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An aureola or aureole (diminutive of Latin aurea, "golden") is the radiance of luminous cloud which, in of sacred personages, surrounds the whole figure.
In Romance languages, the noun Aureola is usually more related to the disc of light surrounding the head of sacred figures, which in English is called halo or nimbus. In Indian religions, the back or head halo is called prabhāmaṇḍala or prabhavali.
The aureola, when enveloping the whole Human body, generally appears ellipse or elliptical in form, but occasionally depicted as circular, vesica piscis, or quatrefoil. When it appears merely as a luminous disk round the head, it is called specifically a halo or nimbus, while the combination of nimbus and aureole is called a glory. The strict distinction between nimbus and aureole is not commonly maintained, and the latter term is most frequently used to denote the radiance round the heads of saints, or Persons of the Trinity.
This is not to be confused with the specific motif in art of the Christ Child appearing to be a source of light in a Nativity scene. These depictions derive directly from the accounts given by Saint Bridget of Sweden of her visions, in which she describes seeing this.G Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. I,1971 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, pp. 76-78 & figs,
In the circular form the nimbus constitutes a natural and even primitive use of the idea of a crown, modified by an equally simple idea of the emanation of light from the head of a superior being, or by the meteorological phenomenon of a halo. The probability is that all later associations with the symbol refer back to an early astrological origin (compare Mithras), the person so glorified being identified with the sun and represented in the sun's image; so the aureole is the Khvarenah of Zoroastrianism. From this early astrology use, the form of "glory" or "nimbus" has been adapted or inherited under new beliefs.
In a famous romanesque fresco of Christ in Glory at Sant Climent de Taüll, the inscription "Ego Sum Lux Mundi" ("I Am the Light of the World") is incorporated in the Mandorla design. Conjunt iconogràfic de Sant Climent de Taüll
The tympanum at Conques has Christ, with a gesture carved in romanesque sculpture, indicate the angels at his feet bearing candlesticks. Six surrounding stars, resembling blossoming flowers, indicate the known planets including the Moon. Here the symbolism implies Christ as the Sun God. Image
In one special case, at Cervon (Nièvre), Christ is seated surrounded by eight stars, resembling blossoming flowers. At Conques the flowers are six-petalled. At Cervon, where the almond motif is repeated in the rim of the mandorla, they are five-petalled, as are almond flowers -the first flowers to appear at the end of winter, even before the leaves of the almond tree. Here one is tempted to seek for reference in the symbolism of the nine branched Chanukkiyah candelabrum. In the 12th century a great school of Judaism thought radiated from Narbonne, coinciding with the origins of the Kabbalah. Furthermore, at Cervon the eight star/flower only is six petalled: the Root of David, the Morningstar, mentioned at the close of Book of Revelation (22:16) Image (In one of the oldest manuscripts of the complete Hebrew Bible, the Leningrad Codex, one finds the Star of David imbedded in an octagon.)
In the symbolism of Hildegarde von Bingen the mandorla refers to the Cosmos.
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