Posts in category: Byzantium

I like how Chrysa A. Maltezou starts her article “Βενετία κι Βυζαντινή Παράδοση – Η Εικόνα της Παναγίας Νικοποιού” (Venice and the Byzantine Legacy – The Byzantine Icon of Panagia Nikopoiou). Please allow me to paraphrase… It was May of 1797, the army of Napoleon Bonaparte was at Venice’s doorstep, the end of the Venetian Republic was fast approaching and the citizens of La Serenissima were desperate… Their hopes rested on divine intervention and like the Byzantines, a centuries-old memory, the Comnenian Icon of Panagia Nikopoiou, Venice’s Palladium, was placed on public veneration at San Marco’s Basilica…It is only interesting to contemplate how the Venetians, hoping for salvation and victory remembered their ties to the long-lost Empire of Byzantium and its Legacy! https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/bz/article/view/3570/3430

Tradition links the Icon of Panagia Nikopoiou to Constantinople and the fateful days of the Fourth Crusade, when according to Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485-1557) the Icon of Nikopoiou (Bringer of Victory) abandoned by Alexios Mourtzouflos on the battlefield, was captured by the Crusaders… The barons and the Venetians battered the walls and towers day and night without with various machines, and redoubled the War, conducting many great skirmishes from one area to another; it was in one of these that they valorously acquired the banner of the Tyrant but with much greater joy a panel on which was painted the image of Our Lady, which the Greek Emperors had continuously carried in their exploits since all their hopes for the health and salvation of the Empire rested in it.  The Venetians held this image dear above all other riches and jewels that they took, and today it is venerated with great reverence and devotion here in the church of San Marco, and it is one that is carried in procession during times of War and plaque, and to pray for rain and good weather… https://www.pallasweb.com/deesis/nicopeia-icon-san-marco-loot-from-constantinople-1204-crusade

It has been debated, since 1821, whether the Icon of Panagia Nikopoiou, as Nikitas Choniatis mentions in his Χρονική Διήγησις with one brief sentence …ητηςθεομήτοροςεικών, ήνοιβασιλείςΡωμαίωνποιούνταισυστράτηγον, τοῖς ἐναντίοις ἑάλωκεν… is the same Icon Emperor Alexios Mourtzouflos abandoned on the Walls of Constantinople. Giovanni Battista Ramusio thinks so, and writes about it, establishing a tradition that still keeps strong… http://users.uoa.gr/~nektar/history/tributes/byzantine_historians/nicetas_choniates_historia.htm and https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/bz/article/view/3570/3430

The Icon itself, presenting Mary holding the Child before Her, is a wonderful work of Art… a fine example of Byzantine iconography. Stark and imposing, it has a compelling effect on me every time I visit San Marco to pay my respects. Conserved in the left transept of the great Basilica, in a chapel of the same name, the Icon of the Virgin was once covered with precious jewels, diamonds, and pearls, now exhibited in the Treasury, following theft and later recovery.

Today, the Icon is enhanced by its Byzantine frame of gilded silver with gold enamels, pearls, and gemstones, of great beauty. The best-preserved part of the Icon is the face of the Virgin, oval in shape, with thick, arched eyebrows, a definite trait of beauty, large eyes, looking slightly to the left, a long nose, and small lips. It is not firmly established when and by whom this amazing Icon was painted. I can only say that it displays extreme delicacy and refinement in the painter’s technique. https://www.pallasweb.com/deesis/nicopeia-icon-san-marco-loot-from-constantinople-1204-crusade

For a Student Activity, please… Check HERE!

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!

