperfectly, the language of

St. Anschaire, Archbishop of Hamburgh, who was carried up by the Spirit
the blood flows from his pierced feet, and his wounded side
also weeps tears of blood. Jesus opens his hands, and, show
ing the blood flowing from the wounds that pierce them
through and through, contents himself with saying, “See
what I have done!”. Thereupon God the Father forgives
the sins of the world, and with the right hand bestows his
blessing upon the Saviour. The drawing is given above.
The expression of the countenances is exalted, and worthy
the sublimity of such a scene.*
Christ, after his return into heaven, still continues his in
tercession for man; he is at once both priest and victim,
and Greek artists love to depict him in the costume of an
archbishop, or a patriarch, treated with marked and honourable
distinction by the other two persons of the Trinity, and
receiving the adoration of a host of saints and angels. The
Father Almighty, depicted as a Byzantine Emperor, holding
in one hand the globe, and in the other the sceptre, appears
amidst the clouds in the upper part of the frame; below
him, in a luminous circle, shines the Holy Ghost under
# the form of a dove. The Archangels Michael and Gabriel,
the Virgin, St. John the Baptist, and the famous Greek
saints, St. George and St. Demetrius, bend reveren
tially before Christ, and are introduced to represent the
various orders of saints and angels. Christ, like the
into heaven, and saw God, resplendent with light, sitting in the midst of the
four-and-twenty elders of the Apocalypse: “Ab ipso (Deo) claritas immensa
procedebat, ex quá omnis longitudo et latitudo sanctorum illustrabatur . . . .
Sed neque ita claritas taliserat quae oculos contemplantium impediret, sed quae
oculos gratissime, satiaret. Et cum seniores sedentes dixerin, in IPso qua
dammodo sedebant; nam nil corporeum erat tibi, sederant cuncta incorporea,
licet speciem corporum habentia, et ideo ineffabilia. Circa sedentes vero
splendor, ab Ipso procedens, similis arcui nubium tenebatur.” On the eastern
rose-window of the Cathedral of Laon, the four-and-twenty elders are seated
on a crescent or rainbow, of a luminous or yellowish tint. Wide Act. SS. Ord.
S. Bened, vol. vi., Life of St. Anschaire, who died in 864. This biography
was written by St. Rembert, disciple and successor of St. Anschaire.
* Bibliothèque Royale, Speculum humanae Salvationis, suppl. lat. 1041.
A similar manuscript may be seen in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsénal (Théol.
Lat., 42 B), executed in Italy, in the fourteenth century. The miniatures,
although less perfect than those in the MS. in the Bibliothèque Royale, are
nevertheless remarkable. The paintings are said to be by Giotto himself, or
Taddeo Gaddi, his pupil. They are probably the work of neither; but the
school to which they belong was one of the best in Italy.
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Fig. 80.—CHRIST, AS THE GRAND ARCHBISHOP.”

Greek Painting of the xv.1 cent.
Father, has a cruciform nimbus, bearing the letters “ó &v.”

The names of St. George and St. Demetrius are each written
in full on the scrolls above their heads; those of the
Mother of God, and of St. John the Precursor, are traced in
* The design is copied from one of the fresco paintings so numerous in
Greece.
an abridged form within the field of the nimbus; those of

the two archangels are indicated only by the first letter,
M for Michael, and T for Gabriel.
Christ crowned with the archiepiscopal crown, and robed
in the different ornaments worn by the Greek Pontiffs, is
called the “Great Archbishop,” “ó uéyas āpxtepels.”
He is thus represented in the great cupolas of the Byzan
tine churches, receiving from the hands of angels, who pass
successively before him, everything necessary for the mystical
sacrifice of the mass.” This is what the Greeks distinguish
more particularly by the name of the “LITURGY.” The
Cathedral of Rheims—Greek in this point as well as in
several others—presents an example of this Liturgy, in the
angels occupying the niches of the contre-forts. These
angels, each of whom is distinguished by a special attribute,
defile, so to speak, before a figure of Christ affixed against
the apse on the exterior, and censed by other angels. The
Christ at Rheims does not wear the pontifical costume as
amongst the Greeks, but the office he fills is almost the
same.f
Christ, the conqueror of demons, the Saviour of mankind,
and the Eternal Intercessor with God for men, is represented
as approaching to seat himself on the right hand of the
Father, who puts all earth under his feet, and assigns to him
the place of honour. Then joy breaks forth in Paradise
* The following words are inscribed on the book held by Christ in the
character of Chief Pontiff.: “Lord, Lord, look down from heaven ; behold
and visit this vine, and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted.”
See the manuscript of Panselinos. A lozenge-shaped ornament, attached to a
thread, will be observed resting upon the knee of Christ; it is called by the
Greeks the “epigonation,” and is frequently adorned with embroidered figures.
The white stole, worked with crosses, is called “omophoron;” it is a portion of
the consular, and more especially of the imperial, costume. The vestment so
richly ornamented is called “saccos,” and the long robe, answering to the alb
of our own priests, is named “sticharion.” The stole of our priests is called
by them “epitrachilion.” The cap is called “mitra,” as with us mitre.
+ The Manuscrit du Duc d'Anjou, Lavall., 127, in the Bibliothèque
Royale, contains (fol. 139) a picture of Christ officiating at the mass. The
moment selected is that of the consecration, and an angel, performing the duty
of one of the children of the choir, supports the chasuble of the divine priest;
The motive is taken from the following text: “Tu es sacerdos in aeternum
secundum ordinem Melchisedech.” “Thou art a priest for ever after the
order of Melchisedech.”
x2
and Jesus, attended by the acclamations of saints and angels,

visits in triumph all the courts of heaven. The triumph of
Christ is, of all subjects, that which has excited the most
enthusiasm amongst artists; it is seen in numerous monu
ments, and is represented both in painting and sculpture,
but always with such remarkable modifications, as impart to
it the character of a new work. The eastern portion of the
crypt of the Cathedral of Auxerre contains, in the vaulting
of that part which corresponds with the sanctuary, a fresco
painting, executed about the end of the twelfth century, and
representing, in the most simple form imaginable, the triumph
of Christ. The background of the picture is intersected by
a cross, which, if the transverse branches were a little longer,
would be a perfect Greek cross. This cross is adorned with
imitations of precious stones, round, oval, and lozenge shaped,
disposed in quincunxes. In the centre is a figure of Christ,
on a white horse with a saddle; he holds the bridle in his left
hand, and in the right, the hand of power and authority, a
black staff, the rod of iron by which he governs the nations.
He advances thus, having his head adorned with an azure or
bluish nimbus, intersected by a cross gules; his face is
turned towards the spectator. In the four compartments
formed by the square in which the cross is inclosed, are four
angels who form the escort of Jesus; they are all on horse
back, like their master, and with wings outspread; the
right hand of each, which is free, is open and raised, in
token of adoring admiration. “And I saw heaven opened,
and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth
judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and
on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written,
that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a
vesture dipped in blood; and his name is called the Word of
God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him
upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white and clean.”
Such is the language of the Apocalypse, and this the fresco
at Auxerre interprets, although with some slight alterations
which it will be well to observe.*
* This mural painting is a little injured, but still one of the most curiou
now in existence. It gives an approximate translation of a beautiful passag
QQO
o°s
E. C. R.A.F.E.L.E.T.
Fig. 81.—THE TRIUMPH of JESUS CHRIST, on HoRSEBACK.

- A French Fresco of the XII cent.
In this, however, we find but the germ of those admirable

triumphs, one of which is painted on glass in Notre Dame
in the Apocalypse, xix. 11-17. The absence of stirrups will be remarked;
but stirrups being frequently seen in a more remote period, their absence
cannot be regarded as a proof of antiquity. Christ has yellowish hair, a red
beard and eyebrows; his robe is red or rose colour, the mantle grey and lined
with yellow. M. Amable Crapelct, a young designer of Auxerre, has had the
de Brou, and another, described in the “Divina Com

media.” That at Brou is one of the most complete in our
possession; and in order to enable the reader to recognise
the numerous personages composing it, as well as all other
triumphs which are analogous, a succinct description of the
whole will be given.
In the left aisle of the church of Notre-Dame de Brou is a
chapel called that of the “Retable,” or of the “Sept-Joies;*
it is lighted by a large window of stained glass, on which the
assumption and coronation of the Virgin Mary are painted.
The scene is enframed within a triumphal arch of antique
form, and circular. The triumph of Christ is displayed on
the frieze of the monument, in five compartments, four of
which are occupied by persons preceding or following the
Son of God. The great army, marching to their conquests,
are similarly arranged upon the Arc de l'Etoile, at Paris.
At the head of all, advance Adam and Eve, a youthful and
naked pair, about to enter Paradise, with hands clasped in
gratitude. They are followed by Abel, the first martyr in
the world, naked also like his father and mother; after them
comes Noah, raising high in air the ark, in which, at the time
of the Deluge, the last germs of men, animals, and plants
Were £ By accepting the doctrine of belief in one
true God, and guarding it for his chosen people, Abraham
saved the world intellectually, as Noah had done materially.
He advances, accompanied by his son Isaac, whom he had
been on the point of offering up in sacrifice to God, and who
bears upon his shoulders, as did Jesus in later times, the
wood on which he was to be immolated. Moses next raises
on high the tables of the law, as Noah does his ark; behind
him is the prophet Jonah, swallowed up and vomited forth
by a sea monster, as Jesus by the grave; Jonah bears on the
kindness to make me a very correct copy of this interesting painting. The

divine figure is placed at the back, in the concha of the apse, contained within
an aureole of quatre-foils, and accompanied by the attributes of the Evangelists
and by the two candlesticks with seven branches, given above, Fig. 36. The
nimbus of Christ is here rose-colour, and the cross green.
* This chapel takes its name from a beautiful alabaster, “retable,” on
which are sculptured the seven happy events of the Virgin Mary's life: the
Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the
Appearance of Jesus, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, and the Assumption.
end of a pike the slain monster, resembling in form the

“Death,” whom the Son of Man is crushing beneath his feet
(Fig. 77). Jonah is succeeded by David, who formerly danced
before the ark, and is here represented singing and striking the
harp, in presence of the cross, the ark of the new covenant.
Here and there in the crowd succeeding, shine conspicuous
Sampson, Gideon, Eli, Solomon, Hezekiah, that is to say, the
principal judges and the most glorious kings. A group of
men and women follow; they are the Sibyls, and others,
filling up the number of the greater and lesser prophets.
The prophets are represented by Isaiah, who had exclaimed,
“There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and
a branch shall grow out of his roots” (Isa. xi. 1); and
“Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall
call his name Emmanuel.”—(Isa. vii. 14.) The women are
represented by the Persian Sibyl bearing a lantern in her
hand, and announcing the advent of the Messiah; by the
Lybian Sibyl, holding a lighted taper, and presiding at the
birth of Christ, the light of the world;” by the Cumaean
* The attributes borne by the Sibyls cannot be very distinctly traced,
owing to the distance at which the frieze is from the base. The Sibyls thus
placed opposite to the Prophets is a favourite subject at the period in ques
tion. At Brou they are sculptured a second time in marble, on the tomb of
Philibert-le-beau. The Sibyls are sculptured at Autun, on the reredos called
“noli me tangere,” in a chapel of the Cathedral. They are sculptured on
the western porch of the Church of Clamecy (Nièvre), and painted on glass in
Saint-Ouen, at Rouen, in the Cathedral of Beauvais, and the Cathedral of
Auch. In the Cathedral of Sens, one of the Sibyls is announcing to the
Emperor Augustus the birth of the Saviour. They are sculptured on the
wooden stalls of St. Bertrand de Comminges and of the Cathedral of Auch; they
are represented in inlaid work on the backs of the stalls belonging formerly to
the ancient Chapel of Gaillon, and now in the church of St. Denis; and in
several manuscripts we find them painted on parchment, particularly in the
Heures d’Anne de France, daughter of Louis XI., which are in the Biblio
thèque Royale, No. 920. A chapel, called that of the Sibyls, stands at the
entrance of St. Jacques, at Dieppe : it has twelve niches, which ought to be
filled by the statues of the twelve Sibyls. Chapels of that name are to be
found in the apse of St. Etienne de Châlons (Marne). The above are all in
France; there are some also in Germany, in the stalls of the Cathedral of
Ulm, amongst others. Michael Angelo and Raphael, in Italy, have both
employed themselves on this beautiful subject. The Iconography of the Sibyls
would doubtless contain much highly interesting matter, and we may expect
many curious details on that subject in a work now in preparation by
M. Ferdinand de Guilhermy. The Sibyls are not seen on monuments earlier
than the twelfth century; in writings they may be traced back to the earliest
Sibyl, who holds a manger in her hand, from her having pre
dicted that Christ should be born in a stable; and the Phrygian
Sibyl, bearing a standard, because she had prophesied of the
resurrection and victory of Christ. Three standards or flames
float in the air, tinged with the blood of Christ, the divine
martyr. Trumpets, as potent as those at whose sound the
walls of the city of Jericho fell prostrate, ring out the
victory of the crucified. With these prophets and pro
phetesses, the ancient world, the world anterior to Christ,
approaches to its close.
Then the new world, the Christian world, appears. The
personages in it are arranged chronologically; they begin
with the Apostles, and first of all with St. Peter, who holds
in his hand two silver keys; that which opens, and that
which closes, Paradise. Then follows St. Paul, with the
sword with which he was beheaded, symbolic also of the
sword of his piercing word. Then St. Andrew, bearing
on his shoulders the cross on which he died; St. John with
the poisoned chalice, whence Death flies away, in the form
of a dragon. They are followed by the other Apostles, each
according to his rank; Simon carries the saw with which he
was sawn asunder; Matthew, the pike with which his heart
was pierced; Thomas, the square or rule, which marks him
as the patron of architects. The Apostles are succeeded
by the Martyrs, who shed their blood for the faith, bearing
witness by the sacrifice of their lives to the earnestness of
their belief, and whose countless legions are represented by
a few of their glorious chiefs. St. Stephen may be recog
nised by the stone, which wounded his forehead; St.
Laurence, by the gridiron, which he raises in the air as a
standard of triumph; the great St. Christopher, who is a
head and shoulders taller than the tallest of those around
him, bears the little Jesus upon his shoulders: he is nearly
naked, like one of the ancient Athletae, or like a Christian
of the lower orders, of whom he is supposed to be the per
period, to Lactantius, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome; they are spoken of in the
apocryphal traditions. They seem afterwards to have been forgotten, throughout
the middle ages properly so called, from the seventh to the fifteenth century;
yet Vincent de Beauvais mentions them in the Speculum Universale, and they
may be seen in sculptures belonging to the close of the twelfth century, in the
Cathedral of Auxerre.
sonification. This colossus, bends beneath the little Jesus as

beneath an enormous weight: he is leaning on the stem of
a palm-tree, which he uses as a staff. Beside the Martyrs,
appear the Confessors, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, whom
we believe to recognise by their mitres; the aged St.
Jerome, in the robes ofan ordinary priest, not of a cardinal,
as it was then the favourite custom to represent him.
Next, the brilliant Emperor Charlemagne, clad in full armour
of wrought or forged iron, the crown upon his head * and the
sceptre on his right shoulder: his left hand rests upon
the guard of his sword, and he walks by the side of the
poor Saint Roch, who, clad in pilgrim garments, appears
utterly worn out by his long journeyings. Behind this
crowd we discover, emerging from the gates of a city, the
different religious orders; the Benedictines, the original
* The following description of Charlemagne's crown is taken from a book
on Heraldry, Clark’s, 1827:—
“This crown, which is divided into eight parts, is made of gold, weighing
14 pounds, and is still preserved (1827) at Nuremberg. (Now, I believe, at
Vienna.) The fore-part of the crown is decorated with twelve jewels, all
unpolished. On the second part, on the right hand, is our Saviour, sitting
between two cherubs, with each four wings, whereof two are upward, two down
ward, and under this motto:
*PER ME REGEs REGNANT.’
“The third part, on the same side, has only gems and pearls. On the
fourth part is King Hezekiah sitting, holding his head with his right hand, and
by his side Isaiah the Prophet with a scroll, whereon is this motto:
‘EccE ADJ1C1AM suPER DIEs TUos 15 ANNos.’
Also, over the head of these figures, ‘Isaias PRoPHETA, ‘EzECHIAs REx.’
“The fifth part, which is behind, contains jewels semé. The sixth part has
the effigy of a king, crowned, and a scroll in his hand, with these words,
‘HoNor REGIs JUDICIUM DILIGIT,
as also, over his head, “REx DAviD.’
“The seventh part is only of gems; but the eighth has a king, sitting, with
his crown upon his head, and on a scroll which he holds in both hands, is this
motto:
‘TIME DominUM, and ‘REGEM AMATE,'
as likewise over his head, “REx SoLoMon.’
“On the top of this crown is a cross, whose fore-part contains seventeen
jewels, and in the top of the cross are these words:
“IHS NAzARENUs REx JUDroRUM,’
as also in the arch or semicircle, these:
‘CHVONRADUS, DEI GRATIA ROMANORUM IMPERATOR AUG.'
which shows that the semicircle was added after Charlemagne's time by the
Emperor Conrad.—Trans.
possessors of the Priory of Brou; the Augustines, into

whose hands it subsequently passed; the preaching friars or
Dominicans; the Minors, or Franciscans; the Carthusians or
disciples of St. Bruno. All are clad in costumes fashioned
according to the rules of their order and of its appropriate
colour. These monks, like the martyrs and confessors pre
ceding them, are represented by the chiefs of each order,
St. Benedict, St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Bruno; they are
supposed to be followed by a crowd of persons, who have
not as yet passed the walls of the city and who throng to
the gates. This city represents the earth, which is con
stantly giving birth to a new race of saints.
But between these two worlds, the old and the new,
between the prophets and the apostles, there is a break, a
change, and it is precisely to point out the course, and
illustrate the manner of that transition, that the entire pro
cession is formed; for it is in honour of Christ, by whom
the Old Testament is united to the New, that this multitude
are thus ranged in order. Christ is placed between the
crowd which precedes and that which follows; the place he
holds is the geometrical centre; but he is not immediately
reached after quitting the prophets, nor on quitting Christ
do we come immediately to the apostles. After the pro
phets comes a “suite” or cortège, £ the close of the
ancient world; before the apostles, there is an advanced
body which is the commencement of the new.
In fact, after the prophets, the supporters of the old law,
those Jews appear who foresaw the dawn of the new; they
are the Christianising Jews, as they were styled by the
School of Alexandria—the Cyrenian who assisted Jesus to
bear his cross; Longinus, who pierced his side; Gamaliel,
who interred his crucified body; the penitent thief, who
was converted upon the cross, prayed that Christ would
have him in remembrance, and on the very day of his death
entered with Christ into the paradise of God (St. Luke,
xxiii. 43). The penitent thief, who is naked, and almost as
gigantic as St. (' walks leaning on his cross, as
St. Christopher on the palm-tree. It was a fine idea to
convert the cross of the thief into a tree of salvation, a
staff of support for the pilgrim whose steps are directed
towards heaven. Lastly, below that gigantic personage, are
seven little naked infants, hand in hand, and forming a

circle like the antique “hours.” They are meant to repre
sent the Innocents who were the first of all Christian
martys to shed their blood for Christ. The first of these
little martyrs holds in his hand the sword by which he was
pierced in the arms of his mother.” After Christ, but
preceding the apostles, advances another martyr, St. John
the Baptist; he carries, raised on the point of a pike, that
Divine Lamb, whom in life he pointed out to his disciples,
and of whom he was the forerunner; he bears the lamb as
a legionary bears the Roman eagle at the head of the
column. John the Baptist opens the march of the New
World, and closes that of the ancient. A Jew by birth and
a Christian in heart, he had received circumcision, the
bloody baptismal rite of the Jews; yet he already performed
the ceremony of baptism, the peaceful circumcision of
Christianity. St. John the Baptist forms therefore the link,
connecting the New Testament with the Old.
Finally, in the centre of all rises the Hero of the Triumph,
Jesus Christ, who is seated in an open car with four wheels.
He alone is adorned with a nimbus formed of rays,
departing from each point of the head, and which illumines
everything around. With one glance he embraces the past
which precedes, and the future, which is to succeed him.
His face resembles that drawn by Raphael and the masters
of the period of Renaissance, agreeing with the description
given by Lentulus and Damascenus; it is serious and gentle.
In the centre of the chariot is placed a starry globe traversed
by the ecliptic, on which the twelve signs of the zodiac are
brilliantly figured. This globe is symbolic of the world, and
forms a throne for Christ: the Son of God is seated on its
summit. The car is placed upon four wheels, and drawn by
the four attributes or symbols of the Evangelists. The
angel of St. Matthew, and the eagle of St. John, are of
celestial whiteness; the lion of St. Mark, and the ox of
St. Luke, are of a reddish yellow, symbolising the earth on
which they dwell. The eagle and angel do, in fact, fly; while
* It is probable that these seven children may be the seven brother
Maccabees; the Latin Church honours them, like the Innocents, with a
special worship. But, in either case, the motive is the same. (See the
//genda aurea “de septem Fratribus Machabeis.”)
the lion and the ox walk. Yet upon the painted window all
the four have wings. A rein of silver, passing round the
neck of each of the four symbols, is attached to the pole of
the chariot. The Church, represented by the four most
elevated religious potentates; by the Pope, the Cardinal,
the Archbishop, and Bishop, or, by the four chief Fathers,
St. Gregory, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine,
drives the four-wheeled car, and in conjunction with the
Evangelists, urges it onward. Jesus guides his triumph, not
holding reins, but shedding blessings from his right hand
wherever he passes.
The entire assemblage of persons represented on the win
dow, are seen marching onwards, singing with joy. Within
the spaces, formed by the mullions which trellis the upper part
of the window, forty-six angels are represented with long
golden hair, white transparent robes, and wings of yellow,
red, violet, and green; they are all painted on a background
of azure, like the sky, and celebrate with blended voices, or
with musical instruments, the glory of Christ. Some have
in their hands instruments of different forms, others books
of music. The four animals of the Evangelists seem with
sonorous voice, to swell the acclamations of the hosts of
saints; the ox with his bellowing, the lion with his roar, the
eagle with his cry, and the angel with his song, accompany
the songs of the forty-six angels who fill the upper part of
the window. At the £ of the procession is an angel who
leads the entire company, and, with a little cross which
he holds in his hand, points out to all the Paradise they are
to enter. Finally, twelve other angels, blue as the heaven
into which they melt, join in adoration before the triumph
of Christ. They appear as if reading the monumental
inscription, which is seen above the frieze, and immediately
below the ovae of the cornice:
TRIUMPHANTEM MORTIS CHRISTUM
AETERNA PACE TERRIS RESTITUTA, CAELIQUE JANUA BONIS
OMNIBUS ADAPERTA,
TANTI BENEFICII MEMORES DEDUCENTES DIVI, CANUNT ANGELI.
“Christ, triumphant over death, has given to the world eternal
peace, and opened the gate of heaven to all righteous persons.”
“Grateful for so great a benefit, saints" conduct, and angels
glorify him.”
* This is at the period of the Renaissance—when the epithet Saint, as
Dante has given a description of a similar triumph, but

marked by some interesting differences. The Florentine
poet formed his cortège of figures taken from the
Apocalypse and Christian symbolism. At Brou, with
the exception of the attributes of the Evangelists, every
thing is historical. In the sixteenth century, in fact,
history began to predominate over symbolism, which in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had reigned supreme.
Dante, who was a politic poet, drew the Triumph, not of
Christ, but of the Church; the triumph of Catholicism rather
than of Christianity. The chariot by which he represents
the Church is widowed of Christ, whose figure is so
important on the window of Brou; the chariot is empty,
and Dante neither discovered this deficiency, nor was
concerned to rectify it; for he was less anxious to cele
brate Christ and his doctrine, for their own sake, than as
connected with the organisation and administration of the
Church. He described the car as drawn by a griffin, thereby
representing the Pope, for the griffin unites in itself the
characteristics of both eagle and lion. Now the Pope is also
twofold in character; as priest, he is the eagle floating in
the air; as king, he is a lion, walking upon the earth. The
ultramontane poet regarded the Church, that is the papacy,
in the light of an absolute monarchy; not a limited mo
narchy as with us, and still less a republic, as amongst the
schismatics of Greece, and of the east. Consequently, while
at Brou, the cardinal, the archbishop, and bishop, assist the
Pope in guiding the car of the Church; in the “Divina
Commedia,” the Pope is alone, and accepts of no assistance
from the other great ecclesiastical dignitaries. At Brou
the car is guided by the Evangelists, or by their attributes;
ecclesiastical power is content merely to lend its aid.
According to the Italian poet, the Evangelists, although
present at the Triumph, do not conduct it; the Pope is
himself the sole guide of the Church, and permits neither
the Evangelists to direct, nor ecclesiastics to assist
him. The Pope seems to require no assistance; his eye
applied to men glorified, had been dropped and replaced by that of divine.
This qualification is rather Pagan than Christian; it embraces the idea of
apotheosis rather than canonisation. In fact the idea is so carried out; the
arc detriomph on which it is painted is antique and not modern; Pagan, both
in style and form, and not Christian.
and arm alone are sufficient for him. (Dante, Purgatorio,

Cantos xxix—xxxii.)
Thus, then, it is proved necessary to study the smallest
details in analogous representations; for, as we here see,
these details may serve to determine, or at least may afford
a clue, to the epoch, the country, and the artists, by whom
they were imagined."
-
JESUS CHRIST AS A LAMB.
Christ has hitherto been spoken of solely as represented

under the figure of a man, either youthful or aged; but
there is one symbolic form which has been given him from
the very earliest period of Christianity, which has continued
in use throughout the middle ages, and has endured even to
our own day; it is that of the Lamb. , Very frequently the
four Evangelists are symbolised, and of this we have already
seen examples; St. Matthew, by an angel; St. John, by an
eagle; St. Mark, by a lion; St. Luke by an ox; and their
master is quite as often represented by a lamb. In fact,
St. John the Baptist, on beholding Jesus, had exclaimed,
“Behold the Lamb of God.” (St. John, i. 28.) Christ
dying on the cross, is the symbolic lamb spoken of by the
prophets, the lamb who meets death, and suffers himself
to be slain without murmuring.f Christ, shedding His
* No mention is here made of other triumphs, resembling those on the

window at Brou, and in the poem of Dante, because a special monography
would be necessary, in order to treat fully of a series of similar representations.
Instead of being elevated on a car, Jesus Christ is frequently represented on
board a vessel, which he steers himself, and directs towards the port of Paradise.
In this case the metaphor is changed, and we have the ship of the Church
instead of the car; but the motive is the same; and the arrangement of the
persons, or the passengers as they may be called, resembles that at Brou. A
painted window in S. Etienne-du-mont, at Paris, contains one of these
aquatic triumphs of Christ; but it is far less complete than the terrestrial.
.The procession at Brou may be compared to that of the Panathenaea, on one of
the friezes in the Parthenon. The conception of that at Brou, the arrangement
of the persons, the tout ensemble of the composition, in short, appears to us
superior to the antique procession of Phidias. In point of execution, the
window at Brou is of singular beauty.
+ Vide, in different parts of the prophetical writings, the comparison of
JESUS CHRIST AS A LAMB. 319
blood for our redemption, is the lamb slain by the children

of Israel, and with the blood of which the houses to be pre
served from the wrath of God, were marked with the celes
tial “tau.” * The Paschal Lamb, eaten by the Israelites
on the night preceding their departure from Egypt, is the
e of that other divine lamb of whom Christians are to
partake at Easter, in order thereby to free themselves from
the bondage in which they are held by vice.f St. John, in
the Apocalypse, saw Christ, under the form of a lamb,
wounded in the throat, and opening the book with the seven
seals. (Rev. vi., vii.) :
Jesus on the cross with the lamb under the knife of the butcher. The
services appointed for Passion week are filled with similar comparisons,
“Sicut ovis ad occisionem ducetur, et quasi agnus coram tondente se
obmutescet et non aperiet os suum.” “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”
Isaiah liii., 7.–Matth. xxvi., 5.—Acts viii., 32.
* Compare the Prophecy of Ezekiel, ix., 4, 6, with Exodus, xii, 7, 13.
+ (Exodus, xii., 7, 13.) The Abbé Cahier has made some learned observa
tions on the immolation of the prophetic lamb. This subject has been very
frequently delineated by Christian artists, and it is painted on glass in the
windows of the Cathedrals of Bourges and Chartres in particular. See the
“ Vitraux peints de St. Etienne de Bourges, par MM. Arthur Martin et
Charles Cahier, prêtres, ch. i., plate i.” In the same work may be seen, plate
vii., a glass painting at Bourges, on which is delineated the mission given by
Christ to his Apostles, to baptise and convert all nations. Quite at the
top of the last-named picture, and opposite to that personification of the
Church, in which Religion gives milk from her breast to two of the
faithful, and crowns them with her two hands, a lamb is painted: it is of a
blueish colour, upon a blue ground, and surrounded by a cloud or nebulous
aureole of a golden hue. The lamb has a nimbus, the ground gules, crossed
with gold: with the right fore-foot he supports a flame-coloured cross, from
which floats a banner. The end of the banner is cut into two stripes or
streamers, resembling the larger feathers of a wing, the form called by us
swallow-tailed; the field of the banner is marked by a black cross, quartering
the A, the Q, and X, and another little cross. This latter quartering com
prises in itself the three former, which clearly designate Christ and his
attribute of eternity, the commencement and end of all things. The lamb
turns with a look of animation towards the standard, which he bears with a
lofty pride. These two medallions, representing the lamb who has redeemed
us, and Religion, by whom we are nourished, crown this remarkable window
with most sublime effect.
# “Et vidi . . . agnum stantem tanquem occisum, habentem cornua
septem, et oculos septem.” (Apoc. v.) We understand from this text
how it is possible for the head of a lamb to be armed with horns
even of large size, as will be scen in the examples below, Figs. 85
Finally, Christ is the Lamb, who offered himself as a

victim to wash away in his own blood the pollution of our
nature, and of our carnal actions;
“CARNALES ACTVS TVLIT AGNVS HIC HOSTIA FACTVS,”
as we read in the inscription, engraved around the circle

within which the Lamb of God is inscribed in the annexed
plate.
Fig. 82.—THE LAMB of God; SYMBoLIC of JESUS CRUCIFIED.

Engraving on copper, of the x1 cent.
The monument from which this design is copied belongs

to the eleventh century; it is a plate of copper chiselled and
carved with open work. The plate was probably attached to
the cover of a book of the Gospels; its form is square, with
the lamb in the centre, and on the sides are personifications
of the four rivers of Paradise, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the
Pison, and Gihon.” The following lines, engraved upon the
and 88, for the horns are allegorical, not natural. Still seven appear to
be the number required, as in Fig. 88; when there are two only, the
explanation is not so easily given.
* This relic forms part of the collection of M. du Sommerard. The
sides of the plates, explain the allegorical meaning which the

four streams are intended to convey:
“Fons paradisiacus per flumina quatuor exit;
Hec (sic) quadriga levis te Xpe per omnia vexit.”
The Lamb of God, thus surrounded by the mystic streams,

or looking down from the summit of the mount whence the
four springs issue, is of a date far earlier than the eleventh
century; in Fig. 23 we have given an example taken from
the catacombs, and which belongs to the fifth and sixth cen
tury of our era." In our own day, the Lamb is frequently
represented upon chasubles and altar-frontals, lying as if
dead, upon the book with the seven seals, or standing, and
holding with one of his feet, sometimes the fore-foot and
sometimes the hinder one, the banner of the resurrection.
This latter mode of representation is more popular and com
mon than the former; it enters as an armorial bearing into
the blazon of several towns and noble families; the city
of Rouen bears gules, with a Paschal Lamb argent, and
£y
field.f.
of Pascal also bears a lamb argent, but on an azure
St. John the Baptist is often depicted carrying the Lamb
of God; it is in fact, an attribute by which he is more
particularly distinguished. The following plate gives a
drawing taken from a colossal statue adorning the side walls
streams are called “Gyon,” “Phishon,” “Tygris” and Eufrates,” and are
represented after the antique manner; they are figures of men, nearly
naked, wearing the Phrygian bonnet, and each bearing an urn, whence the
streams escape. They are sculptured almost in the same manner on the
western porch of the Cathedral of Rheims.
* In monuments, erected by the primitive Church, the Lamb is frequently
represented standing on a mountain, whence flow the four rivers of the
terrestrial Paradise, or else, encircled by the personifications of those rivers.
The lamb is Christ—the rivers are the Evangelists. “Quatuor flumina,
quatuor Evangelistae,” as say the doctors of the Church. The simile has
been carried still further, and Gulielmus Durandus (Rat. Div. Off lib. vii.) says
that Gihon, is St. Matthew ; Pison, St. John; Tigris, St. Mark; Euphrates,
St. Luke. Durandus, and Pope Innocent III., find curious affinities between
the qualities of each Evangelist, compared with those of his corresponding
stream. “Per Physon Johannes, per Gion Mattheus, per Tigrim Marcus,
per Eufratem Lucas designati sunt. Sic enim clare probat Innocentius III.
de Evangelistis in sermone.”
* L'art héraldique, par Baron; in 12. Paris, 1695.
of the north porch of the Cathedral at Chartres. St. John,

with bare feet, as if he were an apostle of the New Testa
ment, a nimbus like that
} of a saint, and clad in
raiment of camel's hair,"
points with his right
hand to the Lamb which
he holds in the left.
The Lamb is inscribed
within an aureole. He
has not a cruciform nim
bus, because sculpture
had not yet adopted that
attribute; but it ought,
strictly speaking, to have
been given. We find it
in Fig. 82 preceding,
and on a large statue of
St. John the Baptist,
which stands against the
| %|
|
| &
||
side wall, of the western
porch of the Cathedral
of Rheims.
| || In the fourteenth cen
| tury, the Lamb, which
by general consent, had
| been treated symbolically
.# until that time, degene.
|}|
|# rated into reality and
mere nature. The St.
John subjoined, belong
ing to the same period,
holds the lamb, no longer
in a disk, or divine
R.W.L. DVRAND_del aureole, but precisely as
-
Fig. 83.—ST. ": ... ... aanyshepherd
CARRYING. The
would
little lamb thatcarry
hap
Statue of the x111 cent.; in the Cathedral of pened to be weary, Ol'
Chartres. which he was caressing.
In the fifteenth century, this naturalism becomes more
* “Ipse autem. Johannes habebat vestimentum de pilis camelorum et
striking. At that period the Lamb loses his nimbus, he

runs upon the ground, browses on the grass of the desert
where St. John is re
posing, supports him- |
self on his two hinder
feet, and places his fore
feet on the Precursor,
whom he attempts to ca
ress. Lastly, in a pretty
tableau £
the sixteenth century,
which may be seen in
a side chapel of Notre
Dame deBrou at Bourg,
the naturalism is carried
even farther. St. John
is there represented
sitting on a green
mound in a forest, on
the bank of a little
river. Under his left
arm he holds the Lamb,
which has entirely lost
its hieratic character.
With the right hand St.
John offers him water,
which he has dipped up
in a shell. In the Lamb
of God, sensible of • O"
thirst, and drinking to Fig. 84.—A NATURAL LAMB, CARRIED BY
assuage
there it, how little
of Divinity! How is sr. Jons,
French Miniature of the xIV cent."
different this Lamb of Brou, which belongs to the sixteenth
zonam pelliceam circa lumbos ejus. . . .” (St. Matt. iii. 4.) The Greeks
in their representations of St John the Baptist, constantly add to the raiment
of camel’s hair and leathern girdle, hair rough and uncombed. We have seen
an example of this in Fig. 24.
* The above drawing is taken from the “Roman des trois Pélerinages,”
a manuscript in the Bib. de Sainte Geneviève. The miniature may be found
at fol. 187, verso. The cathedral at Rheims, which is at least one hundred
years in advance of the other cathedrals in France, both in statuary and
ornamental sculpture, presents, as early as in the thirteenth century, a figure
Y2
B24 CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY.
century, from that decorating an ivory coffer, brought as we

are told, from the Convent of St. Gall, and executed probably
in the ninth or tenth century. On the lid of this coffer, a
Lamb, bearing a cruciform nimbus, and placed upon a
disk like an “imago clypeata,” is adored by four angels,
who prostrate themselves before him, and by the four-and
twenty elders of the Apocalypse, who extend their hands
towards the Lamb, as if to receive the treasures of his grace.
While these scenes are supposed to be passing in the lower
heaven, above, in the highest, a hand, the hand of God the
Father, issues from the clouds and darts forth five floods of
light, which fall upon the Lamb, the symbol of his Son.*
Here the theme is treated with sublime gravity and
mysticism; at Brou, the reality is almost common-place.
However, at Brou, behind the St. John, is placed a little
reed cross with a scroll, on which is written, “Ecce agnus
Dei,” which serves to remind the beholder of the severity
of the symbol, This inscription is ordinarily annexed to
representations of the Divine Lamb; it may be seen at Arles
in the old church of the cemetery of the “Dames de Saint
Césaire.” Four flat ribs or mouldings in the vaulting of
the apse, rise from foliated capitals or imposts, and meet at
a keystone or boss on which the Lamb is sculptured, bearing
the cross of the resurrection; the inscription, “DEL
ECCE AHGNUS,”t upon two semicircular bands, is en
graved around the lamb.
of St. John, holding in his arms, and caressing, a charming little lamb. This
pretty group may be seen amongst the multitude of statues, which give
animation to the interior wall of the western porch, and render that portion
of the admirable building a chef-d'oeuvre, unequalled by any other edifice in
France.
* This curious coffer belongs to M. Michéli, who has had it modelled and
put in circulation as an object of commerce.
+ The h in ahgnus seems to indicate an aspiration which was then heard
somewhat distinctly in the pronunciation of that word, at least in Provence.
We have already shown that at Chartres a sculptor of the thirteenth century
wrote terrem instead of terram. At the same period we see, almost
universally, upon painted glass, enamels, and sculpture, Solomon or
Solomonem, instead of Salomon, Salomonem: in manuscripts we frequently
find Salemons. In the old church in the island of Barbe near Lyons, in the
midst of an inscription relating to Christ, we see michi instead of mihi:
michi is still used in Italy. These instances, and many others, may probably
be considered as indicating peculiarities of pronunciation prevalent at certain
periods and in certain localities, and should be carefully noted.
On sculptures and paintings on glass in which events

or figures from the Old Testament history are depicted, in
connexion with scenes taken from the New, a young man
is seen killing a lamb, while an old man dips a pen or a
stylus into the blood of the victim, and with it marks a
tau (T) upon the lintel of the doors of those houses which
the wrath of God was to pass over.”
In all sculptures, and paintings on glass or on parch
ments, representing subjects taken from the Apocalypse,
the Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes is represented
breaking the seals of the mysterious volume.
Fig. 85.—THE LAMB of GoD, UNDER THE FoRM of A RAM.

From a French Sculpture of the close of the XIII cent., in the Cathedral of Troyes.
It is invariably a lamb that is depicted; never a sheep

nor a ram, for the words of Scripture are most explicit on
* Wide the large colossal statues ornamenting the western doors of the
cathedrals of Amiens, Rheims, and Senlis. A similar statue is in the north
porch of Notre-Dame de Chartres. See also a painted window in the
Cathedral of Chartres, north side aisle, and a window in the apse of the
Cathedral of Bourges. Both windows form part of the monography of the
Cathedral of Bourges, a work, the drawings in which are by M. Arthur
Martin or under his direction, and the text revised by M. Charles Cahier.
On the painted window at Bourges we read, below the prophet who is
writing, “Scribe thau.”
that point: “Ecce agnus; vidiagnum; agnus Dei; agnus

qui tollis peccata mundi.” Yet, by a most unaccountable
anomaly, in the Cathedral at Troyes is a sculpture of the
Lamb of God as a ram, on the boss, or “clef.” of the vault
ing. The peculiar form of the ram is very clearly marked,
and in the drawing here given, on the preceding page, it
will be seen that he has two horns, of considerable strength,
and extremely well defined. -
It is unquestionably a ram. On the other hand, it is, no

less clearly, designed for the Lamb of God, since it bears the
Cross of the resurrection, as does the Paschal Lamb, and has a
cruciform nimbus like the persons of the divine Trinity. Up
to the present time no other example of a similar peculiarity
has been met with; the above was discovered in Champagne,
where, as at Rheims and Troyes, the art may be considered
as forming an exception to ordinary rules, and might almost
be termed schismatic with respect to Christian art in other
provinces of France. The drawing here given is strictly
correct, and was not executed without a rigid examination
of every part, even the most minute and seemingly imper
ceptible.* The horns are characteristic of physical strength;
they may, perhaps, be intended to signify that the ram is
symbolical of the divine power of the Son. In that case,
the horns would be to the Lamb, what the double trian
gular nimbus is to the Father Almighty,f or the cruciform
and double cruciform nimbus given to the Lamb, in the
chapter treating of the nimbus (Fig. 13); both are indi
cations of absolute power.
Art was not content, in the first ages of Christianity,
with representing Jesus Christ only under the form of a
lamb; other personages of the Old and New Testament
were also figured under the form of lambs or of sheep; as,
for instance, Abraham, Moses, St. John the Baptist, and the
* M. Fichot, an artist of Troyes, made the above drawing, after having
decided with me, by the aid of an excellent magnifying glass, that the horns
were real, and as distinctly marked in form and dimensions as the drawing
indicates. This sculpture adorns the key-stone or boss of the vaulting, placed
at the height of twelve mêtres from the ground, in a chapel in the south aisle
of the Cathedral of Troyes. It seems a singular circumstance that the lamb
should be changed into a ram in the province of Champagne, which affords
pasture to numerous flocks of sheep.
* Fig. 21.
Apostles. The Apostles are constantly seen under that

form upon ancient sarcophagi, in the frescos of the cata
— T]
% #| '. \\
Fig. 86.—CHRIST AND HIS APOSTLES, UNDER THE FORM of LAMBs or OF SHEEP.
Latin Sculpture; first centuries of the Church.
combs, and on the ancient mosaics of the Roman basilicae.

