The Church of Sancta Sophia, Constantinople: A Study of Byzantine BuildingLethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
Religion
The Church of Sancta Sophia, Constantinople: A Study of Byzantine Building
Lethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
Ayasofya Müzesi
_Byzantine Corinthian Type, VI._--These are of great variety; we will
only mention one. In the portico of John Studius the acanthus leaves
are doubled, one leaf lying over and within another, so that a double
row of serrations is shown around the margins (see figure in Salz.).
Similar capitals are found in S. Demetrius, Salonica, and at S. Mark’s,
Venice. This particular form is probably nearly concurrent with the
last, possibly a little earlier.
_Wind-blown Acanthus, VII._, is represented at Constantinople by two
examples forming bases for the posts of a wooden porch to a house near
Gûl Jami, and another is found in the cistern usually called after
Arcadius or Pulcheria. Absolutely similar capitals are found in S.
Sophia, Salonica (circa 490) and one occurs at S. Demetrius. At Ravenna
fine examples are dated by bearing the monogram of Theodoric. Others
at S. Apollinare in Classe resemble the last so closely that we doubt
their having been made specially for the church built in 534-549. An
example was found in Chalcis with the Ionic capital just referred to
and De Vogüé figures one from Syria. Period, say 425 to 525.
The seven most typical Byzantine orders were thus being wrought
concurrently at the end of the fifth century, and it seems that the
three last did not long outlast this century. The others in their
central types probably did not continue in use much beyond the sixth
century. After this time somewhat coarse varieties of Byzantine
Corinthian, or Type I., were mostly used.
[Illustration: FIG. 58.--Bronze Annulets of Columns.]
The evidence of the original block in the fully sculptured finished
work which we find in the most characteristic examples of the Byzantine
capitals is of primary importance in all marble sculpture, and
differentiates the work of the chisel from being a mere stone model
of a clay model which is practically what most modern sculpture has
become. In many of these capitals the vertical strip shown in Fig. 55
left in the finished work furnishes a further suggestion of the block
from whence they were hewn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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