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In some churches you might spot Christ, mid ascension, carried within a colourful oval. The oval is known as the mandorla. It represents the intersection of the terrestrial and the celestial, of the human and the divine, which are linked by Christ’s resurrection.
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The shape is also known as vesica piscis, and in mathematical terms is formed when two circles overlap equally. From the earliest times, it has been loaded with meaning. As its basic shape recalls the vagina, it has been a symbol of fertility and femininity, of growing life.
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When it came to iconography, Early Christians needed a way to visually symbolise the Glory of God. In the absence of divine inspiration, they borrowed ideas from the world around them. The ancient vesica piscis symbol created a visual device into a sacred space.
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While the ancient associations may have faded they do still endure. In Sheela-na-Gigs, like the one at Kilpeck, Herefordshire, a woman presents her genitalia. Note the oval shape. Is she a moral warning against lust or is she a fertility figure? No one knows for sure.
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While in the (fragmented) alabaster reredos at St Peter’s, Drayton, Oxfordshire, the Virgin is presented within a mandorla in the Annunciation panel. In her womb, the Virgin gave incarnation to the Divine.
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Throughout history people and cultures have borrowed and assimilated ideas and symbols. Can this original mathematical device – now an enduring symbol in human culture – be seen as the gate of life, the gateway between worlds?