“…denuded of all help, and deprived of human alliance, we were spiritually led on by holding fast to our hopes in the Mother of the Word, our God, urging her to implore her Son, invoking her for the expiation of our sins, her intercession of our salvation, her protection as an impregnable wall for us, begging her to break the boldness of the barbarians, her to crush their insolence, her to defend the despairing people and fight for her own flock…” writes Patriarch Photius in the second of his two homilies on the siege of Constantinople by the Rus’ and  Sirarpie der Nersessian, in his 1960 Dumbarton Oaks Papers article titled Two Images of the Virgin, quotes him. I couldn’t find better introductory remarks for a BLOG POST on the marble Icon of The Interceding Theotokos at Dumbarton Oaks. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291145?seq=15#metadata_info_tab_contents page 72 and https://www.doaks.org/resources/bliss-tyler-correspondence/art/bz/BZ.1938.62.jpg/view

The Dumbarton Oaks Museum is my favourite temple of the Muses in Washington DC! It breathes history, scholarship elegance and class… Its collection of Byzantine Art is top quality, the ways and the hows this collection was acquired fascinates me, the scholarship involved, I believe, is more than appreciated by everyone who loves Byzantium. https://www.academia.edu/3585132/_Royal_Tyler_and_the_Bliss_Collection_of_Byzantine_Art_in_James_N_Carder_ed_A_Home_of_the_Humanities_The_Collecting_and_Patronage_of_Mildred_and_Robert_Woods_Bliss_Washington_D_C_Dumbarton_Oaks_Research_Library_and_Collection_27_50?email_work_card=view-paper “Royal Tyler and the Bliss Collection of Byzantine Art,” in James N. Carder, ed., A Home of the Humanities: The Collecting and Patronage of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks

I confess, I first noticed The Marble Interceding Theotokos in the collection of Dumbarton Oaks when I visited the grand Metropolitan Museum Exhibition The Glory of Byzantium back in 1997. Exhibited then, along with the Lips Monastery Icon of Saint Eudokia from the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul, the two marble Icons “opened my eyes” in the genre of Sculpted Marble Icons from the Byzantine era. Ever since I seek them out, and when I visit the Museum of Byzantine Culture in my hometown Thessaloniki, I always pay my respects to the marble ΜΗ(ΤΗ)Ρ Θ(ΕΟ)Υ(=Mother of God) Icon in Room 4, where artefacts of the Macedonian and Komnenian dynasties are presented. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Glory_of_Byzantium_Art_and_Culture_of_the_Middle_Byzantine_Era_AD_843_1261 and https://www.mbp.gr/en/object/marble-icon-praying-virgin

One more confession… the title of this BLOG POST was a decision that troubled me. At Dumbarton Oaks Museum the marble Icon of the Theotokos is presented as Virgin Hagiosoritissa Relief. The Glory of Byzantium Exhibition Catalogue uses a similar name Icon of the Virgin Hagiosoritissa. I thought, this is it…until I started reading Sirarpie der Nersessian article Two Images of the Virgin in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, and I changed my mind! The author presents in detail the different styles, whereabouts and use of Interceding Theotokos Icons in every medium! Bottom line… I was not convinced the Marble Icon of the Theotokos is of the Hagiosoritissa type… and the title changed to The Interceding Theotokos at Dumbarton Oaks.

For a Student Activity on The Interceding Theotokos at Dumbarton Oaks, please… check HERE!

“The frequent fires that have caused such terrible destructions in Constantinople have, in some respect, facilitated archaeological investigation and the study of Byzantine monuments. As is well known, the byzantine churches that have been converted into mosques usually stood tightly surrounded by wooden houses in the center of labyrinthic Turkish quarters. Following the disappearance of these obstructive houses, many Byzantine monuments have emerged as isolated ruins in the midst of wide open spaces… This has been the case with the monastery of Lips to which the Empress Theodora added towards the end of the thirteenth century the church of the Prodromos, intended as a mausoleum for herself and the family of the Palaeoplogi…” writes Theodore Macridy as an introduction to his article… and I am indebted for all the information he provides for the Lips Monastery in Constantinople and the Theotokos Panachrantos Church BLOG POST https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291214?origin=crossref&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

It was a summery June day of 907 (or 908) and Emperor Leo (Leo VI, called the Wise, 866-912) was on his way to the inauguration ceremony of a new Church dedicated to the Mother of God “Πανάχραντος.” The streets were quiet in the Lykos valley where Patrikios Constantinos Lips decided to commission his new Church taking into consideration novel architectural ideas. Constantinos Lips, aristocrat and military official, is at the peak of his career and he wants the Church of Πανάχραντοςto to reflect his status and… ambitions...

