Byzantine Churches in Constantinople: Their History and Architecture — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Byzantine Churches in Constantinople: Their History and Architecture
John Stuart Mill · en
_Doors._--Doors often have elaborately moulded architraves and cornice.
In S. John of the Studion (p. 61), the oldest example, the jamb-moulding
has a large half-round on the face, with small ogees and fillets, all on
a somewhat massive scale. The doors of S. Sophia are very similar. The
later mouldings are lighter but the half-round on the face remains a
prominent feature. It is now undercut and reduced in size, and resembles
the Gothic moulding known as the bowtell. This is combined with series
of fillets, small ogees, and cavettos into jamb-moulds of considerable
richness. The cornices are often simply splayed or are formed of a
series of ogees, fillets, and cavettos. The jamb-mouldings are cut
partly on a square and partly on a steep splayed line. In some, the
portion forming the ingo seems to have been regarded as a separated
piece though cut from the solid. If in the doors of the Pantokrator or
the Pantepoptes the line of the inner jamb be continued through the
rebate, it will correspond on the outside with the bowtell moulding, as
though the inner and outer architrave had been cut from one square-edged
block, placing the bowtell at the angle and adding the rebate. This
formation is not followed in S. John of the Studion.
_Carving._--Carving is slight, and is confined to capitals,
string-courses, and the slabs which filled in the lower parts of screens
and windows. Fragments of such slabs are found everywhere. They are
carved with geometrical interlacing and floral patterns, often
encircling a cross or sacred monogram, or with simply a large cross.
Such slabs may be seen still in position in S. Sophia and in the narthex
of S. Theodore. In the latter they are of verd antique, and are finely
carved on both sides. In later times the embargo on figure sculpture
was considerably relaxed. Little figures are introduced in the cornices
of the eikon frames in the Diaconissa (p. 186), and both in the
parecclesion and the outer narthex of the Chora are found many small
busts of angels, saints, and warriors carved with great delicacy. The
carving in the Chora is the finest work of the kind excepting that in S.
Sophia.
_Capitals._--The development of the capital from the Roman form, which
was suitable only for the lintel, to the impost capital shaped to
receive an arch has been well explained by Lethaby and Swainson.
According to these authors Byzantine capitals exhibit seven types.
I. The Impost capital.--It is found in SS. Sergius and Bacchus, the
outer narthex of the Chora, the inner narthex of S. Andrew and
elsewhere. A modification of this type is used in windows. It was
employed throughout the style but especially in early times up to the
sixth century, and again in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth
centuries.