DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27180#0411
CONSTANTINOPLE
the space woke up, moved and sang, and this concert set the
listener swinging. Now the whole cupola seemed to be
floating, and this was only a part of the miracle. The concert
of sounds made us stand on tiptoe. You could almost have
believed that like the fretted marble of the capitals and arches
it was a petrified network of some indefinite fabric.
The exterior of the building, with the crutch-like sup-
ports and the confusing additions, is not worth considering.
It cannot be said to have any form. In the presence of this
jumble it is better to dismiss henceforth from one’s thoughts
all recollection of the beautiful temple-exteriors one has
brought with one from Greece. The exterior, too, was built
by Greeks; it was carried — or miscarried — out by the same
Anthemius. He knew what he was doing. We have as little
right to suppose that he was ignorant of the temple-facades
of his forebears as that he was trying to come to terms with
the basilica.
In the forecourt, which the visitor passes through on his
way to the church, they have started an extremely primitive
open-air cafe, where shrieking Turkish waiters request you
to take a seat. It’s all part and parcel of it. I thought of that
place by the Jordan with the stuffed beasts in the trees and
the derelict gramophone, where they say Christ was baptized.
Mohammed respected Christ, and the Mohammedan religion
has taken over this and that from our own; in any case it
stands much nearer to us than many others, especially the
cult of the ancient gods. It is odd how badly Islamic art
compares with ours, how little community of religious ideas
influences form, and how powerfully racial antipathies
hamper the amalgamation of creative instincts. No mosque
allows you to forget that it is a travesty of a church; in the
circumstances you would more readily endure still more
brutal encroachments. The nature of a mosque is incom-
patible with our architecture; it sweetens and softens forms
whose charm lies in their acerbity. The mischievous results
375
the space woke up, moved and sang, and this concert set the
listener swinging. Now the whole cupola seemed to be
floating, and this was only a part of the miracle. The concert
of sounds made us stand on tiptoe. You could almost have
believed that like the fretted marble of the capitals and arches
it was a petrified network of some indefinite fabric.
The exterior of the building, with the crutch-like sup-
ports and the confusing additions, is not worth considering.
It cannot be said to have any form. In the presence of this
jumble it is better to dismiss henceforth from one’s thoughts
all recollection of the beautiful temple-exteriors one has
brought with one from Greece. The exterior, too, was built
by Greeks; it was carried — or miscarried — out by the same
Anthemius. He knew what he was doing. We have as little
right to suppose that he was ignorant of the temple-facades
of his forebears as that he was trying to come to terms with
the basilica.
In the forecourt, which the visitor passes through on his
way to the church, they have started an extremely primitive
open-air cafe, where shrieking Turkish waiters request you
to take a seat. It’s all part and parcel of it. I thought of that
place by the Jordan with the stuffed beasts in the trees and
the derelict gramophone, where they say Christ was baptized.
Mohammed respected Christ, and the Mohammedan religion
has taken over this and that from our own; in any case it
stands much nearer to us than many others, especially the
cult of the ancient gods. It is odd how badly Islamic art
compares with ours, how little community of religious ideas
influences form, and how powerfully racial antipathies
hamper the amalgamation of creative instincts. No mosque
allows you to forget that it is a travesty of a church; in the
circumstances you would more readily endure still more
brutal encroachments. The nature of a mosque is incom-
patible with our architecture; it sweetens and softens forms
whose charm lies in their acerbity. The mischievous results
375