The Dark Ages Collection. David Hume
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was different. It is a Greek cross (about 250 by 225 feet) with a dome rising above the quadrilateral space between the arms to the height of 180 feet. He undertook to solve the problem of placing a great aerial cupola, 100 feet in diameter, over this space which was 100 feet square. Hitherto cupolas had been set over round spaces. At each angle of the square Anthemius erected a massive pier, in which the settings of the stones were strengthened by special methods. These piers supported the four arches and pendentives on which the ribbed dome rested, and he calculated on securing stability by the semi-domes on the east and west and buttresses on the north and south. To diminish the weight of the dome very light materials were used, tiles of a white spongy earth manufactured at Rhodes.127
The material of St. Sophia, as of most Byzantine churches, was brick. Its exterior appearance, seen from below, does not give a true impression of its dimensions. The soaring cupola is lost and buried amid the surrounding buttresses that were added to secure it in later ages. From afar one can realise its proportions, lifted high above all the other buildings and dominating the whole city like a watch-tower, as Procopius described it. But in it, as in other Byzantine churches, the contrast between the plainness of the exterior and the richness of the interior decoration is striking. Although the mosaic pictures, including the great cross on a starry heaven at the summit of the dome, are now concealed from the eyes of faithful Moslems by whitewash, the marbles of the floor, the walls, and the pillars show us that the rapturous enthusiasm of Justinian’s contemporaries as to the total effect was not excessive. The roof was covered with pure gold, but the beauty of the effect lay, it was observed, rather in the answering reflexions from the marbles than from the gold itself. The marbles from which were hewn the pillars and the slabs that covered the walls and floor were brought from all quarters of the world. There was the white stone from the quarries in the Proconnesian islands near at hand, green cipollino from Carystus in Euboea, verde antico from Laconia and Thessaly, Numidian marble glinting with the gold of yellow crocuses, red and white from Caria, white-misted rose from Phrygia, porphyry from Upper Egypt. To Procopius the building gave the impression of a flowering meadow.
While the artists of the time showed skill and study in blending and harmonising colours, the sculptured decoration of the curves of the arches with acanthus and vine tendrils, and the beauty of the capitals of white Proconnesian marble, are not less wonderful. The manufacture of capitals for export had long been an industry at Constantinople, and we can trace the evolution of their forms. The old Corinthian capital, altered by the substitution of the thorny for the soft acanthus, had become what is known as the “Theodosian” capital.128 But it was found that this was not suitable for receiving and supporting the arch, and the device was introduced of placing above it an intermediate “impost,” in the form of a truncated and reversed pyramid, which was usually ornamented with vine or acanthus, a cross or a monogram. Then, apparently early in the sixth century, the Theodosian capital and the impost were combined into a single block, the “capital impost,” which assumed many varieties of form.129
The building was completed in A.D. 537, and on December 26 the Emperor and the Patriarch Menas drove together from St. Anastasia to celebrate the inaugural ceremonies.130 But Anthemius had been overbold in the execution of his architectural design, and had not allowed a sufficient margin of safety for the support of the dome. Twenty years later the dome came crashing down, destroying in its fall the ambo and the altar (May, A.D. 558).131 Anthemius was dead, and the restoration was undertaken by Isidore the Younger. He left the semi-domes on the east and west as they were, but widened the arches on the north and south, making “the equilateral symmetry” more perfect, and raised the height of the dome by more than twenty feet. The work was finished in A.D. 562, and on Christmas Eve the Emperor solemnly entered it. The poet Paul, the silentiary, was commanded to celebrate the event in verse, and a few days later132 he recited in the Palace the proem of his long poem describing the beauties of the church. Justinian then proceeded in solemn procession to St. Sophia, and in the Patriarch’s palace, which adjoined the church, he recited the rest. It was a second inauguration, and the effort of Paul was not unworthy of the occasion.
Terrible, thought a writer of the day, as well as marvellous, the dome of St. Sophia “seems to float in the air.” It was pierced by forty windows, the half-domes by five, and men were impressed by the light which flooded the church. “You would say that sunlight grew in it.” Lavish arrangements were made for artificial illumination for the evening services. A central chandelier was suspended by chains from the cornice round the dome over the ambo; the poet compared it to a circular dance of lights:
εὐσελάων δὲ κύκλιος ἐκ φαέων χορὸς ἵσταται.
And in other parts of the building there were rows of lamps in the form of silver bowls and boats.
Justinian did not regard expense in decorating with gold and precious stones the ambo which stood in the centre under the dome. Similar sumptuousness distinguished the sanctuary of the apse — the iconostasis and the altar which was of solid gold. The Patriarch’s throne was of gilded silver and weighed 40,000 lbs. A late record states that the total cost of the building and furnishing of St. Sophia amounted to 320,000 lbs. of gold, which sent to our mint to-day would mean nearly fourteen and a half million sterling,133 a figure which is plainly incredible.
But this, though it was the greatest item in the Emperor’s expenditure on restoring and beautifying the city, was only one. The neighbouring church of St. Irene also rose from its ashes, as a great domed basilica, the largest church in Constantinople except St. Sophia itself.134 The monograms of Justinian and Theodora are still to be read on the capitals of its pillars. More important as a public and Imperial monument was the Church of the Holy Apostles in the centre of the city, which had not been injured by fire, but had suffered from earthquakes and was considered structurally unstable. Justinian pulled it down and rebuilt it larger and more splendid, as a cruciform church with four equal arms and five domes. Though it was destroyed by the Turks to make room for the mosque of Mohammed the Conqueror, descriptions are preserved which enable us to restore its plan.135 San Marco at Venice was built on a very similar design and gives the best idea of what it was like. It may have been begun after the completion of St. Sophia, for it was dedicated in A.D. 546; but the mosaic decoration, of which full accounts have come down to us, was not executed till after Justinian’s death, and it has been shown that these pictures, which may belong to the time of his immediate successors, were designed and selected with a dogmatic motif. “The two natures of Christ in one person are the theme of the whole cycle.”136 The use of pictures for propagating theological doctrine was understood in the sixth century; we shall see another example at Ravenna.137
The principal secular buildings which had been destroyed by the fires of the Nika riot and were immediately rebuilt were the Senate-house, the baths of Zeuxippus, the porticoes of the Augusteum, and the adjacent parts of the Palace. The Chalke had been burnt down, and the contiguous quarters behind it — the portico of the Scholarian guards and the porticoes of the Protectors and Candidates. All these had to be rebuilt.138 But at the same time Justinian seems to have made extensive changes and improvements throughout the Palace; we are told that he renovated it altogether.139 Of the details we hear nothing, except as to the Chalke itself. You go through the great gate of the Chalke from the Augusteum, and then through an inner bronze gate into a domed rectangular room, decorated by mosaic pictures showing the Vandal and Italian conquests, with Justinian and Theodora in the centre, triumphing and surrounded by the Senate.140
If the Emperor spent much on the restoration and improvement of the great Palace, he appears to have been no less lavish in enlarging and embellishing his palatial villa at Hêrion, on the peninsula which to-day bears the name of Pharanaki, to the south-east of Chalcedon.141 It was the favourite resort of Theodora in summer; she used to transport her court there every year.142 Here Justinian created a small town, with a splendid church dedicated to the Mother of God, baths, market-places, and porticoes; and constructed a sheltered landing-place by building two large moles into the sea.143
§ 7. The Fall of John the Cappadocian (A.D. 541)