Notes on Castelseprio

Abstract

THE THREE-RAYED NIMBUS, In an article in Cahiers Archéologiques (VII, 1954, pp. 157–159), Professor Grabar writes that in citing his observation of the peculiar symptomatic cross nimbus in the frescoes of Castelseprio, with the lines of the cross extending beyond the circle of the nimbus, “M. Schapiro a pensé pouvoir en réduire la portée en joignant aux exemples carolingiens et ottoniens de ce genre de nimbe crucifère deux exemples byzantins.” He goes on to argue that these two examples are not at all relevant to the problem, for in one case—the Cotton Genesis (Fig. 1)¹—the arms of the cross are broad bands and not thin lines as in the frescoes (Fig. 3), and in the other case—Athens Ms 211, a work of the tenth century—there is not even a cross nimbus, but rather a candlestick in the form of a cross, independent of the nimbus and illustrating a sermon of St. John Chrysostom (Fig. 2).² Hence the detail at Castelseprio remains a Western peculiarity and an evidence of the late date of the frescoes, since it is found in this form only in Carolingian and Ottonian works.