The Church of Sancta Sophia, Constantinople: A Study of Byzantine Building

Salzenberg’s description seems to account for all the figured mosaics mentioned by Grelot (1680) except the “Veronica over the sanctuary.” When Grelot made his drawing there was no figure at the crown of the dome but only the bands rising to the central wreath. Clavijo however writes, “The vault of the square is covered with very rich mosaic work, and in the middle of the vault high over the great altar the image of God the Father very large is wrought in mosaics of many colours; but it is so high up that it only looks the size of a man or a little larger though really it is so big that it measures three palmos between the eyes.” This must be the Pantocrator of the Manual—“draw near the summit of the cupola a circle of different colours like a rainbow seen on clouds in rainy weather. In the centre represent Christ with the Gospel and this inscription, Jesus Christ, the Almighty.”

Since the above has been in type we have found a pamphlet published by the brothers Fossati in 1890,[406] describing a collection of drawings of S. Sophia, shown by them at Milan. From this we gather the following additional particulars of the mosaic subjects.—Over the door of the south porch “was a remarkable mosaic representing the Virgin and Child, to whom Justinian presents the Church and Constantine the City.”—A representation of Christ, the Virgin, and S. John, forming the Trimorphion (Pantocrator, Pantochrante, Pantepopte.)—Two groups of the Fathers of the Church, thirteen altogether: Ignatius Oneos, Methodius, Ignatius Theophorus, Gregory Thaumaturgus, John Chrysostom, Cyril, and Athanasius. [These must occupy the seven recesses on the north window-wall, as the six others agree with those given by Salzenberg on the south side].—The Pantocrator on a throne [? supposed centre of Pentecost dome].—John Palaeologus [? with the Virgin on north side of great east arch, p. 278].—John Comnenus and Irene with the Virgin between them.—Constantine XI. and Zoe with Christ between them.—Alexius Comnenus X. or XI.—Alexander, the brother of Leo [some of these also were doubtless on the great east and west arches].—Three Virgins.—S. John with six apostles surrounded by cherubim [? in higher part of one of the window-walls, p. 277].—Prophets [? of window-wall, p. 276].—A circle with colossal Pantocrator [? the destroyed centre of the great dome].—Different emblems with Greek and Latin descriptions. Besides these, a drawing of Cherubim “saved from the Atrium Portico” is mentioned; and the inscription on the arch in front of the apse is given as follows, and may be compared with Salzenberg’s Plate x.:—

ΗΙΑΝΙΡϹΕΙΑΡ ΗΡΑΝΘΕΟΗΑΡΙΗΑΡ ΘΕϹΙϹΗΝΑΝΕΑΙϹΕΙΕ ΠΑΡΙΝ.

The earliest description of the mosaics entering into any particulars is that of Dr. Covel’s MS. 1670-7 in the British Museum. “In those cupolas [of gynaeceum] are imagery of Saints and the story of the Bible which the Turks have in many places quite defaced and plastered them all over; in other places only scratched out or disfigured their faces as the cherubims in the corners under the great dome.” He then enters into details of the pentecost dome which was the only figured vault entire; and then describes mosaics in the western gallery not otherwise mentioned. “In the sides of the second window [from the south], is Christ coming up from Jordan and the Descent of the Holy Ghost with these words, Matt. iii., 17:—ΟΥΤΟϹΕϹΤΙΝ, &c., on one side and over against it, Christ between Moses and Elias with these words, Matt. xvii., 5:—ΟΥΤΟϹ, &c.” The window jambs of the western gallery are now plastered, it is probable that a series of mosaics of the life of Christ covered them. Up to 1840 every visitor seems to have been offered tesserae, which for better assurance were broken out before his eyes. The Italian MS. of 1611 also in the British Museum (Harl. 3408), after saying that the walls of the church were lined with marble adds, “the porch as well, except that this is all worked in mosaic with growing leaves of great beauty down to the pavement of the porch.”[407]

Signor Boni has noticed that some of the gold tesserae at Parenzo are inserted at an angle of 30° to the plane of the wall, so as to be normal to the line of vision, just as Salzenberg describes at S. Sophia; the same thing occurs at the Dome of the Rock. This, besides saving the material, aided in flashing the light, a property of the gold tesserae which was much valued, as several inscriptions from the mosaics show.[408] In S. Maria in Domnica, the apse—“Nunc rutilat jugiter variis decorata metallis,” again in S. Maria in Trastevere the vault “divini rutilat fulgore decoris,” and at S. Paulo fuori le Mura the mosaic—“fulget fulgente decore.”

