DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55205#0033
THE SUBJECT OF THE MOSAIC 27
vault of the sanctuary is the symbol of the part of the world above the sky [38].
Moreover, in practice, even on Mount Athos, this name was not often used.
Other titles, laudatory or derived from the names of sanctuaries in which these
images were venerated, have been attributed to this type, but they likewise
present an exceptional attribution and cannot serve for determining the icono-
graphical definition of the antiquity and range of this form which seem to have
made it the very image of the Mother of God.
The Virgin in this aspect is sometimes represented alone, but more often as
the central figure of a pyramidal group, as we see in the Mosaic of the Vestibule.
In such a way, different types of representations were created, distinguished by
the attendant figures and their attitude. Most frequently these are angels. Such
a composition decorated the apse of most of the Byzantine churches. It is to
be found also on certain early objects of Christian art, as a bas-relief of Thebes
of the fourth or fifth century in the Cairo Museum [39], and on an ivory
scarcely a century later in the Berlin Museum [40].
The offering of their gifts by the Magi was another theme of sacred history
that from an early date was treated in this form. According to Kondakov the
iconographical type of the Virgin of the Vestibule Panel was fashioned precisely
from this theme [41]. Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, adorned
the Basilica in Bethlehem with a mosaic composition of this kind, which is
known to us by its reproduction on the Monza ampullae, where the attitude
of the Virgin varies but slightly from that shown on the panel of the Vestibule
[42]. This favoured setting must have secured popularity for other similar
presentations. Where, in the most ancient examples, the number of the Magi is
even, the resemblance to the panel at St. Sophia is especially striking, for
instance, on the silver casket of San Nazaro at Milan, and in the paintings of
the Catacombs of SS. Pietro e Marcellino in Rome [43].
A third variant of the composition shows us saints at the sides of the Virgin,
sometimes motionless, sometimes in the attitude of prayer, sometimes offering
their crowns as martyrs to the Mother and Child. This image had already been
formed in the sixth century—in combination with the Adoration of the Magi-
in St. Apollinare Nuovo of Ravenna. It is, however, only from the ninth to the
eleventh centuries that one finds the examples closely resembling the Mosaic
of St. Sophia. Thus, in the double church of SS. Silvestro and Martin of Tours,
and in Santa Pudenziana, both in Rome, the offerings are made to the Virgin
by two saints who are clad in imperial garments and who make the same gesture
as Justinian and Constantine in the panel at St. Sophia.
Finally, at the time of the last Byzantine Revival, more complicated composi-
tions, destined to glorify the Virgin, were constructed around the same figure
vault of the sanctuary is the symbol of the part of the world above the sky [38].
Moreover, in practice, even on Mount Athos, this name was not often used.
Other titles, laudatory or derived from the names of sanctuaries in which these
images were venerated, have been attributed to this type, but they likewise
present an exceptional attribution and cannot serve for determining the icono-
graphical definition of the antiquity and range of this form which seem to have
made it the very image of the Mother of God.
The Virgin in this aspect is sometimes represented alone, but more often as
the central figure of a pyramidal group, as we see in the Mosaic of the Vestibule.
In such a way, different types of representations were created, distinguished by
the attendant figures and their attitude. Most frequently these are angels. Such
a composition decorated the apse of most of the Byzantine churches. It is to
be found also on certain early objects of Christian art, as a bas-relief of Thebes
of the fourth or fifth century in the Cairo Museum [39], and on an ivory
scarcely a century later in the Berlin Museum [40].
The offering of their gifts by the Magi was another theme of sacred history
that from an early date was treated in this form. According to Kondakov the
iconographical type of the Virgin of the Vestibule Panel was fashioned precisely
from this theme [41]. Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, adorned
the Basilica in Bethlehem with a mosaic composition of this kind, which is
known to us by its reproduction on the Monza ampullae, where the attitude
of the Virgin varies but slightly from that shown on the panel of the Vestibule
[42]. This favoured setting must have secured popularity for other similar
presentations. Where, in the most ancient examples, the number of the Magi is
even, the resemblance to the panel at St. Sophia is especially striking, for
instance, on the silver casket of San Nazaro at Milan, and in the paintings of
the Catacombs of SS. Pietro e Marcellino in Rome [43].
A third variant of the composition shows us saints at the sides of the Virgin,
sometimes motionless, sometimes in the attitude of prayer, sometimes offering
their crowns as martyrs to the Mother and Child. This image had already been
formed in the sixth century—in combination with the Adoration of the Magi-
in St. Apollinare Nuovo of Ravenna. It is, however, only from the ninth to the
eleventh centuries that one finds the examples closely resembling the Mosaic
of St. Sophia. Thus, in the double church of SS. Silvestro and Martin of Tours,
and in Santa Pudenziana, both in Rome, the offerings are made to the Virgin
by two saints who are clad in imperial garments and who make the same gesture
as Justinian and Constantine in the panel at St. Sophia.
Finally, at the time of the last Byzantine Revival, more complicated composi-
tions, destined to glorify the Virgin, were constructed around the same figure