Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 July 2021
After the recapture of Constantinople (1261) artistic production in Byzantium experienced a recovery. In the capital of Byzantium itself this period is marked by the mosaic panel of the Deesis in the Hagia Sophia. This work constitutes a ‘one-off’ in Byzantine art. This fact poses a series of questions concerning the dating, the creator and the patron of the mosaic, as well as the reasons for its creation, given that no source makes any reference to these matters. The present study attempts to re-examine these issues.
I am so grateful to the two reviewers for their valuable suggestions. I am also thankful to Dr. N. Vryzidis for his helpful remarks.
1 The literature on Late Byzantine painting is vast. See e.g. Κ. Μ. Vapheiades, Ύστερη βυζαντινή ζωγραφική. Χώρος και μορφή στην τέχνη της Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, 1150–1450 (Athens 2015) with bibliography.
2 T. Whittemore, The Mosaics of Haghia Sophia at Istanbul. Fourth preliminary report work done in 1934–1938. The Deesis Panel of the South Gallery (Oxford 1952) 26–8. Cf. J. Polzer, ‘Dating the Hagia Sophia Deesis’, Arte Medievale IV serie - anno IX (2019) 113–32. The author connects the Deesis panel with the Italian monumental mosaics of the twelfth century.
3 Grabar, A., La peinture byzantine: étude historique et critique (Geneva 1938) 104–5Google Scholar [= revised edition, The Art of the Byzantine Empire (New York 1967) 150].
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5 Vapheiades, Ύστερη βυζαντινή ζωγραφική, 211–14, and ‘Το Πρωτάτο ως κομβικό μνημείο της ύστερης βυζαντινής ζωγραφικής’, Αθωνικά Τετράδια 2 (2015) 180–2.
6 G. Pachymérès, Relations historiques, Livre I, ed. A. Failler and V. Laurent (Paris 1984) 232–3. On this issue, see for example Macrides, R., ‘The New Constantine and the New Constantinople – 1261?’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 6 (1980) 13–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Α. Failler, ‘La proclamation impériale de Michel VII et d'Andronic II’, Revue des Études Byzantines 44 (1986) 237–51; A.-M Talbot, ‘The restoration of Constantinople under Michael VIII’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 47 (1993) 243–61; V. Kidonopoulos, Bauten in Konstantinopel, 1204–1328. Verfall und Zerstörung, Restaurierung, Umbau und Neubau von Profan- und Sakralbauten (Wiesbaden 1994) 121–5; C. J. Hilsdale, Byzantine Art and Diplomacy in an Age of Decline (Cambridge 2014) 95–6.
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10 Hilsdale, Byzantine Αrt, 98, n. 36.
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17 Boissonade, Anecdota Graeca, 349.
18 Talbot, ‘The Restoration’, 252, n. 63.
19 Whittemore, The Deesis Panel, 21–2.
20 The most recent edition of Mesarites’ Ekphrasis is to be found in Beatrice Daskas, Nicola Mesarite, Descrizione della Chiesa dei Santi Apostoli a Costantinopoli. Traduzione, introduzione, commento (Milan 2013) 124–62. On this issue, see for example B. Daskas, ‘Nikolaos Mesarites, Description of the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople: new critical perspectives’, Παρεκβολαί 6 (2016) 79–102. See also the studies in M. Mullett and R. G. Ousterhout (eds), The Holy Apostles: a lost monument, a forgotten project, and the presentness of the past (Washington D.C. 2020).
21 Kitzinger, E., ‘Byzantine and Medieval mosaics after Justinian’, Encyclopedia of World Art 10 (1965) 344Google Scholar; Maguire, H., ‘Truth and convention in Byzantine description of works of art’, Dumbarton Oaks Paper 28 (1974) 121–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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26 See for example B. Penkova (ed.), The Bojana Church Between the East and the West and the Art of Christian Europe (Sofia 2011).
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28 K. Kefala, Οι τοιχογραφίες του 13ου αιώνα στις εκκλησίες της Ρόδου (Athens 2015) 35–107.
29 For these issues see for example I. Giarenis, Η συγκρότηση και εδραίωση της αυτοκρατορίας της Νίκαιας. Ο αυτοκράτορας Θεόδωρος Α΄ Κομνηνός Λάσκαρης (Athens 2008).
30 Djurić, ‘La peinture byzantine’, 52–3; P. L. Vokotopoulos, ‘Παρατηρήσεις στο ναό του Σωτήρος κοντά στο Γαλαξείδι’, Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας 17 (1993–94) 199–210; Μ. Borboudakis, ‘Ο ναός του Αγίου Νικολάου στα Κυριακοσέλια Αποκορώνου’, Πεπραγμένα του Ι΄ Διεθνούς Κρητολογικού Συνεδρίου, Χανιά, 1–8 Οκτωβρίου 2006, vol. Β.2 (Chania 2011) 273–316.
