Whittemore, Thomas [Hrsg.]; Byzantine Institute of America [Mitarb.]: The mosaics of Haghia Sophia at Istanbul: preliminary report (4): The Deesis Panel of the South Gallery: work done in 1934-1938 (Oxford: printed by Charles Batey at the University Press, 1952)

THE DEESIS PANEL OF THE SOUTH GALLERY

THE Deesis in mosaics presented in this Report is in a series of paintings
uncovered with the permission of the Turkish government by the Byzan-
tine Institute in the Church of Haghia Sophia in Istanbul. The panel occupies
the East face of the South-West buttress pier of the South Gallery (see Plan).
Early in the year 1933, in the systematic testing to which wall and vaulting of
this Gallery were subjected, these mosaics were rediscovered.
At that time the vast accumulated Turkish archive of the Mosque was being
removed from the rooms at the South end of the West Gallery. Close to a
thousand wooden cases of these documents, which for a while surrounded the
walls of the South Gallery (Pl. I), were ultimately shifted to another building
and gave place to scaffolding (Pl. II). The first incision in the plaster was made
on the 14 th of July 1934 (Pl. Ill), and the uncovering and consolidation simul-
taneously proceeded from then on slowly until the close of the working season
in late November. On the 15 th of May of the following year work on the
panel was resumed and terminated on the 9th of November 1935. Throughout
the seasons of 1936, 1937, and 1938, in the midst of other work, these mosaics
continued to be the object of further critical observation. An accurate tracing
in pencil on transparent linen was made of the figures [1]. During the war such
protection as was possible was provided against damage by concussion from
which providentially the panel escaped (Pl. XXXIII).
As in the previous years, the above-mentioned works were executed with the
gracious assistance of the Turkish Government, an acknowledgement of which
is especially addressed to H.E. the Minister of Public Instruction of Turkey,
Dr. Hamit Ziibeyr Kosay, Director General of the Museums of Turkey, Dr.
Aziz Ogan, Director of National Museums of Istanbul, Dr. Muzaffer Rama-
zanoglu, Director of Aya Sofya Miizesi, H.E. the American Ambassador to
Turkey, Robert P. Skinner, The Honourable G. Howland Shaw, Mr. Archibald
V. Walker, Mr. William James, Mrs. E. K. Wright, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander G.
Veglery, Mr. Albert A. Benois, Technical Assistants: R. A. and W. J. Gregory,
G. Flockton, A. A. Green, N. K. Kluge, E. J. W. Hawkins, E. Mitchell,
J. Brennan, H. S. Hatcher, Walter Hoyle, Pierre Iskander and the Staff of the
Library of the Byzantine Institute in Paris, B. N. Ermoloff, A. Frolow, and
V. Rayevsky.
Special thanks should be offered to Mr. and Mrs. Napo Fernando De’
Torriani-Fossati who kindly put at our disposal a sketch of the Deesis Panel
B