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

---

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

The Madonna is in a mandorla; two angels above are crowning her, and other angels playing on instruments are around.

From Great Masters in Painting: Perugino by Williamson, George C.