The Deesis
The Deesis of the triforium, depicting Christ receiving the supplication of his Mother and John the Baptist, is considered to be the most important item in the corpus of Byzantine art (Morey 1944: 201) . Artistically, the soft tones, intense humanity and emotional realism on the figures of the faces is representative of the Constantinopolitan style in the Renaissance period (Hagia Sophia, n.d.). Historically, the mosaic is reflective of shifts within the theological discourse in Constantinople. The creation, as well as the destruction of this mosaic, serve as important material evidence for understanding the larger iconoclastic history of the Hagia Sophia as a structure.
The mosaic dates back to the 13 century and was added to the Hagia …show more content…
In December of 1931, Thomas Whittemore led a team of archeologists, historians, craftsmen and restorers from the Byzantine Institute of America to Istanbul in order to do a complete survey of the Church of Hagia Sophia. Using a map left by a pair of Swiss architects who had worked in Hagia Sophia almost 100 years before, the team was able to uncover the Deesis (Atchison 2015).
Although only a third of the mosaic survived the test of time, it is still considered to be one of the greatest art-history finds because of its ability to narrate the iconoclastic history of the Hagia Sophia. However, it is important to note that uncovering the mosaic and bringing back the “original aesthetic of the Hagia Sophia” comes at the cost of the destruction of the Islamic aesthetic that was imbued into the structure - therefore, this uncovering is almost an undoing of history.
Therefore, as it stands, the Deesis is an embodiment of many things at once: the history of the building, a spirit of suffering, humanity and Heaven, (Atchison 2015) and serves as a true exemplar of how an image with an iconoclastic history speaks more than just words - it speaks volumes about the society it grounds itself
The mosaic dates back to the 13 century and was added to the Hagia …show more content…
In December of 1931, Thomas Whittemore led a team of archeologists, historians, craftsmen and restorers from the Byzantine Institute of America to Istanbul in order to do a complete survey of the Church of Hagia Sophia. Using a map left by a pair of Swiss architects who had worked in Hagia Sophia almost 100 years before, the team was able to uncover the Deesis (Atchison 2015).
Although only a third of the mosaic survived the test of time, it is still considered to be one of the greatest art-history finds because of its ability to narrate the iconoclastic history of the Hagia Sophia. However, it is important to note that uncovering the mosaic and bringing back the “original aesthetic of the Hagia Sophia” comes at the cost of the destruction of the Islamic aesthetic that was imbued into the structure - therefore, this uncovering is almost an undoing of history.
Therefore, as it stands, the Deesis is an embodiment of many things at once: the history of the building, a spirit of suffering, humanity and Heaven, (Atchison 2015) and serves as a true exemplar of how an image with an iconoclastic history speaks more than just words - it speaks volumes about the society it grounds itself