The word mandorle comes from the Italian mandorla which means Amande. It indicates a figure in the shape of Ovale or almond in which fit crowned characters: generally the Christ, but also the Virgin Mary or Holy S.
The mandorle would come from an element of Roman architecture which consisted in registering the characters in a circle. The Clipeus posting the portrait of late or a epitaph quickly appears on the Sarcophage S Christian. Often the image ( Clipeata ) takes the form of a Coquille.
In France, one of oldest the mandorles is on a sarcophagus mérovingien in the Crypte of Jouarre. With the bedside of the sarcophagus of Holy Agilbert, one finds a Tétramorphe surrounding a Christ in majesty in a mandorle. The sculptors of the 7th century fixed here the image of a Christ young, beardless, figuration close to one representation to the Byzantine mode E.
A rather old representation is in the Saint-Michel church of Saint-Genis in Roussillon. Installed in frontage of the church, the lintel (in white Marble of Céret) is a monumental work. Known as the oldest Romance sculpture dated in the stone (1019 - 1020), it represents Christ blessing surrounded by a beaded mandorle supported by both Archange S and surrounded by two groups of three characters Biblique S.
One finds many Christ surrounded by mandorles in the Romance churches, for example with Mauriac, Holy-Trophime of Arles or Saint-Sernin with Toulouse.
The mandorle was largely used in the capitals of the abbey of Cluny II (contruite from 948 to 981). Parce what it loses on this occasion its symbolic system to become a geometrical decoration positioning a low relief, one speaks about basket .
One finds the same device in orthodoxe Byzantine iconographic art, in particular in the icon of the Transfiguration, that of the descent to the limbs or the icon of Christ Pantocrator (triple mandorle). In the icon of the Nativity, the Virgin is also represented in a mandorle which merges with its bed. On the other hand in the icon of the dormition of the Virgin, this one is not lying any more in a mandorle; it is its heart which Christ comes to collect in a mandorle.
The form and its symbolic system
The use of the circle to register a character in addition to his establishment in height in architecture of a place, evokes the celestial sphere.
The mandorle, it, expresses another dimension: it is a geometrical figure drawn using two circles. With the intersection of these two circles a person is installed. She thus indicates the person through whom it is necessary to pass to traverse the way between the two circles, the two hemispheres or the two worlds, one terrestrial and the other celestial one. The establishment of Christ in a mandorle on the tympanum of the door of the church reveals the symbolism of the passage of the outside of the church inside the church and thus precedes the passage of alive terrestrial world in the celestial world.
The mandorle is used then each time to express a passage or a door.
In the Gothic architecture, put aside the architectural benefit of the Intersecting ribs allowing the entry of the light in the building, the gothic arch of the openings to the appearance of an open mandorle in the light of the day. It makes it possible to still use the symbolic system of the mandorle which is now luminous (compared to its Romance use). This use of the mandorle corresponds to this period of search for realism also characterized by its morbid statuary.
There exists an interpretation rather different from the mandorle which surrounds the virgin of the nativity; this mandorle would evoke a female sex . Indeed, the oval form representing the Vulve is an old symbol. The Son would leave the belly of his mother, this representation would insist thus on the humanity of Christ. On the religious buildings of the Middle Ages, the mandorle is generally represented with Christ on the Western frontage, in a place which one names " tympan" in architecture. The dictionary also gives for this substantive the definition: membrane tended across a conduit (for example the hymen at a woman). One finds allusion to the female sex there, even for the mandorle which surrounds Christ.
List monuments presenting a mandorle
- Together of the Tétramorphe S
- the Charity-on-Loire. Transfiguration.
- the Charity-on-Loire. Rise.
- Montceaux-l' Star. Rise.
- Anzy-the-Duke. Rise.
- Anzy-the-Duke. Rise which is with the museum Hieron de Paray-le-Monial, with the nursing Virgin.
- Vézelay, Rise, left gate.
- Tympanum of Holy-Benign of Dijon of Christ in majesty to the archaeological museum
- Chartres Rise Gate of left
- the Lintel of the abbey of Saint-Génis-of-Fountains (the Eastern Pyrenees)
See too
Internal bonds
| Random links: | Preissac | Valensole | Drummond Castle | Wink | National park of theBreton one |