Seoul is a huge place, and even after all this time I'm still learning my way around it. Another random long subway ride brought me to what looked like an old neighborhood with lots of history. And its own distinctive line of proud, nimbus-wearing clouds.
EDIT: Out of idle curiosity I looked up the definition of "nimbus", as I knew that this is just one of the names for light phenomena surrounding the persons of holy beings in art. Well, I got way more than I bargained for -- besides nimbus, there is also halo, aureole, mandorla, cruciform halo, triangular halo, square/rectangular halo, polygonal halo, glory/gloriole, the foreshortened nimbus "plate", which is the nimbus treated as if it were an actual object moving with the person wearing it, and hoop nimbus which is similar to the plate nimbus but is shown as just a thin ring (to avoid the solid nimbus obscuring the scene behind it), all with their specific uses. And it turns out the type of nimbus ornamenting the clouds here is what's known as "ray nimbus", typified by thin rays of golden light radiating out of the heads of saints and divine beings, as in this miniature illumination of The Savior in the prayer book of Queen Isabela of Castile, from the 15th century:
In fact, I myself have made use of this particular type of nimbus, in this detail showing St. Agatha from a piece made back in my "Northern Renaissance Period". For a guy who is not formally religious, I sure do love Christian art.
Related posts: St. George, A Dragon, St. Agatha, My upcoming show
