mandorla

British  

/ mænˈdɔːlə /

noun

1. Also called: vesica.  (in painting, sculpture, etc) an almond-shaped area of light, usually surrounding the resurrected Christ or the Virgin at the Assumption

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Etymology

Origin of mandorla

from Italian, literally: almond, from Late Latin amandula; see _almond

Example Sentences

She “bursts forth from the Virgin’s traditional flaming mandorla, throws off her star-spangled cloak and dashes straight toward us, beaming, into the future,” New York Times art critic Holland Cotter wrote in 1999.

From Washington Post • Sep. 7, 2021

Another, composed of gleaming copper radiates a tawny mandorla.

From New York Times • Feb. 27, 2020

Oval layers of crimson cloth echo the almond shape of a radiant mandorla within which the Trinity hovers.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 21, 2016

The painted discs that had become his signature function variously as wheels, radial engines, sunbursts and air force roundels; a red propeller flaps, and a biplane hangs like an angel in a mandorla of color.

From Time Magazine Archive

Christ is in the mandorla, from which five rays of glory proceed.

From Great Pictures, As Seen and Described by Famous Writers by Singleton, Esther