The Origins of the Nimbus Shape and its Usage in the Early Period Christian Art of Painting

The human kind, with the help of the geographical and climatic characteristics of the environment it has lived in, created cultural environment for itself and led a life and practice of art by the condition of this cultural environment throughout its history. on one hand, this cultural environment it has created has determined the basic qualities of life, while on the other hand, humanity has shaped that cultural environment. regions with different geographical and climatic characteristics has gained culturally similar values, and these values took part in the art of communities living in those geographies in some way, while a cultural value in a region reemerged in other parts of the world with similar characteristics. this situation has continued in the form of repetition of common cultural, as well as mythological, elements in different regions. thus, these common values present a frequently seen situation in art, too. in this study, approaches regarding the repetition of common mythological values in different regions were discussed and this issue was investigated in terms of the origins of the “nimbus” shape, which was frequently used in the early period christian art of painting. it was also aimed to reveal whether or not both cultural and mythological elements of different regions with similar characteristics contributed to the formation of this shape. in the light of the data obtained, it was concluded that the nimbus motifs repeatedly used for art in different periods and communities showed similarities, and this has significance in terms of cultural and artistic interaction.