DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48462#0044
40
Knut Berg
portraiture with Nero19. The Strahlenkrone was, next to the Laurel Wreath, the most common head-gear
in imperial portraiture from the end of the second Century until its use was discontinued by Constantine
after his Vicennalia in 325-32620, undoubtedly on account of its too obvious pagan connotations.
Christianity won out over the other religions in Rome, but in doing so it assimilated many elements from its
competitors. The cult of Sol Invictus in many ways influenced the early Christian worship of Christ.
From Sol Invictus, Christ got His birthday, December 25, and Christ Himself became identified with the
sun, but instead of Sol Invictus He became Sol Justitiae21. In a sermon ascribed to Johannes Chryso-
stomos, but probably by a fourth Century Roman cleric, this idea of Christ as Sol Justitiae is clearly
expressed: . . one calls the day (dec. 25,) the Birth festival of the Invictus. But who is as invincible
as our Lord, Who victoriously went through death . . . He is the Sol Justitiae, of Whom the prophet
Malachias said (4,2): ‘But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise healing in his
wings‘“22. Applying the name Sol Justitiae to Christ became a Standard metaphor in ecclesiastical
rethoric23, so much so that St. Augustine had to warn against it24.
The miniatures in the St. Augustine Gospels clearly followed older prototypes25 and it is highly unlikely
that the rayed nimbus was added by the sixth Century artist. Another question is, however, if the artist
of the St. Augustine Gospels reproduced the attribute in its original form. It is difficult to decide if the
rayed nimbus originally was a Strahlenkrone or a Strahlenkranz. Being the Crowning with Thorns, it would
be most natural to believe that in the original it was a crown, and that the Strahlenkrone was used more
or less in the same sense as the Laurel Wreath was used on the Lateran sarcophagus, i. e. an imperial
attribute to signify Christ as Triumphator and Invictus. The misunderstanding of a Strahlenkrone for a
Strahlenkranz could be explained easily. The portraits of the emperor with a Strahlenkrone generally
shows him in profile, but if he was shown en face it would be difficult to see the difference between a
Strahlenkrone and a Strahlenkranz. It is, however, difficult to believe that Christ ever could have been
pictured with a Strahlenkrone, because of its obvious pagan connotations, which must have been feit
very strongly since Constantine after his conversion abolished the use of this crown.
It would perhaps be more likely therefore to assume that also in the original prototype it was a rayed
nimbus, designating Christ as Invictus, the invincible Whom Death could not conquer, and Justitiae,
the highest judge upon Whom no earthly judge could pass judgment, and thus most appropriate in this
connection. The use of a rayed nimbus in Early Christian representations of the Crowning with Thorns
would also explain the stränge nimbus of Christ in the representation of the motif in the Farfa-bible26.
Christ does here not wear a crown, instead He has what Neuss has called a Stachelnimbus, and it is not
difficult to imagine how this stränge nimbus could have derived from an original rayed nimbus.
Whatever its form was in the original prototype, a rayed nimbus or a Strahlenkrone, the use of either of
these attributes attest to the high antiquity of this prototype, which certainly must be from the fourth
Century, and probably not later than the middle of the Century.
The Interpretation of this scene in the St. Augustine Gospels as the Crowning with Thorns, only on the
basis of the rayed nimbus, is admittedly rather hypothetical, but the correctness of this Interpretation
is confirmed through comparisons with other representations of the motif. In the Crowning with Thorns
on the Ciboriumcolumn in San Marco in Venice27, we find repeated most of the essential elements of the
composition in the St. Augustine Gospels. Christ is lead by the hand by one soldier preceding Him, and
followed by two others, with their right arms raised in the gesture of Acclamatio. Unfortunately it is
impossible to ascertain if the soldiers in the St. Augustine Gospels are performing the same gesture.
19 A. Alföldi, Insignien und Tracht der Römischen Kaiser, Römische Mitteilungen, L, 1935, p. 139ff.
20 R. Delbrück, Spätantike Kaiserporträts, Berlin 1933, p. 56.
21 H. Usener, Sol Invictus, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, LX, 1905, p. 490ff.; Fr. Cumont, Textes et Monuments figures
relatifs au Misteres de Mithra, I, 1899, pp. 340ff., 355f.; E. Norden, Die Geburt des Kindes, Leipzig/Berlin 1924, p. 24ff.
22 Quoted from Usener, op. cit., p. 466.
23 Cumont, op. cit., p. 355. 24 ibidem
25 Wormald, op. cit., passim.
26 W. Neuss, Die katalanische Bibelillustration, Bonn/Leipzig 1922, p. 124, fig. 146. Otherwise there is no iconographical connec-
tion between the two pictures.
27 A. Venturi, Storia dell’Arte Italiana, I, Milano 1901, fig. 262; E. LucchesiPalli, Die Passions- und Endszenen Christi auf der
Ciboriumsäule von San Marco in Venedig, Prag 1942, p. 83ff., pl. IVa.
