Royal Arms of Denmark. A gonfalone or gonfalon is a vertically hung banner emblazoned with a coat of arms. Gonfalons have wide use in civic, religious, and academic heraldry. The term originated in Florence, Italy, where communities, or neighborhoods, traditionally displayed gonfaloni in public ceremonies.
|
|
Gonfalons had great significance as Christian religious objects in Europe during the Medieval period, especially in central Italy. These religious objects consisted of a cloth, usually of canvas but occasionally of silk, supported by a wooden frame with a T-shaped support on the back, and a long pole to hold up the banner during ceremonies and processions. The banners were painted with tempera or oil paints, sometimes on both sides. Images on the gonfalons included the patron saints of cities, villages, confraternities or guilds, the Virgin and Child, Jesus Christ, God the Father, plague saints, and the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven, Mediatrix, Theotokos, or Madonna of Mercy.
|
|
Banners of Knights of the Thistle displayed in St. Giles' Cathedral In heraldry and vexillology, a heraldic flag is a flag containing coats of arms, heraldic badges, or other devices used for personal identification. Heraldic flags include banners, standards, pennons and their variants, gonfalons, guidons, and pinsels. Specifications governing heraldic flags vary from country to country, and have varied over time.
|
|
Historians express skepticism over the lack of heraldic diversity. Heraldic symbols of various lands, including of Trakai, Kiev and Navahrudak, are known from contemporary sources, to have included the great seal of Vytautas. Historians suggest that perhaps the two heraldic flags represented gonfalons, e.g. the 10 banners of Columns of Gediminas represented forces from domains of Grand Duke Vytautas and the 30 banners of Vytis represented different territories.
|
|
The Danish design was adopted for the flags of Norway (civil ensign 1821) and Sweden (1906), both derived from a common ensign used during the Union between Sweden and Norway 1818-1844, as well as Iceland (1915) and Finland (1917); some of the subdivisions of these countries used this as inspiration for their own flags. The Norwegian flag was the first Nordic cross flag with three colours. All Nordic flags may be flown as gonfalons as well.
|
|
In 1410 Rawicz bearers took part in the Battle of Grunwald. Among 50 Polish gonfalons (regiments) one (the 26th) took the field under Rawa coat of arms and was led by Christian of Ostrów, Kraków castellan. He was also a war councilor, one of the seven chief members of General Headquarters of Władysław II Jagiełło. In addition, one of the Rawicz bearers is marked for his military valour in the Battle of Koronowo that occurred shortly after the Grunwald.
|
|
Because these banners were often associated with a particular group, highly unusual and individual iconography could appear. These gonfalons were often commissioned and kept by confraternities, lay religious groups who gathered together for devotional purposes such as the singing of hymns (laudae), the performance of charitable works, or flagellation. The banners would be either displayed on the wall of the oratory or packed away until they were needed for their primary use, religious processions. During processions, the banner would be carried on its pole by members of the confraternity.
|
|
After, he worked as a priest in various places of the USA – Ansonia, Connecticut (1946–47), St. Joseph, Missouri (1947-55), Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, Denver, Colorado; and organized parishes in those cities in 1950-1955; Denver (1955–58), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1958–59), Houston, Texas (1959-73). After 1973, he published twenty-five scientific works and ten articles in History of the Church, and Ukrainian Religious Embroiders, fourteen albums of embroidered designs. Upon Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union, Blazejowskyj began to bring exhibitions of his icons and gonfalons.
|
|
An illustration of eleven Imperial Roman vexilloids. A vexilloid is any flag- like (vexillary) object used by countries, organisations, or individuals as a form of representation other than flags. American vexillologist Whitney Smith coined the term vexilloid in 1958, defining it as This includes vexilla, banderoles, pennons, streamers, heraldic flags, standards, and gonfalons. The first most primitive proto-vexilloids may have been simply pieces of cloth dipped in the blood of a defeated enemy in pre-historic times, and the precursors of all later vexilloids and flags.. The use of flags replaced the use of vexilloids for general purposes during late medieval times between about 1100 to about 1400.
|
|
The papal "ombrellino", a symbol of the pope, is often mistakenly called "gonfalone" by the Italians because the pope's ceremonial umbrella was often depicted on the banner. Gonfalone was originally the name given to a neighbourhood meeting in medieval Florence, each neighbourhood having its own flag and coat of arms, leading to the word gonfalone eventually becoming associated with the flag. Gonfalons are also used in some university ceremonies, such as those at The College of New Jersey, University of Chicago, Rowan University, Rutgers University, Princeton University, University of Toronto, Loyola University New Orleans and the University of St. Thomas. A Gonfalon of State (Dutch: Rijksvaandel or Rijksbanier) is part of the Regalia of the Netherlands.
|
|