The figure given above represents Jesus in human form,
standing upon the mountain of Paradise, and giving his last
instructions to his apostles. The divine person is accom
£
ead.*
by his symbol, the lamb, bearing a cross upon its
* This figure of Christ, with seven lambs, is copied from a sarcophagus of

Below the mountain, and turning towards Jesus are six

lambs representing the Apostles, there was not space suffi
cient for the sculptor to give all the twelve. None of these
lambs, not even that of God, have any nimbus, because that
mark of distinction had not then been adopted by Christians.
Even the person of Christ himself has no nimbus. In this, we
have seven lambs only, but several Latin mosaics, at Rome
and at Ravenna in particular, present twelve lambs, issuing,
six from Jerusalem, and six from Bethlehem, all advancing
towards Jesus, who has the form of the Divine Lamb, and is
standing near the Jordan. All Christianity thus seems to
be tending towards that stream.*
In the “Rationale of the Divine Offices,” Gulielmus Dura
dus says: “The Apostles are also sometimes painted under
the form of twelve sheep, because they were slain like
sheep for the Lord's sake; and sometimes the twelve tribes
of Israel are so represented. When however, more or less
sheep than twelve are painted, then another thing is signi
fied, according to that saying of Matthew: “When the Son
of Man shall come in his glory—then shall he sit on the
throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all
nations, and he shall separate them one from the other, as
a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats.’” Thus
white marble, brought originally from the cemetery of the Vatican. The
entire sarcophagus is engraved in Bosio. (Roma Sotterr., p. 63 of the Italian
edition, printed at Rome, 1632.) On the right and left of Christ rise two palm
trees; upon that on the right is a bird, a dove, perhaps the Holy Ghost. If
so, this, together with the little dove sculptured on the frieze of the tomb of
Junius Bassus, would be the most ancient representations of the Holy Ghost.
* Wide Ciampini, Veter. Monim, passim. In the Rom. Sotterr, p. 411,
the twelve apostles, with Jesus as shepherd in the midst of them, are
sculptured standing, upon a sarcophagus found near St. Lorenzo fuori delle
Mura, at Rome. Each figure is attended by a lamb, and Jesus caresses the
largest amongst them, that which figures as the Lamb of God. In addition to
this, at the two extremities of the sarcophagus, two shepherds still denoting
Christ, are accompanied by five lambs. The figure on the right has three, one
of which he caresses with tenderness; that on the left two, which he blesses
according to the Latin form. There are thus in this pretty scene, eighteen
lambs. Read in the Gospel all those texts in which Christ compares himself
to the good shepherd, and likens men to sheep; in which before his death he
compares himself to the good shepherd who is smitten, and whose sheep are
scattered abroad; and where he confides his beloved sheep to St. Peter,
that they may be led into good pastures. (St. John x., St. Luke xv.,
St. Matth. xxvi.)
the Apostles, the tribes of Israel, and the faithful, were

symbolised by the lamb and the sheep." The same prac
* “Pinguntur etiam quandoque (Apostoli) sub forma duodecim ovium, qui
tanquam bidentes occisi sunt propter Dominum; sed et duodecim tribus Israël
quandoque sub forma duodecim ovium pinguntur. Quandoque tamen plures,
vel pauciores oves circa sedem majestatis pinguntur, sed tunc aliud figurant,
juxta illud Matt.: cum venerit Filius hominis in majestate sua, tunc
sedebit super sedem majestatis suae, statuens oves a dextris, et haedos a
sinistris.” (Gulielmus Durandus, Rat. Div. Off, lib. i., cap. 3., edition of
Venice, 1572.) Durandus seems to intimate by this text, that in his time the
Apostles, the tribes of Israel, and the righteous raised to life, were all painted
under the form of sheep; but there still exist a crowd of monuments, all
painted or carved, and belonging to the same epoch (the thirteenth century) in
which Durandus lived and wrote. Now, in these monuments, which number
amongst others the cathedrals of Rheims, of Amiens, of Paris, of Chartres,
and Sens, not one single sheep is introduced, whether as an apostle, as one of the
tribes, or as one of the elect near the throne of God. Long anterior to that
period, from the fourth until about the ninth century, but almost exclusively in
Italy, the figure of lambs or sheep was given to the persons of whom Durandus
speaks, and the lambs which have been described as issuing from Bethlehem
and Jerusalem, and going to drink the waters of Jordan, near which the Son
is standing, may very possibly have been the tribes of Israel, rather than the
Apostles. In a certain letter (the twelfth in the collection) addressed to
Sulpicius Severus, bishop of Tours, St. Paulinus, bishop of Nola, mentions
his having caused a mosaic to be executed in the apse of the basilica of Fondi.
This was a mosaic representation of the Trinity. The cross was symbolic of
Christ, and was placed upon a rock or eminence.
“Et quia celsa (crux) quasi judex de rupe superstat,
Bis geminae pecudis discors agnis genus hadi
Circumstant solium; lavos avertitur haedos
Pastor et emeritos dextra complectitur agnos.”
This is literally the flock of lambs and goats mentioned by Durandus. It
must then be concluded, that our bishop of Mende spoke, not of French but
of Italian art; and further, that he borrowed his opinions from the writings of
preceding Liturgists, instead of forming it from the figured monuments of his
own time. Besides numerous other circumstances authorise this conclusion :
it will not do to accept without examination, and to regard as constant
and contemporary with Durandus all the customs detailed with so much
satisfaction by that Liturgist. Durandus was a compiler, and his book
was made up of materials drawn from ancient works, frequently unknown in
our country. Thus, in the same chapter, the third in the first book of the
Rationale, he says that the square nimbus is awarded to every prelate and
virtuous man, whose portrait is painted during his lifetime. But it has already
been shown, in the History of the Nimbus (p. 31.), that the custom is peculiar
to Italy, and was never adopted in France, The quotation from Durandus is
given below: it completes all that has been already said of the nimbus.
“Cum vero aliquis praelatus aut sanctus vivens pingitur, non in formam scuti
rotundi, sed quadrati, corona ipsa depingitur, ut quatuor cardinalibus virtutibus
tice has been carried further still, as has been said; the per
sonages of the Old Testament, and even common Hebrews,
have been depicted under the symbolic figure of the lamb.
Entire scenes from the Bible have been represented as per
formed by religious actors transformed into lambs. It seems
as ifancient apologues, and the fables of La Fontaine were put
in action, and performed by allegorical animals who become
preachers of wisdom. The tomb of Junius Bassus, for example,
which is of white marble, dating from the fourth century of
our era, and is still to be seen in the Musée Chrétien of
the Vatican, represents various subjects taken from the Old
and New Testament: the Fall of Adam and Eve; the sacrifice
of Abraham; Job, mocked by his wife; Daniel, between the
lions; Jesus, entering Jerusalem, or standing before Pilate,
or triumphant, and giving his instructions to St. Peter and
St. Paul.
The various personages in these different scenes are all
standing in flat frames, or in circular or triangular-shaped
niches. But neither antiquaries nor engravers have ever
examined the frieze or the pendentives by which the
arcades of the lower compartment are connected with each
other; or at least, they do not appear to have understood
the plan of the decoration. Going from left to right as if
reading, we discover first, three lambs in a furnace, then, a
lamb holding a rod in its right fore-foot strikes a rock, from
whence a spring of water descends, while two other lambs,
one of which is lying down, and one preparing to drink,
watch the performance of the action; next is a lamb raising
his fore-foot, as if to receive a book presented to him by a
hand extended from the clouds; then a little lamb plunged
in the water while a larger lamb extends its left fore-foot
vigere monstretur, prout in legenda beati Gregorii habetur.” Were we not
constrained by the study of existing monuments to restrict the adoption of this
practice to Italy, it might be imagined, from the expressions employed by
Durandus, that square nimbi had also been seen in France. It is therefore
necessary to qualify the above quotations by comparing them with works of
art, and to ground our archaeological principles rather on the monuments before
our eyes, than the books in our hands. It will be observed that the name of
crown or buckler is given by Durandus to the nimbus. This attribute is in
fact a religious crown, and according to the mystical ideas prevalent in the
middle ages, it formed a buckler for the head, a sort of casque protecting the
saints, as we read in the Hortus Deliciarum of the Abbess Herrade.
above its head; then a lamb, touching with a rod three

baskets full of bread; lastly, a lamb touching with a rod a
corpse standing upright in the tomb. These scenes, in
which lambs are the actors, are copies of similar scenes per
formed by men, and constantly sculptured upon ancient
sarcophagi. They comprise the history of the Old and
New Testament; the principal episodes being selected and
figured by allegorical beings; by this plan of decoration the
subjects represented by the human figures placed in the
arcade are repeated and continued.
Fig. 87.—LAMBs, REPRESENTING scENES FROM THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT.
Latin Sculpture of the IV cent.
The three lambs in the fire, are the three children whom
Nebuchadnezzar caused to be thrown into the furnace.”
In No. 1, Moses, as a lamb, strikes the rock and the
water flows. In No. 2, Moses, under the same form,
receives the tables of the law. No. 3, Jesus Christ repre
* This subject, badly executed in Bosio (Rom. Sotterr., p. 45), has been
omitted here, the five remaining sufficing for the demonstration.
sented by a little lamb, is plunged into the water of Jordan;

and while the Holy Ghost under the figure of a dove,
breathes grace upon the little head of the Divine Lamb,
St. John the Baptist, represented by a large lamb, pours
upon the head of the same lamb the waters of baptism;
Jesus, as a lamb, multiplies the loaves in No. 4, with the
same rod which he employs in No. 5, for the resuscitation
of Lazarus.
The favour in which the Lamb was at that time held was
so great, that the human figure of Christ was almost entirely
abandoned that the emblem might be substituted in its
' The Church was disquieted by this tendency to
dealism; she feared lest reality and history should be even
tually swallowed up by allegory. In the year 692, under
the Emperor Justinian II, a council, called Quini-Sextum,
formally decreed that in future the historic figure of Jesus
Christ, the human countenance of the Son of God, should
be substituted in paintings for the image of the Lamb.
The text, which is not without importance is as follows:–
“In certain venerable pictures and images, the Precursor
St. John, is represented pointing with his hand towards the
Lamb of God. We adopted this representation as an
image of grace; to our apprehension, it was the shadow of
that lamb, Christ, our God, whom the law exhibited to us.
Having then, in the first instance, accepted these figures
and shadows, as signs and emblems, we now prefer to them
grace and truth, that is to say, the fulness of the law. In
consequence of this, and in order to expose to all regards,
perfection, even in paintings, we determine that for the
future, in images of Christ our God, He shall be represented
in His human form, instead of in that of the Lamb, as in former
time. We must contemplate all the sublimity of the Word
through the veil of His humility. The painter must, as it
were, lead us by the hand to the remembrance of Jesus,
living in the flesh, suffering and dying for our salvation and
thus obtaining the redemption of the world.”*
* “In nonnullis venerabilium imaginum picturis, agnus qui digito Praecursoris
monstratus, depingitur, qui ad gratiae figuram assumptus est, verum nobis agnum,
per legem Christum Deum nostrum, praemonstrans. Antiquas ergo figuras et
umbras, ut veritatis signa et characteres Ecclesiae traditas, amplexantes, gratiam
et veritatem praeponimus, eam ut legis implementum suscipientes. Utergo, quod
JESUS CHRIST AS A LAMB, 333
Notwithstanding this positive prohibition, so independent

are artists, or so potent is ancient tradition, that we
have never ceased to represent Jesus under the form of a
lamb. It is still true, that since that period, the idea
of the Lamb has not been so far abused as to travesty all
the personages of the Old and New Testament as had
been done by the sculptor on the tomb of Junius Bassus,
but the Divine Lamb was painted and sculptured, quite as
frequently as before.
At Bourg, in the sixteenth century, the Lamb of God was
represented drinking water from a shell presented to him by
St. John; in our own time, on the doors of the tabernacles
of our churches, on the back of the chasubles worn by our
priests, the Lamb is figured either sleeping, or lying slain,
upon the book of the seven seals. In fact, Jesus is
especially represented as a lamb, when St. John the
Baptist points to him first, and when he breaks the seals of
the Apocalyptic volume. In the first case, the lamb is
natural; in the second, it is symbolic, ideal, and monstrous
in respect to reality. Thus it has seven horns on its head,
and seven eyes on the forehead and neck. The number is
mystical, like that of the heads and horns of the infernal
beast in the Apocalypse. It indicates, according to
St. John, the seven spirits of God sent throughout all the
world. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon
the Lamb, are called Wirtue [power], Divinity [riches],
Wisdom, Courage [strength], Honour, Glory and Benediction
[blessing].”
perfectum est, vel colorum expressionibus omnium oculis subjiciatur, ejus qui
tollit peccata mundi, Christi Dei nostri humana forma characterem etiam in
imaginibus deinceps pro veteri agno erigi ac depingi jubemus, ut per ipsum Dei
Werbi humiliationis celsitudinem mente comprehendentes, ad memoriam quoque
ejus in carne conversationis, ejusque passionis et salutaris mortis deducamur,
ejusque quae exeo facta est mundo redemptionis.” See le Père Labbe, Con
ciliorum Collectio maxima, vol. vi., col. 1177, “Concilium Quini-Sextum.”
St. John Damascenus (Oratio iii., De Imaginibus) literally repeats the 82nd
canon of this Council (Quini-Sextum) or in Trullo, which prohibits the
representation of the Lamb. The council wished to substitute history entirely
for symbolism; but the use of the symbolic figure was still uninterruptedly
persisted in, particularly amongst us, even side by side with the historic.
* “Et vidi . . . AGNUM stantem tanquam occisum, habentem cornua
septem et oculos septem, qui sunt septem spiritus Dei, missi in omnem terram
Thus each eye indicates a faculty, each horn is an emblem

of the power which
enlightens and for
tifies the Divine
lamb. Antiquaries
ought to pay great
attention to the posi
tion of the eyes and
horns, no less than
to their number.
They are generally
placed upon the head,
but the throat fre
quently bristles with
horns, as with a mane,
and is pierced with
seven eyes, as with
ocellated" spots. As
to the number, it
Fig. 88.—THE LAMB of God, witH SEVEN EYEs
AND SEVEN HORNS.t
ought to be invari
-
From a French Miniature of the XIII cent. able ; but • either

from error, indiffer
ence, want of room, or inattention, sometimes six horns, or
... Et audivi vocem angelorum . . . dicentium voce magna: Dignus est Agnus
qui occisus est, accipere virtutem, et divinitatem, et sapientiam, et fortitudinem,
et honorem, et gloriam, et benedictionem.” “And I"beheld, and lo in the midst
of the throne and of the four beasts and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb
as it had been newly slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are seven
spirits of God sent into all the earth . . . And I heard the voice of many angels
. . . saying with a loud voice: Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive
power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength,and honour,and glory,and blessing.”
—Apocalypse, v., 6, 11, 12. Rhaban Maur (De Laudibus Sanctae Crucis, fig.
15) gives a drawing of a lamb armed with seven horns. On the horns is read
“Septem spiritus,” and on the body of the lamb, “Ecce agnus Dei, ecce qui
tollit peccata mundi.” This lamb has a cruciform nimbus, for he is the symbol
of Deity; but he has neither the seven eyes nor the wound, as in our Fig. 88.
* Ocellus, Lat, little eye; the term “ocellated” is applied to marks on the
skin of the Jaguar and the Ocelot, Felis pardelis.—Translator.
* This lamb with seven eyes and seven horns, is taken from a manuscript
copy of the Apocalypse in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsénal (Théol. Lat.), dating
from the thirteenth century. The work is of very indifferent execution, the
Apocalyptic Lamb in particular; but I had no other specimen equally complete
at hand. On a window in the Cathedral at Auxerre is a lamb of much more
five, or even four only are seen.” At other times, and this
is very common, the Apocalyptic lamb is degraded to the con,
dition of a natural lamb, and in consequence has merely the
germ of horns not yet visible; in this case he has two eyes only.
We are continually made sensible of the wilfulness and inde
pendence of the human mind; the artist interprets the sacred
text according to his pleasure, and recals the mystic to the
real, when peculiarity of character inclines him thereto.
The following verses composed by Alcuin, may still be read
in a Carlovingian manuscript, written and painted under
Charlemagne:—
“Omnia quae praesenstellus producit alendo
Et maris haec facies limbo circumvenit amplo
Agne, deum solio semper venerantur in alto.
Sanguine qui fuso tersisti crimina secli,
In cruce, tu Karoli detergas vulnera regis.”
These lines were written under a miniature representing
the Lamb, the four-and-twenty elders of the Apocalypse, the
earth and sea. Under another miniature, in which the
Lamb alone was painted, two other verses also composed by
Alcuin, were inscribed—
“Hunc Moyses agnum monstravi, lege futurum
Cunctis pro populis perferri vulnera mortis.”
The poet does not describe the Lamb referred to, either in
the first or the second inscription: but it is probable that
even the Lamb of the first subject, the Apocalyptic Lamb,
was natural, and had two horns and two eyes only, like the
Lamb still to be seen in the Bible of Charles le Chauve.
The “Charles” named in the last verse of the first inscrip
tion, is Charlemagne.f
Thus, then, notwithstanding the decree of the Council
Quini-Sextum, Christ still continued to be figured by the
careful execution. A painted window on the north side of the nave in the
Church of St. Etienne du Mont, and bearing date 1614, presents a curious
example of this mysterious lamb, and of the entire apocalyptic scene in
which it is introduced.
* On a painted window in the Cathedral at Auxerre, I fancy I have
remarked six horns only, on the head of an apocalyptic lamb, which is seen
standing, with its feet upon the book with seven seals. This window, which
belongs to the thirteenth century, is in the south aisle of the choir. In St.
Etienne du Mont, the Apocalyptic Lamb has seven horns and seven eyes, but
he has no nimbus, and is not wounded in the side.
‘f Baluze, Miscellanea, vol. iv., “Carmina Alcuini in fronte codicis.”
lamb. That this fact should be true of the western or

Latin Church, which had always shown a coolness towards
the Greek, even at the time of the Council Quini-Sextum,
does not seem surprising; and a decree emanating from
Constantinople, may be safely looked upon as not accepted
at Rome: yet even in Greece the canon of the council
appears to have been unknown, or if known, certainl
disregarded; the figure of the Lamb, substituted for that of
Christ, is everywhere to be met with, both in mosaics and
fresco paintings. I have read inscribed below that figure
in the churches of Athens, of the Meteora, and Mount
Athos: “6 duvos rob Geof.”
Besides this, in the eastern as well as in the western
Church, it has always been customary to chant during the
service of the mass; “O Lamb of God that takest away the
sins of the world, have mercy upon us.”f . The Sacred
Lamb has constantly been invoked in prayer, and represented
in sculpture and painting, without any regard being paid
to the Council Quini-Sextum. Lastly, in the thirteenth
century, even at a period when history strove to gain the
ascendancy over allegory, a method was discovered by means
of which, the person of Christ and his symbol, were both
represented at the same time. Before the thirteenth
century, the symbol had the preference; after this, a
prejudice arose in favour of reality. But in the time
of Gulielmus Durandus, the happy medium was almost
attained; the Lamb, although holding a secondary place,
was not then too completely sacrificed to the person of
Christ. The following quotation from Durandus will form
a complement to the decision of the council. “Because
John the Baptist pointed to him, saying, ‘Behold the Lamb
of God;’ therefore some represented Christ under the
form of a lamb; “But forasmuch as the shadow hath passed
away, and that Christ is very man; therefore, saith Pope
Adrian, “he ought to be represented in the form of a man.’
* In the Convent of Philothéou, on Mount Athos, is a Lamb of God of
large size, with the following inscription: “6 &uvos Tov Qeów.”
+ “Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.”
# Adrian I., in the eighth century. It is singular that the pontiff of Rome,
addressed himself to Barasius, patriarch of Constantinople, when expressing the
above opinion.
JESUS, AS THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 337
The Lamb of God must not be depicted on the cross as a

principal object : but there is no let, when Christ hath
been represented as a man, to paint a lamb on an inferior
part of the cross, or on the reverse.”
It must be confessed that the permission here given by
the Bishop of Mende, to represent Christ and his symbol
at the same time upon the cross, has been little used, for
monuments of that kind are extremely rare, and any which
may be discovered ought to be carefully noted. But if
Christ and the Lamb have not been frequently represented
together in the same subject, the Lamb of St. John the
Baptist, or that of St. John the Evangelist, have never
ceased to be represented separately.
JESUS, AS THE GOOD SHEPHERD.
Christ has then constantly been represented in the form

of a lamb; but he is besides frequently drawn under that of
the good shepherd, who guards the lamb. Jesus, as a lamb,
* “Sciendum autem est quod Salvatoris imago tribus modis convenientius
in ecclesia depingitur, videlicet: aut residens in throno, aut pendens in crucis
patibulo, aut ut residens in matris gremio. Quia vero Johannes Baptista
Christum digito demonstravit dicens: ‘Ecce agnus Dei, ideo quidam dessigne
bant Christum sub specie agni. Quia vero tamen umbra transivit, et Christus
verus est homo, dicit Adrianus papa (De Consecratio. Distinct. iii., cap. 6.)
quod ipsum, in forma humana depingere debemus. Non enim agnus Dei in
cruce principaliter depingi debet; sed, homine depicto, non obest agnum in
parte inferiori vel posteriori depingi, cum ipse sit verus agnus qui tollit peccata
mundi. His quidem et aliis diversis modis Salvatoris imago depingitur propter
diversas significationes.” (G. Durandus, Rat. Div. Off, lib. i. cap. 3.)
Durandus, as has been already said, takes all his examples from Italian art, or
rather from Italian books. The French liturgist lived surrounded by the
sculptors and painters, by whom our most celebrated cathedrals were then
filled with statues and images, and yet he had never seen either images or
statues. He closed his eyes to monumental art in his own country; he never
studied it, except by reading, often without understanding them, the writings of
foreign authors. Amongst us, we do not at the same time depict Jesus on the
cross, and the Lamb at the foot of the cross; but in Italy, from the fourth to
the fifth century, the cross was drawn, probably without any figure of Christ,
but with the Divine Lamb at the foot. In fact, the following lines appear in
the works of St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, in the middle of the twelfth Epistle,
addressed by Paulinus to Sulpicius Severus:
“Sub cruce sanguinea niveo stat Christus in agno,
Agnus ut innocua injusto datus hostia leto.”
yielded up his life without a murmur, and he also, like a

shepherd filled with solicitude for his flock, came to seek
lost man, and to lead him back to the bosom of his God.
Jesus, as He has himself said, is the good shepherd who
seeks and bears upon his shoulders the wandering sheep, the
unfaithful soul, and brings it back to the fold. “I,” said
Jesus, by the mouth of St. John, “I am the good shepherd,
and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the
Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father; and I lay
down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which
are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.”
(St. John, x. 14, 15, 16.) As we proceed, we shall find
that Christ has been represented as the fish, and at the
same time as the fisherman who takes the fish: in the former
case he is both the lamb and the shepherd. On the door of
the Church of St. Pudentiana, at Rome, is a Lamb of God
in a medallion, with the following inscription,—“Dead and
living, I am but one; I am at once the shepherd and the
lamb.” The figured monuments in the catacombs, the
sarcophagi, and more especially, paintings in fresco, con
stantly present the figure of a shepherd, youthful, beardless,
clad in a short tunic striped with two longitudinal bands;
he is standing, and bears upon his shoulders the sheep that
had been lost, and that he loved. At his feet are the
faithful sheep, browsing, or lying down. In the following
design, taken from a fresco in the catacombs, the shepherd
has in his right hand a pan-pipe, whilst with the left he
holds the sheep securely on his shoulders.
These various representations have reference to those
words of Jesus Christ—“What man of you, having an hun
dred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety
and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost,
until he find it? And when he hath found it he layeth it
on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he
calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto
* “Hic agnus mundum restaurat sanguine lapsum,
Mortuus et vivus idem sum, pastor et agnus.”
- (Ciampini, Wet. Monim, part 1, cap. iii. p. 23.)
St. Paulinus (Epist. iii., ad Florent.) says again: “Idemagnus et pastor reget
nos in saecula, quinos de lupis agnos fecit; earumque nunc ovium pastorest ad
custodiam, pro quibus fuit agnus in victimam.”
JESUS, AS THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 339
them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was
lost” (St. Luke, xv.4–7). St. Thomas Aquinas must have
Fig. 89.—JESUs, AS THE GooD SHEPHERD."

From a Fresco in the Catacombs, belonging to the first ages of the Church.
caught inspiration from these thrilling words, when engaged

in composing his office of the Holy Sacrament. The great
doctor and poet exclaims, in fact, in one of his hymns,
“Good Shepherd, true bread, Jesus, have mercy on us.
* This drawing is copied from an engraving in Bosio. (Rom. Sotterr.,
p. 351.) The Good Shepherd, bearing the sheep upon his shoulders and
holding in his hand the Pandaean flute, is a very common subject in the earliest
Christian era, at which time religion was wonderfully gentle in spirit. Bosio
gives engravings of several such subjects. (See particularly, pages 339, 348,
349, 373,383,387.) Except the tunic, which in those examples is quite
plain and simple, without the two longitudinal bands and without the mantle,
the two latter figures precisely resemble the Shepherd in the above drawing.
The shepherds hold the lost sheep more or less firmly on their shoulders, and
seem more or less in fear, lest it should a second time escape. It is generally
held by the four feet, with two hands, as in the examples given (pages 339,
383, 455,461.) At other times, and more especially when, as in the present
case, the right hand is occupied by a musical instrument, the sheep is re
tained by one hand only. Finally, in page 391 of Rom. Sotterr, the sheep is
E 2
Feed us, defend us, make us to see the goodness of the

Lord, in the land of the living. Thou who knowest all and
canst do all, thou who feedest us here as mortals, make us
there above, co-partakers, co-heirs, and companions with the
holy denizens of heaven.”
In conclusion, it has been affirmed, at least by Pagan
antiquaries, that the subject of the Good Shepherd does
seated affectionately on the shoulder of the Good Shepherd, who fears not, so
weary is it, and so rejoiced at returning to its fold, that it will again endeavour
to escape. In page 373, the fold which the sheep is about to enter is shown in
the picture, and the treatment of the subject is thus rendered more complete.
The number of the faithful sheep lying on the turf, or browsing at the feet of
the Good Shepherd, is also varied: they are generally only two in number;
but at page 265 there are seven. The Good Shepherd himself seems some
times more weary than at others, of the burden which he bears upon his
shoulders, or with the journey he has made in order to recover his lost sheep,
but ordinarily he appears unconscious either of the burden or the fatigue.
Nevertheless, in the example given (p. 391), he leans upon a staff like a
pilgrim at the end of his journey. This theme reminds us of those beautiful
words of the Dies Irae—“QUAERENS ME SEDISTI LASSUS.” Thus, in
pages 269 and 273, we see the Good Shepherd sitting, actually overpowered with
fatigue. At Ravenna, in the Church of Galla Placidia, is a mosaic, executed in the
year 440; it represents Jesus, adorned with a plain nimbus, and sitting on a
hillock, in the midst ofa rich landscape. . The Saviour holds in his left hand the
Resurrection cross, and caresses a sheep with the right; five other sheep
view with pleasure this display of affection towards one of their own race.
(Ciampini, Vet. Mon., part 1, tab. 57, p. 227.) These divine shepherds are
sometimes without the mnsical instrument, like that at Ravenna, and those
examples at pages 339, 343, 473 of the Rom. Sott. Figures of the Good
Shepherd are usually placed in the most honourable part of the sarcophagi and
paintings, in the catacombs; they occupy the centre of the tomb, or of the
vaulting, and are placed in the middle of the archivaults and tympanum. In
consequence of the multitude of similar representations existing, the method of
treatment is equally various; all these varieties should be noticed, however
apparently unimportant, for they rarely fail to establish some fact or impart
some new idea.
, * The beautiful words of St. Thomas are given below:

“Bone pastor, panis vere,
Jesu, nostri miserere,
Tu, nos pasce, nos tuere;
Tu, nos bona fac videre,
In terra viventium.
Tu, qui cuncta scis et vales,
Quinos pascis hic mortales,
Tuos ibi commensales
Cohaeredes et sodales,
Fac sanctorum civium.”
JESUS CHRIST AS LION. 341
not belong properly, and as an invention of its own, to

Christianity; according to them, Christians borrowed that
idea, as they had done the nimbus, from Pagan art.
Still, supposing their assertions to be well-founded, the
subject was one of love, which had strayed into Paganism,
and the religion of Christ, so emphatically that of love,
was well entitled to claim it as its own. Consequently
the heart and imagination of Christians have dwelt fondly
upon this theme; it has been unceasingly repeated, under
every possible aspect, and may be almost said to have been
worn threadbare by Christian art. From the earliest ages
Christianity completely made it her own. It was seen
everywhere, even on the most ancient sacred vases, with
which we are acquainted, those venerable chalices of
glass, some fragments of which may still be seen in our
in U186limS.
Tertullian speaks of chalices, on which were paintings of

the Good Shepherd and the lost sheep."
JESUS CHRIST AS LION.
The lamb is not the only symbol of Christ; the lion pre
sents another; still, the lion is infinitely more uncommon
than the lamb on figured monuments. Jesus, for the reasons
given in a former place, has frequently been assimilated with
the lion, and sometimes, although at this moment I can recal
but two instances of the fact, we meet with a lion bearing
a cruciform nimbus.t. Had the nimbus been merely plain,
the lion would have been recognised as the symbol of the
Evangelist St. Mark, as has been shown in several previous
examples; but the cross, stamped upon the nimbus, proves
beyond doubt, that it is intended for the Lion of Judah, that
* “Patrocinabitur Pastor quem in calice depingitis.—A parabolis licebit
incipias, ubi est ovis perdita, a Domino requisita et humeris ejus revecta.
Procedant ipsae picturae calicum vestrorum, si vel in illis perlucebit interpre
tatio pecudis illius; utrumne christiano an ethnico peccatori de restitutione
colliniat.” (De Pudicit., cap. ii. and x.) In great museums, many of these
chalices with figures of the Good Shepherd, are to be seen.
+ That in the bible of Charles le Chauve, and on the window of the Abbè
Suger in St. Denis.
# Pages 56 and 57. With regard to the plain or cruciform nimbus attri
Lion who, by his resurrection, conquered death, and who, in

the tomb, slept with open eyes, and a heart awake. On
Mount Athos, in the great church, (Catholicon) of the Con
vent of Philothéou, there is a fresco painting representing
the slumbers of the Infant Jesus; Mary and two angels,
contemplating in adoration the repose of the Divine infant,
prostrate themselves in prayer before him. At the feet of
the child is a young lion, sleeping also, like him of whom he
is the symbol, and around whom is an inscription taken
from the Sacred Scriptures.”
The lamb, the lion, and the cross, are the three sole symbols
under which Christ is representedt But before attempting
to prove this proposition, it will be expedient to define the
difference of meaning between the words syMBOL and
FGURT; a distinction which must be strictly observed in
the application of those terms, as the two words are
frequently confounded, thus giving rise to many errors
and disputes.
By the words symbol and figure, we understand any sen
sible, or tangible design, employed to convey an idea; the
circular nimbus surrounding the heads of saints, is the ma
terial sign of their holiness. Considered in this light, the
symbol, and the figure, are precisely the same. They differ
in the following points. A symbol is an exterior formula,
the representation of some dogma of religious belief; it
is, like the dogma itself, an article of faith. The lamb is the
symbol of Jesus Christ; for the sacred texts relating to the
Divine lamb, oblige us to receive it as the necessary and
buted to the lion, we have spoken of that animal as symbolical of Christ and of
St. Mark. The reader is referred to the Vitraux de Bourges, pp. 78 and 82,
where curious and ample details concerning the lion as the symbol of Christ
will be found.
* “’Aváreorwv, hkolumón &s Aéaow, ical rijs Būvatai évetpelv &vrby;” this
text is taken from the Book of Genesis, xlix. 9, “Judah is a lion's whelp.”
Instead of kal ris Büvarai, it ought to have been tis. The modern Greeks,
who give the same pronunciation to the éta and ióta, frequently commit faults
of this description. In the western porch of Notre Dame de Paris, at the left
door, a little lion is represented, sleeping on the pedestal of a statue of the
Virgin Mary, who holds Jesus in her arms. It is the Greek motive executed.
in sculpture.
+ I allude here to symbols purely iconographic. The Old Testament is
filled with figures, of which Jesus Christ is the type; these figures are real
symbols, but being historical do not properly belong to the present work.
JESUS CHRIST AS LION. 343
dogmatical representative of Christ. The Lamb, indeed, is

Christ himself, Christ in person, and under a visible aspect.
A figure, on the other hand, is an arbitrary representation
of any idea. The figure, is not imposed by sacred dogmas,
or by the revealed word; but results simply from the free
operation of the human mind. The figure is a variable crea
tion of the imagination. We are required to receive a
symbol, but may be persuaded to admit a figure; the first
demands our faith, the second fascinates the mind. Christ
is symbolised by a lion, and still more appropriately by
a lamb; but he is merely figured by a pelican. The
pelican, lacerating her breast that her young may be
mourished with her blood, is an appropriate figure of
Jesus, dying, and shedding his blood for the salvation of
mankind. Still the pelican never has a nimbus, still less
would it have a cruciform nimbus; neither is Christ ever
represented by the pelican in the courts of heaven, nor
does he take part under that form in any of the events there
accomplished. The lamb on the contrary, wearing a nimbus
divided by a cross, is constantly depicted in scenes both from
the Apocalypse, and the Gospels; he is, indeed, Christ him
self, under the form and appearance of a lamb. Lastly, the
symbol, when fully developed, becomes a myth; but the
figure unfolded in all its details, presents nothing more than
an allegory. A myth is a belief, an assemblage of dogmas;
an allegory is merely a combination of metaphors, and may
be accepted or rejected at pleasure. A myth belongs to
faith, an allegory rests only on opinion. The symbol is a
divine creation, a revelation from God; the figure is of
human invention and by man set forth. The water of
baptism, the Eucharistic bread and wine, are signs, or
symbols. It would not be possible in the Eucharist to
substitute wine for water, nor in baptism to exchange water
for wine, for those symbols are unchangeably, eternally the
same. One figure may on the other hand be substituted
for another, with perfect propriety; the vine, yielding its
juice for the nourishment of man, may take the place of
the pelican, which gives her blood to support her young.
Finally, figures may be created by the imagination at plea
sure; but not so symbols.”
* Wide in Baluze (Miscellanea, vol. ii.), a work by St. Ildefonso, bishop
344 CHRISTIAN ECONOGRAPHY.
This being determined, we shall observe that the lamb

primarily, and secondarily the lion and the cross are the sole
symbols of Christ; but as figures of Christ, we have a host
of objects offered to our view, drawn from the three natural
kingdoms. We have the fish, the pelican, the eagle, the
hen, the serpent, and many others amongst animals; the
vegetable kingdom gives, together with a thousand others,
the fig-tree, the vine, the olive, and the cedar. Amongst
minerals, all precious stones either from their colour, their
solidity, or their transparency, are employed as figures of
Christ, as well as the mountains in their collected form.
The principal constellations, the sun and moon in particular,
have been regarded as reflecting the glory of the Son of
God.*
When once launched into the domain of imagination, we
enter upon an ocean of boundless expanse; it is not possible,
nor would it be profitable, to enumerate the countless
images under which Christ has been FIGURED. Still, since
one amongst those images has attracted peculiar attention,
and been an object of study with antiquaries, it will be
well to notice it here, were it only with a view to removing
such erroneous opinions as have been adopted on that
subject. The image here alluded to is—the fish.
JESUS, FIGURED BY THE FISH.
The fish, in the opinion of antiquaries in general, is the

symbol of Jesus Christ; we, however, should be inclined to
consider it as nothing more than a figure. A fish is
sculptured upon a number of Christian monuments, and
of Toledo, and disciple of Isidore of Seville. This work, entitled Liber

adnotationwm, gives an allegorical explanation of several plants, flowers,
fruits, animals, and minerals, comparing them to Jesus Christ, and to the
Church. St. Ildefonso died in 667; consequently this text is of great value
from its antiquity. The symbolists of the middle ages, Durandus, Jean
Beleth, Jean d’Avranches, and Hugues de Saint-Victor, drew much of their
information from that work. These interpretations will be found in the
second part of the Lib. Adnot, pp. 43 to 45 of the 2nd volume of Baluze.
* Wide, with regard to the sense in which the words symbol, figure, and
myth, are to be taken, M. Guignaut's work on the Réligions de l'Antiquité,
JESUS, FIGURED BY THE FISH. 345
more particularly upon the ancient sarcophagi; it is either

single, or attended by other attributes, and is placed beneath
funeral inscriptions. It is seen also upon medals bearing
the effigy of our Saviour,” and upon engraved stones,
cameos, and intaglios.f The fish is also to be remarked
upon the amulets worn, suspended from the neck by children,
and upon ancient glasses and sepulchral lamps. Montfaucon
mentions a mosaic in the Cathedral of Ravenna, in which
the fish is introduced as symbolic of Christians. In the
interior of a grotto in the necropolis of Cyrene, in Africa, is
a fresco painting, in the centre of which the Good Shepherd
is seen bearing a lamb upon his shoulders, which he holds
firmly by all the four feet. At the feet of the Shepherd are
six lambs, already armed with horns, and looking stedfastly
at their master.
The Shepherd is clothed in a tunic as in the monuments
of the catacombs, his head is, besides, adorned with a
crown of leaves. But in addition to this, above the
principal lamb, seven fishes are ranged in a circle, a
valuable peculiarity which appears to blend the allegory of
tom. 1, part 1, p. 16, et suiv; tom. 1, part 2, p. 528, et suiv. M. J. J.
Ampère, in a course of lectures at the College of France, in 1837, clearly
established the respective value of the terms, symbol, figure, image, metaphor,
emblem, myth, allegory. I have been chiefly guided by M. Ampère on the
particular point here discussed.
* I am not myself acquainted with any instances of this, but merely repeat
a fact generally admitted to be correct.
* M. le Marquis Fortia d’Urban possesses a white chalcedony, in the form
of a truncated cone, which is pierced through, and might have been worn as an
amulet. On the base of the cone is a figure of Christ, youthful, beardless, drawn
in profile, with the name XPICTOY, and the image of the fish. This monu
ment, according to M. Raoul Rochette, who has given an engraving from it
(Types du Christianisme, frontispiece, and p. 21), must belong to the period of
Alexander Severus. It appears that Christ—if the figure be indeed intended
for Christ—has a radiated crown, resembling that worn by Roman emperors.
# M. de Belloc (La vierge au Poisson de Raphael, Lyon, 1833) has
caused lithographic drawings to be made of eight Christian monuments calcu
lated to throw light upon the question under consideration. Amongst them
are two cornelians, two engraved stones used as seals, one gold ring, an
amethyst, and a sardonyx. Besides these, he has given us a sepulchral lamp,
representing fishes, dolphins, cruciform anchors, and a man fishing with a line,
with the allegorical cyphers IX®TX, A. Q., IH. X0, and even the word
COTHP. All these various monuments are Italian, and belong apparently to a
very remote period.
the Good Shepherd with that of the fish. The fish, and
the Greek cross are also seen filling up branches of foliage
painted on the wall of a Christian “hypogée" (subterranean
tomb or crypt), situated near Aphrodisias in Africa.”
Baptismal fonts are more particularly ornamented with
the fish. Thus at Gemona in Frioul, and Pirano in Istria,
are two large baptismal urns bearing the fish.t
In a village church near Beigetad, in Denmark, around a
baptistery, are three fish, intertwined in the form of a
triangle. France also contains a few similar examples.
The fish is distinctly figured on the baptismal font at
Boulogne sur Mer; it is said to be also on that of St. Jacques
at Compiègne. § In Saint Germain-des-Près, at the entrance
of the western semicircular chapel, in which the baptismal
font is placed, and where I imagine it has always been, a
female Siren, and a male and bearded Siren, are to be seen
on the capital of a column; both of these fabulous animals
hold fishes in their arms, while other fishes play beneath the
waters, which undulate around those fantastic personages.
Fishes are seen sometimes in other parts of the church,
besides the baptisteries. In the nave of St.-Caprais-d'Agen
three fishes are depicted.
A fish is sculptured upon a statue found in the cemetery
of St. Jean, dep, de la Nièvre.
To conclude, in sculptured or painted monuments, repre
senting the Lord's Supper, the last repast of Jesus Christ,
the fish is figured amongst the meats; it accompanies the
Paschal Lamb amongst others. On the gates of the parish
church of Nantua, the second apostle standing on the
left hand of Christ, carries a fish perfectly defined. In
* Wide the curious paintings in the work written by Pacho, Voyaye dans
la Marmorique et la Cyrénaïque, Atlas, planches xiii., li. These paintings
date probably from the earliest epoch of Christianity.
+ P. Belloc, Vierge au Poisson, p. 78.
# It is in Münter (Images Symboliques et Représentations Figurées des
Anciens Chrétiens, in-4°., en Allemand; Altona, 1835) that this fact is men
tioned. M. Cyprien Robert notices it, in his Cours d’ Hiëroglyphique
Chrétienne, and we repeat it here, but without attaching any peculiar import
ance to the circumstance.
§ Bulletin du Comité Historique des Arts et des Monuments, session of
1840-1841; notice de M. Charles Bazin, pp. 115-118.
| Vierge au Poisson, p. 77.
*
manuscripts with miniatures,” on painted glass and enamels

of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,f the fish is
constantly exhibited, placed upon a dish in the middle of
the table at the Last Supper, amongst the loaves, knives,
and glasses, which are used at the repast.
Such is the evidence afforded by monuments; the written
testimony of authors is as follows:– -
Before the time of Constantine, the texts name the

Ixors, but without giving any explanation of it; the mystery,
if mystery there be, remained such during the entire period
of persecution. It is simply a literary metaphor, or at least,
it was the wish of the earlier Christians that it should be so
considered. Christianity found it necessary to appropriate
the images of Paganism, and to purify them with a Christian
ideality, but they remained simple images still. “Let the
dove and the fish, the vessel, flying before the breath of the
wind, the harmonious lyre used by Polycrates, and the marine
anchor sculptured by Seleucus, be signs unto you,” says
St. Clement of Alexandria.: Tertullian adds, “We are
little fishes in Christ our great fish. For we are born in
water, and can only be saved by continuing therein.”$
But the metaphor aspired ere long to the elevation of
the figure, and a similitude which had until that time
been purely literary, became mystical. About the middle
of the fourth century, Optatus, Bishop of Milesia, in Africa,
declared that “the single name of fish, according to the
Greek denomination, contained in the letters composing
it, a host of sacred names, Ixers gives in the Latin,
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour. In fact, by
* Wide several Latin MSS. in the Bibliothèque Royale.
* Painted windows of the Cathedral at Chartres, and the Sainte Chapelle, at
Paris. M. du Sommerard (Album des Arts au Moyen Age) gives a drawing
of an enamel belonging to him, and representing the repast of Jesus in the
house of Simon the Pharisee. A fish is represented on a dish in the centre of
the table, as forming the principal viand. This enamel is of the twelfth century.
it “Signa vobis sint columba, aut piscis, aut navis quae celeri cursu fertur a
vento, aut lyra musica qua usus est Polycrates, aut anchora nautica quam
insculpebat Seleucus; et si quis piscator effictus fuerit, Apostoli meminerit et
puerorum qui ex aqua extrahuntur.” (Clem. Alex, in Paedag., lib. iii., cap. ii.)
§ “Nos, pisciculi secundum ‘IX®TN’ nostrum Jesum Christum, in aqua
nascimur, nec aliter quam in aqua manendo salvi sumus.”-Tertullian, Lib.
de Baptis, cap. i., No. 2, Adversus Quintil.
| “Piscis nomen, secundum apellationem graecam, in uno nomine, per
taking each letter of Ixers for the initial of a Greek word,

we make “’Ingóws Xptorrós Geóv Yiós sorp.” From that time
forward, oriental subtlety, always prepared for a jeu-de-mots
of that description, repeated almost to satiety, religious
similitudes drawn from waves and navigation, from the seas
and their inhabitants. Funeral inscriptions were preceded
and accompanied by the Ixers.” The Ixors was even
admitted into the internal composition of these inscriptions,
of which a very remarkable and excellent example is
supplied by the mysterious inscription at Autun; in that
monument, Ixers is three times repeated, perhaps four
times, and in different forms of application.t Jesus
Christ was not only compared to the fish, which gives
itself to be eaten, but also to the fisherman by whom
the fish is taken, even as Christ takes souls in the net of
his love.
Thus on the one hand, Julius Africanus calls Jesus
Christ the great fish taken by the fish-hook of God, and
whose flesh nourishes the whole world.: Saint Prosper of
Aquitaine says, “the Saviour, the Son of God, is a fish
prepared in his passion, and by whose entrails we are con
stantly and daily nourished and enlightened.” $ “Ixerx is
the mystical name of Christ,” exclaims St. Augustine, “be
cause he descended alive into the depths of this mortal life, as
into the abyss of waters.”|| “Christ,” says the same father,
“is the fish, which young Tobias took living from the stream;
singulas litteras turbam sanctorum nominum continet ‘IX8TX, quod est latine,
Jesus Christus Dei filius, Salvator.” (Optat. Milev. in Bibl. Patrum, vol. iv.,
lib. iii.)
* Wide the Christian inscription, discovered by Boldetti in the cemetery of
St. Epimaque, at Rome, and mentioned by Fabretti.
* This inscription, recently discovered at Autun, is in Greek, sculptured on
white marble, and appears to date from the third century. A work is
announced by M. Letronne on this monument, which has been examined by
MM. Haze and Rochette, and which the Père Secchi, censor of the Pontifical
Academy at Rome, has discussed in a special memoir.
+ Julii Africani, Narratio de iis quae, Christo nato, in Perside acciderunt.
§ “Dei filius salvator piscis in sua passione decoctus, cujus ex interioribus
remediis quotidie illuminamur et pascimur.”
| “Ichthus, in quo nomine mystice intelligitur Christus, eo quod in hujus
mortalitatis abysso, velut in aquarum profunditate vivus, hoc est sine peccato,
esse potuerit.” (Cité de Dieu.)
whose heart (liver), consumed by passion, put the demon to

flight and restored sight to the blind.” * The name of
piscina given to the baptismal font, of which the water, the
atmosphere of fishes, purifies us from all stain and becomes
the means of salvation, is derived from the fish, symbolising
Him by whom we are nourished, healed, redeemed.t
On the other hand, Jesus was called “fisher of men,” as
he had himself given a similar appellation to St. Peter,t
St. Gregory Nazianzen says that Jesus, the fisherman,
descended into the stormy abyss of this world in order to
draw men from it like fishes, and carry them up into heaven.
M. Robert informs us, that on one of the sarcophagi in the
Vatican,S described by Bottari, Jesus is represented standing
on the shore, a line in his hand, and a crowd of little
aquatic beings nibbling at the bait. An engraving taken
from a cornelian, and published by the Abbé Vallarsi, at
Verona, in his notes on St. Jerome, represents a young
fisherman, holding a little fish on his hook; against the fish
is the word Ixers. But the most complete existing monu
ment of this description, is furnished by a miniature in the
manuscript of Herrade. God the Father is there repre
sented holding in his hand a line, which he casts into the
abyss of ocean. The line itself is formed of the busts of
patriarchs, prophets, and kings, enchained one with the
other, from Adam, who is nearest God, down to David who
is next to the hook; the bait, in fact, is no other than Jesus
the Saviour, attached to the cross.
Jesus, descends into the abyss, seeking Leviathan who
* “Est Christus piscis ille qui ad Tobiam ascendit de flumine vivus, cujus
jecure per passionem assato fugatus est diabolus.” St. Augustine.
+ “Hic est piscis qui in baptismate per invocationem fontalibus undis
inseritur ut quae aquafuerat a pisce etiam piscina vocitetur.” (Optatus Epis.
Milevitanus.)
# And St. Andrew also. St. Matt. iv. 18, 19; St. Mark. i. 16, 17.—Trans.
§ M. Cyprien Robert, has given a course of lectures on Christian hiero
glyphics, printed in the “Université Catholique.” Vol. vi., from p.345 to p. 352,
treats of the delicate question here discussed; we have borrowed considerably
from the interesting work to which we refer, and shall continue to do so.
Although compelled to lay considerable restrictions on the latitude allowed by
M. Robert to symbolism, and to refuse our assent to certain conclusions at
which he arrives, we are nevertheless disposed to render full justice to the
real merits of that learned and ingenious work.
bites the cross by which he is to perish, while Christians

cling to it as the means of their salvation.* The imagina
tion of artists and poets, sculptors and fathers of the
Church, painters and preachers, has never ceased to draw
from this theme a thousand comparisons and metaphors,
spun into tedious allegories. To the fathers already named,
we may add St. Jerome, Origen, Bede, St. Ambrose,
St. Eucharius, and others besides, all of whom have made
allusion to the fish, the sea, the anchor, the vessel, and the
bark, in speaking of Christ, of redemption, and of the
Church. The bark of St. Peter, the ship of the Church, are
images employed even in the fourth century in the Aposto
lical Constitutions.f Images which have continued in use
in ecclesiastical language even to the present day, and
which, as late as the close of the sixteenth century, supplied
subjects for curious paintings on glass.:
Finally, an ancient text, sufficiently comprehensive,
appears to present a compendium of the scattered words of
the primitive fathers, and to have been the source of the
imagery subsequently adopted in the west, in treating of that
subject; it is extracted from a Merovingian manuscript
brought from St. Benoit-sur-Loire. The manuscript is a
missal, and contains the following benediction:—
“Stand, my beloved brethren, on the borders of the crystal
fountain. Bring hither the new men who carry on exchange
and commerce from the interior to the coast. May all, rowing
upon the water, strike the new sea, not with oars, but with
the cross; not with the hand, but with the heart; not with
the staff, but with the sacrament. The extent is small it is
true, but replete with grace. The Holy Spirit has steered
* Hortus deliciarum.
+ In the Apostolical Constitutions, published in 1578, by the Jesuit
Turrianus, we read: “Sit tedes (he is speaking of the Church) oblonga, adori
entem versus, navi similis.” The orientation of churches is thus proved to
have been formally prescribed in the earliest times.
# A painted window, brought from the cloisters and now placed in a chapel
at the side of the choir, in the church of St. Etienne-du-Mont, and near to the
tomb of Ste. Geneviève, presents a vessel steered by Jesus Christ, and filled
with a crowd of passengers of every age and condition, amongst whom the
portrait of Francis I. has, it is said, been recognised. The vessel of the
Church, guided by Christ, whose hand is on the helm, flies with spreading sails,
towards the eternal port.
like a good pilot. Let us pray to our God and Master

that he will sanctify these waters.”
The concurrent testimony of facts, ancient authors and
monuments, lead us to the conclusion, that the fish is em
blematic of Christ; but the next point to define is, in what
measure, it may thus be regarded as an emblem. Can we
affirm with certain antiquaries, that the fish is a true symbol
of Christ, or does it not rather appear, as if he were simply
figured by it?
That the lion, and more especially the lamb, are symbols
of Christ, is sufficiently proved by the Gospels and the
Book of the Revelation, by councils, the liturgy, and the
general practice of art. The archaeologist sees Jesus, as
completely incorporated in the lamb, as the theologian does
in the bread and wine; in iconographic symbolism, the lamb
is altogether annihilated that he may be replaced by the
Son of God, as in a similar manner the material elements of
bread and wine, are affirmed to disappear by consecration,
and to become the body and blood of Christ. The lamb does
not merely by his presence recal the Son of God to mind,
but exhibits him, as if He had actually assumed that form.
In short, the lamb is a symbol, demanding faith; but with
the fish it is not so; the fish is merely a metaphor, rendered
evident to the senses through the medium of a drawing.
The sight of a fish may remind us of Jesus, to whom it
makes allusion, but our Saviour cannot be personally visible
in the fish, because He is not in him.
In regard to the Eucharist, the Church of Rome holds,
that the bread and wine after consecration become the very
body and blood of Christ; Protestants, on the contrary
affirm, that in the consecrated elements, symbols only of the
body and blood of Christ are to be recognised, and not our
Saviour in person. Antiquaries too, are Protestants, in
* “Stantes, fratres carissimi, super ripam vitrigifontes (sic). Novos homines
adduc eis de terra littori mercatores sua commercia. Singuli navigantes
pulsent mare novum, non virga sed cruce; non tactused sensu ; non baculo,
sed sacramento. Locus quidem parvus, sed gratia plenus. Bene gubernatus
est Spiritus-Sanctus. Oremus ergo Dominum et Deum nostrum ut sanctificet
hunc fontem.” (Mabillon, De Liturg. Gall. Missale Gothicum, xxxvi. p. 247.)
M. Michelet (Origines du droit Français) could not omit so poetical and
invaluable a text; that profound historian has given a translation of it, accom
panied by highly interesting reflections. -
respect of the fish, and say that it is to be considered only

as an emblematic figure, not as embodying the person of
Christ.
In speaking of the lamb, however, we borrow the language
of Christian orthodoxy, and declare that Jesus himself is
hidden under the form of the lamb. For this reason, also,
the nimbus of the lamb is stamped with a cross, and com
pletely resembles that of Jesus, because indeed, Jesus is
there present, although under the figure of a lamb. But on
the other hand, the fish is never represented with a nimbus
of any kind, either plain or cruciform.
It is in a word a simple image applied sometimes, and
even frequently, to Christ; but in the same manner only, in
which the vine is taken amongst vegetables, and the pelican
among birds. The fish reminds us of Christ, but the lamb
represents him; the latter is a serious symbol, taken from
the Sacred Scriptures; the first, a mere figure, extracted
from ecclesiastical books. We are required to recognise the
lamb, but permitted to reject the fish.
The image of the fish is sometimes, and even frequently,
applied to Christ; but not invariably. Indeed, we must
guard against the extremes into which Italian antiquaries,
and those among the French who follow their example, have
been betrayed. These learned men assert, but without
reason, that whenever a fish is seen represented upon a
Christian monument, it must necessarily bear reference to
Jesus Christ. But if it can be proved that even the lamb
upon religious monuments, does not invariably figure Christ,
with how much greater reason may the same be alleged
concerning the fish? The lamb indeed, sometimes figures
the Apostles, Christians in general, and even Jews; a pal
pable proof of which is afforded by the tomb of Junius
Bassus, amongst others. Frequently also, the lamb has no
particular personification; it enters as pure ornament into
any work of art, in the same manner as the dove, or cock, a
duck, or a sparrow. In such a case the lamb of course
has neither a plain, nor a cruciform nimbus. Nor is the
fish in general, of higher importance; it is an insignifi
cant ornament, and does not, either immediately or re
motely, apply to Christ. The fish, when seen upon coins
even of &#: money, may, and in fact frequently is
found, to be merely an attribute of the city in which the

coin was issued; or a mark of the warden of the mint, and
has no other meaning than the horse, the owl, or the fish,
seen upon coins of different cities.
It may be remarked as a singular fact, that the mystical
anagram, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour, made
by a Greek of Alexandria, from the word Ixers, produced
no results in Greece. In that country we never meet
with any fish, either in painting or in sculpture, which
could have been intended to figure Christ. Fishes indeed
there are in the mosaics, and especially in the frescos of
Greece, but they are swimming in the open sea, and come
at the time of the Last Judgment, to restore the human
limbs which they have devoured. One brings an arm, an
other a leg; this dolphin, a man’s head; that whale, a woman’s
bust.* Fishes are also seen gliding in the waters of Jordan
at the moment of our Saviour's baptism. They are seen in
the Red Sea, when the Hebrews pass through it dry-shod.
But these fishes do not symbolise Christ any more than the
figure of the ancient River Jordan, who is present leaning
on his urn, at the baptism of Christ; or the abyss of the
Red Sea, represented under the figure of a terrible Hercules,
seizing and drowning Pharaoh. These fishes have no alle
gorical meaning; they are natural, and Jesus Christ is not
signified by them. He must be sought for in the Latin
monuments. -
But even in those monuments, the fish, when it has any

meaning whatever, usually has a completely different mean
ing to that attributed to it. Thus, the fish is frequently
represented upon the ancient sarcophagi from the catacombs,
collected in the Musée Chrétien of the Vatican; the carp,
* This singular and highly animated subject is represented in paintings
where the Last Judgment is somewhat minutely detailed; it is particularly
complete at Salamis, in the Church of the Panaghia phanéroméni, and the
Monastery of Vatopédi on Mount Athos. The Manuscript of Herrade (Hort.
Delic.), Byzantine in many respects, presents the same subject, with the accom
panying legend: “Corpora et membra hominum a bestiis, et volucribus, et
PiscIBUs olim devorata nutu Dei repraesentantur, ut ex integra humana massa
resurgant, incorrupta corpora sanctorum quae non tantum per bestias, ut depic
tum est, afferuntur, sed nutu Dei praesentabuntur.” The Apocalypse (xx. 13)
says: “Et dedit mare mortuos, qui in eo erant.” “And the sea gave up the
dead which were in it.”
A. A
and the dolphin, alone, or accompanied by other creatures or

objects, are represented on those tombs. It has been con
cluded that they bore, although under a different form, the
same signification as the cross, or the monogram of Christ also
engraved upon those tombs, and that they are symbolic, or
at least emblematic of God the Saviour. The idea is most
probably erroneous; for one instance in which such an inten
tion is evident, fifty would be found to betray a different
motive. In fact, it is customary amongst all nations, to
represent upon the tomb of a deceased person, the attributes
of the trade he had followed during his life. Even at present,
in the cemetery of the Armenians, at Constantinople, all the
sepulchral stones bear symbols of the profession exercised
by the defunct person who lies beneath. For an Armenian
tailor, scissors, thread, and needles are figured; for a mason,
hammers and a trowel; a shoemaker has a last, leather, and
a shoemaker's knife; a spice-merchant, scales; a banker,
pieces of money. The same may be observed in other cases;
amongst ourselves, in the middle ages, a pair of compasses,
a rule, and a square, were graven upon the tomb of Hugh
Libergier.” In the cemetery de l’Est, at Paris, a pallet marks
the burying-place of a painter; a chisel and hammer that
of a sculptor; animals, speaking and acting, masks, which
grimace and smile, indicate, in the same inclosure, the tombs
of La Fontaine and of Molière. It was just the same
amongst the Romans; a fisherman had a boat upon his
tomb: a shepherd, a sheep; a grave-digger, a mattock; a
navigator, an anchor or a trident; a vine-dresser, a cask;
an architect, the capital of a column, or the instruments of
his art.
The opposite plate represents a sepulchral stone, decorated
with a small house, a tomb, in which a corpse is placed
erect at the top of a flight of steps, a candlestick with
seven lamps or branches, and a balance. This was pro
* This tomb is at present in the Cathedral of Rheims; it was brought from
the Parish Church of St. Nicaise, built by Libergier in the same city. The
architect of Rheims, like Michel le Papelart, architect of Châlons-sur-Marne,
carries a model of a church, which he supports against his breast, next his heart.
These two great men, one of whom erected the Church of St. Nicaise at Rheims,
and the other, St. Etienne of Châlons, both belong to the thirteenth century.
Libergier died in 1263, and Papelart in 1258.
bably the tomb of a spice-merchant, or a vender of oils and

perfumes. The little house may probably have been the
shop; there he weighed in his scales the perfumes necessary
for embalming the dead, and oils to feed either funerallamps,
or those used by the living.
Fig. 90—ToMB of A vBNDER OF onl.”

