Dear Courtney,
I do not know whether the following is too fanciful, but I wonder
whether you might find any mileage in the much older ideas of the
symbolism of the manhood and divinity of Christ and the double
mandorla. This symbolism derives, as I remember, from St Augustine, and
I read about it in, Conrad Rudolf (1990) Artistic change at St-Denis : Abbot Suger's
program and the early twelfth-century controversy over art.
In images such as that at St Denis Christ is shown at the Last Judgement with a
second mandorla enclosing his feet. This is explained in the
following way. At the Second Coming, only Christians (or is it only
the saved, I can't remember) will see the Divinity as well as the
humanity of Christ. Since all the resurrected must be able to see
Christ's gestures of welcome or reproof and hear his words, the upper
part of his body symbolises his humanity, which is visible to all,
while the second marndoral around his feet symbolises his divinity,
which only some can see.
This is obviously not all that could be said about the representation
of the upper half ot he body of Christ. The Imperial and Byzantine
origins of this practice, translated to the West in the image known as
the Image of Pity are clarly elucidated in the work of Hans Belting.
Early Western writers seem to have found these half-length portraits
quite mysterious and in the case of Durandus of Mende and Caesarious
of Heisterbach seem to assoc iate them with ideas of modesty.
I hope that this may be of interest.
With Best Wishes
Miriam Gill
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