Dear listmembers.
I recently received an interresting email from Prof. John Osborne (Un. of
Victoria) replying quite properly to my question on square nimbus, email I
would like to share with you:
Square haloes -- one of my favorite topics! But a complicate one. The
concept has its origins in portrait painting of late antiquity --for
example, the so-called "mummy portraits" found at Fayum and other sites in
Egypt. There it clearly indicates that the image is a "portrait". As far as
I know, the concept entrs Christian art already in late antiquity, and also
in Egypt. You can find "square haloes" on the donor figures in the
6th-century mosaic in the apse of the Monastery of St. Catherine at Mount
Sinai, and also on early Sinai icons. It reaches Rome by ca. 700, where we
find it in depictions of pope John VII (S. Maria Antiqua and his oratory in
Old's St. Peter's), and thereafter in all papal and other donor portraits
through to ca. 1000. A text from the 9th century --John the Deacon's 'vita'
of pope Gregory I, refers to square haloes as providing a portrait likeness.
Thus, at this time, they are not really "haloes" at all. However, the
concept then begins to change, and the "portrait" idea is gradually lost, to
be replaced by the concept of "diminished sanctity", in other words
something less than the full sanctity indicated by a round halo. A late
13th-century text indicates that, by ca. 1290, this transition has been
complete.
In the context of abbot Desiderius at Montecassino, it is difficult to know
what is intended. Possibly some combination of both, although I would guess
that the monks at Montecassino were familiar with Roman churches such as S.
Prassede, S. Cecilia, etc., in which papal donors of the 9th century
appeared in the apse mosaics with a square halo. (And I believe that s.
Cecilia had Desiderius as its titular cardinal.)
The fullest treatment of this is by Gerhart Ladner, in volume 3 of his
survey of papal portraits, published in 1984. I also wrote an article on
this subject, in the PAPERS OF THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME, 1979.
Cheers, John.
________________
John Osborne,
Dept. of History in Art,
University of Victoria,
Victoria, B.C., Canada
V8W 2Y2
office: (250) 721-6302
FAX: (250) 721-7941
website: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~josborne/
_________________________________________________
Claire Labrecque
Un.Laval, Quebec.
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