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Justinian's church of St Sophia, Istanbul: Recent studies of its construction and first partial reconstruction1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Rowland J. Mainstone
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Extract

The Theodosian church of St Sophia was destroyed on the first day of the great Nika rebellion of January 532. Its destruction provided Justinian with the pretext, at least, to rebuild it in a more durable and more magnificent form and presented his principal architects, Anthemius of Tralles and the elder Isidorus of Miletus, with an almost unprecedented opportunity. This opportunity they seized to the full. By a daring combination of structural forms never before attempted on such a scale, they created an interior whose superb spatial qualities still excite and amaze. A partial collapse in 558, little more than twenty years after the solemn dedication in December 537, showed that they had even been a little too daring and called for a partial reconstruction. But, after this had been completed by the younger Isidorus in 563, the rebuilt church acquired substantially its present form and remained for some 800 years the largest vaulted man-made structure in the world.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 12 , 1969 , pp. 39 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1969

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Footnotes

1

This paper is a slight expansion of part of the Annual Lecture delivered to the Society in January 1968. It is based on a continuing study of the church sponsored by the Dumbarton Oaks Centre for Byzantine Studies, Harvard University, and thanks are due to Dumbarton Oaks for permission to publish it; to Mr Robert L. Van Nice, whose measurements have been the essential starting point and whose intimate knowledge of the building has been made freely available throughout; to Professor Cyril Mango for translations of some of the documents; and to the Turkish authorities, particularly Bay Feridun Dirimtekin, Director of the Aya Sofya Museum, for their unfailing co-operation.

References

Notes

2 Procopius, , De Aedificiis, I, i, 20-78 (Loeb, ed., 1940), pp.8–33 Google Scholar.

3 Agathius, , Historiae, Bonn Corpus, i (1828), p. 296 Google Scholar (translations in the papers by Conant and Mainstone cited below in note 7).

4 Malalas, , Chronographia, Bonn Corpus xv (1831), pp. 489–495.Google Scholar

5 Silentiarius, Descriptio Sanctae Sophiae, translation in Lethaby, W. R. & Swainson, H. S., The Church ofSancta Sophia, Constantinople (1894), pp.35–52.Google Scholar

6 The survey is in course of publication by Dumbarton Oaks. A first instalment of plates has appeared: Robert L. Van Nice, ‘Saint Sophia in Istanbul: an architectural survey’, 1966. A second instalment of plates and a text volume by Mr Van Nice, Professor Cyril Mango and the present writer will follow.

7 See, especially, Emerson, W. & Van Nice, R. L., ‘Haghia Sophia, Istanbul: Preliminary report of a recent examination of the structure’, American Jnl. of Archaeology, xlvii (1943), pp.403–436 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Conant, K. J., ‘The first dome of St Sophia and its rebuilding’, The Bulletin of the Byzantine Institute, i (1945), pp.71–78 Google Scholar; Van Nice, R. L., ‘The structure of St Sophia’, Architectural Forum, cxviii (1963), pp. 131–139 Google Scholar; and Mainstone, R. J., ‘The structure of the church of St Sophia, Istanbul’, Trans, of the Neucomen Society, xxxviii (1965-66), pp. 23–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Underwood, P. A. & Hawkins, E. J. W., ‘The mosaics of Hagia Sophia at Istanbul: the portrait of the Emperor Alexander’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, No. 15 (1961), pp. 189–217 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 The best recent description of this church is Sanpaolesi, P., ‘La chiesa dei SS. Sergio e Bacco a Constantinopoli’, Rivista dell’ Istituto Nazionale a“Archeologia e Storia dell’ Arte, n.s. x (1961), pp. 116–180.Google Scholar

10 A figure of 20ft has been assumed as given by Malalas, though Theophanes and Cedrenus change this, in fact, to ‘more than 20ft’. In a later reference Malalas gives 30 ft, while Zonarus gives 25 ft.

11 Lethaby & Swainson, op.cit., p.41.Google Scholar

12 Malalas, , op.cit., p.489 Google Scholar; Theophanes, , Chronographia, ed. de Boor, , p.232 Google Scholar; Cedrenus, , Synopsis Historiae, Bonn Corpus xxxiv (1838), p. 676 Google Scholar.

13 Procopius, , op.cit., I, i, 68–73.Google Scholar

14 Lethaby & Swainson, op.cit., p.36.Google Scholar

15 Theophanes, loc.cit.

16 Cedrenus, loc.cit.

17 Emerson & Van Nice, loc.cit.; Conant, loc.cit.; Mainstone, loc.cit.

18 See Mainstone, , op.cit., pp. 33–34 Google Scholar, for more detailed drawings of typical examples of these failures.

19 The most useful recent catalogues of earthquarkes are Glanville Downey, ‘Earthquakes at Constantinople and vicinity, AD342-1454’, Speculum, xxx (1955), pp.596-600, citing documentary sources; and K. Ergin, U. Güclü & ve Z. Uz, A catalogue of earthquakes for Turkey andthe surrounding area AD 11-1964(1967), including instrumental data for the more recent shocks. I am indebted to Professors Said Kuran and Mufit Yorulmaz of the Technical University, Istanbul, for a copy of the latter and an abstract from it of shocks in the neighbourhood of Istanbul.

20 Procopius, , op.cit., I, i, 74–78.Google Scholar

21 Procopius, , op.cit., I, i, 40.Google Scholar

22 A full account of the evidence was due to appear in Dumbarton Oaks Papers, No. 23, but has now been postponed to No. 24 [1970].

23 Mango, C., ‘Materials for the study of the mosaics of St Sophia at Istanbul’, Dumbarton Oaks Studies, viii (1962), pp.63–66.Google Scholar

24 Mango, C., op.cit., pp.49–57.Google Scholar

25 Lethaby & Swainson, op.cit., pp.210–215.Google Scholar

26 E. M. Antoniades, Ekphrasis tēs Hagias Sōphias(1907-09).

27 C. Gurlitt, Die Baukunst Konstantiopels(1907-13).

28 Lethaby & Swainson, op.cit., p.43.Google Scholar

29 See Underwood & Hawkins, loc.cit., for more detailed illustrations.

30 The cathedrals of Milan and Florence, St Peter's and St Paul's are well-known examples. The Paris Pantheon is, in some respects, a closer parallel.