Banderole

For use in art and architecture, see Banderole (speech scroll).

A contemporary painting of the French warship Cordelière and the English warship Regent ablaze at the battle of St. Mathieu on August 10 1512. Both are flying banderoles

A Banderole (Fr. for a "little banner"), has both a literal descriptive meaning for its use by knights and ships, and is also heraldic device for representing bishops.

Bannerol, in its main uses is the same as banderole, and is the term especially applied to banners about a yard square carried at the funerals of great men and placed over the tomb. Often it commemorated a particular exploit of the person bearing the coat of arms.

Knights, bishops and ships

A Banderole is a small flag or streamer carried on the lance of a knight, or a long narrow flag, with cleft end flying form the mast-head of a ship in battle.

In heraldry, a banderole is a streamer hanging from beneath the crook of a bishop's crosier and folding over the staff, and for other small streamers or ribbons.

Art and architecture

Main Banderole (speech scroll)

A 1506 painting by Bernhard Strigel with banderole.

The term is also used in art and architecture for a speech scroll or streamer, representing a roll of parchment carried by or surrounding a figure or object, for bearing an inscription, mainly during the medieval and Renaissance periods. In particular banderoles were used as attributes for Old Testament prophets, as may be seen in the Santa Trinita Maestà by Cimabue, (Uffizi, 1280-90), Duccio's Maestà (1308-11), and other works. The convention had a historical appropriateness, as the Old Testament was originally written on scrolls, whereas nearly all surviving New Testament manuscripts are codices (like modern books). They may also be used for the words of angels, especially Gabriel's greeting to Mary in Annunciation scenes.

References

• OED staff (September 2011). "banderol[e] | bandrol | bannerol, n.". Oxford English Dictionary (Second 1989; online version September 2011. ed.). http://oed.com/view/Entry/15140.  Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1885.
• Nelson, Phil (1 February 2010). "Banderole". Dictionary of heraldic terms. http://flagspot.net/flags/vxt-dv-b.html##banderole. 

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Banderole". Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.