DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55204#0017
THE MOSAIC DECORATIONS OF THE VAULTING n
division of the ceiling offered to the mosaic worker, as spaces to cover, the
soffits of four arches and the four panels into which the diagonal groins divide
each bay of the construction. One of the four soffits is masked by the wall
constituting the lunette on the East side of the Narthex, and consequently the
spaces free for mosaic decoration were reduced to seven. Each bay of the ceiling
is a rectangular oblong, the long axis of which crosses the Narthex. Pl. IV,
which represents the ceiling over the imperial entrance to the nave, shows
the general scheme of geometric decoration adopted for these surfaces. Such
a close correspondence is observable between the geometric forms used in the
mosaics of the Narthex and the designs on the carvings in the interior of the
building that it is certain that they are contemporary. There can be no doubt
that the mosaics of the Narthex, excepting the portrayal filling the central
Lunette E, are of the time of the building of the edifice in Justinian’s reign
(532-7). The crosses offer a clue to the character which Justinian gave to the
entire first interior decoration of the building, to reconcile the Monophysites to
the official Church and thus strengthen his own position in the State. The large
floriated pattern of the vault and the roundels and squares on the transverse ribs
are to be matched with like designs in similar polychrome in stuffs and garments
from Coptic graves of sixth-century Egypt. The vaulting spreads like a pavilion
of figured cloth of gold. No satisfactory description of this work would be
intelligible without reference to detailed drawings; as the use of such exceeds
the purpose of this report, particulars of these decorations are withheld for the
present.
THE CROSSES IN THE LUNETTES
The lunettes on the East side of the Narthex, other than the central Lunette E,
bear in mosaics the figure of the Cross (Pl. VII). These eight lunettes are alike in
presenting a field of gold formed of glass cubes, within the border of which is
drawn a line of red opaque glass tessellae. This roughly follows the outline of
the lunette and emphasizes its shape. The cross is delineated in the centre of
each field, as if in the spirit of the Exaltation. Its shaft and its arms are jewelled
and it is unequal-armed in shape, but it is of a characteristic Byzantine type, the
Golgotha Cross, in which each of the transverse lines marking the extremities
of the cross is produced beyond the limits of the member to form a cap, and this
transverse extension is terminated at each of its ends by an oval stop. This form
of cross appears on mullion capitals in Bay F, in the crown of the vault of each
bay (Pl. VIII), on Justinian’s coinage, and is still visible in Justinian’s earlier
church of St. Sergius (Kiiciik Aya Sofya). Neither the height of the stem nor
the spread of its arms is the same in any two crosses. Table No. I of the Report
division of the ceiling offered to the mosaic worker, as spaces to cover, the
soffits of four arches and the four panels into which the diagonal groins divide
each bay of the construction. One of the four soffits is masked by the wall
constituting the lunette on the East side of the Narthex, and consequently the
spaces free for mosaic decoration were reduced to seven. Each bay of the ceiling
is a rectangular oblong, the long axis of which crosses the Narthex. Pl. IV,
which represents the ceiling over the imperial entrance to the nave, shows
the general scheme of geometric decoration adopted for these surfaces. Such
a close correspondence is observable between the geometric forms used in the
mosaics of the Narthex and the designs on the carvings in the interior of the
building that it is certain that they are contemporary. There can be no doubt
that the mosaics of the Narthex, excepting the portrayal filling the central
Lunette E, are of the time of the building of the edifice in Justinian’s reign
(532-7). The crosses offer a clue to the character which Justinian gave to the
entire first interior decoration of the building, to reconcile the Monophysites to
the official Church and thus strengthen his own position in the State. The large
floriated pattern of the vault and the roundels and squares on the transverse ribs
are to be matched with like designs in similar polychrome in stuffs and garments
from Coptic graves of sixth-century Egypt. The vaulting spreads like a pavilion
of figured cloth of gold. No satisfactory description of this work would be
intelligible without reference to detailed drawings; as the use of such exceeds
the purpose of this report, particulars of these decorations are withheld for the
present.
THE CROSSES IN THE LUNETTES
The lunettes on the East side of the Narthex, other than the central Lunette E,
bear in mosaics the figure of the Cross (Pl. VII). These eight lunettes are alike in
presenting a field of gold formed of glass cubes, within the border of which is
drawn a line of red opaque glass tessellae. This roughly follows the outline of
the lunette and emphasizes its shape. The cross is delineated in the centre of
each field, as if in the spirit of the Exaltation. Its shaft and its arms are jewelled
and it is unequal-armed in shape, but it is of a characteristic Byzantine type, the
Golgotha Cross, in which each of the transverse lines marking the extremities
of the cross is produced beyond the limits of the member to form a cap, and this
transverse extension is terminated at each of its ends by an oval stop. This form
of cross appears on mullion capitals in Bay F, in the crown of the vault of each
bay (Pl. VIII), on Justinian’s coinage, and is still visible in Justinian’s earlier
church of St. Sergius (Kiiciik Aya Sofya). Neither the height of the stem nor
the spread of its arms is the same in any two crosses. Table No. I of the Report