By Zeynep Cancelik

Architecture

The Great Roman Empire

ArtHistory

Istanbul

The Church of Holly Wisdom God

HAGIA SOPHIA “CHURCH OF THE HOLY WISDOM GOD”

• Former church,• later a mosque,• now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey.

THE TOUR IS ABOUT…

Emperor Justinian

• Desire to be ever lasting • Year 532• Architects

– physicist Isidore of Miletus – mathematician Anthemius of Tralles

Interesting Facts About the Construction

• Material from all over the empire;– Hellenistic columns from the temple of Artemis – large stones were brought from far-away quarries: porphyry from Egypt, – green marble from Thessaly – black stone from the Bosporus region – yellow stone from Syria

• 10,000 people

• Interior height of 55.6 m

• Completed in 562.

Architecture

• 1st masterpiece of Byzantine architecture• Remained the largest cathedral for 1,000 years• Architectural achievement of late antiquity• Influenced; the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Muslim

The Groundplan

The Dome, exterior view

The Dome, interior view

Central Dome

• Dia: 31.24 m• Height from floor level of

55.6 m

• Seems rendered weightless by the unbroken arcade of 40 arched windows

56.5 m

Dome

• Supported by pendentives– never been used before– aesthetic quality – circular base of a dome on a

rectangular base– allow the weight of the dome

to flow downward.

Between them the dome seems to float upon four great arches.

• Windows: help flood the colorful interior with light.

A Section Of The Architecture

• extended by half domes carried on smaller semi-domed • a hierarchy of unexampled in antiquity

The largest columns

• 19 or 20 meters tall• Dia:1.5 meters diameter• Made out of granite• Weighing well over 70 tons

One of the mighty stone columns with metal clasps

Imperial Gate

Marble Jar From Pergamon

The Reign Of Sultan Murad 3rd

Originally from the Hellenistic periodcarved from a single block of marble.

19th Century marker of the tomb of Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice who commanded the Sack of Constantinople

in 1204

Upper Gallery

• an area for the empress and her court. • laid out in a horseshoe shape– encloses the nave until the apse.

• Several mosaics are preserved

Interior view from the upper gallery

Loge of the Empress

• Located in centre of the upper gallery

• The empress and the court-ladies would watch the proceedings down below.

Decorations

• the interior decorations consisted of – abstract designs of the marble slabs on the walls – mosaics on the curving vaults.• Crosses,angels, saints, patriarchs

Marble Door

• Used by the participants in synods

• Entered & left the meeting chamber through this door

Capital with monogramm

Mosaics

• Close-up view of a mosaic

Mosaic cubes

Mosaics

• Depicted :– Virgin Mother, Jesus,

Saints, or emperors and empresses.

• Sack of Constantinople 1204– Latin Crusaders

vandalization

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Deesis_Hagia_Sophia.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Byzantinischer_Mosaizist_um_1118_001.jpg

The Virgin and Child

• 1st post-iconoclastic mosaics.

• "Peace be with you. I am the light of the world". • Archangel Gabriel (founder of the church and Mother Mary. • Express the timeless power bestowed by Christ on the Byzantine emperors.

• Emperor Constantine: a model of the city• "Great emperor Constantine of the Saints". • Emperor Justinian I, offering a model of the Hagia Sophia.• "Mētēr" and "Theou", meaning "Mother of God".

• Constantine IX Monomachus and Empress Zoe– offering a purse/scroll, as symbol of the donation

• "Constantine, pious emperor in Christ the God, king of the Romans, Monomachus".

Conversion to the a Mosque

• Conquered in 1453

• Strengthened with structural supports by the great Ottoman architect Sinan– one of the world's first earthquake engineer

Names of Allah& Prophet

Muhammed

Built a new Minaret

The Mihrablocated in the apse where the altar used to stand, pointing towards Mecca

Loggia for a muezzin

A Minbar Decorated

With Marble

•added a medrese (Koranic school)

•a soup kitchen (for the poor) and a library

•a fountain for ritual ablutions (Şadirvan)

Transformation into a kullive: a social complex

Museum

• (1935) Mustafa Kemal Ataturk transformation• The carpets were removed;

The marble floor decorations reappeared• The white plaster covering the mosaics removed by expert restorers.

20th-century Restoration

• The interior of the dome

• BALANCE between– Christian iconographic

mosaics – Islamic calligraphy

• SINAN• Süleymaniye• Istanbul, 1550-1557

Resources

• Wikipedia– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia

Suggestions

• http://mosaicartsource.wordpress.com/category/mosaic/mosaic-resources/mosaic-travel/hagia-sophia

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GILOelsqghg&feature=related

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_Mp6cxkCwo&feature=related