We have examined a handful of gold tesserae from S. Sophia through the kindness of Mr. James Powell. The cubes average a quarter of an inch in size, the glass is yellowish, slightly amethyst or dark green. The surface layer equals stout paper in thickness. At the back of the tesserae a dusty red appears, which under a glass proves to be of powdered tile. This roughens and adheres to the surface of the glass, which was evidently sanded with the powder while in a molten state, and of course before it was broken into morsels. The first purpose of this without doubt was to increase the hold of the cubes to the cementing material, but the reddening—almost like a coat of vermilion paint—may probably have assisted the gold to show out better than if the tesserae had been fixed without it into the perfectly white stucco which forms the bed. The cementing material was an inch or more in thickness, formed of lime with broken reed for binding, and a considerable amount of crushed white marble, in the part next the mosaic at least.

§ 3. GLASS, PLASTER AND PAINTING.

The Romans probably largely used coloured glass for windows. The lattices were sometimes bronze or thin slabs of marble pierced into a pattern.[409] Sidonius († 484), describing the basilica of Tours, clearly mentions the patterned windows of green and sapphire glass.[410] It has been suggested that some of the windows at S. Sophia were filled with glass of brilliant colour. Theophilus, in his preface to the section of his work dealing with coloured glass, says, “I have approached the atrium of Holy Sophia, and beheld the chancel filled with every variety of divers colours.” He proceeds to describe windows of painted glass in which the pieces are united by leads: but assuredly, if coloured windows did exist in the apse of S. Sophia, the glass was inserted in pierced marble, like the plaster lattices of the Orientals. Beautiful windows of brilliant-hued glass exist in the mosques and turbehs. The Arab lattices show us what beautiful mosaics of jewels may be formed in this way; the singular charm of them is the spreading and blending of the colours, by reflection from the sides of the thick dividing bars; lumps of crystal seem to have been used occasionally in place of glass. Most beautiful ‘braided’ Byzantine lattices of marble are to be found at S. Mark’s which would be well characterised as θύραι δεδικτυομέναι which according to Lenoir was the name of these windows. If coloured glass was used in S. Sophia, we think it can only have been in small windows of this kind in the apse and conchs. Labarte thought, from the descriptions of Procopius and Paulus, that the windows were of white glass which allowed the rays of the sun to shine through unaltered. It is hardly possible to conceive of the great windows being of anything else than white glass.

A fragment of “ancient crystalline” glass from S. Sophia was exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries in 1876. It is described as only “one sixteenth of an inch thick, and nearly colourless except for iridescence.”

Grelot remarked that the plain glazing was “of round panes set in plaster,” but this must refer to the gradual filling round of the panes by repairs, as may at present be seen in the baptistery windows; although circular panes in a plaster setting were much used in Byzantine work, the glass being spun in separate discs of slightly varying sizes was inserted in marble or plaster slabs in different combinations. Windows of this kind remained in the apse of the Theotokos church twenty years ago. Dr. Covel is precise as to S. Sophia in 1676; he says the windows were “cut out of entire stone into quarries exactly square,” 10 by 12 or 14 inches. “In the first window of the west gallery (coming in on the south side), are several pieces of white transparent stone which I take to be Indian alabaster.”

Modelled stucco work was much used by late Greek, Roman, and Byzantine builders. Paulinus tells us that at Nola “a cornice of gypsum” separated the mosaic and marble of the apse. A large number of examples from the fourth to the sixth century are found in Rome, Parenzo, and Ravenna. “About the middle of the fifth century Galla Placidia built the church of S. Croce in Ravenna ‘of very precious stones, and with stucco (gypsea) modelled with the tool’ (Agnellus. Lib. Pontif. i. 283). Decorative stuccoes in the apse of S. Ambrose at Milan were destroyed thirty years ago, as they were supposed to be ‘Baroque.’ Dartein analysed the material and found that it contained 85 per cent. of plaster (gesso), a little lime, sand and brick-dust or pozzolana.” “The rich decoration of the Chapel of S. Maria at Cividale (eighth to tenth century), and the Arab-Norman modelled stuccoes of Sicily show that the traditions of this kind of ornament were not lost at a later time.”[411] In the churches of Greece this material is largely used, and its application in Arab work was due to Byzantine example. At S. Sophia an ornamental plaster frieze runs along both sides of the south porch: this is a scroll throwing out acanthus leaves and fruits like poppy seed-vessels. The background is coloured blue.

