Halo
in European Art. Recognition of Picture Figures. Semantic
Level of Art Analysis
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Halo is like radiance surrounded a figure.
In religious art halo is area of light around head of god or saint used
still in ancient India and China. As radiate light, it is an attribute
of sun gods Mitra, Apollo and Helius.
It is found in portraits of Rome emperors and since the 5th century it
is used in Christian art. Halo had a few shapes: cross (an attribute of
Christ); triangle (an attribute of Trinity); quadrangle (an attribute of
generous persons lived at the same time with artist); hexagon (an attribute
of the honest); circle or wheel (an attribute of Maria and Saints) (J.Holl,
Dictionary
of Subjects and Symbols in Art, 1996, p. 406-407).
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H.Wölfflin took notice that in Leonardo
da Vinci TheLast Supper Christ's head exactly coincides
with light spot of door hole. Christ appears like with halo what noticed
still H.Wölfflin (The Fundamental Categories of Art History
, 1930, p. 232). In eras after the Renaissance in Christian pictures for
expression of sanctity other means were used, and formal halo which served
only as attribute was rejected. Artists went on to the hidden haloes. Oil
painting with its softness and itself has an embryonic state of radiance
of bodies.
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Hidden halo in covers of
head. Rembrandt wraps up head and shoulders of Christ with vast
rays (Unbelief of Tom, Christ Treating, The Supper at Emaus). Often
Rembrandt girds heads with soft convex lines. We can notice his haloes
as shined bent lines in caps, hats (Portrait of Old Man, Portrait of
the Boy, in wreaths (Flora), in coiffures and haircuts (in self
portraits of early period, in angel from Sacrifice of Abraom, Self
Portrait with Saskia), in adornments (Toilet of Judith, Young Woman
Fitting Earring), in other covers of head (Portrait of Wife of Brother,
Portrait of Bartier Martens Doomer, Sacred Family) and so forth. For
expression of great tragedy Rembrandt turns halo across, like in David
and Uria; Toilet
of Judith; Assuerus, Aman and Esfiria. In Toilet of Judith
near leant “halo” is unusually fanciful cover of head that makes stronger
strain still more. In Pavel Fedotov's Little Widow brilliance of
smooth hair reminds halo -- in that way the heavy heart brings her near
saint.
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Hidden halo formed from surrounding
objects. Valentin Serov forms hidden haloes using small objects
that are around far enough from heads. In Serov's Portrait of Duchess
O.K.Orlova corners of two pictures above, vase behind the duchess,
red seat of chair, little shoe surround gigantic bonnet. These objects
form ellipse that is perpendicular to oval of the bonnet. They as though
satellites turn round the head by two orbits (the second orbit goes along
edges of the bonnet).
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Heavy frames that "accidentally" find themselves
behind heads of poetic ladies in pictures of Jan Vermeer can be called
halo too (The Lady Standing near Clavecin, The
Lady Sitting near Clavecin, The Lady Weighting
Pearls, The Lady Plays the Guitar, Allegory of Faith). In historic
times square halo was used for representation of contemporary Popes, emperors,
Donors. Women of Jan Vermeer play this role -- they were customers and
benefactresses. The artist did not spare "haloes" for them.
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In Rembrandt's The Prodigal Son
father's head, shoulders and arms form "halo" of the son.
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Absence of halo. The
dead people of Rembrandt have no haloes -- theirs vertices are formless
broken lines (Lecture on Anatomy of Doctor Deyman, Jesus Being Taken
Down From the Cross)
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People whose scantiness is emphasised by
artists have no haloes too. That are the students in Doctor Tulp's Anatomy
Lesson or contemptible fellows of William Hogart. Adriaen Brouwer's
amused themselves drunkards have head covers that repeat shape of head
and remind of naked skulls (The Quartet, Follows' Scuffle, Six Follows
Smoking Pipes), or crookedly pulled caps over their eyes (The Good
Friend, Hearing (the singer and the violinist), In Tavern, The Shepherd
near Road), or caps covered the most part of face (The Quartet,
Hearing, Two Follows Smoking Pipes). The sickly personages of Antoon
van Dyck also often have formless vertices.
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Negative haloes. Sometimes
"halo" is black, like of Baldazssar Castiglione of Rafael or like
in some pictures of Rembrandt (Titus Reading,
Portrait of Rembrandt's Brother, Portrait of Elderly Man, Portrait of Old
Man) or often in paintings of Frans Hals. "Haloes" in these art works
are black hats. Contrast between dark and light makes clearer and more
important face, but it is evidence that such haloes are negative. In Rembrandt's
Doctor
Tulp's Anatomy Lesson black hat helps to exclude figure of the doctor
from group of the disturbed students. But this importance is a bit demoniac.
We can remember lasting church's prohibition of study of the inner human
body.
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In art history halo is with failing means
sanctity. In the East first of all halo means
strength. This is the reason why in art of Byzantium
often we meet devil with halo. Rembrandt in Self Portrait with Saskia
uses double black white halo that codifies double-faced merriment: it is
bad, because some its results and church say so, however, on the other
hand, merriment is pleasing and brings inspiration for artist.
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Specific features of halo
in pictures of Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis. Often Lithuanian
artist M.K.Ciurlionis
(http://juratemacnoriute.tripod.com/Ciur.html)
liked
to place source of light in the distance behind object. On the one hand,
such lighting gives melancholic mood (this phenomenon is taken notice also
by Rudolf Arnheim (R.Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception, 1974, p.
307). On the other hand, object as though gives its radiance, halo that
surrounds it. In Christianity such halo is an attribute of divinity characteristic
for Jesus Christ in Change Back and for Virgin Mary.
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Thus drawing visible or hidden halo artists
create subject's image of spirituality or divinity and do not making any
halo or even disfigure naturally rounded vertices they show subject's scantiness,
ill health, sometimes ruddiness or even bestiality. We can pick out oppositions:
inspired vs soulless, positive energy vs negative one. Hidden halo can
be noticed in covers of head, in coiffures and haircuts, in object around
head. Positive halo is light, negative one is dark.
