cephalophore
Sign in to savethumb|Relics of Saint Justus, Antwerp Denis of Paris|upright|thumb A cephalophore (from the Greek for 'head-carrier') is a saint who is generally depicted carrying their severed head. In Christian art, this was usually meant to signify that the subject in question had been martyred by beheading. Depicting the requisite halo in this circumstance offers a unique challenge for the artist: some put the halo where the head used to be, and others have the saint carrying the halo along with the head. Associated legends often tell of the saint standing and carrying their head after the beheading.
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
8 sectionsContents
- Possible origins
- Examples of cephalophoric saints
- In literature
- Gallery
- List of cephalophores
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
thumb|Relics of Saint Justus, Antwerp Denis of Paris|upright|thumb A cephalophore (from the Greek for 'head-carrier') is a saint who is generally depicted carrying their severed head. In Christian art, this was usually meant to signify that the subject in question had been martyred by beheading. Depicting the requisite halo in this circumstance offers a unique challenge for the artist: some put the halo where the head used to be, and others have the saint carrying the halo along with the head. Associated legends often tell of the saint standing and carrying their head after the beheading.
The term "cephalophore" was first used in a French article by Marcel Hébert, , in , v. 19 (1914).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “cephalophore” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.