Friday, September 25, 2009

Kike!


Well, surfing in my Art and Culture Blog, I saw the two pictures and I thought about which one select for doing my work, then I select the first one, because I thought that choosing this one I was going to improve my knowledge about some cathedral. The reason was that I already know about the Notre dame cathedral and I wanted to discover the world that followed that picture in which I was interested very much.
Now, when I was checking up some links that I found in “GOOGLE” I took some specific information about the history of this mosque, nowadays a museum in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Church of the Holy Wisdom, known as Hagia Sophia in Greek, is a former Byzantine church and former Ottoman mosque in Istanbul. Hagia Sophia is universally acknowledged as one of the great buildings of the world.
Constantine was the first Christian emperor and the founder of the city of Constantinople, which he called "the New Rome." The Hagia Sophia was one of several great churches he built in important cities throughout his empire.
It is one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture, rich with mosaics and marble pillars and coverings.
The Hagia Sophia has a classical basilica plan. The main ground plan of the building is a rectangle, 230 feet in width and 246 feet in length. The area is covered by a central dome with a diameter of 102 feet , which is just slightly smaller than that of the Pantheon in Rome.
For over 900 years the Hagia Sophia was the seat of the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople and a principal setting for church councils and imperial ceremonies.
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/istanbul-hagia-sophia
Then viewing, all the pieces of art that make part of this magnificent mosque, I choose some mosaics, but the I chose only one and I think that the Deësis Mosaic was the most important of all the mosaics.
The most famous of Hagia Sophia's Byzantine mosaics is this 13th-century Deësis Mosaic, depicting Christ Pantrocrator flanked by the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist.
Christ holds a closed Book of Gospels in his left hand and raises his right in benediction. His gentle expression is that of the "Palaeologan Christ," who reveals God’s compassion for humanity. On either side, the Virgin and St. John the Baptist are turned towards Christ in attitude of worship.
The wistful and grave expressions of Christ and the saints in this mosaic reflect a profound spirituality and announce a new epoch of Byzantine art marked by high aesthetic standards and classical trends.
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/istanbul-hagia-sophia-photos/slides/deesis-mosaic3-c-hlp
We can have a virtual tour on this beautiful building at: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/istanbul-hagia-sophia-photos/slides/deesis-mosaic3-c-hlp
In this picture, we can see that the mosaic is a little bit destroyed, cause of the years, but it represents to me the magnifency of Jesus and Santa Maria.
Also, we can see the type of architecture that the Byzantines used to paint in ther mosaics, only one shaped pictures without perspectives, and the image that they had of Christ is our nowadays picture of Jesus and God.

“My representation”
I think that the Byzantines, spend a lot of time, building this mosque that is one of the most important all over the world, when I first saw it I felt tiny, like If I were an ant, I I was overexposed to the humongous piece of art, that I haven’t seen before. It was great…
Bibliography:
http://www.360tr.com/34_istanbul/ayasofya/english/
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/istanbul-hagia-sophia-floor-plan.html
http://www.vacance-roumanie.com/vacaciones_a_Rumania/La_religion_ortodoxa.html

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