Muitas imagens da arquitectura foram «iconoteologia». Many images of ancient and traditional architecture were «iconotheological». This blog is to explain its origin.
15.1.13

We mean the Magi’s Star, which in our representation (today) is an octagonal shape*.

 

On this subject - one may suppose there is nothing to be said… – quite the opposite we found some interesting information. And speculating (as we always do) it is possible to discover a little more:

 

“…The most famous picture is probably the fresco of the rich biblical cycle in the Scrovegni chapel in Padua, by Giotto at the beginning of the 14th century. In this fresco, the star has a tail, to show that it was like a comet, a celestial object, not very frequent, but well known in ancient times. It seems that Giotto, while painting a realistic comet, was thinking of Halley's comet, which has a period of about 76 years around the sun. This was visible in 1301, when passing near the Earth.**  

 

The oldest pictures, on the contrary, depict a star with no tail. There are eight spikes in the mosaic, from 433, of St. Mary the Major in Rome and, in Ravenna, and in the one of St. Apollinaire The New, from the 6th century, in which there is a peculiar pair of stars, one inside the other.”**

 

Did the eight spikes add, intentionally, a significant meaning to the star: the notion of a «spiritual light» that comes from Holy Spirit?

We do think so, because Holy Spirit was frequently associated to light and air (pneuma, in Greek).

Elements - Fire and Air - that were considered vital, and two of the Four Divine Essences.  

~~~~~~~~~~~

*Remember, particularly the star in the Epiphany depiction at Santi Cosmi e Damiano (a roman church): images we posted some days ago. See:http://primaluce.blogs.sapo.pt/133381.html.

**See: II. “Representations and interpretations of the star in the Tradition” at: http://www.disf.org/en/Voci/35.asp (from where we quote the main text of this post)

See also:

http://primaluce.blogs.sapo.pt/

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