Free Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City by John Freely, Hilary Sumner-Boyd

Orthodox over the Iconoclasts, and celebrated the permanent restoration of sacred images to the churches of Byzantium. The two pious sovereigns referred to here are Michael III, the Sot, and his protege, Basil I, whom Michael had made co-emperor the previous May, and who would the following September murder his benefactor and usurp the throne for himself.
    Three other mosaic portraits are located in niches at the base of the north tympanum wall and are visible from the nave. They portray three sainted bishops of the early church. In the first niche from the west we have St. Ignatius the Younger, in the central niche St. John Chrysostomos, and in the fifth from the west St. Ignatius Theophorus. All three figures are nearly identical except for the faces; each is clad in sacerdotal robes, the most striking item of which is the wide omophorion, or stole, with two large crosses below the shoulders and a third just below the knee; each holds in his left hand, which is concealed below his cloak, a large book with bejewelled binding; the younger St. Ignatius appears to be touching the top of the book with his right hand, while the other two have their right hands raised in blessing. The faces get older the farther east one goes: the first Ignatius, as his name suggests, is a young man but with a very ascetic face; St. John is in early middle age and his small, compressed lips hardly suggest the”Golden Mouth” from which he receives his name, Chrysostomos; St. Ignatius Theophorus is an old man with white hair and a beard. Chrysostomos and the elder Ignatius were two of the most powerful and contentious patriarchs in the history of Byzantium; each would have seen both Church and Empire wrecked rather than compromise his principles. It was said of Chrysostomos in his time that “he was merciless to sin but full of mercy for the sinner.”
    The only other mosaics which are visible from the nave are the famous six-winged seraphim or cherubim in the eastern pendentives. (Those in the western pendentives are imitations in paint done by the Fossatis at the time of their restorations in 1847–9.) These have never been covered; we see them in pictures of Haghia Sophia across the centuries, hovering eerily over the nave. Evliya Çelebi believed them to be talismans, albeit moribund ones, as he tells us in his Seyahatname : “Before the birth of the Prophet these four angels used to speak, and gave notice of all the dangers which threatened the Empire and the city of Istanbul; but since his highness appeared all talismans have ceased to act.” Their faces are sometimes exposed, sometimes covered, most recently by the Fossatis’ gold-starred medallions, which are still in place. Unfortunately, these mosaics have not yet been cleaned and restored and are a bit dirty and discoloured. It is not certain whether these heavenly creatures are intended to be seraphim or cherubim; the former are said by Isaiah to have, like these, six wings: “With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly,” while Ezekiel informs us that cherubim had only four (or eight) wings. But as Cyril Mango amusingly shows, Byzantine artists do not seem to have understood or observed the distinction between the two Orders; he suggests that perhaps we have here one of each. As to date, Mr. Mango points out that since both pendentives were largely destroyed in the collapse of 1346, the mosaics must be subsequent to that time; they doubtless belong to the period of restoration after the collapse, between 1346 and 1355. But they certainly replace, and may closely copy, older mosaics of the same subject.
    THE GALLERIES
    All of the remaining mosaics are in the galleries and in the rooms adjacent to them. The public entryway to the galleries is at the northern end of the narthex, where an inclined labyrinth leads us to the angle of the western and northern galleries. Before we examine the mosaics we might walk to the central or