Latin Sculpture; Intaglio of the earliest Christian era.
Another tomb is ornamented with two pairs of compasses,

one with curved legs, another with straight legs; a square,
a rule, a ball of twine, a plummet furnished with its line and
lead, a hammer or pick, a chisel, and a gouge; it is evidently
the tomb of an architect. With the first pair of compasses,
* An engraving of this stone is given in Bosio (Rom. Sotter, p. 302) ; it
has been supposed to belong to the fifth century, because Stilichon is named in
the inscription occupying the upper part. Besides the four objects given in
our plate, there is also a large fish, a kind of dolphin. Fron, that fish was
extracted the oil which was sold in the shop, weighed in the balances, and
burned in the lamps kindled for the dead. 2
A. A
the architect tested thicknesses as with the modern cali

pers,” with the second he traced circles; with the square
r—-
he drew right lines; he measures short
distances with the rule, and employs
the line in those which are more con
siderable; he finds the level or per
pendicular with his plummet, chips the
stone with his hammer, sculptures it
with the chisel, and rounds it with
the gouge.
Elsewhere we have a shepherd
bearing on his shoulders the tired
sheep, reminding us of that passage
in Virgil.
- - • • . En ipse capellas
Protinus aeger ago; hanc etiam vix,
Tityre, duco.:
Or perhaps we have a carpenter

who wished his axe to be preserved;$
or a gravedigger of the catacombs
with his pickaxe; or a sailor with his
trident and boat re-entering a port
lighted by a pharos, or a fisherman
* Calipers (Pistolet, Fr.) Caliper—or caliper

compasses—whence “calibre.” A pair of com
passes, with curved legs, used for measuring small
diameters.—Translator.
+ This funereal stone was found at Rome, in
the vineyard of Sixtus the Fifth; an engraving
of it is given in Rom. Sotter., p. 505.
# Eclogue the First.
§ The axe, the famous ascia, so frequently
figured on tombs by the Romans, and relating to
which much may yet be said, probably has no
c= other meaning than that here given. It seems
* ><=x,
very doubtful whetherit be of such singular value
| as has generally been supposed.
*
| Beneath the porch of St. Maria, in Trastevere,
a tumular stone is preserved, bearing incised
upon it a little vessel, and a lighthouse of three stories in height. The sail
of the vessel is full and swelling, and the lighthouse illuminated. M. Tournal,
to whom I am indebted for this information, believes the representations to be
with his fish; an architect with the Corinthian capital which

he loved; a fowler with a dove; a baker with a loaf; a
shoemaker with soles, or a last; one who sold by weight, with
scales and a steel-yard; a labourer, a flail to thresh the
corn; one who cut wood or stone with a saw, and so on with
others. In Fig. 93, a few of these objects are represented;
they are not mystical emblems, but simply the attributes
or tools of artisans.
Fig. 92-SARCOPHAGUs of A MARINER, who AFTERwARDs BECAME A SHEPHERD."

Sculpture of the earliest Christian period.
Formerly when an individual died he was interred

together with the objects that he had loved during life,—
his horse, his clothes, his valuable things, even his wife, a
symbolic. In the notes transmitted to me by that learned antiquary, descrip
tive of those tombs in the catacombs which he has studied, he affirms that
the palm tree is the symbol of strength, durability, and virtue; that the foot
prints, and the snail, allude to our passage from this world to another, and to a
modest and retired life; that the bushel signifies fulness of days, and that the
horse is an emblem of death. We give the reasons which preclude our ac
cepting these almost too, ingenious explanations.
* This figure fills the centre of a sarcophagus of white marble, found in the
vineyard of the Salviati College, at Rome. I have some difficulty in believing
that any reference to the Good Shepherd is here intended, and imagine the
sarcophagus to have been executed by the orders of a man, who was both a
sailor and a proprietor of sheep; a rich fisherman perhaps, who afterwards
became an opulent breeder of sheep. Without positively affirming this to be a
fact, I believe that the objects sculptured make allusion to material life rather
than to religious sentiments.
custom which prevails even now in India. At the same

time these objects were figured upon his tomb; and in later
periods, even after the custom of burying them with the
dead had been discontinued, they still continued to be so
represented upon the tombs.
t is in this fact, at least, according to my judgment, that
we must seek an explanation of the greater number of
objects represented on sarcophagi, or the frescos of the
catacombs. We shall not, then, be induced to say, with Italian
antiquaries, that the bark sailing into port by the light of
a pharos, signifies the soul which has done with the storms
of life, and enters heaven with spreading sails, guided by
the light of faith, and warmed by the heat of charity;—
that the dolphin in the water is our Saviour, the friend of
man, who came down from heaven to bring redemption to
man, and to withdraw him from the abyss;—that the dove,
holding in its beak a branch or a crown, is Christ, coming to
announce to men that God has dried up the deluge, and is
ready to receive them into the verdant Gardens of Paradise.
We shall not say, looking at the representation of a bunch
of grapes, a loaf, an amphora, a flail, a balance, a lamp,
the sole of a shoe, a horse, a ram, a peacock, a flower,
a heart-shaped leaf, a rule, a level, or any of the numberless
other objects engraven upon the sarcophagi, that the first
symbolise Christ who gave his blood and his body for man;
or that others symbolise God, who threshes the souls of the
virtuous in his divine barn, who weighs them in the balance,
and endows them with light; or the soul, which quitting
earth, leaves only the impression of its steps, and flies,
without a moment's pause to heaven; or that it is the soul
which is powerful as the ram, always awake, like the eye
gemmed tail of the peacock; the soul perfumed by charity,
ruling its life by, and bringing every feeling into subjection
to, the law of justice. Instead of receiving such interpre
tations, which cannot be justified by reasön, we shall rather,
on seeing these various images, assert, that in one tomb
rests a boatman, in another a fisherman, in the next a
farmer; here sleeps a vinedresser, there a baker, a tavern
keeper, a thresher, a merchant selling goods by weight, a
spice-merchant, a shoemaker, a knight, a shepherd, a poultry
keeper, a gardener, a mason, and so on. We know, in
fact, that funeral inscriptions abound with errors, both of

orthography and grammar,” and that most of these tombs
were erected by the lower classes of society, and for
themselves.
Fig. 93.—VARIOUs ATTRIBUTEs, REPRESENTED on THE TOMBs of THE

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS.
Sculpture and Painting in the Catacombs.
The above plate contains some of the numerous attributes

sculptured in relief, or incised on the sarcophagi and funeral
stones, erected in the primitive ages of Christianity. The
sarcophagi found in the Aliscamps at Arles,t those which fill
the crypts of the great churches in the south of France,
those which may still be seen dispersed throughout Marseilles,
St. Maximin and Toulouse: lastly, the sepulchral stones in
the Musée at Lyons, present analogous attributes. Those in
the preceding plate, £
92, are collected from the monuments
* This observation was made by M. Tournal during a journey which he has

lately made into Italy.
* The Cemetery at Arles is mentioned by Dante. Inferno, Canto ix.,
—Translator.
in Rome, and are all engraved in Bosio’s great work.” The

large fish indicates the fisherman by whom he was caught,
or the workman by whom the oil was extracted from it.
The trident announces the grave of a sailor, the mattock
that of a grave-digger. The occupation of grave-digger in
the catacombs, was of rather high standing; in primitive
monuments we find many memorials of these men,f who,
amongst us are looked upon as of an inferior class, but at that
time, when they hollowed tombs for the Saints and Martyrs,
were themselves interred amongst the rich and noble, or
even side by side with Saints and Confessors; they were
represented holding in one hand a mattock, and in the other
a lamp; the lamp they required to light their subterranean
labours. The hatchet ought to designate a carpenter, and
the capital of a column, a sculptor or architect. The dove
probably makes allusion to the duties performed by the
mother of a family, who feeds her household birds; such
appears to be the meaning of a monumental sculpture,
engraved by Bosio.: Still it may possibly have arisen from
a symbolic idea, but that idea must have been borrowed
from profane rather than religious sentiment: and I could
* Rom. Sotterr. passim, particularly pp. 216, 505, 506, 508.
+ Ciampini Veter. Monim. and Bosio, Rom. Sotterr. In Bosio, p. 373,
two plates are given representing the paintings in the eleventh chamber of the
cemetery of the Saints Marcellinus and Peter. Two grave-diggers are there
painted in fresco, one holding a lamp, with which he lights the labours of his
companion, who is digging with a mattock, almost exactly resembling that in
our drawing, Fig. 93. (See Bosio, also, pages 305 and 335, four other grave
diggers using similar instruments: one of them is removing the earth with a
shovel.) At page 529 (of Bosio), a grave-digger in a short tunic has his own
name, and that of his occupation written above his head, FosRotor IMUs, which
Bosio conceives to mean FossoR TRoPHIMUs. Bosio expresses himself thus—
“The annexed letters I believe to be intended for Fossor Trophimus, whose
name may be read in the Sinopse di Doroteo, amongst those of the seventy
disciples of the apostles; and he is also mentioned in an Epistle, written by
St. Paul to Timothy (2nd Epistle to Timothy, iv.,20). The office of grave
diggers and of burying the dead was, as we are told by St. Girolamo, the first
in the church.”—St. Hieron. De Septem Gradibus Ecclesiae. “Le lettere
che sono appresso, credo che vogliano dire, Fossor Trophimus. Il cui nome si
legge nella sinopse di Doroteo, tra i settenta discepoli degli apostoli; e si fa di
esso mentione in un’ Epistola, che St. Paolo scrive a Timoteo. Questo grado
di fossori, che sepellivano li morti, era il primo nella chiesa, come afferma
St. Girolamo.”
# Rom. Sotterr., p. 95.
willingly trace in it an allusion to the gentleness of the

deceased, whether a man or a woman—the constancy of the
husband or of the wife. At all events, supposing it to
indicate the resurrection, like the dove, which returning to
the ark after the deluge, announced that the waters had
subsided, and that the dry land appeared,” we cannot thence
infer positively, that the fish had filled an analogous
position, nor above all, that it was the syMBOL of Christ;
the dove is named in the Old Testament, but the fish, most
certainly is neither in the Old nor the New.
Whenever then a fish is seen upon a tomb, or on monu
ments of different kinds, its presence must not be too
hastily interpreted in a mystical sense, but the most simple
and natural explanation ought first to be adopted. For
example, if the presence of one or more fish in any religious
monument signified that Jesus were in the body of those
animals, either symbolically or merely by a figure, it would,
strictly speaking, be necessary to maintain that the same
divine person is signified by the fish sculptured on the
capitals in the Church of St. Germain des-Près. Now on
one of these capitals we see a siren, male and bearded,
holding a fish in his arms; and a female, beardless siren
holding another fish; and besides these, two other fishes
united by a thread of water. The first group ought then to
be regarded as the Father Almighty holding his Son; the
second, the Virgin Mary with the infant Christ; the third,
the Father and Son linked together, and with whom, to
complete the symbol, a third fish ought also to be connected.
It has indeed been imagined, that the Trinity was thus
figured on a baptismal font, on which three fishes were re
presented. On the font of St. Jacques de Compiègne also
are three monsters, which have been pronounced to be
fishes; but in the latter case the fishes are nothing more
than hideous apes, and there might as easily have been more
of them, as three only.
With regard to the fish sometimes represented on the
* In Bosio (Rom. Sotterr., p. 449 and others.) Noah receives in his hands
the dove, which carries a branch in its beak (p. 4ll, ibid.) The dove is
without the branch (vide Bosio, pp. 377, 381, and 531 also.) This subject is
extremely common in the Catacombs. The example, p. 531, is one of the
most curious on account of the singular form of the ark.
table at the Lord's Supper, placed before Jesus or the

Apostles, for what reason should it be declared to be
symbolic of Christ? As the table is equally loaded with
viands, and with birds variously cooked, it would become
necessary, reasoning from analogy, to discover in each of
these dishes a symbol of the Son of God; so gross a con
clusion cannot for a moment be admitted. Besides, had the
fish been intended as a symbol of Christ, its head would
have been decorated with a cruciform nimbus, as without
that proof the assertion is gratuitous, and may with equal
justice be either affirmed or denied. Now the nimbus is
never on any monument found encircling the head of the
fish; yet it would not be more extraordinary to place a
nimbus on the head of a fish, than it is strange to see a
hand, the head of a bird, a dove, or a lion, with a cruci
form nimbus. The nimbus never having been given, it
seems scarcely probable that symbolism, or even a figure,
can have been involved in it.
The white marble ambo at Ravenna, called the throne of
the Arian bishops, is divided in height, into six panels or
pictures, and into ten in breadth. Each row of panels is
occupied by a series of ten animals. Commencing at the top
and going downwards, we find ten sheep, ten peacocks, ten
doves, ten stags, ten ducks, and ten fishes. It is scarcely
probable that these animals can have been thus disposed
with any allegorical intention; they are arabesques, and
'' ornamental. The sculptor drew the theme, not from
is faith, but his imagination. An arabesque is a caprice,
and not the expression of any idea connected with religion or
£ Assuredly, neither Raphael, nor Jean Goujon
ad any intention of expressing a religious dogma, when the
one painted, and the other sculptured, those delicate ara
besques, with which the eye of the beholder is still delighted.
Had Raphael been asked the historical meaning of the
bouquets of filberts hanging from the barbels of three or four
gudgeon, which may be seen in the Vatican, he would probably
have disdained to reply; he would have laughed at any one,
who solicited from him an explanation of those lovely naked
forms, fishes in the lower part of the body, and women above,
dancing upon branches of creeping plants, in the frame
work of his pictures. What mean those old Satyrs, those
little loves, those chaplets of shells, those fantastic panoplies,

birds suspended by the claw, sparrows pecking at bunches
of grapes, the eagles and griffins moistening their beaks in
cups, which decorate the pilasters and mullions of the screen
enclosing the choir of Notre Dame de Chartres? They are
placed there merely to amuse, not to instruct; to divert
the eye, not to enlighten the mind. They are mere orna
ments, produced by the chisel of the artist, at the suggestion
of his own fancy and pleasure, not by the inspiration of
faith. The same may probably be said of the arabesques
sculptured in the eleventh century, on the throne of the
Arian bishops.
If the sheep, instead of being placed at the summit of that
monument, above the peacocks and doves, had been on a
level with the stags, it might have been said that the animals
were ranged in classes, two and two, according to the sphere
in which they lived; peacocks and doves, which dwell in air
where they support themselves by their wings, would then
occupy the top of the throne; sheep and stags which graze
upon the earth, would guard the middle of the monument;
below them would be the ducks and fishes, which either love
water, or inhabit it. The duck, of aquatic nature in the
formation of its webbed feet, terrestrial from the weight of
its body, aerial by the structure of its wings, would thus
form a connecting link between the doves and the fishes.
But, we repeat it, the place occupied by the sheep renders
such an explanation impossible.”
Besides, were it even possible thus to explain the arrange
ment of the animals, the idea sought for in the fish and
other animals, ten in number, would not even then have
been attained, nor could they have reference to Christ.
Here again, supposing those three classes of animals to be
employed to represent all animated nature, the fish might
be the sign of an idea; but other monuments on which the
fish is figured, cannot bear the same interpretation. A
funeral urn, in Notre-Dame de Grotta-Ferrata, has a repre
sentation of two young boys, both naked, and sitting upon
rocks, from the top of which they are fishing with a line.
* I have been favoured by M. Tournal with a drawing of this singular
monument at Ravenna.
Each has taken a little fish. Below, in the sea, are large
fishes, swimming, and other fishes adorn the cover of the
urn. There is no inscription to tell the names or condition
of those in whose memory the urn was made; but it seems
highly probable that some fisherman had it placed there, in
memory of his sons, who probably followed the same pro
fession as himself.” The Romans, in the sculptures of their
tombs, made allusion to the condition, and even to the name
of the person deceased. Some reference to the profession or
trade is, as we have endeavoured to prove, of constant occur
rence; one single example only of allusion to the name of
the person interred shall be quoted. A child, named
Porcella, had died, and on her tombstone is inscribed a little
female pig, denoting the name of the young deceased. +
To resume: it is possible that the fish may have been
intended, and occasionally employed, as an emblem of
Christ; but to pretend that all fishes must necessarily bear
that signification, is to ground a general theory upon a few
rare exceptions. Lastly, the restrictions just imposed upon
the mystical meaning of the fish, must I think be extended
to all other figures, sculptured upon the tombs and earlier
monuments of Christians. -
In the opposite figure, with a short tunic, a vine-dresser may

be recognised, standing near the cask which indicates his
profession. He is starting for the fields with a mattock on
* This urn is at present used to contain the water given to fever patients to
drink for their cure. It is engraved in Montfaucon's work, (Ant. Expl., vol. xv.,
p. 115, Fig. 47.) A crystal urn, in the form of a fish, was found near Tongres
in 1698; it bears the following inscription:—“Politicus Albiniae karissimae
suæ.” Bosio (Rom. Sotterr.) gives an engraving of an ancient Christian
sarcophagus, on which is represented a man fishing with a line. P. Belloc
(Vierge au Poisson) has had a lithograph made from an engraved cornelian,
upon which is a fisherman holding a basket in one hand, and in the other a
line from which a little fish is suspended: the word IXQT2 is written near
the fish. It is very doubtful whether any of these bear reference to the actual
presence of Christ, or can even be understood as applying figuratively to our
Saviour.
+ An engraving of the above-mentioned monument is given in Seroux
d'Agincourt’s work (Hist, de l'Art par les Monum., section de Sculpture,
planche 8). The following inscription is engraved upon it, and below the
writing the emblematic animal is drawn:—
“PORCELLA HIC DORMIT IN P.
Q. WIXIT ANN. III., M. X. D. XIII.”
his shoulder, and carrying in the left hand a wallet, contain

ing his provision for the day. It would not perhaps, be
difficult to give of this figure an allegorical interpretation,”
since the butt, the clothing, and attitude, even to the wallet
Fig. 94.—GRAVE-sToNE of A VINE-DREssER.

Sculpture of the Catacombs.
and the implement of labour, are all susceptible of a

symbolic meaning; but it would be impossible to defend or
justify such a system. In the cemetery of St. Agnese, at
Rome, is a fresco painting, not of a single vine-dresser or
wine-merchant, as in the above figure, but of eight per
sons, carrying on their shoulders a butt, no doubt filled with
wine; two other butts are near. The fresco surmounted a
tomb, in which were interred the eight individuals of dif
ferent ages thereon represented; forming an entire family
of wine-merchants.t
* An engraving of the above stone is given in Bosio (Rom. Sotterr., p. 505).

The design is accompanied by the following inscription :
“D. M.,
GAVIDENTIO FECERUM,
FRATRI QUI, VICSIC ANNIS,
XXVIII. M. VIII. D. XVII.”
The orthographical errors here remarked, may be easily accounted for by the
station in life of the deceased; his brothers, by whom the monument was
erected to his memory, were probably of the same trade. Fecerum written
for fecerunt, vicsic for via'it, are curious examples of the numerous errors to be
met with in the funeral inscriptions of the early Christians.
f Bosio (Rom. Sotterr., p. 557) gives a copy of this singular monument.
It is far from correct, to give invariably a mystical ex

planation of vases, canthari," vials, caskets, casks, lamps,
candlesticks, scales, weights, flails, hammers, scissors, hat
chets, bushels, tesserae, anchors, vessels, houses, chairs,
loaves, grapes, dates, olives, roses, cypresses, palm-trees,
palms, hearts, birds, fishes, and quadrupeds; or to explain, by
the medium of symbol or allegory, all the instruments, the
tools of various trades, the domestic utensils, natural flowers,
fruits, or leaves, the objects of art, the human or animal
representations, and fantastic beings with which those early
monuments are covered. To do so would be to give a hypo
thetical and often unreasonable acceptation to objects, the
meaning of which is evident, simple, and not figurative;
but to go so far as to apply all these symbols to Christ, as
some persons have been inclined to do, would be to pass
£ all due limits, and even to transgress the bounds of
propriety.
Still, amidst all these innumerable symbols, there is one
which predominates over all others, and which, by its pre
sence only, defines the nature of the monuments on which
it shines. It is the Cross. In this portion of the present
work, which professes to be a history of the second Person
of the Trinity, in his divine nature only, the cross, considered
as the instrument of punishment on which the human nature
of our blessed Lord expired, could not appropriately demand
a place: as such, it belongs exclusively to his earthly life,
and not to his divine existence. Still, the Cross, like the
Lion and the Lamb, symbolises the second person in the
Trinity. When, for example, the entire Trinity is repre
sented, the Father, by the portrait of a man, and the Spirit,
by the image of a dove, Christ is often figured by the
Cross alone; t while He, in his own peculiar person, is
* “‘Canthari,’ ‘Cantharus, a goblet or drinking cup, of Greek invention.
It was furnished with handles (Virg. Ecl., vi. 17), and was the cup particu
larly sacred to Bacchus (Macrob. Sat., v., 21), as the scyphus was to Hercules.”
—Rich’s “Companion to Latin Dictionary.”
* Wide the mosaic in St. John Lateran, at Rome. The Father, under the
figure of a man about thirty years of age, is in the clouds, in heaven, whence half
only of his body appears. From him the Holy Spirit seems to emanate. It is
in the form of a dove, and descends fluttering upon a highly decorated cross.
The cross, widowed of Christ, is planted on the summit of the mystic mountain,
and bathed on every side by waters, which escaping, flow down the sides of
THE CROSS, A SYMBOL OF CHRIST. 367
absent. He is embodied in the Cross, as He is in the

Lamb, * or as the Holy Spirit in the Dove. Under that
character, the Cross is here entitled to notice, and will accord
ingly be described.
THE CROSS, A SYMBOL OF CHRIST.
The cross is more than a mere figure of Christ; it is in

Iconography either Christ himself or his symbol. A legend
has, consequently, been invented giving the history of the
cross, as if it had been a living being. It has been made
the theme and hero of an epic poem, the germ of which may
be discovered in books of Apocryphal tradition. This story
is given at length in the Golden Legend, “Legenda aurea,”
and is detailed and completed in works of painting and
sculpture, from the fourteenth century down to the sixteenth.
A short abridgment of the History of the Cross would not
be useless here, since it would afford a guide to determine
what signification ought properly to be attached to that
symbol, and what interpretation should be given to the
figures and numerous works of painting and sculpture with
which our cathedrals are adorned; but to do this would lead
us into details too comprehensive and extended, and the
reader must therefore be referred to the work of Jacobus
Voragine. The first part of this little poem on the Cross of
Christ, will be found at the Feast of the Invention of the
Cross, and the second, at that of its Exaltation. The
Invention is celebrated on the 3rd of May, the Exaltation
on the 14th of September. After the death of Adam, Seth
planted on the tomb of his father a shoot from the Tree of
Life, which grew in the terrestrial Paradise. From it
' three little trees, united by one single trunk. Moses
thence gathered the rod, with which he by his miracles
astonished the people of Egypt, and the inhabitants of the
desert. Solomon desired to convert that same tree, which
the mountain in four streams, to which stags and sheep repair, to slake their
thirst. These streams afterwards fall into a river, as large as a lake, and
symbolic of the Jordan.
* St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, wrote thus to Sulpicius Severus: “Sanctam
fatentur Crux et Agnus victimam.”—Epist. xii., ad Severum.
had become gigantic in size, into a column for his palace;

being either too short or too long, it was rejected and served
as a bridge over a torrent. The Queen of Sheba refused to
pass over on that tree, declaring that it would one day
occasion the destruction of the Jews. Solomon commanded
that the predestined beam should be thrown into the proba
tionary pool (Pool of Bethesda), and its virtues were
immediately communicated to the waters. When Christ
had been condemned to suffer the death of a malefactor, his
cross was made of the wood of that very tree. It was
buried on Golgotha, and afterwards discovered by St. Helena.
It was carried into captivity by Chosroes, King of Persia,
delivered, and brought back in triumph to Jerusalem, by the
Emperor Heraclius.* Being afterwards dispersed in a
* The subjoined note is extracted from Curzon’s “Monasteries of the
Levant,” a most interesting work:—
“It is related in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, that when Adam fell
sick, he sent his son Seth to the gate of the terrestrial Paradise to ask the angel
for some drops of the oil of mercy, which distilled from the Tree of Life, to
cure him of his disease; but the angel answered that he could not receive this
healing oil until 5500 years had passed away. He gave him, however, a branch
of this tree, and it was planted upon Adam's grave. In after ages the tree
flourished and waxed exceeding fair, for Adam was buried in Mount Lebanon,
not very far from the place near Damascus, whence the red earth of which his
body was formed by the Creator had been taken. When Balkis, Queen of
Abyssinia, came to visit Solomon the king, she worshipped this tree, for she
said that thereon should the Saviour of the world be hanged, and that from
that time the kingdom of the Jews should cease. Upon hearing this, Solomon
commanded that the tree should be cut down and buried in a certain place in
Jerusalem, where the Pool of Bethesda was dug; and the angel that had
charge of the mysterious tree troubled the water of the pool at certain seasons,
and those who first dipped into it were cured of their ailments.
“As the time of the Passion of the Saviour approached, the wood floated
on the surface of the water, and of that piece of timber, which was of cedar,
the Jews made the upright part of the cross; the cross beam was made of
cypress, the piece on which his fect rested was made of palm, and the other on
which the superscription was written was of olive. After the crucifixion, the
Holy Cross, and the crosses of the two thieves, were thrown into the town
ditch, or, according to some, into an old vault which was near at hand, and
they were covered with the refuse and ruins of the city. In her extreme old
age, the Empress Helena, making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, threatened all the
Jewish inhabitants with torture and death if they did not produce the Holy
Cross from the place where their ancestors had concealed it; and at last an
old Jew, named Judas, who had been put into prison and was nearly famished,
consented to reveal the secret; he accordingly petitioned Heaven, whereupon
the earth trembled, and from the fissures in the ground a delicious aromatic
multitude of fragments throughout the Christian universe,

countless miracles were performed by it : it restored
the dead to life, and gave sight to the blind, cured the
paralytic, cleansed lepers, put demons to flight, and dispelled
various maladies with which whole nations were afflicted,
extinguished conflagrations, and calmed the fury of the
raging waves.
The wood of the cross was born with the world, in the
terrestrial paradise; it will re-appear in heaven at the end
of time, borne in the arms of Christ or of his angels, when
the Lord descends to judge the world at the last day.
After reading this history, some conception may be formed
of the important place held by the cross in Christian Icono
graphy. The cross, as has been said, is not merely the
instrument of the punishment of Jesus Christ, but is also
the figure and symbol of the Saviour. Jesus, to an
Iconologist, is present in the cross as well as in the lamb,
or the lion. Chosroës flattered himself that in possessing
the cross, he possessed the Son of God, and he had it enthroned
on his right hand, just as the Son is enthroned by God the
Father.” So also the earliest Christian artists, when
making a representation of the Trinity, placed a cross beside
the Father and the Holy Spirit; a cross only, without our
crucified Lord. The cross did not only recal Christ to mind,
but actually showed him. In Christian Iconography, Christ
is actually present under the form and semblance of the
CrOSS.
The cross is our crucified Lord in person; “Where the

cross is, there is the martyr,” says St. Paulinus.t. Conse
odour issued forth, and on the soil being removed the three crosses were dis
covered; and near the crosses the superscription was also found, but it was not
known to which of the three it belonged. However, Macarius, Bishop of
Jerusalem, repairing with the Empress to the house of a noble lady who was
afflicted with an incurable disease, she was immediately restored to health by
touching the true cross, and the body of a young man, which was being carried
out to burial, was brought to life on being laid upon the holy wood.
“At the sight of these miracles, Judas, the Jew, became a Christian, and
was baptised by the name of Quiriacus, to the great indignation of the Devil,
for, said he, “By the first Judas I gained much profit, but by this one’s
conversion I shall lose many souls.’”—Translator.
* See the Legenda Aurea, “De Exaltatione Sancti Crucis.”
+ “Ubi crux est martyr ibi.”—Opp. Div. Paulini Episcopi Nolani.
Epist. xii., ad Severum.
B B
quently it works miracles, as does Jesus himself: and the

list of wonders operated by its power is in truth immense.
By the simple sign of the cross traced upon the forehead or
the breast, men have been delivered from the most imminent
danger. It has constantly put demons to flight,” protected
the virginity of women, and the faith of believers; it has
restored men to life, or health, inspired them with hope or
resignation.
Such is the virtue of the cross, that a mere allusion to
that sacred sign, made even in the Old Testament, and long
before the existence of the cross, saved the youthful Isaac
from death, redeemed from destruction an entire people whose
houses were marked by that symbol, healed the envenomed
bites of those who looked at the serpent raised in the form
of a “tau” upon a pole.t. It called back the soul into the
dead body of the son of that poor widow who had given
bread to the prophet.
A beautiful painted window, belonging to the thirteenth
century, in the Cathedral of Bourges, has a representation
of Isaac, bearing on his shoulders the wood that was
to be used in his sacrifice, arranged in the form of a
cross; # the Hebrews too, marked the lintel of their
dwellings with the blood of the Paschal Lamb, in the form
* See in the Golden Legend a number of events of that description, chiefly
at the Feasts of the Invention and of the Exaltation of the Cross. In St.
Saturnin, at Toulouse, is an enamelled châsse belonging to the twelfth century,
on which is represented the wonderful translation of a portion of the cross from
the Abbey of Josaphat, in Palestine, to Toulouse. It is a national branch of
that epic cycle styled by us the Legend of the Cross.
+ The above-named subject is represented upon a painted window given by
the Abbé Suger to the Cathedral of St. Denis, and which now fills a window
in the apse. The brazen serpent, in form resembling a griffin, is suspended
from a column (in most cases, it is in the form of a T). Upon the monster is
planted the cross, on which Christ is nailed. The following inscription forms
the legend of the subject:— -
“Sicut serpentes serpens, necat ereus oms;

Sic exaltatus necat hostes in cruce Xps.”
# According to certain commentators, it was the fact of Isaac's carrying the
wood for his sacrifice in that form upon his shoulders, that prompted God the
Father to send an angel to arrest the arm of Abraham. In numerous sculptures
and paintings Isaac is thus represented, going to the place of sacrifice; more
particularly in one piece of sculpture in the interior of the west porch of Notre
Dame de Rheims, and on a painted window in the north aisle of Notre-Dame
de Chartres.
of a “tau” or cross without a summit.* The widow of
Sarepta picked up and held cross-wise two pieces of wood,
with which she intended to bake her bread,t These figures,
to which others also may be added, serve to exalt the
triumph of the cross, and seem to flow from a grand central
picture, which forms their source, and exhibits Jesus
expiring on the cross. It is from that real cross indeed
bearing the Saviour, that these subjects from the Old
Testament derive all their virtue.j:
In the ninth century the praises of the cross were sung,
* The Hebrews were commanded, previous to their departure from Egypt,
to mark all their houses with the blood of the Paschal lamb, in the form of a
“tau,” or cross with three branches. And when God, as we are told in the
book of Exodus, saw that blood, he passed over their houses, and the plague
that smote the Egyptians, touched not the Israelites. Exodus, xii., 7, 13, 29.
* When Elijah met the widow of Sarepta, that woman picked up two
pieces of wood, which she held up in the form of a cross, and God, for that
action, increased the quantity of meal and oil in her house, and afterwards per
mitted the Prophet to restore her son to life.—Lab. iii. Reg. xvii., 10, 16, 32.
(In our version, 1 Kings, xvii., 10, 16, 22.) On most monuments, the two
pieces of wood are placed either in the form of an ordinary cross, as in the
windows of Bourges and Mans, or in that of an X, commonly called St.
Andrew's Cross, as in the window at Chartres and on a sculpture at Rheims.
: The following text, relating to the subject of the cross and its anticipated
virtue, is extracted from the writings of Gulielmus Durandus. It explains the
subject of the painted window at Bourges, and of those at Chartres, and Mans;
this interpretation being given by a cotemporary of the painting, it has been
thought expedient to give the text unmutilated. It is necessary, in order to
make progress in archaeology, that books should be compared with, and
corrected by the monuments of their time. “Numquid, ait (Stephanus papa)
omnia chrismata, id est sacramenta, quae cum chrismatis unctione praestantur,
sacerdotalis hic ministerii crucis figura, id est signo, perficiuntur? Numquid
baptismatis unda sine cruce sanctificata, peccata relaxat? Et, ut caetera prae
tereamus, sine crucis signaculo, quis sacerdotii gradus ascendit? Baptisandus
quoque signo crucis signatur in fronte et in pectore . . . Sane crux Domini
multipliciter fuit in ' Testamento praefigurata; legitur siquidem quod
Moses ad mandatum Domini aeneum serpentem erexit in palo, in deserto, pro
signo; quem aspicientes, qui percussi fuerunt a serpentibus illico sanabantur.
Quod ipse Christus exponens inquit, in Evangelio: “Sicut Moses exaltavit
serpentem in deserto, ita exaltari oportet filium hominis, ut omnis qui credit
in ipsum non pereat, sed habeat vitam aeternam. Legitur etiam quod cum
Joseph applicuisset Manassem et Effraim ad Jacob, statuens majorem ad
dexteram et minorem ad sinistram, ut eis secundum ordinum benediceret,
Jacob manus commutans, id est in modum crucis cancellans, dextram posuit
super caput Effraim minoris, et sinistram super caput Manassae majoris et
dixit: ‘Angelus, qui eruit me de cunctis malis benedicat pueris istis.’ Item
B B2
as men sing those of a god or of a hero, and Rhaban Maur,

who was Archbishop of Mayence in 847, wrote a poem in
honour of the eross. Men of hvey imagination, prompted by
feelings of passionate attachment, exhaust their ingenuity
in attempting to trace in clouds or mist, or in the strange
forms with which natural objects are invested by the shades
of night, the semblance of the cherished form of her they
love. So too, Rhaban Maur detects the form of the eross
in numbers, in geometrical hnes, in supernatural beings, and
in human creatures. Not content with what he discovers,
he invents combinations of letters, which give him the
eross; he makes his poetry subservient to the puerile
design of representing the eross, under every possible form,
with the syllables of whieh the verses are eomposed.
Finally, these syllables, changed into acrostics bear a sense
calculated to interpret the meaming of the images they are
employed to form. Rhabam seems inspired with the most
passionate love for the eross.*
Long before the time of Rhabam, the fathers of the
Moses ait : * Die ac nocte erit vita uostra pendens, et videbitis et cognoscetis.”
Christus enim nocte fuit in cruce pendens, quia tenebræ factæ sunt ab hora
sexta usque ad nonam. Quod etiam fuerit pendens, certum est. Rursus
legitur : * Ezechiel audivit Dominum dicentem ad virum vestitum lineis,
habentem attramentarium scriptoris ad remes : Transi per mediam civitatem et
signa thau in frontibus virorum dolentium et gementium.' Et post hæc dixit
vii. viris : * Transite per mediam civitatem, et percutite omnem super quem
non vidibitis thau, nemini parcet oculus vester.' Item Hierem : * Congregabo
omnes gentes, et erit eis in signum thau.' Item alibi : * Et erit principatus
ejus super humerum ejus.' Christus enim portavit super humeros crucem
in qua triumphavit. Johannes quoque vidit angelum ascendentem ab ortu solis,
habentem signum Dei vivi, et clamabat voce magna quatuor angelis, quibus
datum est nocere terræ et mari, dicens : * Nolite nocere terræ et mari, neque
arboribus, quousque signemus servos Dei in frontibus eorum.' Item lignum
missum in Marath, aquas dulcoravit amaras et ad lignum missum in
Jordanem, ferrum quod inciderat enatavit, hoc est lignum vitæ et in medio
paradisi de quo sapiens protestatur, benedictum lignum, per quod fit justitia,
quoniam regnavit in ligno Deus. Hoc ergo crucis signo se armat Ecclesia, in
pectore et in fronte, significans crucis mysterium esse corde credendum et
manifeste ore confitendum. Per hoc enim signum confunditur civitas diaboli
et triumphat Ecclesia, terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata, juxta illud : * Ter
ribilis est locus iste, &c.' Et alibi : * Vidi civitatem magnam sanctam,
Hierusalem novam.' Et August. tamen dicit, undecima distinctione ecclesi
asticarum, quod nulla scriptura Novi Testamenti vel veteris docet fideles crucis
signaculo insigniri.”—G. Durand., Rat. Div. Off., lib. v., cap. 2.
* See the entire poem of Rhaban Maur, De Laudibus Sanctæ Crucis, in
bis complete works, in fol., Coloniæ Agrippinæ, 1626, vol. i., pp. 273—337.
THE CRoss, A SYMBOL OF CHRIST. 373
Church had remarked, that the figure of the cross was

engraven on the productions of nature, seen in the works of
men, in the position of inanimate objects, and the gestures
of the living.
The world is in the form of a cross; for the east shines
above our heads, the north is on the right, the south at the
the left, and the west stretches out beneath our feet. Birds,
that they may rise in air, extend their wings in the form of
a cross; men, when praying,” or when beating aside the
water while swimming, assume the form of a cross. Man
differs from the inferior animals, in his power of standing
erect, and extending his arms.
A vessel, to fly upon the seas, displays her yard-arms in
the form of a cross, and cannot cut the waves, unless her
mast stands cross-like, erect in air; finally, the ground
cannot be tilled without the sacred sign, and the tau, the
cruciform letter, is the letter of salvation.t
The cross, it is thus seen, has been the object of a worship
and adoration, resembling if not equal to, that offered to
Christ. That sacred tree is adored almost as if it were equal
with God himself;: a number of churches have been dedicated
* The primitive Christians always extended their arms in prayer, standing
most frequently instead of kneeling, as may be seen in the earliest frescos of
the catacombs.—Translator.
+ St. Hieron. (Comment. in Marcum), “Ipsa species crucis quid est nisi
forma quadrata mundiP Oriens de vertice, Arcton dextra tenet, Auster in laeva
consistit, Occidens sub plantis formatur . . . . Aves, quando volant, ad aethera
formam crucis assumunt; homo, natans per aquas, vel orans, forma crucis
vehitur. Navis per maria antenna crucis similata sufflatur. Thau, littera
signum salutis et crucis describitur.”—M. Cyprien Robert (Cours d'Hiero
§lyphique Chrétienne) quotes the above text, and adds, “Justin Martyr in his
Apology bids us observe that the sign of the cross is stamped on everything;
there is no labourer who may not find its figure among his implements, and
man himself, by raising his arms, forms a cross. Minucius Felix, speaking to
princes, exclaims, “the staffs of your trophies imitate the instrument of our
salvation, and the armour which is hung upon them is the image of the
crucified Redeemer.” Tertullian (De Oratione) expresses the same feeling as
8t. Jerome and St. Ambrose (Serm. VI). The letter tau, the numerical value
of which is 300, presented an immense field, in which the mystics of Alexandria
laboured with unwearied diligence.
# The word “adore” is used to express the worship rendered to the cross,
the symbol of Christ; still this worship is not the same as that called “Latria,”
or the “worship, which should be rendered only to God.”
to it under the name of the Holy Cross.” In addition to

this, most of our churches, the greatest as well as the
smallest, cathedrals as well as chapels, present in their
ground plan the form of a cross, and we are thus recalled
more immediately to Iconography, and led to name the
principal varieties of that figure.
THE WARIETIES OF THE CROSS.
There are four different sorts of crosses. The cross with

out a summit; the cross with a summit but with only one
transverse bar; the cross with a summit and two transverse
bars; the cross with a summit and three transverse bars.
The cross without a top has three branches or limbs
only; it takes the form of the T or symbolic “tau,” of which
we have already spoken. Many ancient churches, particularly
the Basilicas of Constantine, St. Peter, and St. Paul, at Rome,
are built very nearly in the form of a tau; the Church of
Bellaigue in Auvergne also offers the same combination.t
The mystical virtues of the tau have already been mentioned,
and need not be recapitulated here.
The cross, with a top and transverse bar is composed of
four limbs, and possesses the greatest virtue; the cross, with
three branches or limbs, is in fact the anticipatory cross, the
typical cross, the cross of the Old Testament; that with four
branches is the true cross, the cross of Christ, the cross of
the Gospel. The virtue of the cross in tau was derived
solely from the cross with four branches; it was like a planet,
having no light in itself, but receiving all its splendour from
the sun of the Gospel. The cross of Christ was formed of
* Sainte-Croix, the Cathedral of Orleans; Sainte-Croix, now St. Germain
des-Près, built by Childebert; Sainte-Croix, at Quimperlé (Finisterre), a
church of singular form; Sainte-Croix, a charming church at Mont-majour,
near Arles; Santa Croce at Florence, and many others besides. There are in
France at least eighteen abbeys called Sainte-Croix. [To these may be added
the church of Saint Cross at Winchester. Saint being the Latin “Sanctus,
holy,” the word is preserved, or rather translated in the name of Holyrood,
in Edinburgh, which is also dedicated to the memory of the Holy Cross; the
same observation will apply to the churches of “Saint Sepulchre, Saint
Saviour.”—Translator.]
+ See M. Mallay, Eglises Romano-Byzantines de l'Auvergne.
THE WARIETIES OF THE CROSS. 375
one vertical shaft, and of a transverse beam, having the form

of a gibbet or a hammer.” “And observe,” says Gulielmus
Durandus, “that the cross is divided into four parts;
whether on account of the four elements, polluted through
our sin, and healed by the passion of Christ; or by
reason of men; whom Christ draws to himself from the four
arts of the world, according to the words of his own pro
phecy, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all
men unto me' (John, xii. 32.) These four parts may relate
to the human soul; the cross is lofty, long, large and deep.
The depth is in the foot which is buried in the earth; the
length is from the root to the arms; the breadth extends
with the arms; the height is from the arms to the head.
The depth signifies faith planted on a sure foundation; the
height is hope, having its resting place in heaven; the
breadth charity, extending even to the left, or our enemies;
the length perseverance, which continues, or is without limit.t
The different forms of the cross with four branches, resolve
themselves into two principal types, which are subdivided
into several varieties. These are called, the Latin and the
Greek cross, the first being favoured by Greek Christians and
those of the East, the second by the £ Christians of the
West.
In each of these two types, the cross is composed of two
parts, a shaft, and a transverse bar, cutting it across the
stem. But in the Greek cross the transverse branch divides
the upright shaft into equal parts, and the two arms of the
cross are together equal to the upright. If a circle be
* “Habuit crux Christilignum erectum in longitudinem, alterum transversum
in latitudinem quasi in modum potentiae seu martelli, quae duo significata sunt
per illa duo ligna quae paupercula mulier in Sarepta collegit.” (Gulielmus
Durandus, Rat. Div. Off Lib. vi. cap. 77, De Die Parasceves.)
* “Et adverte quoniam crucis figura quadripartita est, vel propter quatuor
elementa quae in nobis vitiata Christus sua passione curavit, vel propter
nomines quos ex quatuor partibus orbis ad setrahit juxta illud; si exaltatus
fuero a terra omnia traham ad me ipsum. Welet haec quadratura pertinet ad
mortalitatem; habet enim longitudinem, latitudinem, sublimitatem et pro
fundum. Profundum est acumen quod terrae infigitur, longitudo est inde ad
brachia, latitudo est in expansione, latitudo seu sublimitas est a brachiis usque
ad caput. Profundum significat fidem quae est posita in fundamento, altitudo
spem quae est reposita in caelo, latitudo charitatem quae est ad sinistrum et ad
inimicos extenditur, longitudo perseverantiam quae sine fine concluditur.”
(Gulielmus Durandus, Rat. Div. Off Lib. v. cap. 11.)
divided by two right lines, passing through the centre, those

two lines will give you a perfect Greek cross; this it is
which divides the nimbus worn by divine persons. The
cross then, is composed of four parts, equal in themselves;
viz., the foot, the top or summit, and two cross branches.
In a Roman cross, the foot is longer than the upper part,
or the branches; it could not be contained within a circle,
but would require a rectangular figure. In the Roman
cross, the s: is longer than the transverse branch, and
the foot of the shaft longer than the upper part. The form
is that of a man standing with arms extended. From the
extremity of the left arm to that of the right, the interval is
smaller than that from the head to the feet; the distance
from the head to the shoulders is smaller than that from the
shoulders to the feet. The extended arms form the trans
verse bar, from the head to the shoulders, the upper part
of the shaft; from the shoulders to the feet, the lower part.
The Latin cross resembles the actual cross of Christ, but
the form of the Greek cross is ideal. The Latins, who were
more material in sentiment than the Greeks, preferred
the actual form; the Greeks, more spiritual than the Latins,
idealised the reality, poetised and transfigured the cross of
Calvary. The Greeks transformed the instrument of
punishment into an ornament.
These types were not at first specially confined the one to
the Greek, the other to the Latin Church; they were
originally common to both countries, and were admitted
indifferently by both. Thus it is said, in Procopius, that
the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople was
constructed on the plan of a cross, and the foot of the
church or the nave, was made longer than the upper part
or choir, in order to give it more exactly the form of a cross.”
Still the most ancient Greek sculptures, at Athens, in the
Morea, in Macedonia, and Constantinople, contain crosses
* “The text of Procopius (De AEdificiis Just. p. 13) is very explicit; “Hinc
inde procurrentia transversi spatii latera inter se aequalia sunt: spatii vero in
directum porrecti pars, illa quae vergit ad occidentem, alteram superat quantum
satis est ut figuram crucis efficiat.” (IIerolera uet wv čarov &mpa£darat
Tb too aravpon xhua.) Thus the arms of the cross are equal in themselves;
but the western nave is longer than the choir, by all the extent necessary to
constitute a cross of crucifixion, or Latin cross.
with branches of unequal length. That primary type must

therefore have been known and practised in Greece. As to
the second, the Cross with equal branches, it is the most
commonly adopted by the Greek Church.
The cross with four equal limbs was known and adopted
in the West, as well as that with unequal branches. Thus
sarcophagi, columns, pillars, and altar-stones were, and still
are, marked with a cross of equal limbs;* but the other cross
belongs more especially to us.
Both types were then originally common to both churches.
In the sequel, the first type, that with branches of equal
length, predominated in the east, and that form of cross was
called the Greek cross; the second type, the cross with
unequal branches, predominated with us, and was termed the
Latin cross. In the Eastern Church I repeat, the Greek
cross displays itself in the ensemble and details of religious
monuments, in the architectural portion as well as in the
decorative. In the ground-plan, many Eastern Churches
have the form of a Greek cross, and the following drawing
gives the plan of a church erected in the Holy Land, upon
the site of the well to which the Samaritan woman whom
Jesus converted, went to fetch water.t. (St. John, iv., 6, 20.)
The shaft of the cross given below seems, however, rather
longer than the transept, but this is probably an error of
the artist Arculfe. At all events, even supposing the form
to be correct as here given, it is still a Greek, rather than a
Latin cross.
The capitals of most Byzantine churches are marked with
a Greek cross. In the Church of St. Demetrius at Salonica,
in St. Sophia at Constantinople, St. Mark at Venice, and San
Vitale at Ravenna, a monument purely Byzantine, the cross
* In the exterior wall, on the north side of the nave, in the Church of St.
Maurice at Rheims, a funereal stone is inserted, on which is sculptured a Greek
cross, formed like the Maltese cross. Engraved en creux (incised) on the
limbs of the cross is this inscription: “Hic jacet Arma,—mater-matertera
neptis.” The first part is at the top, the second in the left cross-bar, the third
on the right arm; the last word, neptis, is at the foot (Fig. 108, no. 5), a
design approximating closely to the cross of St. Maurice. The artist has here
given only the general form or outline. * . ."
+ Other analogous plans are given by the Comité Historique des Arts et
Monuments, dans les Instructions sur les Monuments fixés, 1" cahier,
pp. 108, 110.
with equal branches, either free or inscribed within a me

dallion, shines forth from the surrounding cable mouldings,
interlacements, and acanthus leaves.”
as- - St.In paintings,
John the vestments
Chrysostom of
are adorned
with small Greek crosses, dividing
circles into four equal parts; other
Greek crosses, free, and multiplied
to infinity, adorn the chasuble of
| ~ | St. Gregory Nazianzen. The nim
(W) bus of God is divided by a cross
| ] with branches of equal length;t
that borne by the Knights of
Malta, descendants of the Knights
Hospitallers of St. John of Jeru
salem as a distinctive decoration
"- - of their order, has the four
Fig. 95.—CHURCH, IN THE FoRM branches equal.
F : * cost Our churches in the West are
"£"" generally disposed in the form of
the Latin cross, with limbs of
unequal length, the upper part, and cross beams, being
shorter than the foot. The longitudinal nave is formed by
the foot; the transepts, or transverse nave, by the cross
beams; the choir by the top.
The higher we ascend in the centuries of the middle ages,
* See the capital of a column from St. Vitale.—Instructions du Comité

