Whittemore, Thomas [Editor]; Byzantine Institute of America [Contr.]: The mosaics of Haghia Sophia at Istanbul: preliminary report (3rd preliminary report): The imperial portraits of the south gallery: work done in 1935 and 1938 (Oxford: printed by John Johnson at the Oxford University Press for the Byzantine Institute, 1942)

PARTICULARS OF COLOURS, MEASUREMENTS, ETC.

Position
Detail
Particulars
John
Comnenos
Divitission
burnt-sealing-wax-red glass. The cuff itself is of gold in which is a
design of burnt-seahng-wax-red glass. The edge nearest the hand is
outlined with a row of darkest plum—almost black—glass that becomes
a double row on the under side of the cuff. The edge of an under-
garment of whitish stone is visible at the lower part of the cuff.
133
Shoulder-
piece
The reddish-violet material of this part of the divitission almost entirely
disappears under the gold ground of the ornaments. The bands which
divide the shoulder-piece into rectangles and form its lower border
are similar to the bands edging the armlets, i.e. a double row of whitish
round stones are set on a ground of gold, edged on both sides by a
row of reddish-violet tessellae. The whitish stones here have a light-
brownish cast. The square jewels set at the intersection of the bands
are in a gold setting. The upper jewel on the right side of the shoulder-
piece is in sealing-wax-red glass, the lower one in sapphire-blue glass;
the only jewel of these bands seen on the left side is in light green glass.
The two gold rectangles on the right side of the shoulder-piece contain
a sapphire-blue jewel in the upper rectangle and a burnt-sealing-wax-red
one in the lower one. The single rectangle on the left side has a jewel
made of sapphire glass tessellae in its lower part with greyish-blue glass
tessellae above them.
From the gold squares holding jewels on the border on the shoulder-
piece are shown pearl-pendants made of two whitish stone tessellae,
the upper pear-shaped and the lower round.
134
•
Loros
The loros, like the shoulder-piece, represents the same gold ground
divided by jewelled bands into square sections. Here again each band
has a gold ground studded with a double row of whitish stones and
a reddish-violet edge. A square jewel adorns them wherever these
bands cross. The large jewels set in each of the squares formed by the
crossing of the bands have a gold setting with claws and are made in
two tones of tessellae, the lighter one being in the middle. Beginning
at the top and continuing down along the right outside border, these
jewels are: emerald-green glass and hghter greyish-green glass; burnt-
seahng-wax-red glass and light rose-coloured stone; sapphire-blue and
greyish-blue glass; emerald-green glass with light greyish-green; and
below the hand, partly seen, burnt-sealing-wax-red with light rose
stone tessellae. In the left-hand row: burnt-seahng-wax-red glass and
light rose stone; sapphire-blue glass with greyish-blue; emerald-green
and light greyish-green; burnt-seahng-wax-red glass and light rose
stone; and finally the jewel only partly seen below the wrist: green-
emerald and light greyish-green glass.
The smaller jewels set at the intersections of the bands reading from the
upper triangular one down and from the right border to the left are:
sealing-wax-red, greyish-blue, and sapphire-blue glass; emerald and
light greyish-green glass; burnt-seahng-wax-red glass, and—the lower
jewel under the right hand—sapphire and greyish-blue glass. The jewels
set in the middle band are as follows: sapphire-blue and greyish-blue
glass; burnt-sealing-wax-red glass; sapphire-blue glass; emerald and light
greyish-green glass, and below the wrist, emerald and light greyish-green.
In the left border band the jewels are: emerald and light greyish-green
glass; glass of burnt-seahng-wax-red; sapphire and greyish-blue glass;
emerald and light greyish-green glass; and below the wrist, burnt-seahng-
wax-red glass and rose stone. The pattern of the horizontal section of the
1 loros which crosses slantingly the middle part of the body is similar to