The flat frieze-like cornice of the first floor ornamented with two patterns of leafage appears to us to be of stucco; we figure these here, but we have not been able to verify the material. If of stucco, as we suppose, it is cast or stamped in small square panels as shown: certainly some of the Byzantine plaster-work, as for instance that forming the cornice of the apse at S. Apollinare in Classe, was cast in short sections and then applied.

The blue background of the plastered frieze just mentioned may remind us of the decoration of the beam above the columns of the ambo with gold ivy leaves on a background coloured ultramarine as described by the poet. (The spade-like leaves which occur in several places in the mosaic must be ivy.) This decoration of gold and “sapphire” seems to have been general in Byzantine work. The sculptured beam of the iconostasis at St. Luke’s has the blue background nearly intact, and here and there the gold is visible (Diehl, p. 26).

Traces of the blue ground may also be noticed in the sculptures of Mone tes Choras at Constantinople. The notched fillet, which separates the marble panels in S. Sophia, is used so extensively at Venice that Mr. Ruskin called it the Venetian dentil; the complete intention of this fillet, he writes, is now only to be seen in pictures, “for like most of the rest of the mouldings of Venetian buildings it was always either gilded or painted—often both, gold being laid on the faces of the dentils and the recesses coloured alternately red and blue.”[412] It is clear from Paulus that at S. Sophia the sculptured capitals were all gilt (Part II., lines 129 and 244), as apparently were also the carved surfaces filling the spandrils of the lower arcade (line 236). The red colouring which Salzenberg notices was probably the preparation for the gold. It is thus almost certain that the notched fillets and carved frames of white marble surrounding the marble wall panels were gilt, as the Anonymous says, and coloured, thus reflecting as it were from the wall surfaces the brighter hues of the mosaic vaults.

§ 4. MONOGRAMS AND INSCRIPTIONS.

The poet Paulus speaks of the iconostasis as bearing the names of the emperor and empress, combined in a monogram—“one letter that means many words.”

Such ciphers or monograms had been in use for some centuries, and at the end of the fifth century they were used as signatures in discs left in the capitals. They appear at Ravenna in the time of Theodoric; and, in Constantinople, S. Sophia, S. Sergius, and S. Irene display similar ciphers of Justinian. At S. Sophia almost every capital is charged with two monograms which are carved on the bosses on opposite sides of the capitals. The background is entirely hollowed away, and the monograms show sharp and clear in the nest-like cup which is held by the serrated edges of the acanthus leafage. There are four or five main varieties of which Salzenberg somewhat inaccurately figures two without offering any explanation. The first type appears on two or three of the coins of Justinian, of which we have figured an example at large on the title-page, and in these instances they have been deciphered by Sabatier as the monogram of that emperor. A ceramic inscription given in the Revue Archéologique for 1876, repeats the same form. We had made out that the second variety was probably the word Basileos, when, at Constantinople, we were referred to the paper by Canon Curtis and M. Aristarches.[413] In this article the monograms are classified according to their main types and the whole series is figured. Although the figures are small, this is a thoroughly good piece of work, in the result obtaining many pairs reading Justinian, Basileos, other pairs with Theodora Augusta, and one with a date.

The capitals of the sixteen great columns of the nave, the capitals of the lower side aisles—with the exception of those on the eight square columns,—and the thirty-six columns on the floor above, which screen the side gynaecea from the nave, bear monograms. We were fortunately able to examine and draw all of them, but give in Fig. 75 only those on the back and front of the sixteen great columns of the nave. They occur in the order in which they are placed on the illustration from the first column on the left (north) side on entering at the west, to the corresponding one on the south side.[414] Many of those monograms, especially those of the galleries, bear evidence of having been restored. We may recollect that the capitals were said to have been restored by Romanus (p. 123). It is possible that Fossati tampered with them; the Italian MS. of 1611 in the British Museum states that “the Turks have destroyed some figures which were anciently carved (intagliarsi) on the capitals.”

There are fifty-six examples on the capitals which Curtis and Aristarches give as being monograms of Justinian; in all these the letter Ν forms the main lines, to which additions are made, so that the letters ΙΟΥϹΤΙΝΙΑΝΟΥ can be traced out. Some of these have crosses in addition.