Historique des Arts et Monuments.
+ See below, Figs. 101, 104, 108, several varieties of the Greek cross.
# The drawing here given is an outline, reduced from the original plan which
was made in the seventh century by Arculfe, Bishop of France. That bishop
traced upon tablets of wax the plans of the principal edifices in Palestine, of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, of the Cénacle, and the Church of the Ascen
sion. When the Act. SS. Ord. S. Bened. were published, these tablets were
still in existence, and the Benedictines had engravings made from them, and
inserted in the second part of the third Benedictine century. The Church of
the Well of the Woman of Samaria, was copied from one of those plates. In
the centre is the well, bearing in the original the inscription “Fons Jacob.”
* “Cénacle” is a term only used in French in the style of the Holy Scriptures
(see Dict, de l'Academie); it signifies a refectory. “Jesus washed the feet of
his disciples in the Cenactilum.” (John xiii. 5)—ED.
the shorter we find the choir, while the nave increases in

length. In the basilica of Constantine, the transverse nave,
called the “croisée" or transepts, cuts the longitudinal
nave immediately near the apse, and consequently leaves no
space for the choir." After the thirteenth century the
choir lengthens, and the transept descends further towards
the west.f There are even some churches in which the
transverse nave, or transept, is nearer to the porch than
to the apse; so that the form of the Latin cross is still
preserved, the branches being unequal in length to the
shaft, and the transept cutting the nave into two parts of
unequal length; but it is a Latin cross reversed, and the
top is longer than the foot. The Church of St. Germain
l'Auxerrois, at Paris, is of this description. The nave, from
the porch to the transepts, is four compartments in length;
from the transepts to the end of the church there are nine,
an addition of five. The head, which ought to be shorter
than the feet, is in fact longer. The eross-bars are short,
as is fitting in a Latin cross, and not more than three com
partments each in length.:
* The ancient Church of St. Peter, built by Constantine, St. Paolo fuori
delle Mura, and Sta. Maria Maggiore, are all built in that form. Even in the
Pagan basilica of Vitruvius some indications of a transept may be discovered;
and it has thence been imagined, erroneously, as it appears to me, that the form
of the cross, apparent in our churches, was neither allegoric in its meaning nor
peculiar to Christianity. The existence of Roman monuments more or less
cruciform in design, cannot rob Christians of the honour of having been the
first to attach a symbolic meaning to the form of the cross adopted in the build
ing of chunches. Besides, the transverse nave differs surprisingly both in size
and position, from that of Vitruvius, which is not so much a nave as a double
recessed passage for exit or entrance. Finally, the writings of Beleth, Durandus,
Hugues de Saint-Victor, and other liturgists, assert that churches are built in the
form of the cross in memory of our redemption. The Comité des Arts et
Monuments (Instructions sur les Monuments fixés, 1° cahier, style Latin,
pp. 92, 93, 94) have given various plans of basilicas, more particularly that of
St. Paolo, which resembles a T with a short cross-bar. Independent of the
apse, which projects outwards, the form of the tau is complete, and it is a
perfect cross, but of three branches only.
+ This may be observed in most of our cathedrals; in those of Amiens and
Laon more particularly. See the plan of Notre-Dame de Paris in Les Instruc
tions sur les Monuments fixás, 11° cahier, p. 11.
# The Comité Hist, des Arts et Monuments, in the Instructions Monu
ments fixés, 11° cahier, pp. 14, 15, give four different plans, one of which is
that of a reversed cross.
But several of the English churches are built on a plan

which is neither that of the Latin nor of the Greek cross
properly so called, nor yet of the tau. These singular
edifices are divided, not by one single transept, but by two.
The first transept cuts the longitudinal nave in the centre;
the lower or western portion forms the nave, properly so
called; the upper part is the choir, retro-choir, or chancel
(chevet) of the church. But the upper part is itself divided
into two equal portions by a second transept not so long as
the first. Below, that is to say, from the first to the second
crossing, is the choir; above, or from the second crossing to
the upper end of the church, is the retro-choir or sanctuary.
The great churches of Lincoln, Beverley, Rochester and
Worcester, are thus designed.* Imagine the form of the
cross of Christ, against which was nailed a long, wide scroll,
bearing the well-known inscription, “Jesus of Nazareth,
the King of the Jews.” The place on which this writing
was affixed is shown in English churches, and forms the
eastern crossing, that by which the upper end of the church
is divided into two equal parts; the next is the usual
transept, the cross-bar, on which the arms of the Saviour
were extended.f. The above form is that of the Cross of
* The Comité Historique des Arts et Monuments (Instructions Monu
ments fixés, 11° cahier, p. 14) have mentioned these plans and given diagrams of
them. In the Monasticon Anglicanum, by Roger Dodsworth and William
Dugdale, will be found engraved plans of these curious English churches. This
work was printed in London; the first vol. in 1655, the second in 1671, and
the third in 1673.
# The form just described is almost peculiar to English edifices; yet the
great Church of Cluny had double transepts, and each of the four cross arms
was crossed a second time. The Church of St. Quentin has two transepts, but
one is of later date than the other, and does not belong to the primitive plan,
but was constructed only to enlarge the building. The Abbey Church of St.
Benoit sur Loire offers, though imperfectly, a form of church with a double
transept. I know no other buildings in France with the same arrangement as
the Churches of Cluny, St. Quentin, and St. Benoit. The celebrated window
in the Church of St. Etienne de Bourges, already mentioned several times, and
with which the work of MM. Martin and Cahier on the windows of that
cathedral opens, presents, in a medallion of the Resurrection, Jesus Christ
issuing from the tomb, and bearing in his left hand a little golden cross. This
cross, by an irregularity which in our country is not unique, has a double
crossing; a large double window in Notre Dame de Chartres affords another
example of the same cross. The lower crossing is rather shorter than the
upper. There can be no doubt of its being intended to represent the part on
Lorraine, of the Hospitallers of the Holy Spirit, and it belongs

also to that, which at the present time, indicates the archi
episcopal dignity. It is called the cross with double
branches, and probably originated in Greece; for it is
constantly seen in Attica, in the Morea, and on Mount
Athos. The following design represents one which decorates
the western gate of a church at Athens.
The plan of cruciform churches was often revealed in
visions; an angel appeared at night to a sleeping saint or
bishop, and described to him the form of some building
which God desired to have erected in his honour; people were
then immediately set to work to build a church according to
the model seen in the dream.* Or it happened that the
outline of the church to be erected, was seen traced in
luminous lines upon the clouds of heaven, and, following the
example of Constantine, who had caused the labarum to be
executed according to the form of that which he had seen
marked by lines of fire in the air, so they built the edifice
according to the luminous design which had appeared; or
perhaps the site or form of the proposed basilica was
seen delineated in lines of dew upon the perfectly dry
ground; t on one occasion the snow extended hither and
which the writing was fixed. The lower crossing forms the transverse bar on
which the arms of our Blessed Saviour were extended. The cross, however,
here described, from its dimensions, which are very small, and its colour, which
is of a golden yellow, presents a reduced image of the real cross; it is a cross in
miniature, a Resurrection cross in short. The most interesting conclusions
may be drawn from the great number of crosses with double cross-arms, to be
found in Greece, most of them dating from a remote period, and the form of
the double transverse cross assumed by several of the large churches in England.
I have little doubt that an inquiry, conducted with care and intelligence, and
directed towards that object, would produce results which may indeed be
anticipated, but are not therefore the less curious. Can it be possible that
England has allowed herself to be influenced by Byzantine genius more than
France? This remains to be proved.
* A remarkable instance is that of St. Martin-des-Champs, at Paris. It
appears that the biblical text—“Fac secundum exemplar quod tibi monstratum
est in monte,” was applied more especially to the construction of churches, the
plan of which was revealed in dreams, or by apparitions in the clouds.
t St. Gérémar, or Germer, the first Abbot of Flavigny, about 658, requested of
St. Ouen a site for the erection of a monastery. The two saints, after three days
of fasting and prayer, saw an angel, who announced to them that God had heard
their petition, and that the spot destined for the future monastery was Flavigny
382 CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHIY.
thither in lines marking where the walls were to be

raised.
Lastly, the Abbey and Church of St. Michael in France,
in the department de la Manche, and St. Michael in Italy,
at Mount Gargano, were traced upon the earth by the foot
steps of a bull.*
If an art so severe as that of architecture yet stooped to
fashion its plans according to the warious admitted forms of
the eross, we may with good reason expect to find that in
sculpture and painting, both fanciful and decorative arts,
the eross would be designed after a still greater variety of
models, presenting numerous, and sometimes most extraor
dinary, peculiarities. We have not only a cross with two
eross-bars, but the number of the latter is sometimes
increased to three. The cross thus made has therefore eight
branches, each bar being divided into two, thus forming six,
while the shaft brings two others, the foot and the summit.
Crosses with one, two, or three transversebeams, become like
the tiara, the hat, and the mitre, a medium of hierarchical dis
tinction. The Pope alone was entitled to have borne before
a place in the midst of a great solitude. They went to that place. ** Ubi cum
pervenissent et multum dubitarent quid agerent, ecce nebula descendit de coelo et
circumdedit totum locum ubi construendum erat monasterium, et cum nebula
superna vox dicens: Electi Dei, ecce iste locus metuendus est. .. cumque obtutus
suos adspectum nebulæ defigerent (sancti), statim ab adspectibus eorum subtracta
est. Ex eadem autem nebula in circuitu loci, quasi quædam virga geometricalis,
ros totum locum circumdans remansit, ut daretur intelligi verum esse, quod
superna vox cecinit. Tunc circumeuntes locum, repererunt signum coelestis
roris impressum. Beatus atem Audoenus certus de angelica visione et de
superna voce, accipiens virgam in manu, per vestigia nebulæ mensus est
plateam in circuitu, ubi ecclesia aedificaretur, ubi officinæ construerentur et
coetera monachorum vitæ utilia.“ (Act. SS. Ord. St. Bened., vol. ii., ** Wie de
Saint Germer écrite par un anonyme contemporain.")
* See the Golden Legend, * De Sancto Michaele Archangelo.” The
Legend says, “ In loco qui Tumba dicitur juxta mare, qui sex miliaribns ab
urbe Abricensi distat, Michael episcopo prædictæ civitatis apparuit, dicens et
jubens ut in prædicto loco ecclesiam construeret et sicut fit in Monte Gargamo,
ita et ibi in memoriam Sancti Michaelis Archangeli celebraret. Cum autem
episcopus de loco, in quo ecclesiam construeret, dubitaret, ab ipso edocetur ut
ibi construi eam faceret ubi thaurum (sic) a latronibus absconditum inveuiret.
Iterumque de loci amplitudine dubitans, jubetur modum in amplitudine,
statuere quantum videret thaurum in circuitu pedibus intrivisse.” Mount
Gargano, now St. Angelo, is in the kingdom of Naples, province of Capitanate,
in the ancient Apulia.
him the triple cross. Cardinals and archbishops were

honoured with the double cross; the single cross was
2×
&
£
»
Fig. 96.—GREEK CROSS, wiTH DOUBLE BRANCHES.”

Athenian Sculpture of the x1 cent.
* This cross is the complement to that which will be given in Fig. 99:
it forms a pendant to it. Upon the cross, Fig. 99, appear the letters To Xö;
upon the above, Ni-KA, which completes the phrase, “Jesus Christ is con
queror.” The eagle and the falcon at the foot of the cross must be allegorical
as will be remarked in speaking of Fig. 99.
relinquished to the bishop.” The capitals of columns, the

coffers and lids of sarcophagi, mosaics and fresco paintings,
painted windows and carved woodwork, present crosses
innumerable, and in variety proportionate to their number.
These crosses are either free, single, or intertwined with
other subjects.
When the cross is free, and not loaded with attributes
and ornaments, it requires to be distinguished from the
Cross of Calvary, and the Resurrection Cross. The Cross of
the Passion, the actual Cross, the wood on which Jesus died,
is that square rough tree composed merely of a shaft and
a cross-bar. It is a cross of that form that we generally see
placed in the arms of the Father, when he holds the Cross
with the effigy of the Saviour nailed upon it.'t The same
cross is placed in the centre of our churches, at the opening
of the grand arch, which, as well as the cross, is called
triumphal.: The same cross, also, is planted in our fields,
* It was in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries principally that the cross was
called on to fill the part which heraldic ornaments perform in blazonry. It is
vexatious that that custom was not adopted at an earlier period, since it is
extremely useful in distinguishing between an archbishop and a bishop. Let us
suppose that a figure has disappeared entirely from a sculptured bas-relief or a
painted picture: if the cross only be still remaining in the hand, it would be
possible to determine, according to the form of the cross, whether the individual
were a bishop, an archbishop, a cardinal, or a pope. (See at St. Denis, on the
gates of wood brought from the chapel of Gaillon, Pope Gregory the Great
holding in his hand a cross with a triple cross-bar.)
* A painted window in the apse of the Cathedral of St. Denis, dating from
the time of Abbé Suger, has the representation of a four-yoked car (or
quadriga), on which is placed a large green cross. This cross, although
embossed with filagree ornaments, is a true cross, a Passion cross; and our
Saviour is attached to it. God the Father, adorned with a plain and not a
cruciform nimbus (this nimbus appears to be modern), bears the cross in his
arms. It is the earliest example which I know of that subject, which was a
peculiar favourite in the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Although a period of
five hundred years intervenes between the two, the window of St. Denis
greatly resembles that at Troyes, a drawing of which is given, Fig. 63.
Both at St. Denis and at Troyes the Holy Spirit, by a singular coincidence, is
omitted in the representation of the Trinity. This circumstance will be
noticed in the sequel.
: “Crux triumphalis, in plurisque locis, in medio ecclesiae ponitur, ad
notandum quod de medio corde Redemptorem nostrum diligimus, qui, juxta
Salomonem, corpus suum media charitate constravit propter filias Hierusalem,
et ut omnes signum victoriae videntes, dicant; Ave salus totius saeculi, arbor
salutifera. Et ne unquam a nobis dilectio Dei oblivioni tradatur, qui, ut
at the place where four roads meet.* The Resurrection

Cross is the symbol of the real cross; Christ springs from
(\')
:*INIP/.
-e
[
Fig. 97.—CHRIST, ARMED witH THE CRoss of THE RESURRECTION,

DESCENDING INTO LIMBO.
French Miniature of the XIII cent.
the tomb, and, holding it on high, mounts triumphantly to

heaven. A banner, or a flame generally floats on the arms of
the Cross of the Resurrection, for it is nothing more than a
servum redimeret, tradidit unicum filium, ut Crucifixum imitemur. Crux
autem in altum dirigitur, per quod Christi victoria designatur.”—Guill.
Durandus. Rat. Div. Off, lit. 1, cap. 1.
* Several examples are given above of the actual cross, of the instrument
of punishment on which our Saviour was suspended.
C. C.
standard, the shaft of which, instead of being sharpened into

a spear or pike, terminates in a cross. The cross which the
Paschal Lamb supports by one of his feet, and that usually
carried at the head of religious processions, are crosses of
the Resurrection and Ascension. We no longer have a
tree, as in the Cross of the Passion, but a staff.
Christ is here represented descending into Limbo, and
breaking the gates of hell with the Resurrection Cross.
He draws from that £
of suffering the souls of the first
righteous, or those of the Old Testament saints, at the head
of whom advance Adam and Eve. The devils howl and
gnash their teeth at the sight of Christ, who is trampling
one of them beneath his feet, and snatching from their
demon grasp, those whom they imagined to be their prey.*
Sometimes Christ in heaven, seated with the Father and
the Holy Ghost, carries a Resurrection Cross, instead of the
Cross of the Passion. The Passion Cross, the true cross, is
that of suffering; the other, the Resurrection Cross, is
triumphant. The second has the same general form as
the first, but spiritualised; it is the cross of suffering trans
figured.
Both of these crosses are historical, for both took part in
the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ; but there
are others which, being purely emblematic, present varieties
even more numerous than the former. Several of these
crosses have been adopted in the science of heraldry, and
are distinguished by names denoting their form and nature.
The fulminated or thunderbolt cross is composed of thunder
bolts; the ringed, or linked cross, of rings or links; the
cabled cross, of cables; the cross voided, is when the field
is entirely open, with nothing but an edge to mark the
form; the cross pierced, when it is perforated merely in the
centre; and corded, when it is wound about with a cord. A
cross, cut by a single traverse at each arm, is called crosslet
(recroisée); and double-crosslet (recroisetée), when the tra
verse is doubled. If the extremities of each branch are
* It may be cursorily remarked that the entrance to hell is of triple form;

first we have the gate of a fortified castle; then the jaws of a monster;
lastly, the chimney of a furnace. The above drawing will appear again in the
History of the Devil; it is taken from a MS., with miniatures of the thirteenth
century, in the Bib. Roy.
terminated by one or by two serpents' heads, it is said to be

gringollée, or quivrée;* by a crescent, crescented; by an
anchor, anchored; by a dart, barbed, or barbée; by a cramp
iron, cramponnée; by a trefoil, trefled or botoné; by a fleur
de-lis, fleury, or flory; by one or more balls, pommetty or
bourdonnéet When from the point of each branch the
descent is by steps or degrees, the cross is termed degraded
(perronnée). When the end is sharp or rounded, it is
pointed, or moussée; potent when each arm is surmounted
by a traverse, like the head of a crutch; and pattée, when
the extremities spread. The :
Maltese cross is pattée, but

the extremity of each pattée
is notched at a sharp angle.
The above indications will
be sufficient for ourpurpose;
a more extended develope
ment of the varieties would
occupy too much time and
space. It may, however, be
mentioned as something re
markable, that nearly all
these heraldic crosses are
Greek and not Roman.
Might not the form have
originated in the East, at
the epoch of the Crusades,
or rather, as is not improb
able, might it not have been #
necessitated by the form of l-ft2 =<=
the shield P Fig. 98-GREEK CRoss; As THE CRoss of
• • LORRAINE.:
t:'": "' Sculpture of Mount Athos; first ages.
by ornaments and attributes, the varieties become so

* “Guivré, boa, serpent ou bisse qui parait dans l'écu avec un enfant à
mi-corps issant de sa gueule.” Dict. Heraldique. Tours, 1848.
+ “Bourdonnée, une croix pommetée à la manière d'unbourdon de pélérin.
(Les prieurs mettent un baton bourdonnée derrière l'écu de leurs armes.)”
Dict Heraldique. Tours, 1848.
# This cross, with double arms, is sculptured on a slab of white marble,
which serves as sustaining wall to the little rotunda called “rmy,” or
Cc 2
numerous that to attempt an enumeration would be com

pletely useless. A few are given below.
In Greece, representations of the cross are usually attended
with the inscription, 1ö xö NIKA (Jesus Christ is Con
queror). The preceding engraving gives the figure of a cross
with double arms, called amongst us the Cross of Lorraine,
and forming the plan of the several English churches,
mentioned above, as well as of the three French churches.
The foot of the above cross is bifurcated, and cut into
the form of acanthus leaves.” The whole inscription here
accompanies a single cross. In other instances the inscrip
tion is divided into two parts; the first portion is engraved
above a cross placed on the left, the second above another
cross placed on the right hand. Below the first are two
peacocks, standing face to face, animals which appear to be
“qiáAm,” at the entrance of the large and ancient convent of St. Laura on
Mount Athos. These fountains, ancient baptisteries, are at present used for
giving and receiving holy water.
* The ornament from which the cross rises, as from a root, deserves to be
studied with the greatest care. Foliated at its commencement, and having
reverse curves on either side, it afterwards loses the upper curve and retains
only the simple curve below: it forms a sort of crescent, but a foliated
crescent. Later than this, in our own time, the foliage disappeared entirely,
leaving the crescent still more strongly marked; for each curve or quarter circle
unites and receives at its junction the foot of the cross. The cross of Christ is
here triumphant and trampling on the crescent of Mahomet, as in our monu
ments St. Michael overthrows and tramples upon Satan. It is thus in fact that
this figure of the rooted cross is interpreted by the partisans of the symbolic
school; but the crescent is formed only by the gradual degradation of the
double foliation in opposite curves, and has no reference either to Mahomet or
the crescent. This opinion will receive full confirmation from the study of
the Byzantine crosses of Mount Athos, Constantinople, and throughout Greece;
for in those countries, crosses, entirely in the form of a crescent, existed before
the birth of Mahomet, and even in the time of Justinian. With regard to
certain medals of Maguelonne, on which the cross is seen fixed in a kind of
crescent, we are told that the bishop, by whom this money was issued, had
made alliance with the Mussulmans, and in token thereof united upon his
coinage the crescent and the cross. In the first place it is highly improbable
that any French bishop would make an alliance with the Mussulmans, it is
still more unlikely that he would ever have united the symbol of Jesus with
that of Mahomet; or that, had he done so, a Christian population would have
submitted to a like insult. The cross upon the coins of Maguelonne exactly
resembles the rooted crosses, a very ancient example of which is afforded by that
of St. Laura on Mount Athos. A great analogy exists between the ancient
rooted crosses and anchor crosses.
symbolic, since, in a certain manuscript,” and upon a monu

mental stone in the museum of Narbonne, peacocks are
Fig. 99.—GREEK CRoss, witH DouBLE CRoss ARMs.

Sculpture at Athens; x1 cent.
represented, crowned like saints with a nimbus. In a

medallion below the second cross there is an eagle with
* The MS. above mentioned was quoted in the chapter on the nimbus.
wings counter-crossed, and in another a falcon with wing

abased. The falcon wears the collar, leash, and bell. Th
foot of the first cross is pattée, of the second degrade
(perronnée); both are cut by a broad, double crossbeam, 0
traverse. The cross with peacocks is made of ribbons inter
laced; that with the eagle and falcon is of narrower ribbon:
plaited. -
Both of these crosses adorn the western porch of a churc.

at Athens, and are sculptured upon slabs of white marble
The cross with the eagle and falcon was given in Fig. 96
It was necessary therefore to complete the by th''
addition of that with the two peacocks, the latter bein
placed on the left hand and supplying the first half of th
inscription.
At the foot of the painted or sculptured crosses adornin,
the churches in Greece, animals are constantly represente
face to face, contemplating, with a mixture of love and terro
the symbol of redemption, before which they appear to ben
in humiliation. The lion, the eagle, the falcon, and th
peacock, are the animals most commonly seen; the eagl
and the peacock are emblems of pride; the falcon and th
lion remind us of barbarous violence and brutal cruelty, an
all may well signify those evil passions which are constraine
to bow beneath the yoke of the cross; the dove and th
sheep, so frequently seen on the frescos of catacombs an
ancient sarcophagi, might announce that virtues emanat
from the cross, in the same manner in which vices are over
whelmed by its power. St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, send
to his friend Sulpicius Severus, the following distichs, whic
M. Journal, who sent me a drawing of the stone at Narbonne, and one als
from a sarcophagus in St. Etienne, at Bologna, representing two peacocks fac
to face, looking at a cross, writes as follows: “The peacock has frequentl
been employed as an emblem, from the fourth century down to our own tim
We find it in mosaics decorating the vaulting of Sta. Costanza in Rome; o
the pavement of St. Mark’s at Venice, and the sarcophagi at Ravenna, and i
the Vatican. The sarcophagus of Pope Zozimus (418) is preserved in S
Lorenzo fuori delle Mura at Rome, and that of Santa Costanza in the Vatica
contains only genii employed in the vintage, peacocks and sheep.” I do no
myself imagine either the sheep or the genii to be invariably emblematic, an
think the fancy of the artist had more influence in suggesting the style
decoration. Still it would be well for Christian antiquaries to devote som
time to the study of this singular subject.
he had had written near two crosses painted red, cinctured

with a crown of flowers, and attended by two doves:
“Ardua floriferae CRUX cingitur orbe coronae
Et Domini fuso tincta cruore rubet.”
“Quaeque super signum resident coeleste columbae,

Simplicibus produnt regna patere Dei.”
One would imagine these lines to have been composed for

a cross thus figured on a marble sarcophagus, brought from
the cemetery of the Vatican.” Saint Paulinus says again,
“. . . . . . Tolle crucem qui vis auferre coronam.”
If the allegorical intention of the preceding examples be

uncertain, still it cannot be questioned in the following
cross which is pattée
inscribed within a
circle, and quartered
with four open books,
each of which is sur
rounded by a circular
aureole. Several de
signs have been already
shown, in which Christ,
inclosed in an aureole
either elliptical or cir
cular, is attended, by
the attributes of the
four Evangelists. In
the figure given below,
Christ is symbolised by Fig. 100.—CRoss, QUARTERED witH THE FouR
the Cross, and the four GOSPELS.
Evangelists by their Fresco in the Catacombs; the earliest ages.
Gospels.
The cross is not merely accompanied by symbols and
* See the works of St. Paulinus (Epistola, xii., ad Severum), and Bosio
(Rom. Sotterr., p. 79). In treating of allegorical representations, an immense
field is open to the imagination; we must therefore, pause here, and refer the
reader for fuller details to the whole of the fourth part of Rom. Sotter.,
beginning from the 41st chapter in particular. Although unable to accede to
all the opinions elicited by Bosio, we are not the less inclined to recommend
ornaments, but it is, if we may so speak, interlaced with

them. The monogram of Christ, the chi (x) and the rho
(P) of Xpwards, the iota (1) of 'Ingots, combine and produce
Greek crosses, Roman crosses, and stars with six branches
of equal or unequal lengths.
These crosses are either free, or else inscribed within
circular or square medallions. In the following plate, com
posed of six cruciform monograms, the CHI is a St. Andrew's
>< 0) → Fig. 101.—vARIOUS CRossES OF THE GREEK FORM.

Sculpture of the ancient Sarcophagi; earliest epoch.
In the first five figures in this plate, the RHo cuts the
CHI vertically at the point where the two branches intersect
each other. We thus have the two first letters of XPIXTox.
The monograms of Nos. 2, 3, and 4, are free; Nos. 1, 5, and
6 enclosed; No. 3 is composed of the X and P only; No. 2 is
accompanied by palm branches,intended probably to designate
triumph and glory; No. 4, like No. 1, is completed by the
that the most scrupulous attention should be paid to everything relating to
symbolism. The question of Christian symbolism is of grave import, and one
of the most delicate in our national archaeology, and cannot be solved satis
factorily, unless our conclusions be supported, solely and entirely, by facts.
addition of the Greek letters A and o, signifying that Christ

is the commencement and the end of all things. No. 5 is
inscribed within a medallion, but the rays of this mystic
wheel extend to the circumference, and are confounded with
it, while those of No. 6 do not adhere to it, (this example
is termed couped or humetty.) Besides, this last figure
is no longer a RHO, but an IoTA, which is the first letter of
*Imaoüs, as CHI is of Xplorós. The sixth monogram thus
appears £ the most complete; the preceding examples
express o CHRIST, the "
latter JESUS 'C'
The engraving subjoined
was taken from the capital of
a column in the church of St.
Demetrius,at Salonica; it would
be exactly similar to No. 6, if
the rays composing it were
disengaged instead of touching
the line of circumference.
In the above figure, the
IOTA, not the RHO, cuts the
CHI, but the six rays reach, Fig. 102.—A GREEK CRoss of STAR,
and
circle;arein circumscribed by a
that given below, '.
Sculpture in S. £" at Salonica.
they are in a square, and with

this variety: that the CHI
does not divide the IOTA
into equal parts: the foot of
the IoTA is longer than the
top.
In the preceding examples
the CHI preserves its natural
form, that of a St. Andrew's
cross, a cross saltire; in those
which follow, on the con
trary, the CHI becomes a true
cross with a vertical shaft, and –F
horizontal:cross-bar.
'' SIX ' for
Besides, £
Sculpture of Salonica; Iv cent.
the X and P, there are no
longer more than four; the vertical shaft of the X curves
and becomes RHo. The monogram is more and more co

tracted, and the lines forming it are economised.
N=
D |
A || CO
7 's 9
1% Af 42
Fig. 104.—GREEK AND LATIN CROSSES, of VARIOUS FORMS.

Monuments in the Catacombs; the earliest epoch.
No. 12 in the above plate is the same in form as th

pectoral cross worn by bishops. Nos. 9 and 10 give th
Greek cross, one disengaged, the other engaged in a circli
the disk of No. 9 thus stamped with the cross, exactly r
sembles a cruciform nimbus; in No. 7 the disk is als
divided by a cross, but the branches of that cross do n,
reach to the circumference, and the vertical shaft is rounde
into a Rho (P). In No. 8, as in Nos. 1 and 4., the A and
accompany the monogram. No. 11 presents in addition, t
N, which, traversing the foot of the cross, is most probab
the initial of noster, and gives to this monogram the meanin
of “xRISTos NosTER,”. With us the epithet is amplifi
into “Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
* These monograms were of Greek origin, but the Latins did not aband
them, or modify them according to the form of the Roman letters, until a ve
late period. In the catacombs and early mosaics, the monograms of Chr
and of the Virgin are in Greek letters—fö, XC and MP, GT. The alpha a
omega have continued in use in this country down to the present day. T
name of Christ was written in Latin at Chartres, in the thirteenth century; t
In the following example the monogram is given in com

bination with the cross, but the cross is borne like a
standard by a young neophyte;
it is, in fact, a kind of labarum.
Inscriptions and allegorical
ornaments, in short, more
numerous even than those
which have just been seen,
accompany the cross, and assist
in developing the events and
ideas which that symbol recals
to our minds. A Christian
seal, a design from which,
magnified by the camera lucida
and given below, is engraved
with a cross, in the form of a -P
TAU (T); the CHI (X) crosses "--
the shaft of the TAU, which is Fig. 105-Monogram, UNITED wiTH
rounded above into a RHo (P). THE CROSS,
The name of Christ and '. *::: of the

figure of his cross are com
prised in these lines. Christ the Son of God, is the com
mencement and the end of all; the A and Q, the beginning
and end of intellectual signs, and, by extension, of intel
ligence itself, and lastly, of the human soul, accompany the
cross, on the right hand and on the left. The cross has
crushed and conquered Satan the old serpent; a serpent,
therefore, unrols and entwines himself around the foot of
the cross. This enemy of the human race seeks above all
things to destroy the soul, which is represented under the
form of a dove; but the dove, although menaced by the
serpent, looks stedfastly at the cross, whence she derives
her strength, and by : she is rendered safe from the
poison of Satan. The word SALUs, written below the ground
the first two letters are Greek, the third and fourth might be either Greek or
Latin, and the two last are exclusively Latin, XPITVS. The first sigma is
omitted. Here the monogram of Christ is Greek, while that of the adjective,
noster, is Latin. In the Evangéliaire, in the Sainte Chapelle, at Paris, quoted
above, p. 273, the first of the four verses transcribed has Dominum in the
Latin, and Christum in Greek:—
. . . . “Quatuor DUM signant animalia XPM.”
on which the cross and doves are standing, is the song C

triumph poured forth by faithful Christians in honour C
Jesus and the cross.
The cross which follows on the next page, Fig. 107, i
another triumphal cross. Place
amidst the stars of heaven, thi
cross stands upon the same in
scription, SALUs, the sense o
which is completed by the wor
MUNDI, and is surrounded by :
resplendent circle of preciou
stones; the cross itself is starred
with precious stones.* Three
other inscriptions occupy re.
spectively each of the other
extremities, as Salus Mund
does the extremity of the foot
Fig. 106.—MYSTIC CRoss. The arrangement is as follows:
Engraved stone of the earliest epoch. -Above the summit of the
cross, that is, in heaven, we
read, “I. M. D. W. C. These letters are interpreted, with
greater or less propriety, by “ImmolatioIDomini Jesu Christi.”
But in this manner no account is given of the W. or the Y.
if indeed it is a W. or a Y. and not an I., f besides, two
* This is indeed the gemmed, the starry, the floriated cross, crux gemmata
crux stellata, crux florida, as it is called when richly decorated. (See, in
Rom. Sotterr., p. 131, a beautiful example of a gemmed and floriated cross
with the A and 0 suspended by little chains from the cross-beams.) Rhabar
Maur says, interpreting the sixteenth figure, in reference to the cross:
“Descripsi ergo hic FlorigERAM crucem quatuor coloribus praecipuis, id es'
hyacinthino, purpureo, byssino et coccineo, ut floris illius jucundissimi decorem
demonstrarem, quem prophetica locutio narrat de stirpe regia exortum, qu
speciosus prae filiis hominum existens, omnium virtutum decorem in semetips.
ultra omnes mirabiliter ostendit.” Rhaban, it will be seen, formally assert
the beauty of Christ. The same passage is terminated by the following words
“Homo Christus Hiesus inter homines natus serenus resplendebat, quia totiu.
decoris pulchritudine INTUs FoRisque plenus erat.” (See the works o'
Rhaban Maur, vol. i., p. 313, De Laud. Sanctae Crucis.)
* This cross has been copied from an engraving, which may possibly, as
there is great reason to fear, be incorrect, and not from the monument itself
Ciampini (Wet. Mon., pars. 1", tab. 24), who gives it, explains the five letter
as above, and does not remark that the W and the Y contradict his explanation
Gori (Thes. Wet. Dipty, vol. iii., p. 22) has had an engraving made from the
cross of Ravenna. He replaces the five Latin letters of Ciampini by the five
letters are here given for the first word, and one only for the
other three. This inscription, bearing reference as it does, to
the self-devotion of the Deity,
is properly placed in heaven
rather than on the earth. Upon
the earth, that is to say, at the
foot of the cross which descends
towards our world, we read,
“Salus mundi,” because the world
is saved through the Cross of
Christ. Finally, Christ, whose
comprehensive charity embraces
the universe, the ancient world
as well as the future, from the Fig.10t-stan, cross
- *: #£: s'.
and apostles, prophets and saints are redeemed, the first man
as well as the last, truly deserved that the cross on which his
Greek letters IXQTC, forming the celebrated word on which we have already
dwelt so long. If Gori's reading be correct, this fact is of the highest import
ance. I regret extremely not having myself seen that curious monument. I
requested M. l'Abbé Lacroix, the clerc-national and historical correspondent at
Rome, to favour me with information respecting this mosaic. M. Lacroix, who
has made the Church of St. Apollinaire in Classe, in which that mosaic is
preserved, an object of especial study, has taken a most careful and exact copy
of the cross. He informs me that the word is really IX®TC, as Gori asserts.
This fact is of great moment in determining the question whether Christ were
actually symbolised by the fish or not. M. Lacroix has also sent me a
drawing of a monument, recently discovered by himself, on the hill of the
Vatican behind St. Peter's; it is a sepulchral marble, belonging to the earliest
Christian era. Above two fishes, which are affronted, or looking towards each
other, is inscribed “IXOTC. ZanTan,” that is to say, “’Imaoüs Xplorbs
©eot Tios Xarmp Zavrov,” “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour of the living.”
After such facts as these, which completely set the question at rest, we are
compelled to yield, and to acknowledge that the fish has most decidedly been
employed as a figure, if not a symbol of Christ. M. Lacroix has counted 99
stars in the field of the cross of Ravenna; he thinks that that number may be
intended to refer to the 99 just persons, in relation to whom there is less joy
in Paradise than at the conversion of a single sinner. This interpretation
could not, however, be adopted without some hesitation. The design in our
possession contains 21 stars only; but copyists are seldom correct.
* It is to this cross surrounded with stars that the exclamation of the Emperor
Heraclius might apply, “O crux splendidior cunctis astris!” This is still sung
in the offices of the Church. (See the “Golden Legend,” De Exalt. St.
Crucis.)
arms were extended should be marked with an A and o,

signifying the beginning and the end of all things.
The cross is unquestionably the symbol of Christ; it is
Christ under the figure of the gibbet on which he suffered.
Thus we see it spoken of as if it were Christ himself: Jesus,
in the Gospel, said, “I am the light of the world:” (John,
viii. 12.) “I am the way, the truth, and the life;” (John,
xiv. 6;) and “Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall
never die. (John, xi. 26.) So also in the Church of St. Pierre
du Dorat, on the top of a cross accompanied by the A and n, we
read the four words, LVX, PAX. LEX. REX." The cross
gives light, in the same manner as Christ, who shone in
the darkness; the cross calms and regulates the passions;
governs and directs man in the path of duty; it is the torch,
peace, law, and a guide.
The four words LVX, PAX. LEX. REX. are written in the
form of a cross, as in No. 1 of the following design, but
with one variation. In the field of the Greek cross, below,
we read the following words, also disposed in the form of a
cross: LVX. DVX. LEX. REX. Thus DVX is substituted for
PAX. Finally, the tomb of St. Angilbert, son-in-law and
peer of Charlemagne, seventh Abbot of St. Riquier, had the
following four verses inscribed on the four sides of the slab:
the lines begin and end with the four words sculptured at
Dorat, and will serve to explain their meaning.
REX, requiem Angilberto da, Pater atque pius REX;
LEX legum, vitam aeternam illida, quia tu LEX.
LVX, lucem semper concede illi, bona qui es LVX;
PAX, pacem illi perpetuam dona, es quoniam PAX.f.
Thus the cross, like Christ, or even God himself, lights

and guides us, and we may apply to it the words, spoken by
St. Paul, of God. “In it (him) we live, and move, and have
our being.” (Acts xvii. 28.)
* This inscription, communicated to me by M. de Guilhermy, is a work of
the twelfth century. It is graven on the north wall of the church at Dorat,
surmounting, as has been said, a Greek cross, with the A and Q ; but beneath
the cross is a second inscription, in which the faithful commend themselves to
the protection of God and the guardianship of his angels.
+ Act. SS. Ord. S. Bened, fourth Benedictine century, first part. “Life of
St. Angilbert.”
In this light it was regarded by Dante, when in Paradise

he described the souls of the just as kneeling and praying
© E. \/ Cl
-i
- Q
Fig. 108.—GREEK AND LATIN CRossEs, of VARIOUS FORMS.*

From French monuments of different periods.
in the interior of a cross of fire, in which they breathe,

where they dwell, and which forms their world.
* Numerous varieties of the cross are given in this plate, but a crowd of
others exist, which it would be impossible to enumerate. It is necessary in
treating subjects of this nature, to attend to the most trifling variety of form,
for such varieties are generally characteristic of an epoch, a country, or an
idea. No. 1 gives the cross of Dorat; No. 2 serves as an antefix or crown
work to the gable of the chevet of the Romanesque Church of Olizy, near
Rheims; No. 3 is a cross pattée with the cross-beams re-crossed, and
the top in the form of a tau; No. 4 is an open bay or embrasure in the
eastern wall of the apse in the Church of Beine, arrondissement of Rheims.
The chevet of the church at Beine is square, like that in the Cathedral of
Laon; but the rose, which in the Cathedral of Laon is open in a full circle, at
Beine assumes the form of a cross. No. 5 nearly resembles the design of a
sepulchral stone inserted in the south wall of St. Maurice at Rheims. A
funeral inscription, of a certain degree of archaeological importance, is engraved
The subjoined figure is a picture of the inhabited Cross,
Fig. 109.—INHABITED CRoss.

Florentine engraving, 1491.
upon the four branches of the cross. On the upper part is written: “Hic
JAcET ARMA;” on the left, “MATER;” on the right, “MATERTERA;” below,
“NEPTIs.” No. 6 is the Maltese cross. The cross No. 7 is engraved upon
the lintel of a chapel in Pont-Faverger, near Rheims. No. 8 gives the form of
a pectoral cross, sculptured on the breast of a female statue of wood, in the
clock tower of the rural church of Binson, where it was discovered by
M. Hippolyte Durand and myself in 1837; it belongs to the Romanesque
epoch, probably about the tenth century. This wooden figure is two inches in
height, and the most ancient existing in France. The proprietor of the
church would do well to preserve this curious effigy with greater care. No. 9,
which is not here in its proper place, gives an example of the heart-shaped
leaves so constantly seen on sarcophagi, and which accompany monumental in
scriptions: it belongs to the paragraph where the various figures depicted upon
tombs are described, and to which an allegorical meaning must, with modera
tion, be assigned. The eight varieties of the cross, given in the above plate,
are, although exceptions, very common in France. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 all
belong to the arrondissement of Rheims. It would be interesting employment
as described in the Divina Commedia, printed at Florence

in 1491.*
This cross is resplendent with a glory far more radiant
than the suns and constellations of every kind which blaze
around it. Dante thus explains the subject. The poet,
being arrived with Beatrice in the planet Mars, exclaims—
“M” apparverö splendor dentro a duo raggi,
Ch'io dissi; O Elios, che sigli addobbi !
Come distinta da minori e maggi
Lumibiancheggia tra poli del mondo
Galassiaf si, chefa dubbiar ben saggi,
Si costellati facean nel profondo
Marte queiraggi il venerabil segno,t
Che fan giunture di quadranti in tondo
Qui vince la memoria mia lo’ngegno;
Ch'n quella croce lampeggiava Christo.
>k * *: +
Di corno in corno, e tra la cima e 'l basso,

Si movean lumi, scintillando forte
Nel congiungersi insieme enel trapasso;
Cosi si veggion qui dirittee torte,
Veloci e tarde, rinnovando vista,
Le minuzie de' corpi lunghe e corte
Muoversi per lo raggio, onde si lista.
Tal volta l'ombra, che per sua difesa
La gente con ingegno ed arte acquista.
to collect, from every department and arrondissement of France, the different

varieties of the cross to be found in each. Nothing should ever be omitted or
neglected in Iconography, particularly when relating to so important a figure as
the cross of Christ. The form, the colour, and the ornaments decorating or
accompanying the divine cross, ought to be studied with the minutest care.
M. Tournal has lately sent me a drawing of a very ancient bas-relief, found
recently at Narbonne, and on which two persons are figured, one sitting,
the other erect, supporting a gemmed cross pattée. At the top are two doves
drinking from a vase: the A and Q depend from the cross-bars; between the
top and the transverse bar radiate two figures, either stars or expanded roses.
A dragon appears to be expiring at the feet of the sitting person: a rose of
eight petals, a square, and two circles are semés on the left of the cross. All
these figures may, with much appearance of probability, be explained by
symbolism, even to the satisfaction of those who, like ourselves, restrict the
symbolism within comparatively narrow limits.
* Paradiso, Canto xiv., 1.94.
+ The Galaxy, or Milky Way. # The Cross.
D D
E come giga ad arpa in tempra tesa

Di molte corde, fan dolce tintinno
A tal, da cui la nota, non è intesa;
Cosi da lumi cheli m'apparinno,
S’ accogliea per la croce una melode,
Chemi rapiva senza intender l'inno.”
>k >k >k *k
Qual per li seren tranquilli e puri

Discorre adora ad or subito fuoco,
Movendo gli occhi, che stavan sicuri,
E pare stella, che tramuti loco,
Se non che dalla parte, onde s accende
Nulla sen perde, ed esso dura poco;
Tale dal corno, che 'n destro sistende,
Al pie di quella croce corse un astro +
Della costellazion, cheli risplende;
* With such mighty sheen,

And mantling crimson, in two listed rays
The splendors shot before me, that I cried,
“God of Sabaoth ! that does prank them thus !”
As leads the Galaxy from pole to pole,
Distinguished into greater lights and less,
Its pathway, which the wisest fail to spell;
So thickly studded, in the depth of Mars,
Those rays described the venerable sign,
That quadrants in the round conjoining frame.
Here memory mocks the toil of genius. Christ
Beamed on that cross; and pattern fails me now.
2k * * *
From horn to horn,

And ’tween the summit and the base did move
Lights, scintillating, as they met and passed.
Thus oft are seen with ever changeful glance,
Straight or athwart, now rapid and now slow,
The atomies of bodies, long or short,
To move along the sunbeam, whose slant line
Checkers the shadow interposed by art
Against the noon-tide heat. And as the chime
Of minstrel music, dulcimer, and harp,
With many strings a pleasant dinning makes
To him, who heareth not distinct the note;
So from the lights, which there appeared to me
Gather'd along the cross a melody,
That, indistinctly heard, with ravishment
Possess'd me.
Cary's Dante, Paradise, Canto xiv., 1.86.
+ The spirit of Cacciaguida. See note + next page.
TIIE WARIETIES OF THE CROSS. 403
Ne si partila gemma dal suo nastro:

“Ma per la lista radial trascorse,
Che parve fuoco dietro ad alabastro.”
*k * *k *
Ben supplico a te, vivo topazio,

Che questa gioia preziósa ingemmi,
Perchè mi facci del tuo nome sazio.”
This saintly splendour was the spirit of Cacciaguidat

He speaks at some length to Dante of his ancestors, and
the future fate of the poet himself. He then adds in canto
xviii.—
“In questa quinta soglia:
Dell' alvero che vive della cima,
E frutta sempre, e mai non perde foglia,
Spiriti son beati chegiu, prima
Che venissero al cielo, fur digran voce,
Si ch’ ogni Musa ne sarebbe opima.
Perö mira ne' corni della Croce:
Quel, ch'io or numerö, li fară l’atto
Che fa in nube il suo fuoco veloce
* “As oft along the still and pure serene,

At nightfall, glides a sudden trail of fire,
Attracting with involuntary heed
The eye to follow it, erewhile at rest;
And seems some star that shifted place in heaven,
Only that, whence it kindles, none is lost,
And it is soon extinct; thus from the horn
That on the dexter of the cross extends,
Down to its foot, one luminary ran
From mid the cluster shone there; yet no gem
Dropp'd from its foil, and through the beamy list
Like flame in alabaster glow'd its course.
* + * +
“This, howe'er,
I pray thee, living topaz! that ingemm'st
This precious jewel; let me hear thy name.”
Cary's Dante, Paradise, xv., 1.11 and 81.
+ It is thus explained by annotators. Cacciaguida was the great great
grandfather of the poet. It would have been better to translate the Italian by
the French words “àme,” or “lueur;” there are no “shades” (ombres) in
the Paradiso of Dante, in which everything is fire or flame. In the Inferno
the souls of the lost are darkness; those suffering in the Purgatorio are shades,
and the glorified souls in Paradise are splendours. Such is the progression
observed, and no doubt intentionally, by Dante.
# The planet Mars—the fifth division of Paradise. 2
D D
Iovidi per la croce un lume tratto

