Why do people in religious paintings have a halo? What does the halo mean?

Question

Did early painters have a sense of Aura's, why doesn't George Bush have a Aura around his paintings?

Answer 1

The halo is an artistic convention, nothing more.

Up until the late 1800s, most people could not read. School, and books, were expensive, and most people couldn't afford to send their kids to school.

So the Christian Churches used art to depict stories from the Bible, as a way of helping people who could not read learn more about their religion.

The problem though, was that the artist had to have a way of letting the people who were going to look at the art know what was going on. They couldn't put a title on the painting, or write the names on it... people couldn't read!

Think about this for a minute. When you look at a family photo you can tell what is going on in it because you recognize people and things in the photo. You say..."Oh that's Uncle Ted, and that's Aunt Barbara... and look how small cousin David is!! And that's Brandy, David's pet dog... she died back before he started college... this must have been taken when they came out to visit us in 1978! Why yes, there's that horrible green carpet! We got rid of that after your Dad got the job at Boeing in '82!"

Well people can't do that with pictures from the Bible... they weren't there so they don't know what Jesus, or St. Paul or St. Peter looked like. (You can't say "Oh, that's got to be St. Peter, I recognize that horrible green shirt he used to wear all the time!)

So if you are an artist and you could do a painting of one guy standing on a rock teaching a bunch of other guys the people looking at it wouldn't know if it was Jesus teaching the Sermon on the Mount, or Moses teaching the people the Law, or St. John the Baptist preaching in the desert, or St. Paul preaching to the early Christians, or the Prophet Jeramiah doing his teaching. You get the idea.

So artistic conventions were developed... a sort of code so that the person who saw the art could recognize the people depicted in the art. For example the Saints who wrote the Gospels often are depicted holding pens, or if a Saint was martyred they will be holding something related to the way they died. ( For example, the Romans roasted St. Lawrence to death on a grill, so he is often shown carrying a grill in paintings... even though it is very unlikely that he regularly carried a grill around with him in real life. Same with Saint Sebastian and arrows.)

One of these convetions was the halo. The artist puts a halo around the different figures so you can tell who they are. Saints get smaller halos, the Virgin Mary gets a larger halo, and Jesus gets a large halo, often one with a cross inside it.

Now you don't just have a painting of one guy on a rock talking with a bunch of other guys. You can see that it is Moses because he has a long white beard and is holding the 10 Commandments. You can see that the other painting is Jesus talking with the 12 apostles because Jesus has the big halo with the cross in it, and the other 12 guys have little halos. You can see that the other picture is Jesus talking in the temple with the Priests because they DON'T have halos and Jesus DOES have His halo.

So Halos have NOTHING to do with Auras... sorry. Halos are there so that people who couldn't read could figure out what the painting was about. Nothng more.

Answer 2

Halo Means: (I'm pretty sure)

Purity/Perfection
Holy/Holiness



I dont know why George W. Bush didn't have an Aura in his paintings

Answer 3

To make people feel special . Now a days they just buy a large house or an expensive car for status . Although I dislike the the lack of sense that goes with the supernatural because it cuts into the advanced understanding of relality I like the intent of goodness . It's just that it is not as good as people think who tend to be short sighted as they hate and condemn the most innocuous ones for their beliefs in real things .
peace through a protracted understanding

Answer 4

Auras dictate enlightenment and being holy. Traditionally it is sacraligeous (against religeon) to put a halo around anyone other than Jesus. That is only one reason why the Roman Catholics are attacked so much for being illegit considering they put a halo around Mary and all their saints.

Answer 5

A Halo is the effect of the sun reflecting on someones skull. George Bush does not have a bald spot.

Answer 6

well did you ever see the omen?

remember the part with the priest with the white streak going through him and the nanny with the white rope around her neck?

George has a big rotten spot covering about 90% of his brain. I don't think a painting could quite cover that.

Answer 7

It's to represent the sun. All of mans early religions were based on the sun and the seasons. As for the confused moron (Bush), he just doesn't inpsire much in the way of creativity.

Answer 8

You actually have it right. They got it from the auras spoken of in various pagan religions.