Posts in category: Art

A beautiful Byzantine Church was once created… “Not (just for) the rhetors or philosophers, / not those who study the writings of Hellenes, / not those who read pagan writings, / not those who lead a theatrical life, / not those who talk in a polished and sophisticated manner, / nor those who receive great titles…” but for all citizens of the great city of Constantinople! Preparing for my new POST Unidentified Byzantine Church in Constantinople known today as Gül Camii I thought that this small part of Symeon the New Theologian’s Hymn, could serve as a suitable Introduction for a Byzantine Church that still serves today the citizens of the same city… as a Moslem Mosque. Writing and Reading Byzantine Secular Poetry, 1025-1081, by Floris Bernard, 2014, p. 157 https://www.academia.edu/7915672/Writing_and_Reading_Byzantine_Secular_Poetry_1025_1081 and on Symeon the New Theologian file:///C:/Users/aspil/Downloads/5.2mcguckin.pdf

This is a Byzantine cross-in-square plan Church with a triple apse, dated to the 9th, 11th, or 12^th century, with… a lot of questions to pose!

The Architecture of this impressive building is complex and complicated. The Church is built on top of “a vaulted basement, which forms a raised platform for the monument… with walls (still) exposed to the southeast and east, where the terrain slopes down towards the Golden Horn.” What a magnificent location! The architect of the original Church created a lofty space with “a wide entry hall, capped with a low barrel vault (and) a triple archway leading into the tall domed nave.” The Greek cross was formed by “galleries forming the side arms… and an (impressive) apsidal sanctuary at its southeast end.” Triple archways were used to enter the side galleries, taller than the entry hall, adding to the building’s lofty atmosphere. Architectural alterations, the addition of a gallery, during the Palaiologan and the Ottoman periods simply add to the building’s architectural questions. The Church was beautifully illuminated by five tiers of windows on the side facades, adding to its light and spacious ambiance. Finally, “the original dome would have rested on a tall drum pierced with windows and the supporting arches would be integrated into the barrel vaults on four sides.” Today, “the central dome, with its low octagonal drum carried on broad pointed arches, is recognizably Ottoman.” http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=7172 and https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/hagia-theodosia

“The identity and dating of the church are difficult to determine, as it was significantly altered during both the Byzantine and Ottoman eras.” Traditionally, it has been identified as the Church of Hagia Theodosia, a most venerated martyr of the Iconoclastic period and a popular Constantinopolitan place of adoration. It has also been proposed that this is the Katholikon of the Monastery of Christ Euergetes, a grand Komnenian edifice of worship. It has also been suggested that Gül Camii is the Church of St Euphemia en tō Petriō. https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/hagia-theodosia and http://eistinpolin330.blogspot.com/2011/05/gul-camii.html and https://www.academia.edu/1495653/Comnenian_monastic_foundations_in_Constantinople and http://constantinople.ehw.gr/Forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=11775

I like the present name of this old religious edifice whatever its identification may be… Gül Camii… the Mosque of the Rose. “According to tradition, the church was renamed Gül Camii… because on the day of the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans (29 May 1453), also the day of commemoration of St Theodosia, the church was filled with roses. This tradition is not considered accurate, since the Byzantine church was not converted into a mosque immediately after the Fall, but during the reign of Sultan Selim II (1566-1574). “It has also been associated (hence the Ottoman name of the building) with a Muslim saint known as Gül Baba (“Father Rose”) whose tomb is supposedly inside the church.” http://constantinople.ehw.gr/Forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=11775 and https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/hagia-theodosia

For a Student Activity, please… Check HERE!

“The house of Angelus, which had thus found greatness so suddenly and unexpectedly thrust upon it, was neither old nor particularly distinguished.” Writes John Julius Norwich on page 156 of his book on Byzantium – The Decline and Fall… and continues “…for of all the families who at one time or another wore the imperial crown of Byzantium, the Angeli were the worst. Their supremacy was mercifully short: the three Angelus Emperors – Isaac II, Alexius III and Alexius IV – reigned, from first to last, a mere nineteen years. But each was in his own way disastrous, and together they were responsible for the greatest catastrophe that Constantinople was ever to suffer until its final fall.” The Ring of Michael Stryphnos in the Byzantine Collection of the Dumbarton Oaks Museum reminds me of one such catastrophic decision taken by Emperor Alexius III Angelus and its disastrous outcome.

