Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to Dumbarton Oaks Papers.
http://www.jstor.org
"
Antapodosis, I, 10.
pp. 169-177; Bury,Imperial Administrative System (London, 1911) p. 36. For Caesars in the
ninthand tenthcenturies,see Ostrogorsky-Stein in Byzantion,VII (1932) pp. 226-227.
The re-interpretation
of Homilyno. 10 calls forcertainadjustmentsin
our conceptsof ninthcenturyByzantineart.To beginwith,we mayreview
the descriptiveelementsof the ekphrasis.Photiusmentionsfirstthe atrium
(irpoiriXata, whosebeauty,he says,leftthespectatorpetrified
rpor~vEo-ta)
with wonder.The whole fagade i.e. presumablythe western
(Wrpo-0ro4i),
facade of the was coveredwitha revetmentof whitemarble,so
church,46
perfectlyjoinedtogetherthatit seemedto be monolithic. Upon enteringthe
churchone was immediately struckby theprofusion ofgoldand silver.Gold
was lavishedon mosaictesserae,on plaques, capitals,cornices(rept?cJara),
and chains.The holytablewas made ofa composition morecostlythangold,
probablyincrustations
ofpreciousstonesand possiblyenamels.47 The pyram-
42
Cf.VitaBasilii(Script.postTheoph.),pp. 341-344.
" Op. cit.,pp.5-15.
" Aristarchis,II, p. 429.
41
Cf. R. Janin,La ge'ographie eccldsiastiquede l'Empirebyzantin,I, 8 (Paris, 1953)
p. 242.
4' The westfagadeof St. Sophiahad a revetment of Proconnesianmarble,tracesofwhich
stillremain.Cf. E. H. Swift,Hagia Sophia (New York,1940) p. 173. Even if the use of
7rp'romCv in the senseof "architectural
fagade"is attestedonlyin ratherrecenttexts,Ebersolt
can hardlybe rightin supposingthatPhotiusis referring to the marblepavementof the
atrium(Le grandpalaisde Constantinople [Paris,1910] pp. 131-132).
' In theNea, the chancel-screen,theholytablesand thesynthronon in the apse were of
silvergildedoverand setwithpreciousstonesand pearls(Vita Basilii,p. 326). On the
altarof St. Sophia,see Paulus Silentiarius, great
vss. 720 sq. (P. Friedlinder,
Johannes von Gaza
"Ibid., p. 35.
'Ibid., pp. 35-6.
S" On this church see G. de Jerphanion,M6langes
d'archdologieanatolienne (M6langes de
l'UniversiteSaint-Joseph,XIII) (Beirut, 1928) pp. 113-143 and pls. LXII-LXXX.
E. in BZ, XXXII (1932) 372.
' 7TheWeigand p.
mortarjointsin the churchof St. Clement are slanted ("weathered"), a featurethat
firstappears in Constantinoplein the second half of the ninth
century.Cf. A. M. Schneider,
Byzanz (Berlin, 19386) p. 13.
'8 Reproduced in O. Wulff,Die Koimesiskirchein Niciia und ihre Mosaiken (Strassburg,
1903) pl. IV.
' See Brunovin Vizant.
Vremennik,II (1949) pp. 150 sq.