Knut Berg
portraiture with Nero19. The Strahlenkrone was, next to the Laurel Wreath, the most common head-gear
in imperial portraiture from the end of the second Century until its use was discontinued by Constantine
after his Vicennalia in 325-32620, undoubtedly on account of its too obvious pagan connotations.
Christianity won out over the other religions in Rome, but in doing so it assimilated many elements from its
competitors. The cult of Sol Invictus in many ways influenced the early Christian worship of Christ.
From Sol Invictus, Christ got His birthday, December 25, and Christ Himself became identified with the
sun, but instead of Sol Invictus He became Sol Justitiae21. In a sermon ascribed to Johannes Chryso-
stomos, but probably by a fourth Century Roman cleric, this idea of Christ as Sol Justitiae is clearly
expressed: . . one calls the day (dec. 25,) the Birth festival of the Invictus. But who is as invincible
as our Lord, Who victoriously went through death . . . He is the Sol Justitiae, of Whom the prophet
Malachias said (4,2): ‘But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise healing in his
wings‘“22. Applying the name Sol Justitiae to Christ became a Standard metaphor in ecclesiastical
rethoric23, so much so that St. Augustine had to warn against it24.
The miniatures in the St. Augustine Gospels clearly followed older prototypes25 and it is highly unlikely
that the rayed nimbus was added by the sixth Century artist. Another question is, however, if the artist
of the St. Augustine Gospels reproduced the attribute in its original form. It is difficult to decide if the
rayed nimbus originally was a Strahlenkrone or a Strahlenkranz. Being the Crowning with Thorns, it would
be most natural to believe that in the original it was a crown, and that the Strahlenkrone was used more
or less in the same sense as the Laurel Wreath was used on the Lateran sarcophagus, i. e. an imperial
attribute to signify Christ as Triumphator and Invictus. The misunderstanding of a Strahlenkrone for a
Strahlenkranz could be explained easily. The portraits of the emperor with a Strahlenkrone generally
shows him in profile, but if he was shown en face it would be difficult to see the difference between a
Strahlenkrone and a Strahlenkranz. It is, however, difficult to believe that Christ ever could have been
pictured with a Strahlenkrone, because of its obvious pagan connotations, which must have been feit
very strongly since Constantine after his conversion abolished the use of this crown.
It would perhaps be more likely therefore to assume that also in the original prototype it was a rayed
nimbus, designating Christ as Invictus, the invincible Whom Death could not conquer, and Justitiae,
the highest judge upon Whom no earthly judge could pass judgment, and thus most appropriate in this
connection. The use of a rayed nimbus in Early Christian representations of the Crowning with Thorns
would also explain the stränge nimbus of Christ in the representation of the motif in the Farfa-bible26.
Christ does here not wear a crown, instead He has what Neuss has called a Stachelnimbus, and it is not
difficult to imagine how this stränge nimbus could have derived from an original rayed nimbus.
Whatever its form was in the original prototype, a rayed nimbus or a Strahlenkrone, the use of either of
these attributes attest to the high antiquity of this prototype, which certainly must be from the fourth
Century, and probably not later than the middle of the Century.
The Interpretation of this scene in the St. Augustine Gospels as the Crowning with Thorns, only on the
basis of the rayed nimbus, is admittedly rather hypothetical, but the correctness of this Interpretation
is confirmed through comparisons with other representations of the motif. In the Crowning with Thorns
on the Ciboriumcolumn in San Marco in Venice27, we find repeated most of the essential elements of the
composition in the St. Augustine Gospels. Christ is lead by the hand by one soldier preceding Him, and
followed by two others, with their right arms raised in the gesture of Acclamatio. Unfortunately it is
impossible to ascertain if the soldiers in the St. Augustine Gospels are performing the same gesture.
19 A. Alföldi, Insignien und Tracht der Römischen Kaiser, Römische Mitteilungen, L, 1935, p. 139ff.
20 R. Delbrück, Spätantike Kaiserporträts, Berlin 1933, p. 56.
21 H. Usener, Sol Invictus, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, LX, 1905, p. 490ff.; Fr. Cumont, Textes et Monuments figures
relatifs au Misteres de Mithra, I, 1899, pp. 340ff., 355f.; E. Norden, Die Geburt des Kindes, Leipzig/Berlin 1924, p. 24ff.
22 Quoted from Usener, op. cit., p. 466.
23 Cumont, op. cit., p. 355. 24 ibidem
25 Wormald, op. cit., passim.
26 W. Neuss, Die katalanische Bibelillustration, Bonn/Leipzig 1922, p. 124, fig. 146. Otherwise there is no iconographical connec-
tion between the two pictures.
27 A. Venturi, Storia dell’Arte Italiana, I, Milano 1901, fig. 262; E. LucchesiPalli, Die Passions- und Endszenen Christi auf der
Ciboriumsäule von San Marco in Venedig, Prag 1942, p. 83ff., pl. IVa.