Dal nomar Josuè ; com ei si feo;
Nemi fu noto il dir, prima che il fatto.
Ed al nome dell' alto Maccabeo
Vidi muoversi un altro roteando;
Eletizia era ferza del paleo.
Cosi per Carlo Magno e per Pêr Orlando
Duo ne segui lo mio attento sguardo,
Com’ occhio segue suo falcon volando.
Poscia trasse Guglielmo, e Rinoardo
E'l duca Gottifredi la mia vista
Per quella Croce, e Roberto Guiscardo.
Indi tra l'altre luci mota e mista
Mostrommi l'alma, chem avea parlato,
Qual era tra i cantor del Cielo artista.”
Thus amongst the twelve little naked beings inhabitin
the cross given in our design, and representing the souls
valiant warriors, Dante mentions eight, who occupy th
arms of the cross, beginning from left to right. In th
left arm are Joshua, Judas Maccabaeus, Charlemagne, ar
* “On this fifth lodgmgnt of the tree, whose life
Is from its top, whôse fruit is ever fair,
And, leaf unwithering, bless'd spirits abide,
That were below, ere they arrived in Heaven,
So mighty in renown, as every Muse
Might grace her triumph with them. On the horns
Look, therefore, of the Cross; he whom I name
Shall there enact, as doth in summer cloud
Its nimble fire. Along the cross I saw
At the repeated name of Joshua,
A splendour gliding; nor, the word was said
Ere it was done; then at the naming, saw,
Of the great Maccabee, another move
With whirling speed; and gladness was the scourge
Unto that top. The next for Charlemain
And for the peer Orlando, two my gaze
Pursued, intently, as the eye pursues
A falcon flying. Last, along the cross
William, and Renard, and Duke Godfrey, drew
Myken, and Robert Guiscard. And the soul
Who, spake with me, among the other lights
Did move away and mix; and with the choir
Of heavenly songsters proved his tuneful skill.” *
Cary's Dante, Paradise, xviii., l.
* The translation of Dante's Divina Commedia, used by M. Didron,

that of M. Brizeux, but it has been thought preferable to quote the orig
text with Cary's translation.-ED.
THE SIGN OF THE CROSS. 405
Roland; in the right, William the Conqueror, Richard Coeur

de Lion, Godfrey de Bouillon and Robert Guiscard.
Cacciaguida is one of the four souls, not named, who are
kneeling in the stem, and upper part of the cross. This
cross does not contain the crucified in person, and yet Dante
in canto xiv., declares that Christ there shone resplendent;
in fact, as has been said, the Cross is the symbol of Christ.
Iconographically considered, the Son of God is in the Cross,
as he is in the Lamb, and in the Lion; he is there hidden
under the semblance of the instrument of punishment on
which he died. To sum up therefore; the second person of
the Trinity is figured by an infinite number of different
objects; three alone, the Lamb, the Lion and the Cross, are
symbols of our Lord. Even the Fish does not rise to the
dignity of a divine symbol.
Fully to complete the history of the Cross would have
required a special monography; the present notice is therefore
limited, from necessity, to the essential points of this im
portant subject. We shall conclude with a few words only
on the making the sign of the cross, on the colour, and on
the Triumph of the Cross.
THE SIGN OF THE CROSS.
The sign of the cross, made in token of recognition of

its power, is common to all Christian antiquity: that symbolic
gesture has from the earliest times preceded, attended and
closed the actions and thoughts of Christians. The cross in
which “the philosopher St. Paul gloried,” says St. John
Chrysostom, “every faithful Christian wears suspended
round his neck; it was represented on the wearing apparel,
chambers, beds, instruments, vases, books, cups, and even
on animals.” St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in his instructions to
catechumens, desires them to trace the cross upon their
foreheads, to alarm and drive away Satan, and he further
adds—“Make that sign whenever you eat or drink, when
you seat yourselves, when you lie down or rise up; in a
word, let it accompany every action of your life.” We read
also in St. Augustine: “Si dixerimus catechumeno: Credis
in Christum ? respondit: Credo, et signat se cruce.” T

same father adds elsewhere: “As the hidden rite
circumcision was the appointed sign of the old covenant,
the cross on the uncovered brow is the token of t
meW.”*
The sign of the cross is made either upon others or up
one's self; in the first it is an action of benediction, in t
second an individual act.
God is the only source of all benediction. In several
the drawings previously given,t he is chiefly thus shown
the act of benediction.
The delegated representatives of God on earth, Pop
and Bishops more especially, are also divinely commission
to bestow benedictions on mankind. Angels, although t
ministers of the Deity, are not his representatives by t
same title as the Pope, or Bishops, who are his vicars
virtue of their apostolical descent. The functions of t
priesthood can be exercised by men only; angels are n
and cannot be represented blessing.
The angel on the roof of the chevet of the cathedral
Chartres, which was destroyed by a conflagration, has
modern times been replaced by an angel in the act of blessi
the city which lies outspread beneath him; but this is
offence against both our liturgy and iconography: Go
and men alone, have the power to bless.:
St. John the Baptist is usually represented by the Gree
in the act of blessing with the right hand, and holding
* M. Cyprien Robert (Cours d’Hierogl. Chrét) has quoted these vari
texts; we append that of Tertullian (De Corona Militis, cap. 111) : “
omnem progressum atque promotum, ad omnem aditum et exitum, ad vestitu
ad calciatum, ad lavacrum, ad mensas, ad lumina, ad cubilia, ad sedilia, q
cumque nos conversatio exercet, frontem crucis signaculo terimus.” Tertull
says again (De Oratione, cap. xii.): “Nos vero non atollimus tantum man
sed etiam expandimus e dominica passione modulatum, et orantes confiten
Christo.”
+ Particularly (to mention only the earliest engravings) at Figs. 2,
# The error of which the sculptor of the angel at Chartres Cathedral is h
guilty, combined with numerous others committed in the restoration of St. Del
St. Germain-l'Auxerrois, the Cathedrals of Rheims and Avignon, ought to c
vince the civil and ecclesiastical administration of the necessity of appointin
council of liturgists and antiquaries, who having studied Christian archaeol.
under every possible aspect, might be consulted on many delicate points. T
the left, his head, the reed cross, or the scroll, and calling men
to repentance, St. John is a man, a minister of God, the pre
cursor of Christ. To him all the power and prerogatives of
the priesthood were delegated by God. He therefore gives
the blessing by good authority.” Yet, amongst us, St. John
the Baptist is always represented holding the Lamb of God
in his left arm, the index of the right hand being engaged in
pointing to it; that hand points but does not bless.f
The gesture of benediction is, as we have already said,
either Greek or Latin; it is always given with the right
hand, the hand of power. In the Greek Church it is per
formed with the forefinger entirely open, the middle finger
slightly bent, the thumb crossed upon the third finger, and
the little finger bent. This movement and position of the
five fingers, form, more or less perfectly, the monogram of
the Son of God.
The Greeks, who were well versed in the refinements of
mysticism, naturally adopted that form of benediction. The
subjoined directions for depicting the Divine Hand in the
act of blessing, are extracted from the “Guide for Paint
ing,” a Byzantine manuscript; they commence thus: “When
you desire to represent a hand in the act of blessing, you
must not join the three fingers together, but let the thumb
be crossed on the third finger, so that the first, called the
index, may remain open, and the second finger be slightly
bent. Those two fingers form the name of Christ Imorovc, I.C.
In fact, the first finger remaining open signifies an I (ióta),
and the curvature of the second forms a C (sigma). The
thumb is placed across the third finger, and the fourth, or
little finger, is slightly bent, thus indicating the word
XploroC, x.C. The union of the thumb with the third finger
makes a x (chi), and the curvature of the little finger
angel symbolising the Church of Soissons, in the painted window in Notre-Dame
de Rheims, has the forefinger only of the hand open, and the angel of the
metropolitan Church of Rheims has the entire hand open, but neither of those
angels is giving a benediction.
* See above, Fig. 24. A St. John in the Byzantine style, brought from
M. Hymettus. The precursor gives the benediction in the Greek manner.
+ Sup, Figs. 83 and 84, two engravings of the precursor in the Latin style
He points to the Divine Lamb, but without blessing.
# See above, Figs. 21,49, 52. God the Father and the Son, giving the
Greek benediction.
forms a C (sigma), and these two letters form the ‘sigle,'

abridgment of Christos. Thus, through the divine pro
dence of the Creator, the fingers of a man’s hand, thou
more or less long or short, may be placed in such a mann
as to figure the name of Christ.”
The Latin benediction is given with the thumb and t,
first fingers open; the third and the little finger remaini
closed.* This arrangement of the fingers appears to
symbolic. Gulielmus Durandus and Jean Beleth affirm th
that manner of blessing symbolises the Trinity, and that t
three open fingers signify the three Divine persons.t. T
two closed fingers are emblematic of the two natures
Christ, the human and divine. The Greeks, as will be se
have developed this germ of symbolism, and have assign
each separate finger by name to one of the three perso
It may not be impossible to find a Greek benediction
some of the monuments of western iconography existing
our own country. Such a circumstance would deserve to
carefully noted, as affording an incontrovertible proof of t
operation, either direct or indirect, of Byzantine influen
One fact of this nature, discovered in those edifices in C
country which are now very gratuitously termed Byzanti
would close the discussion, and be of more value than all
dissertations which have been written on that point.
It appears that in former times priests as well as bisho
gave the benediction with three fingers extended; but a
later period, when it was thought desirable to establish
more marked difference between the episcopal benedicti
and that of a simple priest, bishops reserved to themsel
the right of blessing with three fingers; and priests no long
gave the benediction except with the hand entirely op.
In addition to this, bishops gave their blessing as it were f
face, priests only in profile, with the hand held sidewa
Lastly, during the performance of ecclesiastical offices a
prayers, in which bishops give three successive benedictio
and three times make the sign of the cross, priests give o
blessing only, and make one single sign. The episcop
* See above, Fig. 54. A most remarkable instance of the Latin benedict
given by a divine hand.
+ Gulielmus Durandus, Rat. Div. Off, lib. v., cap. ii., J. Beleth. Ext
catio Divin. Off, cap. xxxix., de Evangelio. -
benediction is then the same as that of the priest, but in its

fullest amplification. It becomes, therefore, necessary, in the
study of iconographic monuments, to examine carefully not
merely the position of each finger but the direction of the
hand. Christian archaeology, to become a science, requires,
like botany and other natural sciences, to be scrutinised even
in its most minute and microscopic details; in fact, the true
science exists only in those details.
An individual making the sign of the cross upon his own
person uses the right hand, the thumb and first and second
fingers open, and the third and fourth closed. There is in
this respect no difference between the Greek and the Latin
Church. Gulielmus Durandus says, that the sign of the
cross is made with the three fingers to invoke the Trinity.
The Greeks have the same opinion, but add that each finger
symbolises one of the Divine persons. The Archbishop of
Mistra, whom I interrogated on that subject,” told me that
the thumb, from its strength, indicated the Creator, the
Father Eternal, the Almighty; that the middle finger was
consecrated to Jesus Christ, who has redeemed us, and is,
therefore, in respect of men, the chief person of the Trinity;
that the forefinger, standing between the middle finger and
thumb figured the Holy Ghost, who unites the Father and
Son, and in representations of the Trinity is placed between
those two persons.
With the three fingers open, the body is marked with the
form of a cross, beginning at the brow, and descending
thence to the breast, crossing that vertical line by another
or horizontal one drawn from the left shoulder to the right.
The Greeks go from the right to the left, and it appears
that with us also in the thirteenth century, at the time
when Durandus wrote, the line was traced indifferently from
either shoulder. The present chapter cannot be better closed,
than by the translation of an extract from the writings of
Durandus, which comprehends everything that remains to
be said concerning the sign of the cross:— -
“The sign of the cross should be made with three fingers,

because while tracing it we invoke the Trinity. Hence the
prophet exclaims, “Quis appendit tribus digitis molem
* During a visit to Greece, in the month of September, 1839.
terra.’” (Isaiah, xl. 12, Editio Vulgatae.)* Still the thumb

has the pre-eminence, because we fix our whole faith upon
God, one and three. Immediately after the invocation of th
Trinity the following verse may be said, “Show me a toker
for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be
ashamed; because thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted
me.” (Psalm boxxvi. 17.) But Jacobites and Eutychians
affirming that there was in Christ one single nature only
the divine nature, and at the same time, one single person
only in the godhead, make “the sign of the cross, as we are
told with one finger only. This error has been eradicated
by the decision of the canons.” (Distinction XII., ch. i. and
ii., question 3rd; “Some Eutychians,” &c.)
Some persons sign themselves from the head even to
the feet, to signify mystically that God, having bowed the
heavens, descended upon earth. He did, indeed, descend, t
raise us from earth to heaven. They next sign from righ
to left; first, to show that they prefer things eternal
signified by the right hand, to things temporal signified by
the left; secondly, to remind us that Christ passed from th
Jews to the Gentiles; and, thirdly, because Christ, coming
from the right hand, that is to say, from the Father, conquere.
on the cross the Devil, typified by the left, whence the words
“I came forth from the Father and am come into th
world.” (John, xvi., 28.) But others signing themselve
from left to right justify that formula by the text, “He cam
from the Father, he descended into hell, and returned t
the throne of God.” In fact, they commence by makin'
the sign in the upper part, which designates the Father
then they descend below, meaning the earth; then they g
to the left, which marks hell, and so re-ascend to the right
signifying to heaven; for Christ thus descended from heave
to earth, and afterwards re-ascended from hell to heaven
where he sits at the right hand of God the Father. Secondly
by doing thus they intimate that we must pass from miser,
to glory, and from vice, signified by the left, to virtue, whos
* The Latin vulgate of St. Jerome says, “Quis mensus est pugillo aquas
et coelos palmo ponderavit? quis appendit tribus digitis molem terrae, et libe
ravit in pondere montes, et colles in statera?”—Edition 1564, Antwerp
Plantini. The English version, however, does not admit of this interpretation
it has it, “and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure.”—ED.
place is on the right, as we read in the Gospel of St. Matthew.

Christ, in fact, had passed from death unto life. Thirdly,
because Christ raises us, through faith in his cross from
things which pass away, to things which endure for ever."
In the present day, however, an individual making on his
body the sign of the cross employs the right hand entirely
open, instead of the three fingers only;t but, on the
contrary, he uses one finger only, the thumb, to trace the
sign of the cross on the forehead, the mouth, and the heart,
when (before reading the Gospel, and as a response to the
deacon who prepares to chant it,) homage is rendered to
God by inclining the body and saying “Gloria tibi, Domine!”
These three little signs are made in the form of a Greek
cross, and on three different parts of the body, to signify
that we believe with the heart and the mind, and are
ready to confess with the lips our faith in that divine word
about to be spoken.
The thumb is also used by the bishop and priest in
tracing the little Greek cross with which the faithful are
signed upon the forehead, and other parts of the body, pre
vious to the administration of the Holy Sacrament. And it
is with the thumb more especially, and making the sign of
the cross, that the priest places on our brow at the com
mencement of Lent, the ashes which are to remind us, that
from dust we came, and to dust we shall return.
* G. Durandus, Rat. Div. Off, lib. v., cap. ii. J. Beleth (Explicatio
Offic, cap. xxxix., de Evangelio) uses almost the same language as Durandus.
The translation here given is literal. It is easy to see that much in these
explanations is puerile and laboured, but they prove that in the thirteenth
century the sign of the cross was made from above to below, and from left to
right, or from right to left indifferently. At present the Latin Church signs
from left to right, and the Greek from right to left. The pre-eminence of the
right over the left, alluded to in p. 181, is here fully developed.
+ The early Christians, says M. Cyprien Robert (Cours d’Hierogl. Chrét.
already quoted), did not sign themselves, as at the present time, with the entire
hand, and in such a manner as to embrace half of the body, but simply with
the first finger of the right hand, and (as is now done by Greeks and Russians)
they traced that sign three times following, in the name of each of the three
Divine persons. The Hebrews and Pagans gave the benediction with the
three fingers extended: “Digitus tria thura tribus sub limine ponit.” (Ovid.)
For that reason a malediction was uttered with the hand closed.
THE COLOUR OF THE CROSS.
. The cross is historical and symbolical, or real and ideal

on the one hand it is an instrument of punishment, on the
other, an attribute of glo
The historical cross, that which the Saviour bore upon his
shoulders to Calvary, and upon which he was crucified, is a
tree, and consequently its colour is green. On the painted
window in St. Etienne de Bourges,” on those of Notre
Dame de Chartres, and of Rheims, on those in the Ste.
Chapelle at Paris, and in the miniatures of our illuminated
manuscripts, the cross is a tree with the branches lopped
off, but still covered with a greenish bark. Sculptures
themselves confirm this fact; the colouring now has generally
disappeared from those which have been painted, but the
round tree covered with bark, and stripped of its branches,
is still very apparent, as in the west porch of Notre-Dame
de Rheims. In the liturgy and the writings of the fathers,
we meet continually with invocations to the cross as a divine
tree, a noble tree, the likeness of which no earthly forest
could produce, a brilliant and precious tree, a tree covered
with leaves, sparkling with flowers and loaded with fruit.f
The green colour was retained even after the cross had
been squared and stripped of its bark, in order to be trans
formed into an actual cross, by the axe of the carpenter.
It was no longer a tree, but a thick plank or beam; and yet
it is still green. Upon that squared beam, green or blackish
branches were traced, making the cross appear like a support,
or thick trellis to which the vine is attached, and over which
it spreads itself. The grape which yields its juice to nourish
man, is the perpetual symbol of Christ, who shed his blood
to redeem the world. Vine branches are therefore repre
sented clinging to, and spreading their tendrils over, the
cross on which the Saviour is suspended, in the painted
* Vitraux de St. Etienne de Bourges, by MM. Martin and Cahier, pl. i.,
c. iii., &c.
+ See the Vexilla regis prodeunt, and the Pange lingua of Good
Friday, attributed to Fortunat and Claudius Mamert. See, the Poems of
Prudentius; the works of Peter Damien, &c.
THE COLOUR OF THE CRoss. 413
windows in our cathedrals. A window in the Abbey of

St. Denis, executed by command of the Abbé Suger, and
which bears the two verses transcribed below, is especially
remarkable from the beauty of the verdant branches displayed
upon the cross.
Probably, and in pursuance of the same metaphor, the
little symbolic cross with which the nimbus of Christ is
adorned, is occasionally tinged with green. On the painted
windows at Bourges, in the subject of the Last Supper, the
Washing of Feet, the Taking of Christ in the Garden of
Olives, the Descent into Hell, &c., the cross of the nimbus
is green. Still, that little cross being almost as frequently
white, red, or yellow, the green probably has no symbolical
meaning.
As the blood of Christ flowed over the tree of the cross,
the green bark just described is frequently painted red:
“The cross blushes, and is dyed in the blood of the Lord,”
writes St. Paulinus of Nola, addressing Sulpicius Severus,
and he placed these words, as an inscription beside two
crimson crosses.” The blood flowing from the body of
Christ, the wine pressed from the grape of which Jesus is
the deathless antitype, frequently stained the cross with
red; examples of this, from the fourteenth century down to
the present time, are much too numerous to be quoted
here.t
In regard to the colours of the ideal cross, that also is
ideal; red being that of the real cross by metaphorical
extension; blue, because the cross is heavenly; white,
because white is the most luminous of all colours, and light
is the visible image of the invisible Divinity. It is to make
the cross a centre of light that it is represented loaded
with diamonds and flashing stones; it is to envelope it with
* See above, p. 391, the distich quoted by St. Paulinus. In the Vexilla
Regis, St. Fortunat exclaims:
“Arbor decora et fulgida,
Ornata regis purpura,
Electa digno stipite
Jam sancta membra tangere.”
* Read several texts collected by M. Cahier (Vitr. de S. E. de Bourges,
p. 49, 50), and in which a curious parallel is drawn between the blood and
wine, the vine and body of Christ, the wine-press and Calvary.
flashing fire, that it is surrounded with stars as at Ravenna;

but even then, the Cross itself is more radiant than the
constellations around it, and the Church exclaims, “O Crux
splendidior astris!”
THE TRIUMPH OF THE CROSS.
The Cross, like our blessed Saviour himself, is carried in

triumph, and representations of that ceremony are very
numerous in our religious monuments. We shall be content
with mentioning in the first place, a piece of sculpture in
the western porch of the Cathedral at Rheims, the Invention
of the Cross by St. Helena; and secondly, the painted
windows from four churches in the city of Troyes, which
represent the legend mentioned in the beginning of this
chapter. But in France, the History and Triumph of the
Cross are treated in a very summary manner; in Italy they
are figured with much greater detail." In Greece, the
triumph, or exaltation of the cross, is the object of a
particular predilection. There is not a church in that
country without some fresco or oil painting representing
that subject. The prescribed arrangement of the Triumph
is as follows:—
Below is the earth, above the sky; upon the earth is an
immense city filled with palaces and churches, towers and
domes; the city is intended for Constantinople, and in the
midst of it extends a vast square, which is the hippodrome.
Galleries with circular vaulted arcades,and balconies of carved
wood, form a kind of framework round the square, which is
thronged with people, who also crowd the balconies and
galleries. In the centre of the hippodrome is a gigantic
* Pietro della Francesca, born at Borgo-San-Sepolcro, a Roman painter,
painted at Arezzo, the Chapel of the High Altar of San Francesco, for Luigi
Bacci, a citizen of that place. He there represented the History of the Cross,
from the moment when the seed, which produced the tree of which the cross of
Christ was made, was placed under the tongue of Adam by his son Seth, until
that period when the Emperor Heraclius entered Jerusalem, walking bare-foot,
and bearing on his shoulder the instrument of man's salvation. The works of
Pietro are of the year 1458, about.—See his life in Wasari, Lives of Painters.
THE TRIUMPH OF THE CROSS. 415
pedestal on which stands the Patriarch, wearing a dome-shaped

crown, resembling that worn by the Byzantine Emperors,
and with a circular nimbus like that of Saints. He is
the Patriarch of Jerusalem, St. Macarius; he holds in his
two hands a cross, twice the size of a man, which he presents
to the adoration of the people. The multitude, composed of
the three ranks of society, of soldiers, ecclesiastics, and the
people, break forth into acclamations. The ecclesiastics,
preceded by the Patriarch of Constantinople, who wears a
nimbus like St. Macarius, surround the cross; the soldiers,
headed by Constantine, and the Empress St. Helena, are on
the right; * on the left is a crowd composed of men,
women, children, and old men.
The foot of the cross rests upon earth; its summit reaches
heaven. The skies are peopled by a countless crowd. On
earth is the Church militant; in heaven shines the Church
triumphant. The nine orders of angels are displayed on the
left, ranged according to the disposition of St. Denys, the
Areopagite. On the right are seen the saints divided into
military, ecclesiastic and laic, properly so called. The heavens,
by this triple division, have agreement with the earth, but it
is with the earth transfigured. Each saint, standing on the
clouds, presses against his bosom a little cross, the miniature
of that which all adore. In the centre of heaven, but far
above both saints and angels, the Trinity shines forth
resplendent. The Father Almighty, an aged and venerable
figure, crowned with a triangular nimbus, is on the left; on
the right is Jesus Christ, adorned with a nimbus, on the
cross arms of which is written o ON. In the centre, envelop
ing both the other Divine Persons, in a radiation of light that
* The Emperor has a nimbus like that of a saint, according to the Greek
and Eastern custom, which has been mentioned in the chapter devoted to the
History of the Nimbus, p. 131. Constantine is indeed regarded as a saint by the
Orientals, equally with St. Helena. Even in the West several martyrologies
honour him as a Saint, and keep his festival on the 22nd of May. The Greeks
celebrate it on the 21st of that month. In some of the engravings which I
brought with me from Mount Athos, St. Helena and Constantine are repre
sented supporting, one on the right hand and the other on the left, a gemmed
cross, planted on the globe of the world: both Helena and Constantine wear the
nimbus, and bear around their heads one of the following inscriptions :
“‘H &yia 'Exévn”—“‘O &yios Kovaravrivos.”
seems to kindle Paradise, the Holy Spirit shines resplendent

under the form of a dove.
Below, at the foot of the cross, is a youthful ecclesiastic, a
deacon, bearing a torch with three branches upon one single
stem, and which seems as if intended to reflect the glory of
the three Divine Persons. Besides this, the heavens are
united to the earth by different angels, who, bending towards
the top of the cross, incline themselves reverentially before
it. These celestial beings form a sort of nimbus to the cross,
for they are ranged all around it like a crown. Each of
them carries one of the instruments of the passion; one
holds the lance, another the sponge, a third the hammer, a
fourth the nails, and a fifth the crown of thorns; one exhibits
the cord with which the hands of the Saviour had been
bound, another the scourge with which his glorious body was
torn. Rays of light, emanating from the Holy Spirit and
the Trinity, from the nimbus of saints, and from the nimbus
and bodies of the angels, direct their bright beams towards
the grand cross, which in its turn reflects back their
radiance.
Such is the Triumph of Christ; it is constantly painted in
Greek churches, and forms one of their most precious orna
ments." The same subject is occasionally represented in the
West, but with fewer details and less magnificence. It is
not unusual, as in a sculptured example preserved in the
Cathedral of Rheims,t to see the cross carried up to heaven
by angels; but the cortège attending the triumphal tree is
far less numerous and £ less complete. Yet one paint
ing, executed in the time of the Abbé Suger, and now adorn
ing the apse of St. Denis, deserves notice.: The subject is
simple in itself, but represents, at the same time, the Glorifi
cation of the Cross, and that of Christ. There is a green
cross to which Christ is attached, historiated in filagree
work. The Father holds this cross between his arms, and it
*
* On the pictures and engravings representing the triumph is written

“‘H Traykóautos ūyworts toū tutov atavpo5.” I brought with me from
Karès, the capital of Mount Athos, an engraving of this remarkable subject.
* In the western porch, above the Invention of the Cross, by St. Helena.
# P. 384, note 2, we have noticed this curious subject. MM. Arthur
Martin and Charles Cahier mention the painted window of St. Denis,
Vitraux Peints de St. Etienne de Bourges, as bearing comparison with it.
HISTORY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 417
rests upon a car with four wheels, called in the inscription

painted below, a “quadrige.” This car is simply the Ark of
the Covenant, upon which the cross seems to be planted, and
within which are seen the Tables of the Law and the Rod of
Aaron. One of the four attributes of the Evangelists
appears as if harnessed near each wheel. This curious picture
reminds us completely of the Triumph of Christ, in the
Church of Notre-Dame de Brou; but the subject there is
rather the triumph of the crucified. Besides the presence of
the Father, the absence of the Holy Ghost, and the Ark of
the Covenant, which forms the pedestal of the cross, give the
theme, as here treated, an interest peculiar to itself. The
following distich, composed by Suger himself, is appended as
an explanatory legend:—
Faederis ex arca cruce Xpi sistitur ara;
Federe majori wit (sic) ibi vita mori.
To note all the triumphs of which the cross has been the
object, it would be necessary to recapitulate the various
crosses employed as marks of distinction or of reward by
different religious, chivalrous, military, and even civil orders,
all of which terminate, and are as it were comprehended in
our cross of honour.
HISTORY OF THE HOLY GHOST.
The Holy Ghost is the third person in the Divine Trinity.

God the Father meditating on himself, by that meditation
God the Son was engendered. God the Father and God
the Son love one another, and from that mutual love, the
Holy Ghost '' Such is the dogma, according to
the relation by which the three persons individually are
characterised and distinguished one from another, the Father
would most properly possess memory, the Son intelligence,
and the Holy Ghost love. This is the doctrine adopted by
St. Augustine,” and most of the fathers, as will be seen in
the subsequent chapter devoted to the Holy Trinity.
In the reciprocal relations of the Divine persons the Holy
Spirit is the God of love, but in his relation with man, he
! . . * De Trinit., lib. ix., cap. 6.
appears rather to be the God of intelligence; as the Father

is the God of strength and creative power, and Jesus Christ
the God of self-devotion and of love. This subject, serious
in itself, and of great importance in Iconography, must be
treated at greater length.
DEFINITION OF THE HOLY GHOST.
It cannot be doubted that Jehovah, in his relation towards

his creatures, is the God of omnipotence and strength,
In history Jehovah is constantly described as exerting the
divine attribute of power. The historical facts, narrated in
the Old Testament seem to be created by the breath of His
will, and to unfold themselves under the power of His
sword; in the moral precepts of the ancient law, a spirit
is heard threatening, which is not that of love. “The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” says the Psalmist,
(Psalm czi. 10.)* and Solomon echoes those words, adding,
“The fear of the Lord is a crown of wisdom.” + “Ye shall
reverence my sanctuary,” says the book of Leviticus, xxvi. 2;
The Prophet Isaiah, in enumerating the gifts poured out by
the Holy Spirit into the human soul, places fear amongst the
principal.$ “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,” as
St. Paul repeats in the Epistle to the Hebrews. If, with
the assistance of a concordance of the Old Testament, we
were to seek all those texts in which fear is extolled or God
declared to punish men by fear and terror, we should be
almost terrified at their number." Lastly, everything is
* Initium sapientiae timor Domini.
* “Corona sapientiae timor Domini.” (Ecclesiasticus, i., 18.) These words
are inscribed within the cupola surmounting the centre of the transept in the
Chapel of Anet: they surround a crown, figured in relief. The cupola
appears like the diadem of that elegant building.
: “Pavete ad sanctuarium meum.”
§ Isaiah xi, l, 2.
| Prov. iii., 12; Epistle to the Heb. xii., 6.
"| In the “Index Biblicus” of a Vulgate printed at Lyons in 1743, we read
at the head of numerous paragraphs, in which the analogous texts are quoted,
“Timendus est Deus;” “Timoris Dei fructus, utilitas et laus;” “Timoris
Dei defectus, causa peccandi; ” “Timore punit Deus et terrore.” “Timoris
Dei exempla.” There are 119 texts, relating to fear, and in which terroris
erected into a sovereign virtue.
DEFINITION OF THE HOLY GHOST. 419
condensed into the terror which the name of Jehovah alone

ought to inspire,” and we also, struck with awe by those
texts which to us, children of a religion of love, are less
familiar than they were to the Hebrews, still exclaim, at
compline, or evening prayer, at the termination of the
offices for the day, “Lord, turn away thine anger from us.”f
There is a wide difference between the spirit of the
Jewish religion, which makes us tremble before God like
timid children before a severe father, and that of the
Christian, every word of which breathes on man the caressing
spirit of love. Between Jehovah and Jesus stretches an
entire world. The one employs the constrictive power of
severity, the other the expansive agency of hope and love.
The hand of the ancient law is upraised to punish the
slightest fault; the new law is a mother weeping even while
she reproves the errors of her children, and caressing while
she reproaches them. “The Lord, let Him be your fear
and your dread,” cried the prophet Isaiah, (Is. viii. 13.)
“Beloved, let us love one another,” said the dying Apostle
St. John (1 John, iv. 7); and in thus saying he repeated,
perhaps for the thousandth time, the lesson he had learned
when leaning on the heart of his divine friend and master.
In fact, while Jehovah sings, “Enter my house in fear,” the
whole moral teaching of Jesus is comprehended in the
following words: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength,
and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.”:
Jesus Christ is love itself; before giving his life for man he
said to his disciples, “A new commandment I give unto you,
that ye love one another; as I have loved you that ye also
love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are
my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”$ And the
Evangelist St. John—he who so well understood the heart of
* “Sanctum et terribile nomen ejus.” Psalm cxi, 9. “Holy and reverend is

his name.” -
+ “Averte iram tuam a nobis.”

# St. Luke x., 27. There is in the ancient law a germ of love, but it is
chilled by fear; the word of Christ was needed to warm and make it grow.
§ “Mandatum novum do vobis, ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos, ut et
vos diligatis invicem. In hoc cognoscent omnes quia discipuli mei estis, si
dilectionem habueritis ad invicem.” (St. John xiii., 34, 35.)
EE 2
his adorable master—has left on record the following beautiful

words: “When Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he
should depart out of this world unto the Father, having
loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto
the end.”*
To us the Holy Ghost appears as the God of intelligence:
he manifests himself to the world to instruct or to enlighten
the mind of man. On the other hand, he is, as has been
said, the God of love, because he proceeds from the mutual
love of God the Father and God the Son. It becomes
necessary, therefore, in order to escape the confusion, into
which we should otherwise be led by the study of monu
mental figures and the works of early writers, to establish
some well-marked distinction in regard to the Holy Ghost.
It must be remembered that the Holy Ghost may be
considered in his relation to the other Divine Persons, in
which case he is the God of love, proceeding from, and
uniting in bonds of love or charity, both the Father and the
Son, or else, abstracted from the Trinity, he may be regarded
only in his relation to men, and as God of intelligence alone.
To study the nature of the Holy Ghost in his relation to
the other Divine persons and apart from man, would be to
enter the sphere of theology, but to inquire into his actions
in respect of men, is the province of history. The theologian
considers the Holy Ghost as the God of love; the historian
as the God of intelligence.
It must here be observed, and will be more fully
proved in the chapter on the Trinity, that the double
attributes of love and intelligence, given to one and the
same Divine Person, have brought confusion, both into
thelogical dogmas, and historical narrative, into religious
doctrines and the art, and lastly into argumentative discus.
sion and Iconography. In history, Christ is the God of
love, while in theology that character is assigned to the
Holy Ghost.
Theology makes the Son of God, or the Word, the God of
* “Sciens Jesus quia venit hora ejus ut transeat ex hoc mundo ad Patrem,
cum dilexissetsuos quierant in mundo, in finem dilexit eos” (St. John xiii., 1).
Mahomet declared that every prophet had his own peculiar attribute; that the
characteristic of Christ was gentleness; that his own was energy.
- - -
intelligence, while history attributes to the Holy Ghost

every characteristic derived from that quality.
The attributes of the Son and of the Spirit are not
therefore clearly defined, nor marked with sufficient exacti
tude; they float from one to the other; still intelligence
appertains definitively to the Holy Ghost, as love does to the
Son. When the Holy Ghost loves man, it is with a reasoning
affection—a love born in the intellect rather than the heart.
This character is sufficiently evident in the worship rendered
by the Church to that Divine person.
The Holy Spirit is the God of intelligence always
invoked when men would engage in any difficult or arduous
undertaking, as in human affairs we consult a man of
mature experience and calm reason, before entering upon
any difficult or hazardous enterprise. When a judge is
about to re-open his tribunal, or a professor to resume his
chair, masses are addressed to the Holy Ghost, imploring
him to enlighten and inform their minds, so that the one
may not be wanting in justice and discernment, nor the
other deviate from the truthin instructions. All councils—the
grave oecumenical councils, in which are discussed, explained
and determined all the tenets of the faith, and the principles of
morality-place themselves under the protection of the Holy
Ghost. The discussions are opened by a Mass addressed to
the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Spirit, constantly present,
hovers above the assembly during the conference, to direct
their consultations and preserve them from error. The
Holy Ghost is invoked at the commencement of all reli
gious offices, and implored to bestow on devout wor
shippers intelligence to comprehend the offices in which
they are about to engage. In the hymn composed in
honour of the Holy Spirit, attributed to Charlemagne
himself, and which is sung whenever divine enlightenment
is especially desired, we find amongst others the following
words :
“Come Creative Spirit, visit the minds of thy faithful
servants. Finger of the hand of God, thou dost enrich all
Iips with eloquence. Kindle light in our senses, that by
ou we may know the Father and acknowledge the Son, and
that we may ever believe thee to be the Spirit of the one
and of the other. By your breath the understanding is
lighted up, and burns with divine fire.”* From the language
of these poetical prayers it is clearly seen that they are
addressed to the God of intelligence, and would be far less
appropriate either to the Father or to the Son. Still, as has
been already stated, the Holy Ghost infringes upon the
attributes of the Son, or upon love; for we read in the same
hymn, and in connexion with the words just quoted,t
“Fill with celestial grace the hearts that thou hast created.
Thou who art a living spring, fire, and charity, pour love
into our hearts.”
But these may be considered as the words of an inflamed
imagination, as uttered by the ardent souls of the middle
ages. Profoundly Christian in faith, and deeply loving in
heart, they could not refrain from lending to the coldness of
reason something of the warmth of love. Other expressions
in the same hymn attribute to the Holy Spirit strength, a
quality which belongs incontestably to God the Father.
The Holy Ghost is thus implored to give strength:—
“Strengthen us by thy power, that we may learn to endure
the infirmities of the body; drive back afar our enemies;
* “Veni Creator Spiritus,
Mentes tuorum visita.
# * *
Tu septiformis munere,
Dextrae Dei tu digitus,
Tu rite promissum Patris,
Sermone ditans guttura.
Accende lumen sensibus.

* * *
Per te sciamus da Patrem,

Noscamus atque Filium;
Te, utriusque Spiritum,
Credamus omne tempore.
* * *
Afflante quo, mentes sacris

Lucent et ardent ignibus.”
The septiformis mumere finds its explanation in a passage from Isaiah, of
which we have already spoken, and which will be noticed presently with fuller
details; it refers to the seven virtues, the gifts or properties of the Holy Ghost.
* “Fons vivus, ignis, caritas.
* * *
Infunde amorem cordibus.”

give us forthwith peace; and thus preceding and guiding us,

keep us from all error.” Still Charlemagne did not mean
to assert absolutely, that power was the exclusive attribute
of the third Person, nor did he intend, by the few words
which describe him as “inflaming hearts,” to imply that love
appertained to him only. In his union with the Trinity the
third person possesses, in common with the other two, love
and strength; but considered in himself, he possesses first,
and above all, intelligence. As early as the time of the
ancient law, and amongst the Jews, the Holy Spirit is said
to have directed and enlightened the mind; for Isaiah,+
speaking of the seven spirits which constitute the Divine
* “Infirma nostri corporis

Wirtute firmans perpeti.
Hostem repellas longius

PACEMQue dones protinus
Ductore sic te praevio,
Witemus omne noxium.”
It is singular to find the warlike Charlemagne, whose life was one perpetual
scene of warfare; who fought bloody battles in the north, south, and east of
Europe, perhaps, also, in Asia, and the west, thus invoking peace. In the
centre of the cupola of the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, above the tomb of
Charlemagne, an enormous crown is suspended; a kind of gigantic luminary
of chiselled, gilded and enamelled copper, presented by the Emperor Frederic
Barbarossa. The Catholic Caesar of the Romans (Caesar Catholicus Romanorum
Fridericus), as Barbarossa styles himself in that luminary, caused the eight
beatitudes to be engraven below eight great lamps, by which the crown is
supported; and we are astonished to find Barbarossa exclaiming, in conjunction
with the inscriptions engraven beneath the lamps: “Beati mites, quoniam
ipsi possidebunt terram”—“Beati Pacific, quoniam filii Dei vocabuntur.”
The terrible Barbarossa, albeit himself of no very pacific disposition, adds
again, at the head of an inscription of eight verses, engraven on the upper part
of the crown, and referring to the crown itself:—
“Celica Jherusalem signatur imagine tali;
Visio Pacis, certa quietis spes ibi nobis.”
Charlemagne and Barbarossa, as is here seen, both wrote and acted alike.
* Isaiah, xi. 1, 2, 3. “Et egredietur virga de radice Jesse, et flos de
radice ejus ascendet. Et requiescet super eum SPIRITUs Domini; spiritus
sapientiae et intellectus, spiritus consilii et fortitudinis, spiritus scientiae et
pietatis et replebit eum spiritus timoris Domini.” And there shall come forth
a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots: and
the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and under
standing, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the
fear of the Lord.
essence, enumerates them under the following denomina

tions:
The Spirit of Wisdom,
The Spirit of Understanding,
The Spirit of Counsel,
The Spirit of Strength,
The Spirit of Knowledge,
The Spirit of Piety,
The Spirit of Fear.
All these spirits bear reference to reason, with the exception
of the last two, which originate in feeling, and the fourth in
strength: but the greater number, four out of the seven,
and the first three among those four, the three chief, belong
to reason. The evidence of history forcibly confirms the
doctrine here set forth concerning the Holy Ghost; for in
the most celebrated manifestation of the Spirit, at the Feast
of Pentecost, he manifests himself to instruct the ignorant
and to enable the apostles to speak and understand all the
known languages of the world. Even in the present day
the Feast of Pentecost is one of reason rather than of love;
for it is the commemoration of the descent of that divine
light, which, resting like a tongue of flame upon the heads
of ignorant and uninstructed men, conferred on them in a
moment the gifts of genius.
It would be easy to prove, by various facts, that it is the
office of the Holy Ghost to enlighten the reason rather than
to inflame the heart; it will be necessary to name a few,
because the part filled by that Divine person in His inter
course with men, ought to be clearly stated and defined.
Such matters are of high interest with regard both to
archaeology and modern art; the past and the future.
The Last Supper being ended, the Saviour, ready for his
suffering and death, consoled his Apostles, and announced
that he was about to be taken from them; he added, that
he would not leave them fatherless, but would send them
another protector.” “I will pray the Father and He shall
* “Et ego rogabo Patrem, et alium Paracletum dabit vobis, ut maneat
vobiscum in aeternum, Spiritum veritatis, quem mundus non potest accipere,
quia non vidit eum, nec scit eum. Vos autem cognoscetiseum, quia apud vos
Inanebit et in vobis erit.”
give you another comforter, that he may abide with you for
ever; even the SPIRIT OF TRUTH, whom the world cannot re
ceive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but
e know him, for he dwelleth in you, and shall be in you.”
(St. John, xiv. 16, 17.) Thus Christ, the God of love, was
on the point of quitting his Apostles, but the place he held
among them was to be filled by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit
of truth, the Spirit that teaches, and whom all men must
learn to know.
Christ is a father about to part from children already
arrived at maturity; and he confides them to the guardian
ship of an instructor who will enlighten their intelligence,
even as he has himself informed their hearts. It was neces
sary at first, as with children, to open the minds of the
Apostles and first disciples, and this Christ had done; now,
as adolescent, it became necessary that their minds should
be instructed; and to the third person of the Trinity that
office was assigned. They are to receive the God of truth,
in the place of the God of love, who is taken from them;
the Spirit is to succeed to the Son. In fact, not long after
the Holy Spirit, under the figure of light-dispensing rays,
descended upon their heads, the seat of intelligence. The
Spirit of truth, the rays of fire, the illumined heads, and
the gift of languages instantaneously communicated, all
bear allusion to the intellect ; and in them the heart had
little share. Having completed our examination of the
Holy Scriptures, we turn next to history, both actual and
legendary.
During the whole of the middle ages a belief prevailed
that the Holy Ghost addressed his ministry more peculiarly
to the intelligence, revealing himself to men to enlighten and
inform their minds. Gregory of Tours, in the sixth century,
asserts that the column of fire, which guided the Hebrews
to the promised land, after their departure from Egypt, was
the type or figure of the Holy Ghost.* Now the pillar of
fire could not, in those burning deserts of Arabia, have been
intended to communicate warmth, but was to give light. On
the other hand, love is constantly compared to a fire dis
pensing warmth, and intelligence to a light-giving flame;
* Hist. Eccl. Franc., lib. i.
thus, then, Gregory of Tours declared the Holy Ghost to be

more properly the God of the intellect than of the heart—of
intelligence rather than of love.
A dramatic and highly interesting legend recorded in the
Life of St. Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, in the tenth
century,” closely shows the nature of the Holy Ghost, and
the definition which ought to be given of his attributes.
Three men convicted of coining false money had been con
demned to death. Immediately before the celebration of
mass on the day of Pentecost, the festival of the Holy Ghost,
St. Dunstan inquired whether justice had been done upon
the three criminals: he was informed in reply, that the
execution had been delayed on account of the solemn feast
of Pentecost then in celebration. “It shall not be thus,”
cried the indignant archbishop, and gave orders for the
immediate execution of the guilty men. Several of those
who were present remonstrated against the cruelty of that
order;t it was nevertheless obeyed.
After the execution of the criminals, Dunstan washed
his face, and turned with a joyful countenance towards his
oratory.j: “I now hope,” said he, “that God will be
leased to accept the sacrifice I am about to offer,” and in
fact, during the celebration of mass, at the moment when
the Saint raised his hands to implore that God the Father
would be pleased to give peace to his Church, to guide,
guard, and keep it in unity throughout the world, “a
dove, as white as snow, was seen to descend from heaven,
and during the entire service remained with wings extended
floating silently in air above the head of the archbishop.”$
The mass being ended, the dove directed its flight towards
the south part of the altar, where stood the tomb of the
* St. Dunstan died on the 19th of May, 988. See the Act. SS. Ord. S.
Bened. vol. from the year 950 to 1000, for the life of that great artist, who
was at the same time a famous archbishop. In that volume will be found the
legend under consideration, and which were better omitted in the history of
that illustrious man; still, the interest attaching to it may excuse its apparent
severity.
+ “Edictum nonnullis videbatur crudele,” says the hagiographer.
: “Lota facie, ad oratorium, exhilarato vultu, abiit.”
§ “Nivea columba, multisintuentibus, de caelo descendit et, donec sacrificium
consumptum esset, super caput ejus [Dunstani] expansis alis et quasi immotis,
sub silentio mansit.”
blessed Odo, and bending, extended its wings around the

two sides of the shrine and appeared to caress it with its
beak. Dunstan marvelled at that prodigy. After the mass
he retired alone, penetrated with emotion, and weeping at
so clear a manifestation of the Divine favour. Having
divested himself of the chasuble, and there being no attend
ant there to receive it, it remained suspended in air during
divine pleasure, for fear, lest by falling to the ground it
might d'. the meditations of the servant of God.
Thus then the sacred dove, personifying the Holy Ghost,
marked in the most striking manner, his approbation of an
act of cruelty, or at least of an action thus characterised by
several of the clergy surrounding St. Dunstan. The cruelty,
however, was, strictly speaking, merely an act of rigorous
justice; but the approbation of the Holy Spirit, clearly
proves that that Divine person presides over intelligence
rather than sentiment. Men would probably have refused
during the middle ages, to represent Jesus Christ per
forming the parts attributed to the Holy Ghost, in this
legend, for Christ is the divine representation of love.
During the sixteenth century, in the year 1579, when
Henry III. re-organised that order of knighthood which is
called “Du Saint Esprit,” that distinction was restricted
solely to political men, and particularly to our magistrates,
that is to say, men of intelligence. In so doing, he carried
out the intention with which the order had originally been
founded in the year 1352. The order of St. Michael the
warrior archangel, was conferred on soldiers only; that of
the Holy Ghost, the divine representative of intelligence,
was restricted to the chief classes of the civil professions.”
Abelard was a man of intelligence, not of love; a dialec
tician, a philosopher. Abelard never exhibited any marks
of attachment to Heloise; his replies to the letters of that
impassioned woman, who had sacrificed herself for him,
are cold and indifferent. Besides this, inasmuch as Abelard
* The order of St. Michael was founded in 1496. Three hundred years
earlier, in 1163, the military order of the Wing of St. Michael had been
founded; this latter was completely absorbed into the order of 1469.
Although completely warlike at first, that order was afterwards, under the
restoration, conferred on great artists more especially, thus completely revers
ing the original intention.
was devoted to the Holy Ghost, that he founded in his

honour the Monastery of the Paraclete, and caused a figure
of the Trinity to be sculptured, in which the Holy Ghost
was identical with the Father and the Son, and more
absorbed into the other two persons than is permitted by
our creed; from these various facts we may conclude that
the Holy Ghost is the God of intelligence, and Abelard
honoured the third person of the Trinity as responding best
to his own temperament and character.
Finally, the testimony of Art fully coincides with the
preceding theory. When St. Stephen addressed the Jews
that discourse in which the Christian religion is discussed
and proved, and which is recorded in the Acts of the
Apostles, the youthful preacher was “filled with the Holy
Ghost.” There is in the Cathedral of Sens, a fine painted
window closing the open gallery, above which shines the
rose window of the south transept, the subject of which is
the first Martyr addressing the assembled Jews. The
Holy Ghost is there represented under the figure of a
white dove with a golden coloured nimbus, displaying its
wings above the head of the young teacher. The dove
sustains the intellectual power of St. Stephen, by over
shadowing him, as it were, with his wings.
St. Catherine (of Alexandria), the daughter of a king,
was learned in all the liberal arts; she wished to enter into
a controversy with the Emperor Maxentius, disputing by the
aid of every species of logic and mode of reasoning, and
metaphorical, allegorical and mystical syllogisms, concerning
the existence of a single God, the creator, disposer, and
regulator of all beings, whether animate or inanimate, of stars,
and men, and concerning also the incarnation of his Son
Jesus Christ. Maxentius, who could not maintain his ground
against a woman so highly gifted, sent into all countries in
search of learned men, surpassing all others in worldly
science, and capable of entering the lists with that royal
lady. Fifty answered his summons and addressed a thou
sand questions to the saint, who gave them such decisive
answers as filled them with mute astonishment and ad
miration. Catherine, said Jacobus de Voragine, knew every
* “Cum esset plenus [Stephanus] Spiritu-sancto.” (Act. Apost. vii. 55.)
thing, whether relating to theology, philosophy, natural

science or historical records, and a reference to the legend
will show the immense extent of that field of philosophy,
which was filled by her science and intelligence.”
The Spirit of God did, in fact, speak in her. In the
north aisle of the Cathedral of Freybourg in Brisgau, is
a painted window representing a figure of St. Catherine
wearing a golden nimbus and crown to mark her character
as saint and the daughter of a king; she is sitting like
the Wirgin in the Cenaculum, in the midst of an assembly
of doctors, who are disputing with her. The saint is
triumphant in her argument, the doctors confess themselves
vanquished, and the Holy Spirit is seen descending on the
head of the powerful logician, under the semblance of
a white dove, having a golden nimbus stamped with a
red cross. Thus far we learn from art in France and
Germany; Italy, in her turn, furnishes striking examples to
confirm the truth of the preceding facts.
Wasari gives numerous descriptions of pictures in which
the Holy Ghost is represented, and in every instance he is
given as the Creator of science. Take, for example, a paint
ing in one of the compartments of the vaulting of Santa
Maria-Novella, at Florence; it is the work of Taddeo Gaddi,
and the subject, the Descent of the Holy Ghost: “Upon
the partition the seven sciences are painted, and below each
of them, one of the most celebrated professors, by whom they
have been illustrated. The science of Grammar is personated
by a woman instructing a child, and immediately below is
the figure of Donato, the famous writer. Next comes
Rhetoric, and at her feet is a figure with two hands resting
upon books, while from beneath his mantle issues a third
hand, approaching his mouth. Logic, armed with a serpent
hidden beneath her veil, is attended by Zenon Eléate.
Below the figure of Arithmetic holding the abacus tables,
Abraham, the inventor of that science, is seated. Below
* Legenda aurea, “de Sancta Katherina, virgine et martyre.” “Katherina,
Costi regis filia, omnibus liberalium artium studiis erudita fuit. Per varias
conclusiones syllogismorum allegorice et metaphorice, diserte et mystice multa
cum Cesare disputavit. Hec autem puella, in qua Spiritus Dei loquitur, sic
nos in admirationem convertet (say the learned men who disputed with her)
ut con: Christum aliquid dicere aut omnino nesciamus aut penitus formi
demus.”
Music, who is surrounded by musical instruments, is Tubal

Cain, listening intently to the tones produced by striking an
anvil with two hammers. Geometry, recognised by the
square and compasses, is above Euclid; and Astrology,
holding a celestial globe, above Atlas.
“On the other side, the seven theological sciences are
connected with different personages, among whom we re
mark a pope, an emperor, a king, cardinals, dukes, bishops and
marquises. The Pope is Clement W. The centre of this
composition is occupied by St. Thomas Aquinas, who was
learned in all sciences. At his feet are several heretics,
Arius, Sabellius, and Averroës, and around him Moses,
St. Paul, St. John the Evangelist, and other saints; the
whole surmounted by personifications of the cardinal and
theological virtues.”
“In the chapel of San-Domenico, in Santa Caterina de
Pisa, Traini (the best scholar of Andrea Orcagna) repre
sented St. Thomas Aquinas sitting, and holding books, from
which luminous rays are transmitted to the Christian people
surrounding him. A crowd of doctors, clerks, bishops, car
dinals, and popes are kneeling near, amongst whom we
remark particularly Urban WI. At his feet are Sabellius,
Arius, Averroës, and other heretics and philosophers, with
their books torn to pieces; while Plato and Aristotle point
to the Timaeus, and the Ethics. The Redeemer, surrounded
by the four Evangelists, occupies the upper part of the pic
ture, and bestows his blessing on St. Thomas, on whom he
sends down the Holy Spirit.” +
Hence it seems clearly apparent, that the Holy Ghost is
the creator, inspirer, and director of science; but if any
doubts still remained, they would speedily be removed by
Herrade, abbess of Sainte Odile. In fact, a miniature in
the beautiful manuscript, already so frequently mentioned,:
* Wies des Peintres; Wasari, “Wie de Taddeo Gaddi.” Translated into
French by MM. Laclanché et Jeanron, vol. i. pp. 372, 373.
+ Ibid. “Wie d'Andrea Orcagna,” vol. is pp. 387, 388.
: Hortus Deliciarum. Philosophy is there represented as a human being
with three heads, and one single body; the three heads signify Ethics, Logic,
and Physics, which, at that period, constituted the grand elements of philosophy,
the text runs thus, “Spiritus Sanctus inventorest septem liberalium artium,”
&c. In the “Bibliothèque communale” of Rheims, a manuscript Bible, of the
represents Philosophy, giving birth to the seven liberal arts,

which comprehend every branch of science known in the
middle ages. But the Holy Ghost is himself the inventor
or creator of the Christian Muses, and he was so repre
sented by Taddeo Gaddi, more than a hundred and fifty
years after the time of Herrade.
Herrade says, first in a legend explaining those figures, and
next in a running text developing the legend: “The Holy
Spirit is the inventor of the seven liberal arts, which are:
Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialectics, Music, Arithmetic, Geometry,
and Astronomy.” Thus then, in all his relations with
men, and whenever the Holy Ghost appears, it is in order
to give life by his breath, to the intelligence which per
ceives, to the knowledge flowing from that intelligence, and
thence to the memory which is the handmaid of science,
and retains what has been discerned by intelligence. It is
proved therefore by reference to the concurring testi
mony of history, allegory, legends, morals, and the arts,
writings and monuments, that the Holy Spirit in his
relation to man, is indeed the God of reason, and not of
feeling.
If in his connexion with the other Divine persons he can
be regarded as the God of love, he is, as we see, in his
relation to mankind, the God of intelligence; in his character
of God, he enlightens and instructs; he does not give
eleventh century probably, presents a similar subject, forming a frontispiece to

the Book of Ecclesiasticus. That book opens with the words “Omnis
Sapientia.” In the O of “omnis,” is a miniature painting of the allegory of
knowledge or wisdom, both which had the same meaning in the middle ages,
as is still the case in our villages; in Champagne and Picardy any one who is
learned is called wise. In the O majuscule, above mentioned, philosophy,
(PHYLOSOPHYA) is seated on a throne; she is personified by a woman,
wearing on her head a nimbus like that of a saint; she places her right hand
on a semi-circle, occupied by Physics (PHISICA); the left on one containing
Logic (LOGYCA); the feet on one filled by Ethics (ETHICA). The
indiscriminate use in these manuscripts of Y and I is worthy of notice. These
three daughters of Philosophy are three veiled women, without the nimbus,
and drawn in bust merely. They have little medallions, in which are
inscribed the names of the sciences derived from them. Grammar, geometry,
and astronomy belong to physics; rhetoric and dialectics are derived from
logic; justice, temperance, strength and prudence proceed from ethics. (Wide
Biblia Sacra, in fol. A, pars 2.)
strength to the mind, nor warmth and tenderness to the

heart.*
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Fig. 110.—SPIRIT of INTELLIGENCE, HovERING ABovE DAVID.