The next monogram is that read ΒΑϹΙΛΕΩϹ. It occurs in all on fifty-five columns, the examples of it in our illustration are B.1, E.2, H.1, P.1, C.2, P.1, G.2, J.2, L.2, N.2, Q.2, the remnant of K.1, shows that this was similar. This monogram is found also on the capitals of S. Sergius and Bacchus, and on three beautiful Basket Capitals at S. Mark’s.[415]

Several of the fifty-six, classed together as Justinian, furnish varieties from the clearest typical form. In some a letter appears which may be read either as Ε or Β, also an Ω and a sign of contraction: see M.1 and O.1; possibly this is a combination of Justinian and Basileos or only a variant spelling: this form occurs in the church of S. Sergius as well as at S. Sophia.

On twelve capitals is carved the monogram ΘΕΟΔΩΡΑϹ. This is either designed on the cross form as B.2 F.1, another in the side aisles, and three in the gynaeceum above, or else as in E.2 it approximates to Basileos. Two of this latter type also occur in S. Sergius, which shows how early Justinian associated his wife with him in his architectural labours.

Finally from S. Sophia, and from there only, we have twelve examples of ΑΥΓΟΥϹΤΑϹ. Typical ones are shown in G.1, and A.1-A.2; possibly some of these, as A.1, may have been read Augustus, if any care was taken in their distribution. The letters on the last capital Q.1 have been read by Curtis and Aristarches as ϜΜΒΒ. They take Ϝ to be a capital form of the obsolete letter which is used for 6 or 6,000, Μ is as usual 40, and Β is 2. Hence they get 6042 for the year of the world. The lower Β is then explained as the year of an Indiction, reading it as ΙΒ, or 12. One Indiction period of fifteen years would have ended in 522 A.D., and the twelfth year from that would be 534 A.D. equalling 6042 A.M. Therefore this gives a date, two years after the church was begun, when they suggest that this capital was put in its place. This ingenious explanation requires too much adjustment for it to be conclusive, and the Ϝ form is at least unusual. This monogram looks very white, as if it had been made up in plaster; if we were assured as to how much is ancient we might perhaps, if it proved different from the others, find here the inserted monogram of a later emperor who made repairs.

Salzenberg gives some monogram signatures from the closures under the great west window, which are carefully carved and entirely different from rough masons’ marks, although some of the forms occur amongst those. We were unable to examine them, and taking Salzenberg’s representation, we can only suggest that they may be the signatures of master-workers; one appears to be Phocas.

M. Choisy[416] has investigated the masons’ marks of S. Sophia; besides the ordinary signs, he makes out a system of numbering in the pavement slabs of the galleries.

Strzygowski[417] pursues the subject of Byzantine marks in general, much further. He points out the same signs on the columns of S. Vitale, of Pomposa, and of Parenzo, and in the cistern Bin-Bir-direk at Constantinople. From this we gather that not only “the columns of Ravenna, but also the similar architectural features of Constantinople, Salonica, Parenzo, in fact along the whole coast of the Mediterranean” were taken from the quarries of Proconnesus, and in the lettering on the different members we can recognise the working signs of the quarrymen or masons belonging to the guild, which sprang into existence there at the founding of New Rome, and which even as early as the end of the fourth century was exporting to the islands of the Ægean.

A few other inscriptions on the marble may be briefly noticed. On the inner border of the marble parapet of the north gallery is scratched, “Place of the most noble Patrician Lady Theodora,” ending with an abbreviation that may mean S. Sophia,[418] and again on a panel of the parapet of the north gallery at the west end is seen, “Timothy, keeper of the vessels.” Coteler in his Monumenta Ecclesiae Graecae finds mention of one Timothy, who was skeuophylax of the Great Church at the time of the Monothelite heresies about 622.[419]

On a column in the southern gynaeceum occurs the word Teodorus, but the fact that it is spelt with the Latin T and D proves it to have been written during the Western supremacy, 1204-1261.

In the south gallery is a slab forming a part of the paving; “marks in the face of which seem to suggest that a railing inclosed the space within which a sarcophagus used to stand, supported by pillars.” This is inscribed with the name of the blind Doge who led the Venetians against Constantinople in 1204, and died the following year, “Henricus Dandolo.”