Aureola Aureola An aureola or aureole (diminutive of Latin "aurea", "golden") is the radiance of luminous cloud which, in paintings of sacred personages, surrounds the whole figure. In Neolatin languages (as Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French) the noun Aureola is usually more related to the disc of light surrounding the head of sacred figures and that in English is called Halo or Nimbus. In the earliest periods of Christian art it was confined to the figures of the persons of the Christian Godhead, but it was afterwards extended to the Virgin Mary and to several of the saints. The aureola, when
What Is Art? that art be "universal" in appeal. Tolstoy approves of early Christian art for being inspired by love of Christ and man, as well as its antagonism to pleasure-seeking. He prefers this to the art born of "Church Christianity", which ostensibly evades the "essential theses of true Christianity" (that is, that all men are born of the Father, are equals, and should strive towards mutual love). Art became pagan—worshipping religious figures—and subservient to the dictates of the Church. The corruption of art was deepened after the Crusades, as the abuse of papal power became more obvious. The rich began to doubt,