Show PROSAIC ORIGIN op OF THE HALO said to have been placed over stat lies of saints to preserve them the origin of the halo dates bade back to the eleventh and twelfth centuries those years were rich in the building of churches and cathedrals there were erected around the outside of the sacred edifices statues of the saints placed under the eaves in time the caretakers of the buildings perceived that the discoloration from the rains tailing falling from the roofs dis figured the images accordingly they placed over the tops of them flat wood en disks of sufficient size to protect the statues giotto began to paint pictures when a boy and his igno ranee rance as assumed the protecting disks as an essential part of the saint hia his earliest Barl lest pictures represent each sacred figure topped off with what looks much like ike the bottom of a barrel he ile ideal iced this into a circle dark at first but grow growing ing more luminous with each successful production of 0 his artl stio la cancy fancy until he developed the circle of df light that has come down i u changed through generations of aa iw ers as a badge ot of sanctity |