The Church of Theotokos Panachrantos, or the North Church as is popularly known, is the oldest example of the cross-in-square domed type of Church Architecture in Constantinople. It is also a religious structure with a tripartite sanctuary to the east, and north to the west. The north and south vaults of the church terminate in huge windows that gloriously illuminate the interior of the church. The eastern vault extends over the church’s apse, creates a spacious Bema and is flanked by two tiny but elegant, quatrefoil structures that serve as the Prothesis and the Diakonikon. Apparently, the walls of this impressive church were further enhanced with marble veneering, both inside and outside. The Church of Theotokos Panachrantos was domed but the four columns supporting the vaults are missing, although three column bases survived the church’s probable fire destruction, and remain in their original positions. Equally interesting is the three-bay Narthex of the Church, which culminates, on its narrow sides, in shallow niches. Originally, the Narthex was preceded by a narrow exterior porch that covered the main entrance to the narthex. http://constantinople.ehw.gr/Forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=10907

The original Church of the Panachrantos, incorporated in its original design plan, had six additional Chapels. Two of them, single-naved, flanking the Prothesis and Diakonikon, are now lost in their initial state. The North Chapel suffered the most. Today only a part of its apse has been discovered and unearthed as the result of archaeological excavations. The Southern Chapel, on the other hand, located next to the Panachrantos Diakonikon, was partially saved, serving as the Prothesis of the, attached, thirteenth century Church of Saint John. Four more Chapels existed on the roof of the North Church. These Chapels, partialy destroyed during the fire of 1917, were not visible if you were inside the Church. Two of these Chapels, in quatrefoil shape, were situated over the western corner bays of the naos, and two more Chapels, located over the Diakonikon and Prothesis, were to be seen at the east end of the building. Access to the roof was through a staircase inside the tower south of the Narthex. https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/lips

The North church provides probably the largest and the most “outstanding collection of Middle Byzantine sculptural decoration in Constantinople” write Cyril Mango and Ernest J. W. Hawkins in their 1964 DO article. What survived shows “a wealth of carved ornaments both inside and outside… (unique quality in execution, and the use of) …an endless variety of motifs – highly stylized palmettes, and “bouquets” of different forms, fleurons, stars and crosses (peacocks and eagles) – (that create) a sense of unit on the decoration as a whole.” The style of sculptural rendering is crisp, with sharp ridges that are carefully “smoothed down to the flat background upon which the forward contours of the motifs are repeated.” Mango and Hawkins proceed to an amazing description of amazing discoveries. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291216?origin=crossref&seq=6#metadata_info_tab_contents, pp. 304-311

The Church Constantinos Lips, built in the early 10th century, survived time, devastating fires and invasions. Attached to it, Empress Theodora, widow of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos (r. 1259–1282), established a second Church dedicated to St. John the Baptist known today as the “South Church.” Constantinos’s Church was now part of a prestigious Nunnery, a Xenon and the Burial “ground) of the Paleologean family. (…to be addressed)  

During the Ottoman period the Lips Monastery (South Church) served as a Mescit (a small mosque) and later, in 1636, after a fire in 1633, the South Church was upgraded to Camii while the North Church was converted into a Tekke (a dervish lodge). Two more fires down the path of history…the building was abandoned… but excavations in 1929, and a thorough restoration between the 1950s and the 1960s by the Byzantine Institute of America, gave it new life, so that today, known as Fenari Isa Camii, serves once again as a mosque.

An interesting Video of the exterior of Lips Monastery can be accessed … https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1703858606415101

For a Student Activity, please…Click HERE!