From a Greek Miniature of the x cent.
* Bibl. Roy., Psalterium cum Figuris, Greek, No. 139. On the open
book in David's hand is written, “O QE TO KPIMA COT Tao BACIAEI AOC
KAI THN AIKAIOCTNHN COT Too Tiao TOT BACIAEaC.” It will be
The above plate is made from a miniature in a Greek

manuscript; the same from which the miniature of the
prophet Isaiah, standing between day and night, was
extracted. (Fig. 52.)
David, attended by the Spirit of wisdom and of prophecy,
is represented holding a book, on the open leaves of which
is written, “O God, give wisdom to the king, and justice to
the son of the king.” Both the text and the two per
sonifications of wisdom and prophecy, supporting the throne,
bear reference to intellect.
From the wisdom and uprightness of the Spirit, was to
be obtained that wisdom (judgment or discernment), which
David implored for himself, and the gift of righteousness
(justice) which he asked for Solomon his son; the wisdom
of whose well-known judgment is still an object of admira
tion. The prayer of David was graciously received by the
Almighty, and the Holy Ghost is seen hovering above the
head of the king whom he fills with his gifts. The nimbus
surrounding the head of David and of the two allegorical
figures, deserves to be remarked. This picture is in fact the
apotheosis of intelligence sanctified by the Holy Spirit,
The Holy Spirit is the God of reason.
Further, this dogma is found in the following passage
from the 1 Corinthians, xii. 7–11, and is well worthy of
careful consideration: “But the manifestation of the Spirit
is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given
by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another, the word of
remarked that the sigma has in every instance the form of C; the epsilon and
omega are equally archaic. Observe the fleurs-de-lis of the tenth century,
scattered, together with quatrefoils, over the mantle of David. This reminds
me of a crown-fleury of white marble, sculptured on the south façade, outside
the principal Church of Chilandari, in the great monastery of Mount Athos.
The apse of the Church of Hecatompyli, at Mistra, is also decorated with
fleurs-de-lis. The manuscript is acknowledged to belong to the tenth century,
Hecatompyli appears to be of the thirteenth, and the crown of Chilandari of
the fifteenth. I doubt whether, in France, any well-authenticated fleurs-de-lis
are anterior to the eleventh century, and I believe them to have been an
ornament selected accidentally from amongst many others, and adopted by the
Kings of France as a blazon about the twelfth or thirteenth century.
* Psalm lxxiv., 1. “Give the King thy judgments O Lord, and thy
righteousness to the King's son.” The French Bible of Rochelle, 1616,
says: “O Dieu donne les jugements au roy, et la justice au fils du roi!”
M. Didron always quotes from the Latin Vulgate.—Translator.
F F
knowledge by the same Spirit; to another, faith by the same

Spirit; to another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy;
to another, discerning of spirits; to another, divers kinds of
tongues; to another, the interpretation of tongues. But
all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing
to every man severally as he will.”* Moses had already
said that the Spirit of God gave the gift of prophecy and
the knowledge of the future; t and in the Acts of the
Apostles, it had been said in addition, that the Holy Ghost
spoke by the mouth of the prophets.: This agrees in every
point with the text of St. Paul, and the design in the Greek
manuscript. St. Peter had reproached Ananias with lying
to the Holy Ghost; now falsehood is peculiarly a vice of
the intellect. These scattered texts collected by modern
science and reflection, group and multiply facts which have
hitherto been isolated, and are still too rare; and placing
them in a more striking light, enable us to determine that
the reign of the Holy Spirit has commenced. What in the
middle ages seemed doubtful is now beginning to be deter
minate, and each of the three Divine Persons, recovers his
own peculiar attributes.S -
Besides Christian art itself, sometimes pointedly, attri

* In the same Epistle (Chap. ii., 10, 11) St. Paul says: “The Spirit search
eth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” And again, “The things of
God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God.” This would perhaps be a fitting
place to enter on the subject of the sin against the Holy Ghost, a sin which
appears to be purely intellectual, unpardonable, and concerning which so much
discussion has arisen; but to notice that serious question would entail a very
long dissertation, in which monumental archaeology has very little part.
Besides, a Benedictine treatise, written in German by Martin Gerbert, may be
consulted on that point ; it was printed in 1767, and is entitled, De Peccato
$n Spiritum Sanctum in hac et in altera vita irremissibili.
t Lib. Numerorum, xi., 25, 29. Tertullian (De Anima, cap. ii.) says:
“Sancti Spiritus vis operatrix prophetiae.”—Act. Apost., xviii., 25.
# Acts v., 3.
§ There are three persons in the Godhead. Power is the attribute of the
Father, by whom all things were created; love of the Son, by whom all men
are redeemed; intelligence of the Holy Ghost, who enlightens all. Such is
the explanation given by M. Fabisch, a Lyonnais statuary, in his introduction
to the history and philosophy of Christian art. (Wide L'Institut Catholique,
vol. ii., p. 308, No. de Décembre, 1842.) “L’Institut” is a periodical
collection ; it is published under the patronage and inspection of Msgr de
Bonald, Cardinal Archevêque.
butes intelligence to the Holy Ghost, while assigning

strength to the Father, and love to the Son.
- The following drawing offers an example of this fact, which
is of high interest and importance.
Fig. 111.—THE HOLY GHOST, AS THE God OF INTELLIGENCE, CARRYING A Book.

From a French Miniature of the xIV cent.*
God the Father, holding the globe, the attribute of omni

potence and of the creation—of which he is the divine
author,—is placed in the centre of this Trinity. The Son,
who, in accordance with the scriptures, is sitting on the
* French manuscript, Bibl. Roy, fonds Lavall.
F F 2
right hand of the Father, holds the cross on which he died,

and which is sometimes surmounted by a pelican tearing her
breast, that she may supply her little ones with nourish
ment.* This cross is the symbol of love.
The Holy Ghost, on the left of the Father, is of equal age
with the Father and Son, and all three are symbolically
covered with the same mantle. The Holy Ghost holds an
open book, the attribute of intelligence, and of the same
form as the tables of the Law. The book is invariably used
to symbolise intelligence, study and science. A quotation
from Durandus, given above, leaves no room for doubt on this
point. The roll signifies imperfect science, the book perfect
knowledge. The book should be given to apostles, and the
rouleau to prophets, to mark the degree of knowledge
possessed by each.t Here the Holy Spirit is then the
source and principle of intelligence, and thus it will hence
forth be usually figured.
* See a remarkable drawing in black tints upon silk, in the possession of
M. Jules Boilly. This piece of silk, which is 2 metres 50 centimetres in
length, and 70 centimetres in height, was brought from the environs of
Narbonne, and must have been executed in Germany. It was no doubt
employed as an altar decoration. In the centre, Christ is represented dying;
around him stand his mother, St. John the Evangelist, the Christian religion
personified, and Isaiah, the personification of the Jewish religion and David.
At the foot, a king and queen are kneeling; they resemble the figures of
Charles W. of France and his queen, now in St. Denis, and which have been
taken, erroneously, for St. Louis and Blanche of Castile. The K of Karolus
forms an ornament to the frame. On the right and left of the crucifix are
representations of the arrest of Christ in the Garden of Olives, the scourging,
the bearing the cross, the interment, the descent into hell, and the appearing
to Mary Magdalene in the garden. At the top of the cross, the pelican is
seen piercing her bosom. This work is of the fourteenth century, and the
execution very remarkable. A pelican is also placed at the top of the cross in
many crucifixions to be met with in illuminated manuscripts. The pelican
accompanies the crucifixion as the symbol of absolute devotedness; it is seen
on the painted windows of the thirteenth century, decorating the chapel at the
end of the apse, in the ancient Abbey-church of Orbais (Marne, arrondissement
d'Epernay.)
+ Refer back to what is said on that subject, p. 274. The subjoined extract is
from G. Durandus, and will be read with pleasure. “Ante Christi, adventum
fides figurative ostendebatur, et quoad multa in se implicita erat. Ad quod
ostendendum patriarchae et prophetae pinguntur cum rotulis, per quos quasi
quaedam imperfecta cognitio designatur. Quia vero Apostoli in Christo perfecte
edocti sunt, ideo libris, per quos designatur congrue perfecta cognitio, uti
possunt.” (Rat, Div. Off lib. i. cap. 3.) [“Because before the advent of
WORSHIP OF THE HOLY GHOST. 437
WORSHIP OF THE HOLY GHOST.
The external homage rendered to the Holy Ghost,

although less profound than that paid to Christ, still far
exceeds that attributed to God the Father. The Holy
Spirit is represented by art less frequently than Jesus Christ,
but more often than Jehovah.
Many churches and monasteries have been dedicated to
the third person of the Trinity, under the name of the Holy
Ghost, or that of Paraclete, or Comforter. In Italy, at
Florence, we find a church and cloister, which were adorned
with paintings by Cimabue.* At Rome, a church and
hospital, built and sculptured by Marchione d'Arezzo, under
Pope Innocent III.;t at Arezzo an oratory was dedicated
Christ the faith was set forth under figures, and many things were not yet
made clear: to represent this, the patriarchs and prophets are painted with
rolls, to signify that imperfect knowledge. But because the Apostles
were perfectly taught of Christ, therefore books, which are the emblems of
this perfect knowledge, are open.” From the first book of Durandus, translated
by two of the founders of the Cambridge Camden Society.]
* Wasari, Wies des Peintres, “Life of Cimabue.” The church was
rebuilt by Brunelleschi.
+ Vasari, Vies des Peintres: “Life of Arnolfo di Lapo.” This hospital
and church (Santo-Spirito-in-Sassia) were in the Borgo Vecchio, (See the
“Mémoires de la commission des Antiquités de la Côte d'or,” in 4to, tom l.
pp. 3–99: “I’Histoire de la fondation des hôpitaux du Saint Esprit, de
Rome et de Dijon,” par M. G. Peignot.) The hospital of the Santo Spirito
at Rome was built in 1198, by Pope Innocent III.; still this is merely a resto
ration, for its origin is traced back to the eighth century. On this model, a
church, also dedicated to the Holy Ghost, was built at Dijon in 1204, by
Eudes III., Duke of Burgundy. A bull of 1241 recapitulates the privileges
granted by the popes to the order of the Knights Hospitallers of the Holy
Ghost in general. In enumerating the countries, provinces, and towns in
which that order possessed lands and hospitals, Dijon, Döle, Tournus, Besançon
and others are named. The Hospitallers of the Holy Ghost wore on their
religious habits, as a distinctive mark, a cross of silver, with double branches,
resembling the cross of Lorraine. Some examples of that cross are given above,
Figs 96 and 98. The form of the double cross of the Hospitallers of the
Holy Ghost was revealed by an angel to Pope Innocent III., the founder of
the order. The robe worn by the fraternity was blue, the cloak black, and
with the double cross. In the hospitals of Rome and Dijon, orphans, found
lings, the sick, poor, and pilgrims were received. The hospital existed as late
to the Holy Ghost, the high altar of which was painted in

fresco by Taddeo Gaddi, the pupil of Giotto.” The church
of Santo Spirito, at the entrance of Palermo, built in 1173,t
is famous in the history of the country, from the event
which occurred there and called forth the long meditated
vengeance of John de Procida.: The Campo Santo of
Palermo is a dependency of that church.
At Cobourg, in Germany, is a church named after the
Holy Spirit. In France, in the department de la Somme,
a chapel belonging to the parish church of Rue, is called Saint
Esprit; an abbey in the same department, founded in 1218, is
called “Paraclet-des-Champs.$. The abbey of the Paraclete
at Nogent-sur-Seine, is famous from having been founded by
Abelard, and the fact that Heloise was its first abbess.
Abbeys of the Holy Ghost, existed at Beziers and Luxem
as 1790. In the library of the city of Troyes there is a curious manuscript,

filled with drawings, executed by the hand; the text contains a history and
description of the above-named hospital of the Holy Ghost, and the drawings
present views of all parts of it. At Dijon is a similar manuscript, and the
book of M. Peignot is copied from that beautiful work.
* Vasari, Vies des Peintres, “Life of Taddeo Gaddi.”
f Fasellus says: “Gualterius Panormitanus caenobium S. Spiritus,
Cisterciencis ordinis, condidit anno 1173.”
# It was the custom at Palermo to attend mass in the church of Santo Spirito
on Easter Tuesday. On the last day in the month of March, in the year
1282, the natives of Palermo were, as usual, assembled in great numbers in
the church. A French soldier named Droet, who had entered the church
with the worshippers, insulted a young lady of Palermo, distinguished by her
virtues and beauty. Her relations assembled at her cries, and massacred the
brutal soldier. The populace, by whom the French were held in detestation,
fell upon all who were in the church, and butchered them. The news soon
spread through the city, and then began the Sicilian Vespers.–Gally Knight,
“Monumental Excursion in Sicily,” and Bulletin Monumental, de M. de
Caumont, vol. v., p. 198.
§ The Abbey above named was for women, and founded by Enguerraud,
Lord of Boves: two of the daughters of Enguerraud were the first Abbesses,
The Abbey belonged to the Order of Citeaux: it is at present a farm, and
few remains of its ancient buildings have been preserved. I am indebted for
this information to M. Goze, correspondent of the “Comité des Arts et
Monuments,” at Amiens. It will be observed that this Abbey of the Paraclete
was of the Order of the Citeaux, like that of the Santo Spirito at Palermo.
| Both the Paraclete of Picardy and that of Champagne Sens were convents
of women. Perhaps it was so appointed on account of the name Paraclete,
which signifies Comforter. Beneath the wings of the sacred dove Heloise
took refuge in her grief and sought for consolation.
WORSHIP OF THE HOLY GHOST. 439
yourg; abbeys of the “Sainte Colombe,” (the dove, colombe,

s the symbol of the Holy Ghost) existed in the diocese
»f Limoges, in the territories of Ardres, near Vienne, in
Dauphiné, near Sens, and in the diocese of Chartres.”
Thus the third Person of the Holy Trinity, under his two
old appellation of the Holy Ghost and Paraclete, and also
under that of “Santa-Colomba,” possessed considerable
establishments, and churches and chapels, cloisters and
monasteries, were dedicated to him.
It will be sufficient to have mentioned the preceding facts,
without noticing similar dedications either in England or
Spaint In France two little towns, one in Provence, and
another in Gascony, are dedicated to the Holy Ghost: . In
conclusion, in our Liturgy is an entire service devoted to
the honour of the Holy Ghost. Hymns, prose, litanies,
and prayers have been composed in his honour; one of the
highest religious festivals of the year, Pentecost or Whitsun
tide, is consecrated to him, and celebrated in May, the finest
season of the year, and in the most beautiful month.
These honours are great, especially when compared with
those paid to the Father Almighty, in whose honour no
church has ever been raised, no festival instituted. §
* Monastères de France, by M. Louis de Mas-Latrie, in L'Annuaire

Historique for the year 1838.
+ M. Cyprien Robert (Cours d’Hieroglyphique Chrétienne, in L'Université
Catholique, vol. vi., p. 266) says: “The first Basilicas, placed generally
upon eminences, were called Domus Columbae, dwellings of the dove, that is,
of the Holy Ghost. They caught the first rays of the dawn, and the last
beams of the setting sun.” I have not been able to verify this fact, nor to
discover on what the idea is founded. But if Basilicas built upon eminences
were called dwellings of the dove, the name may possibly have been given
because doves and wood-pigeons there found shelter, rather than from any
reference to the Holy Ghost. This doubt is merely suggested, not affirmed,
because, as I repeat, I am ignorant of the facts cited by M. Robert.
# The Pont St. Esprit is famous in Provence. The Island of St. Esprit is
one of the largest of the New Hebrides.
§ Refer to Note, p. 236, in reference to the different honour paid to each of
the three Divine persons. This difference may be explained and justified by
history. The Father has never been seen; but the Son, by whom we are
saved, and the Holy Ghost, through whom we are sanctified and enlightened,
have both made themselves visibly manifest to men. They ought, therefore,
to be more frequently represented and more tenderly adored than the Father;
it is both more easy and more natural.
As has been already said, a well-known order of knight

hood bears the name of the third Divine Person. The order
of the Holy Ghost was a privileged order, and reserved to
the highest families of the aristocracy; it was founded in
1352, re-organised in 1579, and was in existence as lately as
1830. Those above enumerated, comprise nearly all the
honours, either civil or religious, paid to the Holy Ghost.
The records of history, and the evidence of art, remain to
be explored. Both in historical narratives, and in works of
ainting and sculpture, the part assigned to the third Person
of the Holy Trinity, was unquestionably very glorious.
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST.
In sacred history we meet with frequent allusions to the

Holy Ghost; he is sometimes mentioned by name, and has
manifested himself on several occasions. Certain texts, in
which, according to commentators, the Holy Spirit is more
or less decisively revealed, will also claim our attention, for
the act has seized upon those interpretations and carried
out the expositions of the commentators by making the
third person visibly present.
In the book of Genesis, God said, “Let us make man in
our own image.” The plural “let us make” here used, has
been explained as bearing reference to the council held
by the three Divine persons, and it has been asserted that
the presence of the entire Trinity, and consequently of the
Holy Ghost in person, was intimated by the employment of
the plural number; * in the same manner the Trinity had
been visibly revealed to Abraham, under the figure of those
three young men, for whom the Patriarch prepared a repast,
and before whom he afterwards prostrated himself (See
Fig. 19). Socinians refuse to admit the plurality of the
Divine persons implied in the “faciamus hominem ad simili
tudinem nostram.” God, say they, merely used the plural
as would an artist encouraging himself in his work, or
a sovereign, who, speaking of himself, never employs the
singular; besides, he may simply in thus speaking have
* See a drawing given above, Fig. 6.
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 441
addressed an angel, whom he intended to employ in the work

of creation. The opinions held by Socinians, have been more
or less forcibly refuted by theologians; the latter declared
that the three persons of the Trinity were as distinctly
revealed in the first chapter of Genesis, by the word “facia
mus,” as in the third, “Behold the man is become as one of
us, to know good from evil;”* or as in the eleventh, where
it is written, “Go to, let us go down and there confound
their language.” +
Whatever may be thought of these controversies, the
Holy Ghost certainly appears by name in the third verse of
the first chapter of Genesis. “The earth was without form
and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and
the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” :
When God the Father is described as receiving the Son,
and placing him on his right hand, we frequently see, at the
head of the Psalm cx. $ in manuscripts with miniatures,
the Holy Spirit hovering above the other two persons of
the Trinity, or uniting them by the points of his extended
wings; or placing himself by the side of the Father, on
his left hand. The prophet Isaiah frequently names him,
and even analyses the properties belonging to him; those
seven spirits of God which shine around the Messiah, rest
upon him, and fill him with their essence. ||
The archangel Gabriel, said to Mary, “The Holy Ghost
shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow thee.” (Luke i, 35.)
Subsequently, at the baptism of Jesus Christ, the text is
even more precise, for the Holy Ghost appears visibly under
the figure of a dove."
* “Ecce Adam quasi unus ex nobis factus est.” (Gen. iii., 22.)
+ “Venite, descendamus et confundamus linguam ipsorum.” (Gen. xi., 7.)
: “Spiritus Dei ferebatur super aquas.” (Gen. i., 2.)
§ “Dixit Dominus Domino meo, sede a dextris meis,” &c. “The Lord
said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand.” See particularly Fig. 78.
The Holy Spirit there represented holds a book, as in the preceding example,
Fig. 111.
: “Effundam spiritum meum super semen tuum.” (Isaiah, xliv. 3.)
“I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring.”
The seven attributes of the Spirit are enumerated in Isaiah xi. 2.
• St. Matthew, iii. 16, says: “Ecce aperti sunt ei (Jesu baptisato et oranti)
*
coeli, et vidit spiritum Dei descendentem sicut columbam.” (St. Luke adds,
442 CHRISTIAN TCONOGRAPHY.
Fig. 112.—THE Holy SPIRIT As A Dove, “MoviNG UPON THE FACE of THE waTERs.”
From a French Manuscript of the xv cent."
“corporali specie” [bodily shape], iii. 22.) “The heavens were opened unto
him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon
him.” In looking through the preceding engravings and others to be given
hereafter, several “Baptisms” will be found in which the Holy Ghost appears.
See especially Fig. 53.
* The miniaturist, misled by a love for the picturesque, has been very
He appears to Jesus, settles upon him, fills him with

virtue, and leads him to the desert, to be tempted of the
devil. Before quitting the earth, Jesus promises his apostles
to send them the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, the Spirit of
Truth.* In fact, “ £ the day of Pentecost was fully
come, they were all with one accord in one place, and
suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing
mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were
sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like
as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other
tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts ii. 1-4.)
The above is the most important and complete of all the
manifestations of the Holy Ghost; it seems like the Epiphany
of the third divine person.
In addition to these historical manifestations there
are others which pertain, at the same time, both to
history and legends, and which art has been eager to
adopt.
: Christ, after having accomplished his mission upon
earth and terminated his mournful pilgrimage, re-ascended
to heaven, to give account to his Father of everything he
had done; in the monuments representing that beautiful
scene, the Holy Ghost is generally shown accompanying the
Father Almighty in his reception of his Son.
In the history of God the Son we have given a drawing
in which the Holy Ghost is sitting by the side of the
Father, who gives his blessing to his Son on his return from
his terrestrial pilgrimage. The Holy Ghost who holds a
unfaithful to the text. The earth, instead of being without form, void, and
covered with darkness, as described in Genesis, is charming in aspect, clad with
verdure, and brilliant with light. The little waves over which the Holy
Spirit moves, and which in the engraving are rendered merely by little dry
black lines, are in the original heightened by lights. The lights on the water
of that beautiful stream are glazed with silver, and the water shines like
crystal. The manuscript from which the drawing is taken is in the Bibliothèque
de l'Arsenal; it is a book of the Hours, of the fifteenth century. Théol. Fr.,
viii. f". 3, verso.
* “Et ego rogabo Patrem, et alium Paracletum dabit vobis, ut maneat
vobiscum in aeternum, spiritum veritatis.” “And I will pray the Father, and
he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
even the Spirit of Truth.” (St. John, xiv. 16, 17.)
book, the attribute of intelligence, also gives his blessing to

Jesus.*
After the Ascension comes the Assumption; after the
Triumph of Christ, that of Mary: the Virgin Mary being
dead, “the Apostles carried her body to the sepulchre, and
sat near, as it had been commanded by the Lord. On the
third day, Jesus came with a multitude of angels, and
saluted the Apostles with that salutation which they knew
so well, “Peace be with you.’ The Apostles answered, “To
ou, oh Lord, who alone doest great marvels, to you be the
glory.” “What favour and dignity, asked Jesus, ‘ought at
this moment to be given to my mother?’ And they replied:
‘It appears just to your servants, that you who have con
quered death, and who reign throughout eternity, should
raise up the dead body of your mother, and place her
eternally at your right hand. Jesus consented, and im
mediately the archangel Michael appeared, and presented to
him the soul of Mary. Then the Saviour said these words:
“Rise, my mother, my dove, tabernacle of glory, vase of
life, celestial temple, so that your body, which has never
been polluted by the approach of man, may not suffer decay
in the tomb. Then the soul of Mary returned into her body,
which rose glorified from the tomb. Thus the Virgin, accom
panied by a throng of angels, was carried away into the
azure abode.f Having ascended into heaven, Mary was
there welcomed by the three persons of the Trinity; she
knelt at their feet, and was crowned with the crown of a
queen and empress.” It is at her triumph that the Holy
Ghost attends especially in the figured monuments of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.:
* See ante, Fig. 78. This subject is extracted from the Romant des Trois
Pélerinages, a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève.
+ Legenda Aurea, “De assumptione beatae virginis Mariae.”
: These monuments are very common.; one of the most curious is that
given in the following Figure, and in which the Trinity, as equal in every
respect as possible, assist at the coronation of Mary. Is it, as seems probable,
the Father, who crowns Mary his celestial daughter? The figure on the
right of the Father does indeed appear to be the Son, and the Holy Ghost is
on his left hand. It is only by comparison with other similar monuments of
the same period, and in which the three Divine Persons are characterised by
different attributes, that it is possible to decide that the Father is placing the
crown upon the head of the Virgin. A coronation of Mary, in which the
p. ovir AND
Fig. 113—THE HOLY GHOST, As MAN, AssISTING AT THE coRoNATION of THE VIRGIN.
French carving on Wood, xv.1 cent.; stalls of the Cathedral of Amiens.
To these visible appearances of the Holy Ghost, partly

historical, and partly legendary, others must be added bor
Father, the Son, and the Spirit, are completely distinct, is given, Fig. 126.
Were there no monument of that description now in existence, nothing could
have been affirmed relative to the distinction of persons; for in the thirteenth,
and even in the fourteenth centuries, the Son crowns his Mother, and neither
rowed solely from legends, which are more or less authentic,

and have constantly been figured by art.
The first to be mentioned is that relating to St. Joseph.
In the apocryphal history of the Nativity of the Virgin, we
are told that the High Priest consulted God that he might
learn for whom the young virgin, Mary, was destined in
marriage. God commanded that rods belonging to all those
of the tribe of Judah who were unmarried, should be shut
up in the Holy of Holies; and that the designed husband
should be known by a white dove's escaping from the staff
and soaring towards heaven.
As Joseph extended his hand to receive the rod, a dove
escaped from it, white and more brilliant than snow; then,
after flying several times round the temple, it soared upwards
to heaven.” In several fresco paintings, in various minia
tures of manuscripts, and particularly amongst the Italians,
a white dove, the Holy Ghost, is seen escaping from the
flowering staff carried by St. Joseph, at the time of his
marriage with the Virgin.
A sculpture illustrating the presence of the Holy Ghost,
at the moment when the Blessed Virgin is giving birth to
the Infant Saviour, may be seen on the tympanum of the
door, in the north porch of the cathedral at Paris, but is not
well authenticated. Probably the Holy Ghost, who resembles
a little bird, a humble sparrow rather than a dove, was
added in some recent restoration, dating from the Empire.
The Holy Ghost, the muse of truth, the muse of Christi
anity, has inspired poetry, love and truth, ideas and feelings.
In the Greek manuscript it is seent hovering above the
head of David, whom he seems to protect with his two
the Father nor the Holy Ghost pay her that honour. Reasons drawn from the
Old Testament may account for that circumstance; Jesus and Mary are com
pared to Solomon and Bathsheba, and we know that Bathsheba was crowned
by her son. (See in the Bibliothèque Royale, Suppl. l. 638. In the third
part of that MS. the Son blesses the Mother, whom two angels are about to
crown.)
* Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti, by Fabricius. That subject has
been represented on the fine Romanesque baptismal font, in a parish church in
the environs of Saintes; antiquarians, being ignorant of the legend, have taken
the staff of Joseph for a sceptre, and the dove for an eagle.—See the Bulletin
Monumental, viii., p. 319.
# See ante, Fig. 110.
extended wings; David, whose head is illumined by a large

nimbus, listens attentively to the breathings of the Holy
Spirit, and collects new songs of praise while holding his
psalter open with a verse inscribed upon it. The Holy
Ghost is not content with giving inspiration himself to
David; the prophet-king is also assisted on the left by the
spirit of prophecy, on the right by that of wisdom; two genii,
two young women each adorned with a nimbus, symbolic of
power no less than of holiness,” one of them holding a roll,
the other a large closed book. These two women between
them possess the perfection of knowledge; figuratively
expressed under its two principal forms by the roll or
volumen, and the square book.
St. Stephen, as has been already said, derived his inspira
tion from the Holy Ghost, who by the mouth of the young
deacon, pronounced the discourse recorded in the Acts of
the Apostles. The Holy Ghost perches like a tame bird
upon the right shoulder of Gregory the Great; the dove
holds a discourse with the Pope and inspires him with those
noble works which have placed him at the head of the four
fathers of the church.t
* The above characteristic alone would suffice to prove the Byzantine

origin of the manuscript, or, at least, of the tradition. Let the reader refer to
what has been already said on that subject, more particularly at pages 84, 89,
and 92.
* Paul Diacre, “Life of St. Gregory” (Sancti Gregorii Opera, in fol.
Paris, 1705, vol. iv., pp. 14, 15), thus relates the curious legend which is
frequently depicted at length in our churches, and is sculptured in the
Cathedral of Chartres, on the pier of the confessors, in the arch on the right
side of the south porch : “A fideli et religioso viro . . .” (he is speaking of
Peter, the deacon of St. Gregory) “fideliter post obitum ejus (sancti Gregorii)
nobis narratum didicimus, quod cum idem was electionis et habitaculum Sancti
Spiritus visionem ultimam prophetae Ezechielis interpretaretur, obpansum velum
inter ipsum et eumdem exceptorem tractatus sui, illo per intervalla prolixius
reticente, idem minister ejus stilo perforaverit et, eventu per foramen
conspiciens, vidit columbam nive candidiorem super ejus caput sedentem,
rostrumque ipsius ori diu tenere appositum. Quae cum se ab ore ejusdem
amoveret, incipiebat sanctus pontifex loqui, et a notario graphium ceris imprimi.
Cum vero reticebat Sancti Spiritus organum, minister ejus oculum foramini
iterum applicabat, eumque, ac si in oratione levatis ad coelum manibus simul
et oculis, columbae rostrum more solito conspicabatur ore suscipere.” In
figured representations, the dove is perched on the shoulder of St. Gregory;
in the text of the biographer it rests upon the head of the pontiff. The
difficulty of representing upon the head of the Pope the dove which lays the
The works of St. Jerome were written by that saint under

the immediate inspira
| tion of the Holy Ghost.
Thus, in very beautiful
miniatures, a dove is
depicted breathing into
the ear of St. Jerome
rays of intelligence, and
the saint writes under
the influence of that
gift of eloquence upon his lips,

no doubt occasioned the altera
tion. For every other reason,
the dove would be more fitly
placed upon the head, the
seat of intelligence, as is seen
in Fig. 110. The dove whis
pering in the ear of St. Gregory
the Great, reminds us of the
text: “fides ex auditu.”
* St. Gregory the Great
was not the only man directly
and visibly inspired by the
Holy Ghost under the form of
a dove; the incomparable
Gregory VII. enjoyed the
same distinction, and in his
office at the head of the sixth
lesson is written : “Dum
missarum solemnia perageret,
visa est viris piis columba e
coelo delapsa humero ejus
dextro insidens, alis extensis
caput ejus velare; quo signi
#:=#|# ficatum est Spiritus Sancti
TIENETHER:\
afflatu, non humanae prudentiae
| rationibus ipsum duci in Ec
clesiae regimine.” Saint
Ephrem of Syria declared that
he had seen a shining white
E-P-H-DVRAND
_A, dove alight upon the shoulder
Fig. 114.—PoPE GREGORY THE GREAT, INSPIRED of St. Basil the Great, and
BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. dictate to that Father the fine
French Statue of the XIII cent., in the Church of writings which are so familiar
Notre-Dame de Chartres." to us. All this is but an
imitation, and ought to be regarded as such, of the Holy Ghost descending
in the form of a dove upon the Apostles, assembled in the Cenaculum.
inspiration.” It is a singular circumstance that this dove

has no nimbus, but the omission must be accidental, as there
can be no doubt that it is intended for the Holy Ghost.
Another saint, she who best loved God, but who at the
same time best understood and reasoned on her love, was
inspired by the Holy Ghost with deep intelligent tender
ness, expressed in those fervent and highly intellectual
effusions which will invest her with eternal glory. In
engravings, therefore, St. Theresa is represented sitting
holding the pen, which is to transcribe her immortal
thoughts. The saint, whose head is surrounded by a
radiating nimbus, raises her eyes to heaven, whence issue
kindling rays. Upon one of these rays, the largest and
longest of all, is written, “Spiritus intelligentiae replevit
illam;+ and the Holy Ghost, descending from heaven
behind her in a flamboyant aureole, explains by his visible
presence the signification of these words.
Lastly—and in this an admirable task is assigned to the
Holy Ghost – he directs the actions of kings. At the
consecration of the kings and queens of England, a duke,
even at the present day, bears before the sovereign, who
is about to receive the sacred investiture, a sceptre sur
mounted with a dove.
In Montfaucon will be found a design representing Charle
magne carrying likewise a sceptre surmounted with a dove,
Mahomet himself, fully conscious of the credit with which a similar pheno
menon would invest his doctrines, taught a pigeon to perch upon his shoulder,
and the bird would remain there for several hours. The Arab prophet
made that tame dove pass for a celestial messenger, commissioned to reveal
to him the pleasure of the Almighty. The dove was regarded, even amongst
Pagans, as a medium of instruction, an organ communicating the will of Deity.
From the summit of the oaks of Dodona, doves prophesied of the future.
* MS. de la Bibl. Roy., Biblia Sacra, No. 6829, * close of the fourteenth
century. The subject is engraved by Willemin in his Monuments Inédits.
+ If the Holy Ghost had been the God of love, St. Theresa, the beloved of
God, would undoubtedly have been the object of his inspiration. Yet the
inscription intimates that he imparts intelligence, not love. The Holy Spirit
enlightens and does not warm St. Theresa: “Accendit lumen sensibus.”
* This is called the Bible Moralisée: for a full account of this beautiful
MS. see Les Manuscrits François de la Bib. Roy, by M. P. Paris, vol. ii. p. 18.
No. 6829° Bibl. Roy. is of a similar character, and by the same hand, but the
miniatures not so highly coloured.—Editor.
G Q
which is evidently intended to symbolise the Holy Ghost.*

If the sceptre be regarded as a staff to assure the steps of
the sovereign, the dove is a spirit to direct his course.
Below is a divine dove em
broidered on a standard, which
is at the same time religious
and military; religious from
the cross, by which the shaft
is terminated, and military in its
form. The dove descends from
heaven, which is figured by the
embroidered undulations in the
upper part of that warrior veil,
and descending to earth hovers
above the battalions, who are
about to engage.
The above standard is in
the hands of a personified figure
of the Christian religion, or the
church, preparing to subdue
Paganism and the synagogue.
At the ceremony of the con
secration of the kings of France,
after the rite of unction, white
doves were let loose in the
Church, indicating, we are
told, that as the captive birds
| regained their liberty, so the
Fig.115. The now onost, as a independence
DOVE UPON A STANDARD.
coronation of the
to king restored
the similarly
FrenchHeures du'Duc
Miniature, de Berri.
xv cent.; Bibl. Roy•y captiv
; :-e people
- This explana
-
tion, however, appears to me

very unsatisfactory; the people did not, in fact, lose liberty
by the sovereign's death, nor did they recover it through
the consecration of his successor. I am rather disposed
* Monum. de la Monarch. Franç. I cannot affirm that this engraving is
worthy of full credit: but in the tomb of Philippe le Bel, at St. Denis,
violated in the year 1793, a golden sceptre was found, five feet in length, and
terminated by a tuft of foliage, upon which was represented a bird, made of
copper, and gilded like the sceptre. Wide M. de Chateaubriand, Génie du
Christianisme, vol. iv., Notes et Éclaircisse, p. 442.
THE HOLY SPIRIT AS A DOWE. 451
to view this custom as conveying an idea analogous to that

of the sceptre on which the Holy Ghost rests. The Holy
Ghost, the divine doves, took possession of the cathedral,
as the king, after consecration, became gifted with un
derstanding. The multitude of doves let loose in the church,
signified, perhaps, that the king was just endowed with all
the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and that if one or the other
erished in him, so great was their number, that some must
invariably be left. Each gift of the Holy Spirit is symbo
lised by a dove, as will be shown in several examples; the
numerous doves at the ceremony of the consecration, may
therefore be intended as images of the many virtues of
royalty.” -
THE HOLY SPIRIT AS A DOVE.
Spiritus in Latin, and IIvevua in Greek, signifies breath

and breathing; from the Latin Spirare, we have derived
the word respire. The Spirit, therefore, is air put in
motion; in nature, it is wind; in man, the soul; in both,
life and movement.
Motion and rapidity are then the essential properties of
the mind; when, therefore, men desired to represent under
a visible form that divine and viewless spirit, by which all
nature is animated, the mind, naturally reverted to that
living being, which is in the highest degree endowed with
velocity and activity of movement. The bird in one moment
rises from the earth and soars upwards into the expanse of
heaven, where it vanishes from our sight; it transports
itself from country to country, with a facility equalled only
by its speed ; it traverses in a moment the largest tracts of
space, in all their height and extent. The bird, in the
organic kingdom, was necessarily selected as the image of
mind, # the spirit, which is breath set in motion, rapidity
vivified.
* At the consecration of Charles X. in 1825, after the enthronement, a

large number of doves were let loose in the Cathedral of Rheims. Many of
them burnt their wings in the numberless torches lighting the church; I
received one which fell dead into my arms. -
G G 2
Ornithological forms have been employed by Christianity,

not merely as expressive of swiftness and velocity, but of
spiritual nature, and the in
corporeal essence. The second
idea is, however, correlative
with the first, for the soul is
as buoyant as the body is
weighty. Angels, bodiless
spirits, are represented with
wings on their shoulders: they
have always two, sometimes
six, as is the case with the
Cherubim and Seraphim.
Fig. 116 Not only are angels figured
"T'" with wings on their shoulders,
Painting on wood, by Perugino, but sometimes placed onwheels
figurative of swiftness, or upon
wheels which are both winged and flamed, and thus made
to express the extreme of velocity. Nothing is swifter
than light. The following tetramorph (the four attributes
of the Evangelists united in one single body) with its triple
wings, of long, powerful, and numerous feathers, is the figure
or type of unparalleled velocity, and still further heightened
by the winged and fiery wheels on which that mysterious
symbol is placed.
Acting on the same principle, but giving it a more extended
application, artists have lent the wings and form of a bird
to allegorical figures created by their imagination. By
Pagans, as well as Christians, the wind has generally been
personified by a head, blowing puffs of winds, and violently
agitating a pair of wings joined to the neck. Air itself has
been represented under the form of a young man, vigorous,
naked, holding beneath his feet and in his arms the four
winged winds, which belong to the four cardinal points;
the Air has two powerful eagles' wings attached to his
shoulders, signifying the swiftness with which it flies, and
passes from calm to tempest.f Amongst the ancients as
* The picture containing the above seraph is at present in the Church of St.
Gervais, at Paris; the subject of it is the Father, surrounded by celestial spirits.
t See at the head of a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Communale of
Rheims (Exceptiones de Libro pontificali), a superb drawing on parchment
THE HOLY SPIRIT A.S. A. DOVE. 453
well as the moderns, wings are given to Fame, “that subtle

evil of unparalleled rapidity, and which, swift alike by feet
and wings, is nourished by
movement, and gains
strength on her course.”
By virtue of the same sym
bolism, Victory, like Mer
cury, who is the celestial
messenger, bears wings on
her shoulders, and some
times also on the head and
feet ; Victory without
wings was an exception,
consecrated by a temple
existing in the city of
Athens, on the summit
of the Acropolis.
The middle ages, faithful
to the ideas of paganism,
representing the air winged, hold

ing under his feet and in his
hands the four heads, also winged,
of Zephyr, Auster, Aquilon and
Eurus. Outstretched and powerful
wings are seen on the winds painted
in the pastoral of St. Gregory,
which in 1836 was preserved in
the bishopric of Autun, where I
had an opportunity of examining it.
Upon the Lavatory, lavabo, brought
from the Abbey of St. Denis, and
now placed in the Ecole des Beaux
arts, Jupiter, Diana, and Aer are
sculptured in high relief; each Fig. 117-wing BD TETRAMORPH, BoRNE on
has two wings on the head, fixed WINGED AND FIERY WHEELS.
near the ears. This curious monu- Byzantine Mosaic, of the xIII cent."
ment is of the thirteenth century.
* Such is the language of Virgil (AEneid iv.) in his description of Fame,
from which we shall borrow only the following:—
“Fama, malum quo non aliud velocius ullum
Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo.”
The ancients also represent the thunderbolt with wings.
+ This mosaic is at Vatopedi, one of the principal convents of Mount Athos.
which it completed and carried to perfection with singular

felicity, always regarded wings and ornithological forms as
attributes of rapidity. Consequently, the angel or SPIRIT
of youth, whom nothing can fatigue, and whose course
nothing can arrest, is properly represented winged. In
fact he is thus seen in a manuscript from which several
subjects have already been borrowed.”
From a French Miniature of the xIV cent.
The Pilgrim, who is in the vigour of age, meets Youth,

with green wings, the colour of hope, on his feet. Youth
* Romant destrois Pélerinages, in the Bibliothèque de Sainte Geneviève,
p. 79.
THE HOLY SPIRIT AS A DOWE. 455
has fair hair, a blue robe; he carries the pilgrim on his

shoulders; and says to him while crossing the sea:
“J'ai nom Jeunesce la légière,
La gileresse, la coursière,
La sauterelle, la saillant,
Quitout dengier ne prise un gant.
Je vois, je viens, je sail, je vole,
Je espringalle et carolle.
Mes piés me portent ou je veuil
Eeles ont; tules vois bien à l'euil.
Bail gala main, je veuil voler
Et par la mer te veuil porter.””
There is a surprising rapidity in this poetry of the

fourteenth century.f
The Church, that abstract generalisation of all Christians,
that society, animated by the Holy Ghost, has, like the
Holy Ghost been assimilated to a dove. The Pope likewise,
who is the vicar of God and director of the Church—the
Pope who ought rather to be an angel than a man, and
spiritual rather than material, has been allegorised and en
dowed, up to a certain point, with the form of a bird. A few
observations on the symbolic figures of the Church and the
Pope will complete all that remains to be said concerning
the Holy Ghost.
In the Manuscript of Herrade, the Church is represented
under the form of a dove, resembling the figure of the third
Divine Person of the Trinity, but with some distinguishing
* “I am called Youth, the nimble,

The tumbler, and the runner,
The grasshopper, the dasher,
Who cares not a glove for danger.
I see, I come, I bound, I fly,
I sport and caracole.
My feet they bear me whither I will,
They’ve wings; your eyes may see them.
Give here thine hand, with thee I'll fly
And carry thee over the sea.”
+ The French poem, in the Bibliothèque de St. Geneviève, is one of the most
curious books extant, both as to text and miniature.
1 “Gileresse” means the active gentleman who plays the fool on a stage in
a fair.—EDIT.
features. The fore part of the body is silvered, the back

part gilded. The dove has wings on its head, on its shoulders
|
*D
Fig. 119.—THE CHURCH As A Dove wiTH six wiNGs.