The ring itself is impressive and beautiful. The Dumbarton Oaks experts describe it as having “a heavy gold hoop and a circular bezel with the bust of the Virgin, inscribed in Greek, Mother of God, in cloisonne enamel.”  The master jeweler used more enamel colours to brighten the ring up… pink for the face of the Mother of God, turquoise, green, red, and blue for the rest of the minuscule composition. “Around the beel is an enamelled inscription in Greek, Mother of God, help thy servant, which is continued on the hoop, Michael the Admiral Stryphnos. Michael Stryphnos has been identified as the Admiral of the Byzantine fleet under Emperor Alexius III Angelus (1195-1203). This beautiful, large, and enamelled gold ring, was probably given to Michael Stryphnos by Emperor Alexios III on the occasion of his appointment as the Megas Doux. Handbook of the Byzantine Collection – Dumbarton Oaks,  page 72 https://books.google.gr/books?id=8IlFkJOPYx0C&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=Ring+of+Michael+Stryphnos&source=bl&ots=KCzeV2w8di&sig=ACfU3U3KMHNMlVldzFqjDg1td6XJXvazpg&hl=el&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjHxrO9x4TwAhVYgv0HHXMkBPIQ6AEwDnoECA8QAw#v=onepage&q=Ring%20of%20Michael%20Stryphnos&f=false

Michael Stryphnos is first recorded in Byzantine sources in 1192 as Sebastos and the head of the Vestiarion (the imperial treasury), under Emperor Isaac II Angelos. He then married Theodora, daughter of Andronikos Kamateros and the sister of the Empress Euphrosyne Doukaina, wife of Emperor Alexios III Angelos, the relationship with the Imperial family became closer and he became Megas Doux and the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine Navy. A lamentable choice for Alexios III because according to the historian Nikita Choniati, Stryphnos was “a man of Ring of Michael Stryphnos extraordinary rapacity and dishonesty of the rare.” Instead of fortifying the Byzantine navy, he used his position for personal gain. His actions “marked the effective end of the Byzantine fleet, which was, therefore, not able to resist the Fourth Crusade a few years later.” His position as Megas Doux, brought him to southern Greece as Governor of the area, visiting Athens ca. 1201-1202 AD. It was during this trip that the local Bishop, Michael Choniates, wrote a Eulogy in his honor and three interesting seals in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection survived time and destruction. https://amp.en.google-info.org/36817230/1/michael-stryphnos.html 

For a Student Activity on the Ring of Michael Stryphnos, please… Check HERE!

…it was becoming clear that Constantine was determined to put an end to Diocletian’s disastrous division of the Empire and to rule it alone. From 320, in defiance of recent tradition, he did not even include an easterner as one of the two annually elected Consuls, naming instead himself and his younger son; in 321 both his sons were named. The same year he began to gather together a huge war fleet, and to enlarge and deepen the harbour of Thessaloniki in readiness for its reception… writes John Julius Norwich in Byzantium, The Early Centuries, (pp. 47-48) and I think of the Gold Coin Pendant of Constantine the Great in the British Museum that commemorates the 321 Consulship and the ten years ahead that will change our world!

The British Museum Gold Coin Pendant of Constantine the Great is indeed spectacular! It is one of four or five similar Pendants, part of an impressive necklace, a very popular jewelry design of the Late Roman and Early Byzantine periods. Coin-set pendants were often of hexagonal shape, with a golden coin (solidus) placed in the center, and intricate pierced work, opus interrasile, for further ornamentation. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collectio n/object/H_1984-0501-1

According to the British Museum experts “…In the centre of the pendant is a double solidus of Constantine the Great. On the obverse, (depicted is) a bust of Constantine… wearing a radiate diadem and cuirass and paludamentum, (with his) right hand upraised (while) around the bust, a Latin inscription reads D N CONSTANTINVS MAX AVG. On the reverse, (depicted are) two confronted laureate busts of Constantine II and Crispus, both wearing imperial costume and holding eagle-topped sceptres. Around and below them, a Latin inscription reads CRISPVS ET CONSTANTINVS NOB CAESS COSS II. In each angle of the hexagon (the artist of the pendant created) a bust in high relief: from top left moving clockwise (a) female bust with elaborate coiffure (is depicted) looking to (the) right, (then a) female bust (is depicted) looking to (the) left. (A) bearded bust (follows) looking to (to the) left, (a)female bust looking to (the) left (as well), (a) bust of Attis (follows) wearing (a) Phrygian cap looking to (the) right (and finally a) female bust (is depicted) looking to (the) right. Each bust is framed by a circlet of beaded gold wire and a plain collar of gold sheet. The interstices between the busts are decorated in opus interrasile, the design comprising a heart-shaped motif in plain reserved gold from which emanate two vegetal scrolls which in turn form a larger open-work heart; running scroll tendrils fill the spaces between the collars and inner and outer borders; the scroll tendril design is less skilfully replicated on the suspension loop.” An inscription in Latin, SIRM, confirms that the Medallion was minted in Sirmium. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1984-0501-1

For a Student Activity, please… check Here!