31 See D. G. Giannoulis, Οι τοιχογραφίες των βυζαντινών μνημείων της Άρτας κατά την περίοδο του Δεσποτάτου της Ηπείρου (Ioannina 2010); P. Vokotopoulos, ‘La peinture dans le Despotat d’Épire’, in J-P. Caillet and F. Joubert (eds), Orient et Occident méditerranéens au XIIIe siècle: les programmes picturaux (Paris 2012); Fundić, Η μνημειακή τέχνη.
32 See e.g. V. J. Djurić (ed.), Mileševa dans l'histoire du peuple serbe (Belgrade 1987); B. Cvetković, ‘Vizantijski car I freske u priprati Mileševe’, Balcanica 32–33 (2003) 297–311; B. Todić, ‘Novo tumačnje programa I rasporeda fresaka u Mileševi’, in C. Grozdanov (ed.), Sur les pas de Vojislav J. Djurić (Belgrade 2011) 55–68; P. Vlahović (ed.), Mećunarobni naučni skui osam bekova manastira Mileševa (Mileševa 2013).
33 See Vapheiades, K. M., ‘The wall-paintings of the Protaton Church revisited’, Zograf. A Journal of Medieval Art 43 (2019) 113–28Google Scholar. For the wall-paintings of the Protaton Church see the bibliography in Vapheiades, loc. cit. For the stylistic relationship between the wall-paintings of the Protaton Church and the mosaic of Hagia Sophia see Vapheiades, Protaton, 181–2.
34 The bibliography on the mosaics of the Chora Monastery is extensive. See e.g. C. Mango and A. Ertuğ, Chora, The Scroll of Heaven (Istanbul 2000) 17–25; R. G. Ousterhout, The Art of the Kariye Camii (London 2002); H. A. Klein, R. G. Ousterhout and B. Pitarakis (eds), Kariye Camii Yeniden / The Kariye Camii Reconsidered (Istanbul 2011).
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37 Cf. C. Jolivet-Lévy, ‘Présence et figures du souverain à Sainte-Sophie de Constantinople et à l’église de la Sainte-Croix d'Aghtamar’, in H. Maguire (ed.) Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204 (Washington, D.C. 2004) 231–7.
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39 The literature on the iconographic theme of the Deesis is extensive. See e..g. Ν. Ghioles, ‘Eschatological representations of Christ’, in Ch. A. Maltezou and G. Galavaris (eds.), Christo nell’ Arte Bizantina e Postbizantina, Atti del convegno, Organizzato nell’ ambito delle celebrazioni promosse dal Patriarcato di Venezia in occasione del Bimillenario della Nascita di Gesù Cristo, Venezia, 22–23 Settembre 2000 (Venice 2002) 48–50, with bibliography.
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48 See Ρ. Etzeoglou, Ο ναός της Οδηγήτριας του Βροντοχίου στον Μυστρά. Οι τοιχογραφίες του νάρθηκα και η λειτουργική χρήση του χώρου (Athens 2013) 27–8.
49 See E. N. Tsigaridas, Τοιχογραφίες της περιόδου των Παλαιολόγων σε ναούς της Μακεδονίας (Thessaloniki 1999) 60–1, fig. 65–7.
50 E. M. Antoniades, Έκφρασις της Αγίας Σοφίας, vol. II (Athens 1908) 316–17. Cf. Th. E. A. Dale, ‘Sacred space from Constantinople to Venise’, in P. Stephenson (ed.), The Byzantine World (London 2009) 406–27.
51 See Melvani, N., ‘The tombs of the Palaiologan emperors’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 42/2 (2018) 237–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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53 For this issue see e.g. A. Lidov, ‘A Byzantine Jerusalem: the imperial Pharos Chapel as the Holy Sepulchre’, in A. Hoffman and G. Wolf (eds), Jerusalem as Narrative space – Erzählraum Jerusalem (Leiden 2012) 63–103.
54 For these mosaics, see e.g. Ch. Mavropoulou-Tsioumi, ‘Άγιοι Απόστολοι’, in Ε. Kourkoutidou-Nikolaidou, Ch. Mavropoulou-Tsioumi and Ch. Bakirtzis, Ψηφιδωτά της Θεσσαλονίκης, 4ος–14ος αιώνας (Athens 2012) 299–302, 309–53, for the Patriarch Nephon, 300, 301–2.