A Franco-German Miniature of the XI cent.
and its feet; these triple wings, bear it as swiftly as thought

or an uttered word, from one extremity of Christianity to
another. Everything here is emblematic, and the text
explaining the miniature is as follows: “This dove signifies
the Church, which by its sacred eloquence is sonorous as
silver; she is adorned with learning and wisdom, that she
may impart those gifts to others. This dove is of gold,
because she is radiant with charity; the pale or red gold
with which the lower part of her back is covered, signifies
the love of the faithful.”*
* Hortus Deliciarum. “Haec columba significat Ecclesiam, quae per

divinam eloquentiam quasi argentum est sonora et erudita, et sapientia exornata
THE HOLY SPIRIT AS A DOVE. 457
Dante has represented, not the Church, but the Pope

under the form of a bird. That bird, however, is not a dove,
but a griffin, a fantastic creature half eagle and half lion.
The griffin is an eagle in the upper part, a lion in the lower.
Although Dante speaks of a griffin, not a dove, the fact
deserves notice here from its connection both with the idea
which assimilates the Church with a dove partly of gold
and partly of silver, and also with that by which the Holy
Spirit is figured as a dove, which is in colour nearly mono
chrome. The dove of the Church, in Herrade, forms a tran
sition between the griffin of Dante and the dove of the
Holy Ghost; the nature of the griffin is twofold, and the
Church shines with a twofold colour; the dove of the Holy
Ghost is winged like the griffin and the dove of the Church,
but it has one single nature only, and is, therefore, of one
colour.
The description given by Dante, in the Purgatorio, is as
follows:–
The poet describes the triumph of the Church, arranged
almost like that depicted in the church of Brou and described
above. The candlestick with seven branches is at the head
of the procession followed by the twenty-four elders of the
Apocalypse, and the four attributes of the Evangelists.
Next to them is a car with two wheels, symbolic of the
Church rolling onwards, supported by the Old and New
Testament. “On two wheels it came, drawn at a gry
phon's neck,” * and escorted on the right by the three
theological, and on the left by the four cardinal virtues.
Next in order, and behind the car, are the twelve apostles,
preceded by St. Luke and St. Paul.
ut alios erudiat. Haec et columba est aurea, id est caritate splendida; et
posteriora dorsi ejus sunt in pallore vel rubore auri, id est caritas fidelium.”
These expressions seem to be taken from the 68th Psalm, 13. “Si dormiatis
inter medios cleros, pennae columbae deargentatae, et posteriora dorsi ejus in
pallore auri.” “Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the
wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.”
* The gryphon, the “mystic shape that joins two natures in one form,” as
he is called by Dante, draws the car to which he is harnessed, and
* He above
Stretched either wing uplifted 'tween the midst
* * * >k
And out of sight they rose. The members, far

458 CIIRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY,
The mystical bird of two colours is understood in the

Manuscript of Herrade to mean the Church; in Dante, the
bi-formed bird is the representative of the Church, the Pope.
The Pope, in fact, is both priest and king; he directs the
souls and governs the persons of men; he reigns over things
in heaven. The Pope, then, is but one single person
in two natures, and under two forms; he is both eagle and
lion. In his character of pontiff, or as an eagle, he hovers in
the heavens, and ascends even to the throne of God to
receive his commands; as the lion or king he walks upon
the earth in strength and power.”
As he was bird, were golden; white the rest,

With vermeil interveined.”
He is “a mystic shape, that joins two natures in one form.” And when the
eyes of Beatrice
“Stood
Still, fix'd toward the gryphon, motionless.
As the sun strikes a mirror, even thus
Within those orbs the twyfold being shone;
For ever varying, in one figure now
Reflected now in other. Reader ! muse
How wondrous in my sight it seem’d, to mark
A thing, albeit steadfast in itself,
Yet in its imaged semblance mutable.”
Cary's Dante, Purgatory, c. xxix., l. 105, and xxxi., l. 119.
* Some commentators of Dante have supposed the griffin to be the emblem
of Christ, who, in fact, is one single person, with two natures; of Christ, in
whom God and man are combined. But in this they are mistaken; there is,
in the first place, a manifest impropriety in describing the car as drawn by God
as by a beast of burden. It is very doubtful even whether Dante can be
altogether freed from the imputation of a want of reverence in harnessing the
Pope to the car of the church. Finally, the Triumph painted on the window
of Notre Dame de Brou, exhibits the Church personified by its four great
dignitaries, the Pope, the Cardinal, the Archbishop, and the Bishop, who push
on the wheels of the car of the Church. That motive is analogous in principle
to the griffin of Dante. As to Christ, he is borne in triumph on the car; as
one triumphant, he directs but does not draw. Lastly, in the manuscript of
Herrade, the Church is symbolized by a bird of two colours, and the Pope is
but the living representative of the Church : he is the incarnation of the
Church. Between the bird of Herrade and the gryphon of Dante, the analogy
is complete. Commentators have been misled by the twofold nature of the
gryphon, but that difficulty is removed by recollecting that the Pope resembles
the eagle in his spiritual character, and in his temporal authority the lion.
The Pope is one person, but of two natures and two distinct forms. Thus
considered, the allegory of Dante becomes clear and intelligible.
THE HOLY SPIRIT AS A DOVE. 459
The dove, amongst birds, from its gentle and loving

nature, in the first place, and in the second, from the purity
of its plumage, has been preferably selected as the image of
the Holy Ghost. £ a white dove is regarded, both
in historical narration and in works of art, as the impersona
tion of the Spirit of God—a divine breath, a brilliant and
unsullied symbol of the Trinity. We are told in history
that the Spirit of God descended, in the bodily shape of a
dove, upon the head of the Saviour immediately after his
baptism by St. John.* The Holy Ghost is almost invariably
figured in works of art, under the semblance of a dove, as
has already been shown in several examples given above,t
and as will be seen in many to be hereafter given.
In particular legends the divine Spirit,or the Holy Ghost, is
described as incarnate under the figure of a dove; the spirit
of man, or the soul, appears also under that form. Abundant
evidence may be found in our legends, of the Holy Spirit
having made himself manifest under the semblance of a
dove. The following are taken from writings of various
epochs:—
In Gregory of Tours, we read, “While the pupils were
singing psalms in the Cathedral of Trèves, a dove descended
from the vaulting, and flew sportively round the youthful
Aredius, who was being brought up and educated by the
Bishop Nicet. The dove rested upon his head, intimating
thereby that he was already filled with the Spirit; she after
wards descended upon his shoulder. When Aredius re
turned into the bishop's cell, the dove followed and entered
with him, and for several days refused to quit him. Aredius
returned afterwards to Limoges, that he might console his
mother, to whom he alone was left.”
At the consecration of Clovis, the divine dove presided
actually over the Christian destinies of France. Clovis and
the bishop of Rheims, St. Remi, repaired in procession to the
baptistery, where the chief of the Franks was to be con
secrated king and made a Christian. “When they arrived
* Et descendit Spiritus Sanctus corporali specie, sicut columba in ipsum
(St. Luke iii., 22.) “And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a
dove upon him.”
+ Figs. 21, 40, 53.
: Hist. Eccl. Franç., vol. ii., p. 136, of M. Guizot's translation.
there, the priest, bearing the holy chrism, was stopped by

the crowd, and could not reach the sacred font. But a dove,
whiter than snow, brought thither in her beak the “ampoule”
filled with chrism sent from heaven. St. Remi took the
vessel and perfumed with chrism the baptismal water.”f “In
the same country, at the distance of twenty kilometres from
Rheims, stood the celebrated abbey of Hautvillers, rendered
illustrious in modern times by Thierry Ruinart; it was
built according to the plan which the Holy Spirit, assuming
the form of a dove which was always as white as snow,
traced in his flight.”!
With regard to the souls of the saints, the immortal
spirits of men, they also ought to appear under the form of
doves, for the soul is made in the image of God. In a
monastery at Redon in Brittany, a child, dumb from its
birth, implored God to heal its infirmity. One day when
he was in the field, keeping the cattle of the monks, he was
overpowered by sleep. “On a sudden he was enveloped in a
wondrous light coming from the East. In the midst of that
light there appeared to him a dove of snowy whiteness; it
touched his lips, and caressed his face, saying to him, ‘I
am Marcellinus. The child arose healed, and related with
his own lips what he had seen and heard.Ş
One dove only is mentioned in the preceding legend: in
that following we have a troop seeking a sister soul which
is about to leave the earth. “Duke Louis of Thuringia,
the husband of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, being on the point
of expiring, said to those around him: “Do you see those
doves more white than snow P’ His attendants supposed
him to be a prey to visions; but a little while afterwards he
said to them, ‘I must fly away with those brilliant doves!”
Having said thus, he fell asleep in peace. Then his almoner
Berthold, perceived doves flying away to the East, and
* The “ampoule” is a phial of white glass; the original vessel was
destroyed in 1793, An. 2 of the Republic.—ED.
* Flodoard. History of the Church of Rheims, liv. i.
# Act. SS. Ord. S. Bened, vol. ii., année 685. “Wie de S. Berchaire,
Abbé d'Hautvillers.
§ Act. SS. Ord. de S. Bened., IV*. siècle bénédictin, 11° part de 855 A
900, p. 216. “Et ecce repente circumfulsit eum lux immensae claritatis ab
oriente; et in medio luminis apparuit illi quasi columba niveo candore,
tetigitgue os ejus et protexit faciem, et dixit ei, Ego sum Marcellinus.”
THE COLOUR OF THE HOLY GHOST. 461
followed them a long time with his eyes.” An Englishman

who was present at the death of Joan of Arc, declared in a
written deposition to that effect, which is still preserved,
that he had seen a dove fly from the mouth of Joan with
her last sigh and rise to heaven.f The divine dove appeared
at the baptism of Clovis, the founder of the monarchy, and
a similar dove escaped from the heart of Joan of Arc, by
£ the same monarchy was restored when on the verge
Of rulin.
THE COLOUR OF THE HOLY GHOST REPRESENTED AS

A DOWE.
With regard to the colour of the divine dove, it is always

that of snow, which (as is positively affirmed by the text)
it surpasses in brilliancy and whiteness.
This dove being the symbol of God, we naturally expect
* M. le Comte de Montalembert, Vie de Sainte Elisabeth. The author
quotes Berthold, MS. Life of the Duke Louis: “Widetis-ne columbas has super
niven candidas? Oportet me cum columbis istis splendissimis evolare. Widit
easdem columbas ad orientem evolare.” The beautiful legend of St. Polycarp,
who was burned alive, is well known, adds M. de Montalembert; his blood
extinguished the flames, and from his ashes there rose a white dove, which flew
towards heaven. A dove was seen issuing in the same manner from the funeral
pyre of Joan of Arc. M. Cyprien Robert (Cours d'Hierogly. Chrét) says,
in speaking of the dove: “This bird is an emblem most frequently met with
upon primitive sarcophagi. It is there represented carrying in its beak a
branch of palm or olive, or piercing grapes, figuring thereby the souls of the
faithful, which fly away in their innocence, dropping blood like costly wine
upon the earth. Thus the soul of St. Reparata, Virgin and Martyr, who had
refused to offer sacrifice to idols, is seen rising in the form of a dove from her
decapitated body. The same thing is related of St. Potitius, and the bishop
St. Polycarp, both of whom were beheaded, and from their blood arose a bird
as white as snow, which flew with rapid wing to heaven. The Acts of the
Martyr St. Quentin say, with a suavity of language and an impulse of faith
that is very charming: “Wisa est felix anima velut columba, candida sicut nix,
de collo ejus exire et liberissimo volatu coelum penetrare. In those rude
spirits, still shrouded in the darkness of idolatry, the immortality of the soul,
and its surviving the body, was thus made intelligible; and subsequently,
when anthropomorphism crept into the art, the soul was sometimes figured
by a little child, issuing from the mouth of the deceased.” M. Robert
might have said very frequently, and even almost always, instead of sometimes,
so common during the middle ages was the custom of representing the soul
under the form of a naked child.
+ M. Michelet, Histoire de France, vol. v., p. 176.
to find it charged with that colour or tincture in which the

hues of all the virtues are symbolically united.* The beak
and claws are generally red; but this is natural with white
doves.t The nimbus on its head is almost always of a
golden yellow, and divided by a cross which is frequently
red, but sometimes black.$. In the Cathedral at Auxerre,
the field of the nimbus is red, and the branches of the cross
are of gold. But I do not believe that any archaeological
characteristic is to be gathered from the difference of colour;
it can only be observed that the richest and most resplendent
hues have been generally preferred.
It has been seen that light formed an integral part of all
divine figures; and that God the Father, and the Son, being
considered as the sources of light, were clad in radiance, and
surrounded by an atmosphere of most dazzling brightness.
It was therefore indispensable that the Holy Ghost, being
God, co-equal with the Father and the Son, should be
represented as equally resplendent in appearance. We are
told by Ermold le Noir, the historian of Louis le Débonnaire,"|
* According to some early writers on symbolism, every virtue had its own
emblematic colour, and white, the colour of light, being, as we are told by
writers on optics, produced by the blending or combination of all the seven
prismatic hues, is with peculiar propriety employed as symbolic of that union
of every virtue with the most exalted intelligence, which exists in the person
of the Holy Ghost.—Translator.
t M. le Docteur Comarmond, Librarian of the Palais Saint Pierre, at
Lyons, is in possession of a Byzantine manuscript, dating from the tenth or
eleventh century, and brought originally from the Grande Chartreuse. The
manuscript is filled with beautiful miniatures, and covered with plates of ivory,
curiously carved. In the scene representing the baptism of Christ, the Holy
Ghost appears under the form of a white dove, with red beak and claws, and
a few black spots on the back and wings.
: Instances of this are too frequent to be cited ; it will suffice to observe
that doves having a red nimbus with a golden cross are sometimes met with,
but the reverse is most common.
§ Painted window of the fourteenth century, in the south aisle of the
Cathedral of Freyburg, in Brisgau.
| Painted window of the thirteenth century, in the passage behind the
Sanctuary. The Holy Ghost is there seen hovering between the waters. An
engraving of the Holy Spirit, taken from this window, is given at Fig. 129.
"I Ermoldus Nigellus. (Collection des Historiens de France, by M. Guizot.)
This divine dove, which was equal in size to an eagle, reminds me of an ivory
coffer belonging to M. Michéli, and brought from the Abbey of St. Gall; the
Holy Ghost is there carved under the form of his winged symbol. He has a
cruciform nimbus, and is standing facing the spectator in the form of an eagle,
THE COLOUR OF THE Holy GHosT. 463
that “The guardianship of the church consecrated to the

Virgin Mary” was formerly confided to Theutram . . . . .
. . . One night he saw the temple filled with light like that
of the sun, and resembling the beams shed forth by that
luminary on the serenest days of summer. Springing from
his bed he endeavoured to discover the source of those
dazzling streams of light, which seemed to fill the
sacred edifice. A bird of the size of an eagle was covering
the altar with its extended wings, but that bird was not of
terrestrial birth. His beak was of gold, his claws of some
material more costly than precious stones; his wings
emulated the azure of the sky, and his eyes sparkled with
celestial light. The holy priest, seized with astonishment,
dared not encounter the glance of the bird, but he contem
plated with admiration his wings and body, and, above all,
marvelled at his sparkling eyes. The bird remained upon
the altar, until the moment when the three crowings of the
cock were heard, summoning the monks to matins. Then
he took flight, and the window opposite to the altar opened
miraculously of itself, to give him space to pass, and quit
the temple. Scarcely had the dove risen in his flight to
heaven when the light disappeared, proving by its eclipse
that that bird was an inhabitant of the kingdom of God.”
This Spirit, which carried with it its own light, and
revealed by that symbol his celestial, or perhaps even
his divine origin, resembled those doves of enamelled
or gilded copper, which were formerly suspended over altars,
and attached by a little chain to the vaulting of the
church. The interior of the dove was hollow, and the
sacred elements were inclosed in it. The dove served for
a tabernacle, and Jesus was contained within it, as he had
been previously in the body of Mary, the bride of the
which it resembles also in size; the wings are extended, and droop abased upon
a disk, which is slightly concave. A hand, extended from the clouds, points
towards the gigantic dove. The hand is that of God, but instead of being
placed on a cruciform nimbus, three rays or jets of light emanate from it.
The dove is adored by four angels. This coffer belongs, undoubtedly, to the
tenth century; the poem of Ermold was written in 826; and both in the
poem and on the coffer the dove bears the form of an eagle. It appears to
have diminished in size from century to century, and at the close of the
middle ages is no larger than a large sparrow.
* The Cathedral of Strasbourg, dedicated to Notre Dame.
Holy Ghost, as she is called in sacred scripture. In cabinets

of Christian antiquities similar divine doves, formed of metal,
are sometimes found. The orbit of the eve is encrusted
with rubies or other precious stones, the £ is of gold or
copper, with gilded claws and feet, the head and breast
are encrusted with red enamel, the blueish green and white
enamel curves of the wings all remind us of the golden
beak, the luminous eyes and azure wings of the celestial
Spirit seen by Theutram.*
Except where the material of which the dove was formed
was opposed to it, or where the imagination, as in the case
of Theutram, suggested new forms and colouring, the divine
doves were always white, lustrous, and differing very slightly
from natural doves in size. Yet, at the moment when the
heaven and the earth, having just been created, present still
only a bare and formless chaos, the Holy Ghost, moving
upon the face of the water, is as black as the darkness
covering the face of the abyss. For God had not yet made
the light, and the intense gloom of the darkness is well con
veyed by the idea of its eclipsing even the light of the Holy
Spirit.t The white colour assumed by the Holy Ghost
bears yet higher import, from the fact of its being sym
bolic. In Persian antiquity two genii, the one good and the
other evil. Ormuzd and Ahriman contend for and partition
the world between them. One of these gods presides over
virtue, and reigns during the day; the other one, over evil, and
governs the night. Ormuzd, the good genius, is luminous,
sparkling, resplendent, as pure as the light which is subject
* M. du Sommerard (Atlas des Arts du Moyen Age, c. xiv., pl. 3) has

given a drawing of one of these doves, of enamelled and gilded copper,
belonging to M. le Colonel Bourgeois; and M. l'Abbé J. Corblet, member of
the Society of Antiquaries of Picardy, has published a liturgical memoir of the
ciborium of the middle ages, at the end of which is a drawing of an
enamelled dove deposited in the Musée at Amiens. This latter dove, which
belongs to the twelfth century, appears to have been employed as a deposit for
the consecrated elements. A shallow cavity, hollowed in the back between
the wings, and closed by a lid, which was kept in its place by means of a
moveable button, was used for that purpose. The dove here described was
brought from the Abbey of Raincheval (Somme). See the Mémoires de la
Société des Antiquaires de Picardie, vol. v.
t This sombre dove is from a manuscript of the thirteenth century, Théol.
Lat. et. Fr. 8, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal,
THE COLOUR OF THE HOLY GHOST. 465
to him; Ahriman, on the contrary, is dark and funereal, as

night and hell, over which he has dominion. The contest
between those two principles is visibly interpreted by the
alternate and continued struggle between light and darkness.
The good influence which, amongst Christians main
tains a perpetual struggle against the power of evil, is the
same spirit of light, combating with the spirit of darkness.
The colour assigned to the Holy Ghost is therefore white,
the most luminous colour, and indeed that in which all are
Fig. 120.—AN EVIL SPIRIT, BLACK.

From a Franco-German Miniature of the x1 cent."
combined; while that given to the spirit of evil is black,

being the total absence of light. Hitherto mention has
* This design is taken from a miniature in the Hortus Deliciarum.
El H
been made only of the white resplendent dove everywhere

diffusing light; it creates day wherever it appears and leaves
night in every spot which it abandons.
In the preceding plate, a bird, a malevolent spirit is seen
breathing into the ear of a magician thoughts as dark and
evil as himself.
This dark, cloudy, and sombre spirit, violent in its atti.
tude and lean in body,
stretches its meagre throat
towards the ear of the
wicked man, who tran
scribes the evil thoughts
which it inspires. The
word spirit is constantly
interpreted in Christian art
by the form of a bird.
When the spirit is good
the bird is white, and when
evil, black; it is in fact the
devil.*
It is of the latterform and
colour in the drawing sub
joined. Satan is a kind of
human gnat with bat-like
wings, and flying with
rapid motion towards the
statue of a woman; a naked
idol representing some
pagan goddess, and stand
Fig. 121.—SPIRIT £ EvIL, THE soul of
AN IDOL,
ing
whichupon a column on
her worshippers have
A French Miniature of the xVI cent.t
placed her.
Besides the preceding examples, Christ, the Saints, and
* Hermas says, in the Pastor: “In autem crede Spiritui venientia Deo.
habenti virtutem. Spiritui autem terrestri vacuo, qui a diabolo est, in quo fide:
non est neque virtus, credere noli.”—(S. Herma: Pastor, lib. ii., mandata 9.
apud Fabricium. Codex Apocryphus, Nov. Test, pars iii., p. 903.) “Believe
the Spirit which comes from God, and has power as such. But believe not
the earthly and empty spirit, which is from the Devil, in whom there is no faith
nor virtue.”—Hone. Apocryphal New Test., Hermas II., Command. xi., 12.
f #.
Ol. ~ 1.
Augustine, Cité de Dieu, MS. de la Bibliothèque St. Geneviève,
THE HOLY GHOST AS MAN. 467
the Apostles, are frequently seen on painted windows,

manuscripts with miniatures and tapestries, expelling from
demoniacs the evil spirits by which they were possessed, and
the birds, one or many, representing those spirits, and which
issue from the mouth of the possessed, are invariably black.
In the History of the Devil a great number of texts will be
given in which Satan is called an Ethiopian, black, smoky,
and dark, while angels and good genii are white, and illumine
every spot near which they pass almost equally with the
Holy Ghost. To the Holy Ghost especially must be applied
what Dante said of angels:
“Poi, come più e più versonoi venne
L'uccel divino, più chiaro appariva,
Perchè l'orchio dappresso nol sostenne.”*
THE HOLY GHOST AS MAN."
The Holy Ghost has at times taken a form less common

and more singular than that of a bird; it is the human form.
The dove, from the sixth and seventh century down to the
present time, has been the constant representative of the
Holy Ghost, but about the tenth century, as it appears, a
rival symbol was introduced,
The new type, however, never seems to have gained much
favour; its duration was far shorter than that of the dove,
and its adoption much more limited. It was not till the
tenth century that the idea of figuring the Holy Ghost as
man was first put in practice; and towards the close of the
sixteenth century it was, again, superseded exclusively by the
dove, which indeed had never ceased to be the favourite
symbol.
“As we approach our own time,” says M. Cyprien Robert,
“the genius of modern invention sought to represent the
Holy Ghost as a beautiful young man, the immortal youth
* Purgatorio, Canto II, I. 37.
“As more and more toward us came, more bright
Appeared the bird of God, nor could the eye
Endure his splendour near.”—Cary's Dante.
H H 2
by whom nature is captivated." But the Pope, in a bull

which will be quoted elsewhere, prohibited the use of that
image, as contrary to tradition. Speaking strictly, the Word
alone ought to be clothed in the human form, for every
visible and external manifestation of the Divinity was made
in his person: the Creator seen in the terrestrial paradise,
and Jehovah appearing on Mount Sinai, were, in fact, the
Word. Nevertheless, it is understood that on those occa
sions he appeared under the form of an aged man, and
thence was confounded with the Father Eternal. With
regard to the Holy Ghost, however, it was impossible to
give him the human form, without becoming instantly
involved in serious error. Thus the Pope was right in
remaining firm, and upholding the ancient dove.”f
One of the earliest and most celebrated examples of the
Holy Ghost made man by the power of art, is mentioned
in an English manuscript, attributed to St. Dunstan, who
died in 988, and was Archbishop of Canterbury. In this
curious volume, the three Divine Persons are all represented
in the human form. The Father is drawn as an emperor,
and aged, the Son as Christ, and holding his cross, is
* Chronique de Strasbourg, année 1404. The citation is made by
M. Robert.
+ Cours d’Hiéroglyphique Chrétienne, dans L’Université Catholique,
vol. vi., p. 352. Representations of the Holy Ghost as man are more ancient
than is supposed by M. Robert. One example, dating from the tenth century,
is known to exist, and there are probably others, even of earlier date. The
bull referred to by M. Robert is, no doubt, that published by Urban VIII,
but his prohibition applies to the representing of the Trinity under the figure
of a single head with three faces, or of one single body, and not to figures of
the Holy Ghost in human form. However, from the moment in which it
became allowable to represent the Father as man—he whom no man hath
seen, or can see—one could not interdict the representing of the Holy Ghost
himself under the same form. In iconography, as well as in theology, the
three Divine Persons are not merely similar, but also co-equal; what is
attributed to one is therefore equally appropriate to the others. It was well
to represent the Holy Ghost in the likeness of a dove, but better still to give
him the human form. The Council in Trullo raised its voice to oppose
the custom of representing Christ as the Lamb, and decreed that he should be
depicted in future as man; it were equally to be wished that the symbolic
dove of the Holy Ghost should be superseded by the human type, and I
sincerely wish that Christian artists would invest the third person of the Trinity,
as frequently as possible, with the human form; that type, hitherto but
lightly esteemed, would afford a thousand new and charming motives.
-
younger, and may be perhaps thirty years of age; the Holy

Ghost, who has no distinguishing attribute, is young and
almost beardless.”
In the twelfth century, in the year 1180, the Manuscript
of Herrade gives the three Persons as perfectly equal in atti
tude, costume, and physiognomy. The £,
host, like
the other two persons is there represented as a man of
between thirty and five-and-thirty years of age. A little
while earlier, but at the commencement of the same century,
Abelard, as it appears, had commanded a Trinity to be
sculptured in stone, resembling that depicted by Herrade.
It was executed for the Abbey of the Paraclete, at Nogent
sur-Seine, but is no longer in existence, having been
destroyed at the time of the Revolution. But le Père
Mabillon, who probably had seen it, mentions that the
Holy Ghost, being in the human form, had his hands crossed
upon his breast, and said, “I am the breath of both ” (of
the Father and the Son). The Divine Spirit wore a crown
of olives, was clothed in a long robe, and shared with the
Son, the mantle of the Father.t
Too great a propensity to confound the Spirit with the
two other Persons of the Trinity, and the discussion raised
on that point by the doctrines of Abelard, appear to have
suspended, during one hundred or one hundred and fifty
ears, representations of the Holy Ghost in human form.
hey were, however, resumed in the fourteenth century;
they became more numerous in the fifteenth and sixteenth,
and were finally abandoned in 1560, under Francis I.
From the fourteenth century to the sixteenth, these repre
sentations abound, and considering the Holy Ghost, with
reference to age alone, we find figures of him in the human
form, varying from the tenderest infancy, some months only,
or a few years of age, up to an advanced period of old age.
In a manuscript # of the fifteenth century, he is exhibited
* M. le Comte Auguste de Bastard (Peintures et Ornements des
Manuscrits) gives a copy of the Trinity of St. Dunstan.
+ Annales Benedict, vol. vi., p. 83, No. 14. The monument described by
Mabillon is not certainly of the time of Abelard, but the close of the fifteenth
century. It is vexatious that the learned Benedictine should have neglected
to determine the age of the carving, which is not now in existence.
# MS. containing various services, Bibl. Roy, suppl. i., 638. The Creator
floating upon the waters, at the moment when God is

creating the heaven and the earth. The Holy Ghost is
extended upon the waves, which are slightly agitated; he is
a naked infant just born.
©
§: #
^TE:#= ---
Fig. 122.—THE HOLY GHOST, As A CHILD, FLOATING ON THE WATERs

From a Miniature of the XIV cent.
One might imagine the figure to be intended for the little

has a golden nimbus, with numerous rose-coloured rays, but without any
cross. The globe in his left hand is also without a cross. As to the
Holy Ghost, he is entirely without a nimbus. This miniature is placed in
the latter part, about three-fourths, of the manuscript, before the office “in
Dominica in palmis.” In spite of my repeated cautions, the copyist has
introduced three characteristics not to be found in the original, and it became
necessary to mention errors so serious, and which would have been expunged,
had they been discovered earlier.
Moses, floating on the waves of the Nile, and picked up by

Pharaoh's daughter. But in this miniature the Word of
God is on the shore, separating the light from the darkness.
In another manuscript the Holy Ghost is rather older; he
is still a child, and carried in the arms of the Almighty
Father, as an infant is carried by its mother, but he is
already eight or ten years of age.
Fig. 123.—THE Holy GHost, As A CHILD of EIGHT or TEN YEARs old, IN

ThE ARMS OF The FATHER.
French Miniature of the xVI cent.*
In a picture of the Holy Trinity, drawn to illustrate

Dante's Paradiso, the Holy Ghost is fifteen years of age.t
He is only ten or twelve in a figure given above (Fig. 61).
In a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Royale, the Holy
Ghost has already a beard; he is aged twenty or five-and
* In the Bibliothèque de Ste. Geneviève, Heures Latines, No. 464.
+ Sixteenth century. The work containing this drawing belongs to
M. Longueville Jones, English correspondent of the Comité Historique des
Arts et Monuments.
: L'Aiguillon de l'Amour Divin, in 4to., No. 5094 or ***, fifteenth
century.
twenty. On a bas-relief of the sixteenth century, decorating

the tympanum of a village church,” he is about thirty. Th
THoly Spirit may there be recognised by the Divine dove
which he holds in his left hand, pressing it against hi
bosom. This beautiful youth appears like the brother 0
Jesus, whom he resembles in features, countenance, figure
and attitude. The length and colour of the hair are th
same in both Divine Persons; but the Holy Ghost is younge
than Jesus Christ, and much younger still than God th
Father. Jesus Christ is the elder brother of the Divin
family. The Dogma declares that the Word is the Son o
God, and that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Fathe
and the Son. All the three persons are co-eternal and 0
equal age. But Art desired to set forth that fact in he
own manner, and to place materially and sensibly before ou.
eyes the filiation of the Word, and the procession of th
Holy Ghost. With that object they represented the Sor
as younger than the Father, and the Holy Ghost as stil
more youthful than either. Thence arise the difference
of age which, theologically considered, would have beer
heretical, had it been designed to indicate any actua
difference of age; but they may be received as orthodox
having been employed to characterise, although but in a rud
manner, the difference of relationship subsisting between
the Divine Persons.
The Holy Spirit, as represented on the stallst in Amien
Cathedral, is three or four years older; he is of precisely
the same age as Jesus Christ, who is sitting near him, and
who assists, together with the Holy Ghost, at the coronation
of the Virgin by the Eternal Father. Jesus Christ and th
Holy Ghost are twin brothers, and the Father being of th
same age, precludes in this group any idea of family o
generations, and implies only the co-eternity and equality o
the three Persons. -
In the Manuscript of Herrade, the Holy Ghost might b

said to be forty years of age, like the other Divine Persons
The expression of the countenance is more serious, mor
severe, and even sorrowful than in any of the precedin
* See below, Fig. 126.
+ The left row, looking towards the high altar, and at the opposite extremit
to the nave.
examples, in all of which the physiognomy is well marked,

according to the difference of age. Joyous in the child
and gay in the young man, it becomes serious and saddened
in him who has numbered thirty years.
Lastly, in various monuments,” the Holy Ghost is repre
sented as aged, with a long beard, gray or white hair, and
a wrinkled forehead; he is fifty, sixty, seventy years of age,
like the Father Eternal. At that time, that is, in the
fifteenth century, the Father Eternal had recovered the
authority, of which, during the middle ages, he had been
deprived; he imposes his form and features on the Holy
Ghost, and even on Jesus Christ; he creates the world in
his likeness and image. The ideas of paternity, filiation and
progression, then disappear, chased by the co-eternity and
co-equality of the three persons.
These portraits of the Holy Ghost as man, although not
uncommon, particularly in the fifteenth century, are however
far less numerous than representations of him under the
form of a dove; the proportion may be reckoned, probably,
as one in a thousand. Besides, these deified human figures
appear late and disappear at the time of the Renaissance.
Now the symbol of the dove, pure and elevated though it
be, is inferior to the human type, even as a bird is inferior
to a man.
It becomes, then, a subject of rejoicing, when, after having
so long and so continually seen the Holy Ghost degraded to
the lowly condition of a dove, he appears at length trans
formed into man; just as we watch with pleasure the trans
formation of a rude insect, into a brilliant, elegant, and
swift-winged butterfly. -
We see an onward progress from the bird to the man.

One who devotes a life to the study of archaeology, and is
weary of meeting with the Holy Ghost under the figure of
a bird, at every step he takes in every century, or on every
monument, will rejoice when accident presents to his view a
beautiful young man, beardless, or with a fair and soft beard,
with fresh and rosy cheeks, waving and golden hair, and a
* See especially the manuscripts in the Bibliothèque Royale, known by the

titles of Bréviare de Salisbury and Heures du Duc d'Anjou, Lavall. 82
and 127.
gentle, benevolent smile. One would receive with open

arms the Divine youth, as would a mother the son who left
her in his childhood and after long years of absence returns
to his home, having grown into a tall and handsome man,
rendered himself illustrious and intelligent, gained opulence,
and attained to manhood.
Although the practice of drawing the Holy Ghost as a
young man was abandoned at the Renaissance, it should be
our care to revive the idea and bring it to perfection.
Christian artists do wrong to neglect so noble a theme,
$: in depicting the entire Trinity, or the Holy Ghost
Singly. -
The Spirit, as man, has not yet finished his career; it

belongs to the future more especially, to do honour to
intellectual gifts, and to cultivate reason in the person of
the Holy Ghost, as in past ages power was venerated in
God the Father, and love in God the Son.
QUALITIES PECULIAR TO THE HOLY GHOST.
The Holy Ghost has hitherto been considered as a single

person, one and indivisible; but although an attempt has
been made to define his qualities by exhibiting him as the
God of intelligence, still these Divine qualities which are
more especially his own, the Divine attributes of the Holy
Ghost and the qualities which he peculiarly possesses, remain
to be enumerated. We read in Isaiah* “And there shall
come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch
shall grow out of his roots; and the Spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him,t the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the Lord.”
* Isaiah xi., 1, 2.
+ In the Speculum Humanae Salvationis, a MS. of the fourteenth century
preserved in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsénal (Théol. Lat. 42, B, fo. 6 recto), is
a picture of David or Jesse sitting. From the bosom of the Patriarch issues a
bush or rose-tree. At the top of that tree shines a rose of five petals, in the
centre of which, as in a nest of flowers, a bird, a little dove, is seen. It is
the Holy Ghost in fact reposing in that flower. “In the year 1007,” says the
reverend Father, Dom Guéranger, (Institutions Liturgiques, vol. i., p. 309),
QUALITIES PECULLAR TO THE HOLY GHOST. 475
These words were addressed to the Messiah, to Jesus, to

Emanuel, whom a Virgin was to conceive and to bring forth;
to that little child who was to bear the government upon
his shoulder, and whose name was to be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the
Prince of Peace.* The Divine child was therefore clothed
in the Spirit of God, whose faculties are seven in number,
for he possesses, as his peculiar gifts, wisdom, understanding,
counsel, strength, knowledge, piety, and fear.
This subject has frequently been portrayed by Christian
artists; a tree springs from the bowels, the breast, or the
mouth of Jesset The symbolic trunk spreads to the left
and right, throwing forth branches, bearing the kings of
Judah, the ancestors of Christ; at the top, seated on a
throne or in the chalice of a gigantic flower, is the Son of
God. Surrounding the Saviour, and forming as it were an
oval aureole, seven doves are ranged one above the other,
three on the left, three on the right, and one at the top.
Each dove inspires the Saviour with some property peculiar
to itself; one with wisdom, another intelligence, the third
counsel, and so on. These doves which are of snowy white
ness, like the Holy Ghost, and adorned like him with a
cruciform nimbus, are simply living manifestations of the
seven gifts of the Spirit. The Holy Ghost is drawn under
the form of a dove; each of the seven energies distinguish
ing him, is also figured under the same type. They may be
termed seven personifications of that God, who in one
person, combines seven different attributes, as the absolute
“Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres, composed the following Introit for the nativity
of the Virgin:—
“Stirps Jesse virgam produxit, virgoque florem,
Et super hunc florem requiescit Spiritus almus.
Virgo Dei genitrix virga est; flos, Filius ejus.”
* Isaiah, vii. 14; ix. 6. From the concluding words is derived the
Introit still sung at Christmas.
* At Rheims, the mystical tree rises from the mouth of David, that is to
say, from the organ of intelligence, and not from the breast or bowels, the
organs of material life; it bears on its summit a large flower, in which reposes
the Messiah, Jesus, the Emmanuel of Isaiah. See in the Bibliothèque de
Rheims, the manuscript entitled Bible Historicale ; it is of the thirteenth
century, and numbered ##.
Divinity comprehends in one Supreme head three distinct

persons.
We have given above (Fig. 40) a drawing taken from
the Psalter of St. Louis, in which Christ is shown at the to
of the genealogical tree, an
surrounded by the Seven
Spirits. In this last miniature,
Jesus Christ is in the arms
of his mother, and the seven
little doves fly towards the
child and seem to delight him
with their mysterious song.
It would #. interesting to
determine the place occupied
by those doves in respect of
Christ whom they surround as
in a circle.
The spirit of Christian
aesthetics and the principles of
the reciprocal hierarchy of
persons and things, have been
explained in the chapter on
the History of God the
Father; it will therefore be
- sufficient for the present, to
'£' repeat, that the top is more
French Miniature of the XIV cent.* honourable than the lower
part, the left inferior to the
right, and the circumference to the centre. The top is
preferred to the base, and the right to the left, in the
same way as that in which the focus or centre, pre
dominates over the radiation. Now, in Isaiah the order
given to the gifts of the Holy Spirit is as follows: wisdom,
understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, piety, the
* Manuscript in the Bibliothèque Royale, Biblia Sacra, 6829. Nothing
is more common than to see doves thus surrounding the Saviour, whether
as man or infant.—The same subject is twice repeated on the windows of the
Cathedral of St. Denis, three times on those of Chartres, once upon the
stained glass in the Collegiate of St. Quentin, in the Cathedrals of Amiens
and Beauvais, and on those of the Church of Breuil, a village in the
arrondissement of Rheims.
QUALITIES PECULIAR TO THE HOLY GHOST. 477
fear of God. If we ascend, beginning with the fear of God,

wisdom will be at the summit; if on the contrary, wisdom
be placed lowest in the series, the fear of God will hold the
upper degree or highest rank; but in either case, strength
and knowledge will occupy the centre. Isaiah, opening his
list with wisdom and closing it with fear, has unfortunately
omitted to say whether he was ascending or descending from
one quality to another. We cannot therefore say which is
the root or base, which is the summit, which the supreme
virtue, and which on the contrary the lowliest. A wide
field was open to the conjectures of mediaeval artists and
symbolists, and the place assigned to each quality ought
probably to possess and contain the expression of some
individual preference or antipathy. Influenced by an
analogous order of ideas, we see that in depicting the three
theological virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity, an artist or
moralist of compassionate and tender feelings places Charity
at the summit; another, who was at the moment in sorrow
or suffering, Hope; a third, racked by the pangs of doubt
and scepticism, and feeling the inestimable value of belief,
would elevate Faith above all. Fénelon and St. Vincent de
Paul might have esteemed Charity above the two other
virtues, but St. Jerome, Tertullian, and Bossuet, would
unquestionably have preferred Faith to Charity. Thus the
rank that may be assigned to either virtue, reveals to us
some individual sympathy of the artist's mind, or occasionally
some social feeling. What has been said of Fénelon,
St. Vincent de Paul, Bossuet, St. Jerome, and Tertullian,
applies equally to society in general. When in any epoch
or century, Faith is the predominating influence, that virtue
occupies the highest place; one crowns her as queen and
seats her on the throne of state. When on the contrary
the lessons of belief have been learned, and men are crushed
by a weight of suffering of every kind; when wars, famine,
and pestilence ravage a country, that country flies for refuge
to Hope. Faith is brought down from her throne, and Hope
elevated in her place. When again the moral feeling is
blunted, when the sick and blinded heart is barren and
dark, not knowing how to guide itself aright, then Charity
stands forth, the pharos of the soul, and offers a remedy
to Hope.
Such has in fact been the course pursued, and thus it may
be traced in the progress of Christian art. In the primitive
ages of Christianity to believe was the first imperative
necessity; to believe and to confess the incarnation of the
Word, the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection of
the body; consequently, to stimulate Faith was the task
imposed upon all early monuments. Ancient sarcophagi,
the frescos in the catacombs, the mosaics in the Roman
basilicas, all speak the same language, and constantly present
to our view the birth, the actions, and resurrection of
Christ. Life is constantly extracted from Death, to show
that at the Final Judgment the reanimated body shall quit the
tomb; thus Jonah is vomited forth by the whale; the three
children of the Babylonish captivity are spared by the flames
of the fiery furnace; Jesus raises Lazarus to life. To
believe was then indispensably necessary; for the object to
be achieved was the substituting of one religion for another;
it was the reign of Faith. But when evil days came at the
time of the invasion, first of the barbarians, next of the
Normans, and especially after the time of Charlemagne,
when the empire was torn by divisions in every quarter,
when war spread from province to province, and from ci
to city; when feudalism was engendered, and all hearts dis
tracted with apprehensions of the year 1000; then men turned
to Hope, and she was placed at the head of the three great
virtues. The world believed, and Faith was no longer in
danger, but Hope was doubly needed, amidst the anguish
of such terrible events as seemed to forbid all cheering
anticipations from the future. In the twelfth century,
everything assumed a firmer footing; the year 1000 had
passed, and men marvelled to find themselves still among
the living. The hand of royalty, beneficent and powerful,
began to crush and subdue the petty tyrants of feudalism;
far-sighted in its views, it re-established order, and re
formed or rather invented laws and administration. Men
were happy; but as is too often the case, happiness pro
duced indifference, luxury, self-indulgence, and pleasure.
Those effeminate and egotistical souls required therefore
to be exalted and animated by the ardent devotedness of
Charity.
It is possible, by close study, to discover in the sculptures
QUALITIES PECULTAR. To THE HOLY GHOST. 479
of cathedrals, in painted glass windows, and the miniatures
of illuminated manuscripts, variations of feeling, indicating a
difference of period: a material difference—an individuality—
may even be discovered in edifices of the same era, but
erected in different countries.
Thus, in the Cathedral of Paris, as has been already
remarked, confessors rank higher than martyrs, that is to
say, intellect is more highly venerated than faith. At
Chartres, on the contrary, faith takes precedence of intel
ligence, martyrs of confessors. In the church of Notre
Dame de Brou, founded by a woman, the primal virtue is
charity. During the Renaissance, when men were Pagan
rather than Christian in sentiment, not one only of the
theological virtues was neglected, but all three at once, and
the four cardinal virtues were substituted in their place—
Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Strength, moral virtues
exalted in Pagan times far above all others. In short the
personified virtues represented on Christian monuments,
testify by their nature, their number, and the rank they
occupy, the social condition of the period and country in
which they were produced.
The places respectively assigned to the seven gifts or
qualities of the Holy Ghost cannot, therefore, be a matter
of indifference. It might have been sufficient merely to
draw attention to that subject in order to prove its import
ance; but it will not be wholly useless to produce a few
examples in support of the above remarks. Isaiah, as we
have said, leaves undetermined the places to be assigned to
wisdom and to fear.
In arranging, by ranks, the seven virtues, ought fear to
be placed in the lowest, and wisdom in the highest?
Probably it may be so; for Isaiah, naming wisdom first, and
closing with fear, appears to have established a series, the
component parts of which are all descending. Wisdom is
at the head, like a chief, followed by his subordinates.
Besides, fear is a simple sentiment, while wisdom, on the
contrary, is a complex virtue; wisdom, therefore, ranks
higher than fear. Thus, indeed, it has been regarded by all
civilised people, and in every religion. A man, acting under
the influence of fear is inferior to one who is guided by
wisdom. Lastly, a sacred text corresponding with that of
Isaiah, seems to offer the desired solution. We are told in

the Psalms, that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom.”* Fear in its entirety, then, is but a member or
# of wisdom, the great compendium of all virtues. From
ear is born wisdom, as from the root springs an entire tree
with its lofty summit.
Thus, then, the last of the gifts named by Isaiah is the
weakest; the first, the most powerful. Fear is to be placed
lowest. Rising from piety to knowledge, strength, counsel,
and intelligence, we at length attain to wisdom, ascending,
as from the lowest step of a ladder we gain the summit.
Such ought to be the arrangement, in a vertical line; in a
horizontal line wisdom should be at the head, and fear at
the opposite extremity. Rhaban Maur, in the poem already
quoted, has disposed the seven gifts of the Spirit.
He ranges them vertically in the form of a cross; and
then distributes them horizontally in the manner just
explained.t. The figure formed by the above arrangement
is nearly as follows:
Spiritus
Sapientiae,
Spiritus
Intellectus,
Spiritus
spiritus spiritus spiritus consilii, spiritus spiritus spiritus
sapientiae, intellectus, consilii, fortitudinis, scientiae, pietatis, timoris.
Spiritus
Scientiae,
Spiritus
Pietatis,
Spiritus
Timoris.
If the line be circular and uninterrupted, the virtues should

be placed almost like the hours on a dial plate. Wisdom
the first and most important, should be at the top, where
the first hour is placed: fear at the hour of twelve. In a
circular, or in an ogive arch, fear should be at the spring
of the arch, on the left; piety in the same part on the
right, and wisdom should be the key-stone of the archi
* “Initium sapientiae timor Domini.”—Ps. cxi. 10.
* Rhaban, Maur, De Laudibus Sanctae Crucis, first volume of his
collected works, p. 312, Fig. 16.
QUALITIES PECULIAR To THE Holy GHosT. 481
volt. Such would be the normal arrangement, made in
accordance with the writing of the Prophet; but according
to the reasoning given above, from preferences indulged at
certain periods, and in different countries—from the different
sympathies and temperament of individuals—we might expect
many inversions to arise, and in fact they did so. These
varieties require to be carefully noted, because from them
historical deductions, and other important information may
be drawn.
In the Apocalypse" the lamb is described as endowed
with seven eyes and seven horns, which are the seven spirits
of God; Christ the Lion of Judah, receives the seven gifts
of the Divine Spirit. Now the gifts named in the Apoca
lypse differ in some respects from those enumerated by
Isaiah, both in name and hierarchical arrangement. They
are given below, both in the order in which they are placed
by Isaiah, and in the Apocalypse:
Isaiah. Apocalypse.
SAPIENTIA. VIRTUS.
INTELLECTU.S. DIVINITAS.
CONSILIUM. SAPIENTIA.
FORTITUDO. FORTITUDO.
SCIENTIA. HONOR.
IPIETAS. GLORIA.
TIMOR. BENEDICTIO.
Strength and wisdom are the only names found common

in both texts. Strength occupies the same place, the centre
* Revelation, v., 6, 12. “Widi . . . Agnum stantem tanquam occisum,

habentem cornua septem et oculos septem, qui sunt sepTEM spIRITUs Dei
missi in omnem terram . . . Dignus est Agnus, qui occisusest, accipere virtutem,
et divinitatem," et sapientam, et fortitudinem, et honorem, et gloriam, et
benedictionem.” “And I beheld . . . a Lamb as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into
all the earth . . . Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.”
* This gift, in the earliest Latin Biblia, and the Vulgate is as here quoted,
“divinitatem; ” but in later versions it is “divitias,” which agrees with the
Greek version, “TAoûrov,” and our own accepted version, “riches.”—ED.
I I
482. CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY.
in both; but wisdom is in the first place in Isaiah, and

the third in the Apocalypse. The other names differ so
remarkably, that it is impossible to trace any analogy
between them.
We understand that wisdom, placed by Isaiah at the head
of the seven gifts, may be styled virtue, by pre-eminence,
because it is its highest expression. But between fear and
benediction, glory and piety, science and honour, it is not
easy to seize the connection, unless it be that benediction
may be the cause of fear, and that honour and glory are the
consequence, the product or effect of science and piety. As
to the intelligence named in Isaiah, it is called in the Apo
calypse “divinity;” * this circumstance may be adduced in
confirmation of those already given, proving the Holy Spirit
to be the God of intelligence, not of love.
Whatever may be the cause, still if a discrepancy so
remarkable can be traced between the prophecy of Isaiah
and the Apocalypse of St. John, it must be expected that
differences will also be found in paintings and sculpture
representing the seven spirits, the seven doves encircling
the Saviour. The subject of Christ, surrounded by the seven
doves, is represented on the stained glass in the Sainte Chapelle,
Paris, Notre Dame de Chartres, the church of Breuil, a
village in the arrondissement of Rheims, and in the church of
St. Denis. Manuscripts with miniatures, executed between
the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, frequently display the
same subject; but it very rarely happens that each dove
bears its name attached, so that it cannot be said with
certainty that the first is the Spirit of wisdom, the second
that of intelligence, &c. &c.f . One manuscript, however,
belonging to the latter part of the thirteenth century, gives
the seven spirits, all of whom are named, and placed in a
* If “divinitatem” is a wrong reading (see note ", p. 481) this analogy
will not apply, but it must always be borne in mind that artists in the middle
ages took their subjects from the Vulgate, and therefore must be tested by
that version.—ED.
+ In the window on the right of the western porch of the Cathedral at
Chartres, and at St. Denis, in a window of the apse, terminating the right
hand aisle, the names are inscribed around the medallions encircling each dove,
but in characters either so delicate, or so much worn, that I was unable to
decipher them, although I made several attempts, and studied them with the
greatest attention.
# Vergier de Solas, Suppl. Fr. 11, in fol.
semicircle, forming an arch above the Saviour. On the left,

ascending, are the spirits of counsel, intelligence, and
wisdom; on the right, ascending, the spirits of strength,
knowledge, and piety. The spirit of fear looks down upon
the rest from the key-stone at the top of the arch. This
spirit appears to be supported on the left by wisdom, and on
the right by piety; while its feet ' to rest upon
counsel and strength. Intelligence and science, facing one
another, are in the centre. In this arrangement fear is the
supreme virtue; an Hebraic disposition, quite in conformity
with the spirit of the Jewish religion, by which the fear of
God was inculcated, and imposed as a governing principle
upon men, in the same manner in which love is made
the fundamental law of Christianity. The subject above
described is at the summit of a tree, bearing at the top the
Virgin, with the infant Saviour in her arms.
Opposite to this tree, in the sane manuscript, the Virgin
is again represented, holding our blessed Lord, and here,
also, seven doves encircle the infant God. The names
accompany the doves, but the order in which they are
arranged is different. Disposed in the form of an arch, like
the voussoirs of an archivolt, the doves rise from the spring
of the arch on the left, and ascend to the top, where the
fourth dove, or virtue, is placed, and being thence continued
they descend to the spring of the arch on the right. In this
arrangement the order of Isaiah is observed; on the left,
which is inferior to the right, and in the lower part, which
is less honourable than the upper, the dove of fear is perched;
then appear those of piety, science, strength, counsel, intel
ligence and wisdom.
It is to be regretted that wisdom should be placed last,
but the arch was probably treated as a straight or horizontal
line, and the arrangement would in that case be completely
in accordance with that of Isaiah, who places wisdom at the
top, and fear at the opposite extremity. -
Finally, the same manuscript contains one curious minia

ture, a kind of moral wheel cut into seven rays and com
posed of several concentric cordons. The rays form seven
compartments divided into as many cordons, containing in each
cordon one of the seven petitions in the Lord's prayer, one of
the seven sacraments, one of the seven spiritual arms of justice,
1 1 2
one of the seven works of mercy, one of the seven virtues, one
of the seven deadly sins, and one of the seven gifts of the
Holy Ghost.* From the number of cordons in this wheel,
it resembles a many coloured cockade plaited in seven folds;
taking the cordon of the seven spirits of God separately,
we have the dial of a clock; a dial divided into seven instead
of twelve hours or degrees.
Following the order of the dial, in that miniature we find
intelligence in the first division, fear in the sixth, and wisdom
at the highest point. The other virtues occupy the inter
mediate spaces, and follow the order of Isaiah. In this,
then, unlike the first picture, wisdom predominates, not fear,
according to the prophet's intention; fear is completely
subservient.
It were useless to dwell longer on this subject, although
in itself curious and rich in historical deductions and moral
inductions. It will, therefore, be sufficient to observe that
to be consistent with the nature of the Holy Spirit, which is
pure intellect, it would be necessary, in representing the
seven doves, to place intelligence in the highest rank; fear
and strength in the lowest division, piety and wisdom above
fear and strength. Lastly, as approaching more closely to
intelligence, and serving as its support, science should be
on the left, and counsel on the right of that supreme virtue,
which in itself comprises all. We should then, at the base,
have the genius of strength, in the centre that of love, and
* Reiner, a Benedictine monk of the thirteenth century, composed seven
hymns in honour of the Holy Ghost. The number seven was, in the middle
ages, esteemed a sacred number. Authors of that period observed with
infinite pleasure that there were seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, seven sacra
ments, seven planets, seven days in the week, seven branches on the candle
stick of Moses, seven liberal arts, seven churches of Asia, seven mysterious
seals, seven stars and seven symbolic trumpets, seven heads of the dragon,
seven joys and seven sorrows of the Virgin, seven penitential psalms, seven
deadly sins, seven canonical hours. The mystics gave explanations of all
numbers, but more especially of the number seven; they form, by addition
and subtraction, a most peculiar kind of arithmetic (see particularly Bede,
Rhaban Maur, and G. Durandus). “Septenarius numerus est numerus
universitatis,” says Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea, “De Sanctis
Machabaeis. Mahomet himself says, in the Koran, c. ii., v. 27, “God visited
the skies, and formed there seven heavens.” God, according to Mahomet,
divided the sky into seven heavens, or seven concentric layers, superimposed
like the pellicules of an onion. -
QUALITIES PECULTAR TO THE HOLY GHOST. 485
reason at the summit. Seven chapels are frequently seen to

radiate from the semicircular absides of our cathedrals; as,
for example, at Chartres, and at Rheims; let us suppose,
then, the two first chapels, namely, the first on the left hand,
and that on the right to be dedicated to fear and strength;
the two following, the one on the left to piety, that on the
right to wisdom; the two next to science and counsel, and
lastly that called the Chapel of the Virgin (Lady Chapel),
the largest and most magnificent, to be consecrated to
intelligence. Such would be their proper logical distribution.
Still such an arrangement would deviate from that choser.
by Isaiah.
When the locality itself presents no impediment, and the
space has been carefully distributed, the seven doves are all
represented; but when the contrary is the case, two or three
or even four of the doves are omitted without scruple, and
five only represented, or possibly no more than four or
three. Mediaeval artists were not embarrassed by trifles;
when they desired to represent the twelve principal virtues,
the twelve months of the year, the twelve apostles, the four
and twenty elders of the Apocalypse, and the space, from
being ill-calculated was found to be insufficient, two-thirds,
or one-half, or one-third only, according to circumstances,
were carved or painted. On the other hand, when there
was a superabundance of space, they represented thirty
elders, fifteen months, or twenty virtues; the same cordon
of patriarchs, kings, martyrs or virgins was two or three
times repeated.* It was the same with the Holy Spirit.
In the nave of the cathedral of Chartres, on the north side is
a painted window representing Mary holding before her the
Saviour, who is surrounded by a circular aureole; six white
doves, not seven (space was wanting), converge towards the
Divine child.
In the same cathedral in the rose window of the north
* In the Cathedral of Chartres, where space was abundant, particularly in

the lateral porches, many of these repetitions are seen: the wise and foolish
virgins are there represented twice; the virtues and vices are three times
repeated; the kings, ancestors of the Virgin, are copied four times over. In
the western porch, where there was a deficiency of space, two months are
omitted in the zodiac sculptured on the left door, and they are carried over to
the right door, where they have no signification, but merely fill up a vacancy.
transept, four only appear, each approaching to endow Jesus

Christ with some special gift; but in the window on the
Fig. 125.—six DiviNE Doves, INSTEAD of SEVEN.

Painted Window of the xIII cent.; Cathedral of Chartres.
right side of the west porch, the seven doves were figured
without exception. Similar examples may easily be found
and multiplied.
It would be an interesting question to determine which
of the spirits were sacrificed, and which on the contrary
were preferred and there represented. Some curious
information would doubtless be elicited from that fact. For
example, if the painter of Chartres, suppressing the doves of
fear, strength, and piety, had reserved only those of wisdom,
science, counsel, and intelligence, should we not be obliged
to conclude that he, being of an independent spirit, had
made his own selection amongst the gifts named by Isaiah,
QUALITIES PECULTAR TO THE HOLY GHOST. 487
and as a follower of reason had preferred that attribute to

all others—to either love or power?
More yet remains to be said on this same subject. Abelard,
who discoursed much concerning the Divine persons and
discussed their nature, declared that Christ was devoid of
the spirit of the fear of God. Such at least is the heavy
accusation brought against him by Saint Bernard, his anta
gonist. A manuscript of the Abbé of Clairvaux, discovered
by the PP. Martenne and Durand, in the abbey of
Vigogne, contains, amongst other heretical propositions
extracted from the works of Abelard and sent by S. Bernard
to Pope Innocent II, the following: “Quod in Christo non
fuerit spiritus timoris Domini.” Abelard, taking the
expression in its rudest sense, could not understand that it
was possible for Christ to fear the Father; still he does not
deny that the other six spirits were all found in Christ. At
Chartres too, we find that on the painted window in the
nave, which was about seventy years later than the period
in which Abelard wrote, there are six doves only instead of
seven; the one suppressed is precisely that at the top, the
same which in a miniature taken from a manuscriptt in the
Bibliothèque Royale, is called the spirit of the fear of God.
Might it not then be possible that the doctrine written and
preached by Abelard, was interpreted materially on the
ainted windows of Chartres? It seems not at all
improbable, when we remember that in the same church,
liberty is personified and placed in the middle amongst the
virtues, and holding the highest rank; when the magician,
elsewhere degraded, is then introduced amongst saints, and
in a very honourable position; and when we see subjects
taken from the most anathematised among the apocryphal
legends painted as decorations for the apse. Whatever may
have been the cause, the omission ought to be established as
a fact: it would seem therefore expedient to direct the
attention of antiquaries to the sure, or at least probable
relation, existing throughout the middle ages, between the
sculptured monuments and doctrines that were at least
under the ban of suspicion, if not heretical; between theo
* Voyage Littéraire de deux Réligieux Bénédictins, 11° partie, p. 213.

+ Le Vergier de Solas, already quoted.
logians, philosophers, and artists. In the present case,

unfortunately, and as regards this particular point, the
question at issue cannot be determined, for two of the
painted windows at Chartres bear no inscriptions, and on
the third they are illegible in consequence of its height.
The seventh spirit, which is omitted, may be any other,
and not that of fear; but, whichever spirit it may be that
is thus forgotten or sacrificed, it is to be regretted, on
account of the results which might have been deduced from
it, that the name is unknown.
The seven doves, like the Holy Ghost himself, have a
nimbus, and even a cruciform nimbus; for as attributes of
God they also are divine, and for that reason entitled to
wear the characteristic tokens of the persons of the Trinity.
In a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Royale,” each of the
seven doves has a cruciform nimbus. At Chartres, the four
doves in the rose window, which gives light to the north
transept, have each a red nimbus with a white cross.
Still, as has been shown, the seven doves are not all of
equal importance; one of them represents an inferior quality,
that of fear; another, the supreme virtue, that of wisdom.
These various gradations were sometimes fixed by the art
after her own manner. The art has, it is true, figured the
six doves symbolising fear, piety, science, strength, counsel,
and intelligence, as holy doves, but merely celestial, not
divine; they have a nimbus, but it is plain, like that worn
by saints and angels. With respect to wisdom, however,
that faculty has been deified by the art, the dove, by which
it is represented, is alone endowed with the cruciform
nimbus, worn exclusively by the Persons of the Trinity. The
engraving given in Fig. 40, in the History of the Aureole,
which is taken from the Psalter of St. Louis also treats the
spirit of wisdom as of higher importance than the six others.
The dove that represents wisdom is not only placed at the
top of the tree of Jesse, in itself a special distinction, but it
alone, amongst all the others, has a nimbus round the head.
The nimbus is plain, it is true; still it indicates a peculiar
distinction, which the other six do not enjoy. The seven
doves are inclosed in an entirely circular aureole. The
* Miroir de l'Humaine Salvation, already quoted,
glory, according to the definition already given, (the union

of the nimbus and aureole), is here restricted to the dove
of wisdom, the body of which is alone enveloped in an
aureole, and the head in a nimbus.
Occasionally, also, we meet with a recurrence of the
equality of the seven gifts, as the seven doves, wherein we
find all alike destitute of the cruciform, or perhaps of any,
nimbus, thus apparently depriving them of their divine or
celestial nature.
When this happens in works of the sixteenth century, it
must not be regarded as specially applicable to the spirits
of God only; for at that period all saints, angels, the Virgin,
and even the Persons of the Holy Trinity, were deprived of
the nimbus. But if one has reason to remark the absence
of the nimbus in the fourteenth century, it has been the
result probably of forgetfulness. We have more than once
had occasion to repeat that artists frequently committed
errors in their designs, as copyists have done in their
transcriptions. Thus, in an example previously given,
taken from a manuscript of the fourteenth century," the
absence both of the cruciform and plain nimbus may have
been an error of the artist, arising from neglect, not
intention, and it would therefore have no significance.
Besides, the nimbus must already have lost somewhat of its
original value, since that of Jesus radiates from every side,
and not, as would be strictly correct, from three points only,
the brow and temples forming the three plumes of light
which have been mentioned in the History of the Nimbus.
(See above, Fig. 34.) On several monuments with figures,
and particularly in the miniatures of manuscripts, the doves
being necessarily of very small dimensions, it is difficult to
determine whether the nimbus is, or is not, cruciform.
* Biblia Sacra, 6829, Bibl. Royale; the drawing is given above, Fig.
124. The Virgin holding Jesus Christ illumined by the seven spirits, is
placed beneath the candlestick with seven branches; it is with a similar intent
that the resurrection of Jesus is placed below Jonah, vomited forth alive by
the whale, or that Christ shedding blood and water from his wounds, is placed
immediately under the rock which Moses strikes, and which yields a spring of
running water. The candlestick, lighted by seven fires, is the image of Jesus
animated by the seven spirits; and this supplies an additional proof that the
Holy Ghost is the God of intelligence, since even his special attributes are
figured by torches, which give light but not warmth. -
4.90 CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY.
This is particularly the case with those in the “Vergier

de Solas.”
The seven doves, like the Holy Spirit, are white, with red
beak and feet: like the Holy Ghost, too, they are the size
of natural doves. Still, as the Holy Ghost appeared to
Theutram, the guardian of the Cathedral at Strasbourg,
under the form of a bird as large as an eagle, so also the
doves, figuring his attributes, sometimes grew to the dimen
sions of the largest eagle. In general, however, the doves
of the Holy Ghost are smaller than the Spirit himself, for the
fraction ought to be less than the whole; and in such cases
they are no larger than the doves of Virginia, which attain
to the size only of a common sparrow. Occasionally the
Holy Ghost himself is reduced to equally small dimensions,
and his attributes ought, with still stronger reason, to
contract themselves into proportionably diminutive size. It
is necessary to guard carefully against mistaking a little
bird, an humble sparrow, for the dove of the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost, as has been said, does sometimes de
generate into the appearance of a sparrow; but the cruci
form nimbus on its head immediately marks it to be the
symbol of the third Divine Person. When, as frequently
happens, the nimbus is absent, the subject in which the little
dove is seen, and the place it occupies, preclude it from
being confounded with any ordinary bird. In all subjects
in which the two Persons are seen together, the dove, how
ever small and unnimbed, forms the third.
Any bird, descending from heaven, and hovering about
the head of the Virgin, at the moment when the angel
announces to her that she is to be the mother of the Saviour,
must be intended for the Holy Ghost; and any bird in the
cenaculum—above the river Jordan—or extending its wings
above the heads of the apostles, or that of Christ, can be no
other than the divine symbol. A group frequently sculp
tured in our churches during the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, and even at the close of the thirteenth, represents
the Virgin either sitting or standing, and holding in her arms
the Infant Jesus. With one hand the Divine Child caresses
his mother, with the other he is playing with a little bird,
which he holds by the wings, by the neck, and by the tail,
pulling its feathers and gently caressing it. This bird is
not the divine dove, or the Holy Ghost, but a sparrow, a

chaffinch, a nightingale, a red-breast, which serves as a play
thing for the Infant Saviour, as any object or animal
might do.
We must not be deceived, nor imagine that bird to be a
divine symbol. In the church of Wertus (Marne), a group
carved in stone, about the end of the thirteenth century, repre
sents the Infant Saviour thus sporting with a little bird;
the sparrow, however, becomes impatient and angry, and
pinches, with his beak, the fingers of the Divine Infant, who
is tormenting it.*
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, or the seven doves,
belong strictly to Jesus alone; yet in Germany, where
woman is revered and honoured more than in any other
country,t the Virgin Mary has almost been raised to an
equal rank of divinity. On a painted window in the north
aisle of the cathedral of Freybourg, in Brisgau, the Virgin
is represented sitting, holding the infant Saviour, who is
clothed in yellow, and standing on her left knee. Jesus has
a cruciform nimbus; in the left hand he holds a beautiful
red flower, which may possibly be a rose, but if so, a sweet
briar rose, simple, and with numerous yellow stamina. The
right hand is extended to take a large red plum, presented
him by his mother. Mary wears a green robe, a mantle of
violet-colour lined with red, and on her head a white veil,
* A figure of the Virgin, of white marble, presented by Jeanne d’Evreux,
wife of Charles Abel, to the Abbey Church of St. Denis, and at present
belonging to the Church of St. Germain-des-Près, holds in her arms the infant
Saviour, who is playing with a bird, but more gently than the little Jesus at
Wertus. In the hospice at Rue (Somme) Jesus, in the arms of his mother, is
amusing himself in a similar manner with a little bird, taken erroneously for
the Holy Ghost. Voyage Pittoresque dans l'Ancienne France, province of
Picardy, by M. Abaron Taylor. The same motive with trifling variations
may be seen in several churches in the arrondissement de Rheims, more
particularly in that of Courcy.
+ Both before and after the introduction of Christianity, the Germans and
Alemanni played an important part in religious history, both civil and political.
The fact is attested by existing books and monuments. At Cologne, irrespec
tive of St. Ursula and her eleven thousand companions, by whom that city
and the entire country of Germany were protected, more than half the number
of churches in that city are dedicated to female saints. In the Cathedral of
Freybourg, in Brisgau, the whole series of painted windows are filled with
subjects taken from the history of the Virgin and the lives of female saints.
402 CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY".
confined by a golden crown. A red nimbus, edged with

pearls, or diamonds set in gold, illumines her countenance.
The costume of Mary is most splendid. Around her nimbus,
and not round that of Jesus, a flight of seven little white
doves descend, converging towards the centre of the Virgin's
nimbus, not in any way tending towards that of the Saviour;
Mary, therefore, must be a Divine being, for she is endowed
like her Son with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. It
may be asserted that the doves are represented only on
account of Jesus; but the fact that they clap their wings
and rejoice before Mary, not the Son, cannot be disputed.
Besides, not merely the attributes of the Spirit, but the
Holy Ghost himself is represented with the young Virgin.
In the south aisle of the same cathedral of Freybourg,
is a painted window of the fourteenth century, the
subject of which is St. Anna, teaching the Virgin Mary to
read. St. Anna, like a queen—queen through her daughter—
wears above her white veil a crown of gold; she has also the
red nimbus of a saint. A violet-coloured robe, and a yellow
mantle lined with red, complete her rich attire, St. Anna
holds in her left hand a richly bound book, in a cover of
blue; she holds the little Virgin Mary in her right. The
Divine little girl wears on her otherwise uncovered head a
crown of gold, and a violet-coloured nimbus; her hair, which
is of a golden yellow, falls in two long German tresses upon
her shoulders. She is about eight or ten years old, and is
clad in a little green robe, fitting closely to her shape. She
attempts with her right hand to open her mother's beau
tiful blue book, that she may learn to read; but with her
left she presses to her bosom a better master even than the
book and St. Anna combined; she clasps the Holy Spirit,
who already begins to impart inspiration to her. The Holy
Ghost is a little white dove, with a golden nimbus and black
cross. The symbolic bird has just alighted on the little
maiden's hand, and its wings are still trembling; he has
descended from heaven to play with the Divine child. It is
a charming picture, and could have been produced by the
tender and graceful genius of Germany alone.
With these few exceptions, which are no doubt to be
attributed to the character of the German nation, the seven
doves are restricted entirely to the Son of God, the Immanuel
of Isaiah.
CHRONoLoGICAL IconogFAPHY of THE HOLY GHost. 493
CHRONOLOGICAL ICONOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY GHOST.
Although there is the greatest possible variety as to the

form of the Holy Ghost, since he is figured both as a man,
as a dove, and as a man of every age from infancy up to old
age, he still presents us but few chronological variations.
Thus, from the earliest period down to our own time, the
dove has been almost constantly the same in form, dimensions,
proportions, colour, and attributes.
The different characteristics to be observed belong less to
the epoch than to the country or imagination of the artist;
they rest rather on aesthetics, and geographical situation,
than on chronological distinctions.
The variations observed in the representations of the
Holy Ghost as man are purely physiological, not chro
nological. Judging by chronological periods, the Man-God
representing the Holy Ghost, ought to be depicted as a
little infant in the eleventh century, when he appears for the
first time; in the twelfth as a child of ten or fifteen; a youth
of fifteen or twenty in the thirteenth; a young man in the
fourteenth; a man of from forty to fifty in the fifteenth; and
an old man in the sixteenth; but it is not thus.
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the Holy Ghost
becomes, immediately upon the first appearance, thirty or
forty years of age, while in the sixteenth he is a child of only
some months or a few years old, and again becomes, on a
sudden, an old man of sixty. In the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries he is of any or every age.
It must, however, be observed, that up to the eleventh
century, the dove alone is the appointed symbol of the Holy
Ghost, and that, after that period, the dove shares that
honour with the man. In the fourteenth century, and as
late as the sixteenth, not only are the dove and human figure
employed almost indifferently, but both are sometimes shown
together on the same monument. The dove rests upon the
head of the human image of the Holy Ghost, one example
of which will be given in the history of the Trinity, or it
descends upon the hand of the same divine Being, as in the

engraving given below.
Fig. 126.—THE HOLY GHOST As MAN, AND IN THE FORM OF A DovE ALSo.
French Sculpture of the xv.1 cent.
The Holy Ghost may here be likened to a knight

carrying a falcon on his wrist.” It must also be observed,
that until the close of the fourteenth century the human
* The above design is copied from a sculpture in the Church of Verrières
(département de l'Aube), of which we have already spoken. The figures in this
cene, in which the Virgin Mary is represented crowned by the Trinity, are
very inferior; but they have been engraved with scrupulous exactitude. The
original drawing is by M. Fichot. In similar works, representing the corona
tion of the Virgin by God the Father and God the Son, the following verses of
the Psalmist are frequently inscribed as a text:—“Posuisti in capite ejus
coronam de lapide pretioso" (Psalm xxi., 3). “Thou settest a crown of pure
gold on his head.” “Glorià et honore coronasti eum (eam) (Psalm viii. 5).
“Thou . . . . hast crowned him with glory and honour.” The above texts
apply also to God the Father when he crowns the Son after his resurrection
and ascension into heaven.
CHRONOLOGICAL ICONOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 495
type of the Holy Spirit was always thirty or forty years of

age; but from the fifteenth up to the middle of the sixteenth
he takes every age. Lastly, from about the year 1550 to
our own time the dove resumes the exclusive right which it
had previously enjoyed of representing the Holy Spirit, and
the man thenceforth disappears. The idea of representing
the Holy Ghost as man has been so completely neglected,
in modern times especially, that many persons will doubtless
be surprised to meet '. any such representations in the
present work.
The dove alone was the symbol of the Holy Ghost as long
as men were guided exclusively by history; and before pure
reason or argumentative philosophy had been admitted into
theology, evangelical history positively declared that the
Holy Ghost appeared at the baptism of Jesus, under the
form of a dove, and as a dove he was therefore represented.
But when reasoning, and arguments deduced from reason,
and no longer from history alone, invaded theology; when
theology, which had at first been pure, became scholastic, in
the hands of Anselme de Laon, Guillaume de Champeaux,
Abelard, and others who preceded and followed them, then
the Holy Ghost was likened even in person to God the
Father, and he, like the other two Divine Persons, became
man. But this, it must be remembered, was the period
when Jesus Christ drew everything into his own orbit, and
constrained even the Father to adopt his image and resem
blance. The Holy Ghost followed the same course with the
rest, and was depicted as of the same age and with the
actual features of Christ as a man of thirty-three or even
forty years of age. At a subsequent period, when the
influence of reason penetrated even more deeply, in respect
of the Divine Persons, a distinct individuality was preferred
to resemblance; and the Holy Ghost was therefore made
to differ, by art, from the Son, as the Father himself had
been previously similarly distinguished from the Son. But
it was at that time, also, that the Father regained the
iconographic power that His Son had previously absorbed.
The Father, instead of being himself veiled under the age
and features of Jesus Christ, imposes upon Christ his own
age and countenance as an old man, the Ancient of Days
The Holy Spirit also has never been possessed of any special
authority, but has almost always submitted to the icono

graphic revolutions originating in the Father and the Son:
the Holy Spirit also had to bear the age and physiognomy
of the Father; and was made to assume the appearance of
an aged man.
Other chronological varieties may be deduced from
art, that is to say, from the manner in which the dove or
the man figuring the Holy Ghost are drawn . But these
characteristics are not confined to the third Divine Person;
they belong to all personages represented during the middle
ages, and are common to Christian Iconography in general.
The manner of treatment was large in the Latin epochs,
minute in the Romanesque period, simple in the thirteenth
century, mannered in the fourteenth, dry in the fifteenth.
The whole cycle of art must, therefore, be studied in order
to determine the precise age of any particular man or dove
figuring the Holy Ghost. These aesthetic varieties cannot
therefore be discussed at present.
THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE HOLY GHOST.
The attributes of the Holy Ghost may afford certain chro

nological varieties and other distinctive characteristics,
similar to those mentioned in the History of the Father and
of the Son; but as they are of the same nature with those
of the other two persons of the Trinity, it will suffice merely
to name them, and refer to the paragraphs in which they
have already been more fully detailed. The Holy Ghost,
like the Father and the Son, was at first distinguished from
ordinary beings by animbus, next from celestial and glorified
creatures, or from angels and saints, by a cruciform nimbus.
That nimbus, however, goes through the same phases as have
been described in chapters devoted especially to that subject;
at first indeed the Holy Ghost, as in the ancient mosaics,
was destitute of a nimbus;* sometimes, too, the nimbus is
* See the Holy Spirit hovering above the head of David, copied from a
miniature in a Greek Psalter of the tenth century, Fig. 110.
THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE HOLY GHOST. 497
radiating, but not cruciform, an instance of which is afforded

by an ancient mosaic at Rome. The Holy Ghost is there
represented on a palm
tree, and precisely re
sembles the phoenix en
graved upon Roman
medals; that bird, the
symbol of immortality
or of eternity, is con
stantly figured with a
radiating nimbus. The
Holy Spirit subsequently
has a nimbus, but it is
plain or without the
cross. Later still the
nimbus is divided by
transverse bars, inter
secting each other at
right angles.
Shortly after this, the -
field of the nimbus' dis ""...' " '

appears altogether, the From a French Miniature of the xIV cent.*
transverse bars alone re

main, and are transformed into clusters or luminous floria
tions, rising from the brow and temples of the Holy Ghost,
whether represented in the form of a man or of a dove.
Finally even the clusters and floriation disappear and the
Holy Ghost returns to the second primitive period when
he had no nimbus, except that at ' time he was des
titute of any kind of glory. But we have arrived at the
epoch when aureoles, the nimbi of the body, were toler
ably frequent, under the form of rays, and the Holy Ghost,
who has already been shown (Fig. 21) in a fresco at
Mount Athos, placed in the centre of a radiating aureole,
encircling both the other Divine Persons, was often thus
represented, in the following design.
At the period when the cruciform nimbus was constantly
given to all the three Divine Persons, it was not unusual for
the dove representing the Holy Ghost to be entirely destitute
* Bibliothèque Royale, MS. Lat. fonds Lavall.
of any. This may have been an error similar to those already

pointed out in reference to other facts, both analogous and
Fig. 128.—THE DIVINE Dove, IN A RADIATING AUREoLE

From a French Miniature of the xv cent.*
dissimilar; but it arose more frequently from the diminutive

size of the dove. That type, whether single or in connection
with the Trinity, occupies but a very confined space, and the
head forming so small a part of the Divine bird is sometimes
scarcely perceptible. It is easily seen that it would have
been almost impossible to represent a nimbus encircling so
very minute a point. In sculpture, too, it was often ve
difficult, if not impossible, to circle the head of the Divine
symbol with a cruciform nimbus; and it is therefore by no
means unusual to find doves without that attribute. When
the dove approaches the diminutive dimensions of a sparrow,
which we frequently find, it is always without any nimbus,
plain, or cruciform. In the picture of Christ, surrounded by
the seven doves of Isaiah, extracted from the Psalter of St.
Louis,t six of the number have no nimbus, and that of the
seventh is merely a plain nimbus. Still, as this picture is a
* See, in the Bibliothèque Royale, most of the books of “Hours” of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
+ The manuscript mentioned above belongs to the Bibliothèque de
l'Arsenal. The drawing alluded to is given above, Fig. 40.
HERESIES AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST. 499
miniature, and the doves of a certain size, a cruciform nimbus

might easily have been represented, more easily than in
sculpture.
The other characteristic attributes of the Holy Ghost
will not be mentioned here, since they are unconnected with
chronology, and they will more naturally find a place in the
chapter devoted to the History of the Holy Trinity.
HERESIES AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST.
Remarkable honours, as has been seen, were rendered to

the Holy Ghost; churches were dedicated to him, a service
established in his honour, and an order of chivalry conse
crated to him. From the first ages of the Church down to
the present time, the Holy Ghost has never ceased to be
represented under the form either of a dove or of a man.
He was thus depicted on the tomb of Junius Bassus, as
early as the fourth century, shedding a stream of light upon
the head of Jesus Christ.* Henceforth his symbol is con
stantly found upon the tombs of the early Christians, and
Bosio, in his grand work, “Roma Sotterranea,” supplies us
with several examples.t. In the Baptistery of St. John at
Ravenna, which was built by the bishop Néon, in 451, is a
mosaic, representing the baptism of Christ, and the Holy
Ghost is there seen hovering above the Saviour's head. |
A mosaic, dating from 533, in the church of Santa Maria
in Cosmedin, in the same city, likewise contains a repre
sentation of the Holy Ghost.§
The mosaics in the church of Santa Prassede, in Rome,
executed in the year 818, present a dove with its head
encircled by a plain nimbus; this dove is resting on the
* The Holy Ghost here referred to is given ante, Fig. 87. See Bosio,
Rom. Sotterr., p. 45.
+ See particularly pp. 87, 99, 351. The figure of the Holy Ghost at
p. 155 scarcely appears to be ancient, although it is without a nimbus: at
# 351 it has a plain nimbus, and surmounts a pastoral chair, a cathedra or
throne.
# Ciampini, Vet. Monim., pars 1, tab. 70, p. 235.
§ Idem, ibid, pars 2, tab. 23, p. 78. 2
K K
summit of a palm tree, while Christ is seen below, walking

on the waters of the Jordan, and the hand of the Father is
extended from the clouds. The hand is closed, holding a
roll, on which the following words ought to be inscribed;
“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” * In
the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, the Divine Doves
appear to be very abundant, and numerous examples, already
given, may be recalled to mind. In the thirteenth century,
monuments, in which the Holy Ghost is figured, become
innumerable. There is not, it may be said, one single repre
sentation of the Creation, either in painting or sculpture, in
which the dove is not shown brooding over and animating
the waters, as illustrative of the text, “Spiritus Deiferebatur
super aquas.” +
Fig. 129.—THE DIVINE Dove, wiTH A CRUCIFORM NIMBUS, FLOATING BETweRN

THE WATERS OF THE CREATION.
From a Painted Window of the xIII cent, in the Cathedral of Auxerre.
Both the art and the liturgy seem thus to have paid
especial honour to the Holy Ghost, yet artists have fre
* Ciampini, Vet. Monim., vol. 2, Figs. 47, 52, pp. 148, 160.
+ The dove here given, Fig. 129, is to be seen at Auxerre, in the Cathedral, on
a painted window of the thirteenth century, in the side passage of the Sanctuary.
quently committed errors and have been guilty of omissions

in respect of the Holy Ghost, to which Jesus Christ has
never been exposed. Christ the most pre-eminently beloved
of the three Divine Persons, lives constantly in the minds of
Christians, and cannot under any circumstances be neglected
or forgotten; but it is not thus with the Holy Ghost, who
appears but very rarely in the Holy Scriptures, and who,
in the devotional acts of the faithful takes a position inferior
to Christ. Several instances of this tendency in the minds
of men of the middle ages, are afforded by works of art.
Thus it is not unusual for the Holy Ghost to be omitted
even in pictures of Pentecost, a festival held peculiarly in
honour of the Holy Ghost, and commemorating an event in
which he was the most important personage. The scene is
generally represented thus; the twelve Apostles (sometimes
the Virgin is amongst them) are seated in the Cenaculum,
and listening to the supernatural sounds heard above their
heads. Above, descending from heaven, the Divine dove is
seen, breathing rays or tongues of flame upon each of the
Apostles' heads, and even on that of the Virgin, when the
Virgin is present. -
The Holy Spirit is, and ought to be, present; since, without
him, it becomes difficult to explain the source of those rays
of light descending from above. Still in a Spanish manu
script in the Bibliothèque of Amiens * twelve rays of red
The dove is white, with a red nimbus and yellow cross, the head raised, the wings
extended, and the entire body surrounded by waves, which form a watery aureole
of gold and azure: in spite of the text, the dove is not borne over the water,
but is surrounded by it. The streams form an undulating frame-work round
him, like the medallion encompassing a bust. In Fig. 112, the dove is seen
literally borne upon the waters; in Fig. 122, the Holy Ghost is also borne
upon the waters; but in the latter drawing, the figure is rather that of a little
man or an infant, while in the other, and also in Fig. 129, here given, he
has the figure of a dove.
* Figurae Bibliorum, MS. in 4° of the year 1197. M. Dusevel, non
resident member of the “Comités Historiques,” obligingly favoured me with
an outline of this picture of the Descent of the Holy Ghost, from which the
Holy Ghost himself is absent. In the grand cupola of the Church of St.
Mark, at Venice, there is a mosaic, on a gold ground, representing the Apostles
sitting and receiving the Holy Ghost, previous to their going forth to preach in
all the world: a bluish ray descends upon each of them; at the extremity of
each ray shines a tongue of fire, which rests upon the head of an Apostle.
Here also, as in the Spanish manuscript, the Holy Ghost is absent; the flames
and yellow are seen issuing from heaven, and resting on the
Apostles' heads; the Virgin is absent. The Holy Ghost is
not apparent, and the rays seem to flow immediately from
heaven; it is true that the heavens are opened, in the form
of an inverted rainbow, and the Holy Spirit may be sup
posed to be concealed in those eternal depths, and thence
to send forth his rays.
An enamelled triptych of the twelfth century in the
Cathedral of Chartres (Chapelle Vendôme), exhibits a hand
shedding upon the Apostles rays of fiery red; this subject
is placed upon the wings of this singular monument of
Romanesque workmanship.
The hand being in Iconography symbolic of God the
Father, it must here be the Father who distributes the
rays, and no longer the Holy Ghost, breathing them forth
from his lips. Very different is the treatment of this
subject in the cloister of St. Trophimus at Arles. There
the twelve Apostles, but without the Virgin, are all
assembled, all have the nimbus, and are clad in long gar
ments, three without beards, and two much younger than
the rest. The Apostles at St. Trophimus are not sitting, as
they are usually represented, and as they are figured in the
Spanish manuscript, and the triptych at Chartres amongst
others; they are kneeling in order the more worthily to
receive the Holy Ghost. In the upper part of the picture
the entire body of the Divine dove is seen, and from its beak
escape four cordons of flame, descending upon the heads of
the Apostles. One ray, therefore, embraces three Apostles,
unlike ordinary representations, in which a separate ray and
tongue of fire descends upon each Apostle.
A painted window at Troyes, ventures even further than
the triptych at Chartres.
The Trinity is painted on this little monument, which
dates from the sixteenth century; the Father is there re
presented in papal robes, sitting on a rainbow, resting his
alone are seen. However, the Holy Spirit may possibly be symbolised even
by those flames, and the third Divine person may be contained in a simple
tongue of fire. He may be present in the form of a luminous ray as well as in
that of a dove. I eagerly adopt this interpretation, for which I am indebted to
M. l'Abbé Gaume.
feet on another rainbow, and holding in his hands the arms

of the cross, on which his Son is nailed.
After the twelfth century, the Trinity is frequently thus
represented; that manner of grouping the three Divine
persons is one of the most common. In similar representa
tions," the Holy Ghost is always introduced in the form of
a dove, either going from the Father to the Son, or from
the Son to the Father; or placed at an equal distance between
the two; or at the furthest placed upon one of the arms of
the Cross. In this, however, the Holy Spirit is entirely
forgotten, as is clearly shown in an engraving (Fig. 63)
already given.
This drawing (Fig.63) is minutely correct. The designer"
has, at my request, accurately copied it even to the number
of the rays, and of the undulating clouds, filling the field of
the aureole; and to the exact number of crowns, encircling
the tiara of the Father Almighty. The nimbi are both
plain, the feet of the Father have shoes; the plate re
sembles in every point the painting on the window, and the
figure of the Holy Ghost has never been introduced. Now
the omission of one person out of three, and in a subject
devoted more especially to the honour of the Trinity, is a
fact of some moment, and proves the neglect to which
artists were prone, in reference to the Holy Ghost.
This fact, extraordinary as it may appear, is not without
a parallel in other epochs; in the sixteenth century, artists
were equally careless, and scarcely less ignorant, in regard
to religious subjects. The painted window in the Cathedral
of Troyes, dating from that epoch, may not therefore be of
any very great importance. But in the twelfth century, a
learned and serious age, it was not thus. Still on one of the
painted windows in St. Denis, executed by the command of
Suger, windows which are still in existence, and the inscrip
tions for which were supplied by the learned Abbé himself,
Christ is also seen attached to the cross, and supported in
the hands of God the Father; it is the most ancient type
with which I am acquainted of those representations so
frequent during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
* Several examples will be given in the chapter on the Trinity.
+ M. Fichot, who has obligingly executed other designs for my Work
Now, in that Trinity also, the Holy Ghost is omitted,

although a most convenient place might have been found for
him at the summit of the Cross.” Such an instance of
forgetfulness on the part of the pious Suger, could not
have been intentional, and certainly demands explanation.
Thus, the two extreme points in the history of our painting
on glass, the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, present the
same iconographic phenomena. In other countries, besides
France, in the church of Vieux-Brissac, on the banks of the
Rhine, for example, the stalls which were carved in the
fourteenth century present a figure of the Father Almighty
with bare head, a scarf upon his shoulders, and supporting
the cross to which the Son is nailed. The Holy Spirit is
omitted in that sculpture, as well as on the painted windows
of St. Denis, and of Troyes.t
Thus too, in the catacombs, in scenes in which the Trinity
ought to have been represented entire, in each of the three
persons, the Father is in a measure suppressed, or at least
does not appear. At a subsequent period, the Father
resumes, at the expense of the Holy Ghost, the place which
the Holy Ghost had previously occupied, and in some few
Trinities of the twelfth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries,
one of the three Divine persons is still frequently absent, as
in those of the fourth, fifth, and sixth; but it is not now the
Father who is omitted, but the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost,
therefore, has sometimes had reason to complain of artists.
Finally, the drawing already given, § in which the
* This painted window has already been noticed, p. 416, in the paragraph
relating to the Triumphs of the Cross. It has been designed by M. L'Abbé
Martin, Vitraux de S. Etienne de Bourges, Etude iv. F.
* It is just possible that the figure of the Holy Ghost may have been broken
off; but I examined the stalls with extreme care, and could find no trace of
any fracture. (Wide the Missal of Poictiers, Bibliothèque Royale, No. 873,
for a Trinity without the Holy Ghost, folio 150.) It belongs to the sixteenth
century.
# R. one single Trinity, actually complete, is to be found in the monu
ments of the Catacombs. In representations of the baptism of Christ, the
Father is constantly omitted. In the Baptistery of San Giovanni, at Ravenna,
fifth century, the Holy Ghost and Jesus Christ alone are depicted in the
mosaic; the same thing occurs in a mosaic of the sixth century, in S. Maria
in Cosmedin, also at Ravenna.
§ Fig. 60. This curious subject is taken from the Psalter of Jean, Duc de
Father and Son are represented with hands clasped in

token of union, while the dove descends from heaven still
further to unite them and himself with them by the
extremities of his outstretched wings, appears to me to
Fig. 130.—THE Holy GHosT IN THE UPPER PART of THE CRoss; witHouT A NIMBUs,
wITHOUT CRUCIFoRM RAYs, witHouT ANY AUREOLE OR GLORY.
From a Painting on Panel, in the Church of St. Riquier; xv cent.
betray a strange want of reverence for the Holy Ghost.

The celestial bird flies down from above, seeking to rejoin
the two Divine persons, but an angel, whose body is seen
issuing from the clouds of heaven, appears as if attempting
to restrain the impetuosity of the bird by holding the tail
between his two hands. The God thus kept in equilibrium
between the two other Persons by the intervention of an
Berri, MS., in the Bibliothèque Royale, Suppl. Fr. 2015, and not, as has been
erroneously stated, in the Heures du Duc d'Anjou. The miniature from
which it was copied, is at the Psalm, “Dixit Dominus Domino meo.”
angel, a being of his own creating, is indeed in a degraded

and unworthy position. Little reverence can have been felt
for the Holy Ghost, or such a subject could not have been
thus grossly represented. We have already had occasion to
remark the ill-feeling entertained by heretics and even by
artists, in regard to the Father Almighty," and the Holy
Ghost appears to have been the victim of similar errors and
passions.
The above observation is thrown out merely as suggesting
matter for inquiry: the opinion expressed is merely
submitted, not asserted as a positive fact. The figure
last given, which will be followed by others of a similar
character, is entitled to peculiar attention.
The above drawing, copied from a painting of the fifteenth
century in the Abbey of Saint Riquier, is by no means
reverential. The Father himself is treated with little
respect, the Son is very poor, but the Holy Ghost is
completely sacrificed. The bird with folded wings and
claws, by which he is figured, is nailed on the upper part
of the cross, instead of simply resting on it. The entire
conception is wretched and undignified.
It is proper to remark in presence of such facts, that in
the fourth century, Macedonius, patriarch of Constantinople,
under Constantius, denied the divinity of the Holy Ghost:
in the sixteenth century Socinius did the same. The
Montanists did not deny the Holy Ghost, but made him
double, thus equally lessening his dignity, and arriving
almost at the same result with the Macedonians or followers
of Macedonius. They considered the Holy Ghost to be
distinct from the Paraclete.
Jesus having promised the Apostles, who were already
endued with the gifts of the Holy Ghost that he would send
them the Paraclete or Comforter, the Montanists imagined
the one to be completely distinct from the other, and that
the Paraclete was not the Holy Ghost. They therefore
divided Christians into two bodies, the “Tvevuarukot ” who
believed in the Paraclete, “a more perfect” form of the
Spirit; and the “Wvxukot” those who went not beyond the
* See the chapter on the History of God the Father, passim, and parti
cularly p. 228.
first gifts of the Holy Ghost.* As the orthodoxy of Suger

cannot be called in question, it seems the more astonishing
that that great man should have suppressed the Divine
dove in the above mentioned painted window, representing
the Holy Trinity.
Severus, a heretic, who condemned the representing of
the Holy Ghost under the form of a dove, was anathematised
by the second Council of Nice, held in the eighth century.
Arming himself with the pretext that the Holy Ghost
ought not to be represented under the form of a bird,
Severus carried away the doves of gold and silver that had
been suspended above altars and baptismal fonts.f The
interested heresy of Severus reminds us of the conduct of
Dionysius the tyrant, who removed from the statues of
Jupiter, the golden mantles with which they had been
covered by the devotion of the pious, pretending that such
a garment was too cold in winter and too warm in summer.
These facts are mentioned in order to direct the attention
of antiquaries to the fact of the absence or presence of the
Holy Ghost in representations of the Trinity, not with a view
to drawing conclusions which may possibly be premature.:
* The Holy Ghost had two names, “àylov rveijua,” and “āya buxh;” he
was also called “vobs,” and even “Aóryos.” The two first of these names indicate
the soul, and seem to apply to the Spirit only in his attribute of love; the two
others mean understanding, and are applicable to the spirit of intelligence.
+ See the second Council of Nice. Consult an interesting work by M.
L’Abbé J. Corblet, already quoted, and entitled, Mémoires liturgiques sur les
ciboires du moyen àge, in 8vo, Amiens, 1842. M. Corblet writes thus:—
“The fifth act of the second Council of Nice mentions the complaints made by
the Monks of Antioch against the heretic Severus, who had appropriated to his
own use the doves of gold and silver, suspended above baptismal fonts, under
pretence that it was not right to represent the Holy Ghost under the figure of
a dove.” “Columbas aureas et argenteas, in figuram Spiritus-Sancti super
divina lavacra et altaria appensas, una cum aliis sibi appropriavit, dicens non
opportere in specie columbae Spiritum-Sanctum nominare.” The Fathers of
the Councils of Nice and Constantinople condemned Xenara, who derided the
custom of figuring the Holy Ghost by doves. (See Duranti, de Rit. Eccl.
Cath. cap. v.)
# It may, perhaps, be possible to assign the absence of the Holy Ghost from
the various painted and sculptured figures which have just been noticed, to a
cause widely different either from forgetfulness or ill-will. Such representa
tions, which, during the middle ages, were extremely frequent, are identical in
every feature, excepting only the absence of the third Divine person, with those
in which the three are united, and which we call Trinities. Still, when the
These outrages offered to the Holy Ghost were not con

fined to the earliest ages of Christianity alone; in the
eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries men went so far
as to question whether it could be right to raise churches in
his honour, as had been done by Abelard.* The Holy
Ghost, as has been shown, gave his name to many sacred
edifices; but there was something insulting even in raising
such a question.
Holy Ghost is absent, the artist may possibly have intended to depict, not a
Trinity, but some other subject. The Father gives his Son to the world, and
the Son offers himself for the salvation of mankind to die upon the cross; and
it is the gift of the Father, and the sacrifice made by our Saviour, that the artist
has sought to represent. Regarded in this light, the subject painted on the
windows of S. Denis by the command of Suger, finds a very natural interpre
tation, and the same will serve also for the painted window at Troyes, the stall
at Vieux Brissac, and the miniature in the Missal of Poictiers.
I am quite willing to restrict within these limits, the interpretation already
given, and which might lead to the supposition that every instance of the Holy
Ghost being omitted was an implied insult of that Divine person. Whatever
may be the actual truth, great care is necessary in determining whether the
person of the Holy Ghost is or is not figured in similar subjects. The chief
advantage to be anticipated from the discussion now raised is, that it may excite
persons interested in Christian Iconography to a more minute and scrupulous
examination.
* Le Boeuf Etat des Sciences en France depuis le Roi Robert jusqu'à
Philippe le Bel, p. 149. Le Boeuf quotes the Thesaurus Anecdotorum and
the Amplissima Collectio.
END OF WOL. I.
1,ONDON :
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Didron, Adolphe Napoleon, 1806-1867

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THE LIBRARY

THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN ART

ADOLPHE NAPOLEON DIDRON.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY E. J. MILLINGTON, AND COMPLETED

THE HISTORY OF THE NIMBUS, THE AUREoLE, AND THE GLORY,

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.

GEORGE BELL AND SONS

M. DIDRON's work on Christian Iconography is well known

feeling, as exemplified in the manner of representing God

At page 437 will be found an extract from the translation

and deductions are too frequently reiterated, it may be

THE NIMBUS OF GOD . - - - - - . . .38

NIMBUS OF PERSONS LIVING - - - - . . 76

SIGNIFICATION OF THE NIMBUS . - - - . . 89

THE APPLICATION OF THE AUREOLE . - - . . 121

CHARACTERISTIC ATTRIBUTES OF GOD THE FATHER 221

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SIGNS, CHARACTERISTIC OF OUR SAVIOUR 278

JESUS CHRIST As A LAMB 318

JESUS, AS THE GOOD SHEPHERD . 337

THE CRoss, A SYMBOL OF CHRIST 367

THE TRIUMPH OF THE CROSS . - - - 414

HISTORY OF THE HOLY GHOST 417

THE HOLY SPIRIT As A Dove 451

THE COLOUR OF THE HOLY GHOST REPRESENTED AS A

THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE HOLY GHOST 496

HERESIES AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST . 499

God the Father, with a triangular Nimbus bearing rays . - • • -

St. Gregory IV. with a square Nimbus . - - - - - -

The three Divine Persons, adorned with the cruciform Nimbus • - -

Nimbus with rays of unequal length, without any connecting line • -

Transverse lines, or luminous clusters of rays passing beyond the circum

The Trinity—each Divine Person wearing the cruciform Nimbus . . .

Divine Lamb, with cruciform Nimbus and three smaller crosses - e -

Divine Nimbus, with the transverse branches of the cross elevated - •

A Greek painting of Christ, with a cruciform Nimbus, the transverse

Christ with a plain Nimbus, ascending to Heaven in a circular Aureole •

Christ without a beard wearing a plain Nimbus . . - • * • *

Christ without Nimbus, and beardless - • • • - • - -

St. John the Baptist, with a Nimbus • • - - - - - •

The Emperor Henry II, with a circular Nimbus bearing an inscription •

Pope Pascal with a square Nimbus . . - - - - • -

A bishop whilst living, having a rectangular Nimbus in the form of a

Liberty with a Nimbus - - - -

Diana, the Moon, with a circular Nimbus . - - - - - -

Christ with a Nimbus resembling a flat cap, or casquette

A Nimbus drawn in perspective, formed by a simple thread of light

The Divine hand, resting on a cruciform Nimbus

The Souls of the Righteous in the Hand of God . - • - - • - 210

The Name of Jehovah, inscribed within a radiating triangle 231

The Supreme Judge .. - - - - - • *.

Christ suffering; bearded, human or ugly - • - - - - 269

l': was the all-powerful influence which, during

existence, and at least three-fourths of those at Lyons. More

dedicated to the “people of God,” the mosaics in Santa

The Synod of Arras, in 1025, declared, as Benedict Biscop

common usage, I have given personal representations of holy

we must seek a clue to the interpretation of the figures

It was in order to attain the twofold object of instruc

the “Summa Theologiae,” by Thomas Aquinas; the “Miroir

# Originally written in Latin by Bartholemaeus Anglicus (Glanville) and