Ars Longa, Vita Brevis, Occasio Praeceps...

This post was inspired by the exhibit Life is Short, Art Long: The Art of Healing in Byzantium at Pera Museum in Istanbul in 2015.

Hippocrates holding open the page that displays the first lines of his Aphorisms:
"Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting."

Our world is sick and in need of serious healing...
Not a day goes by when we do not encounter another atrocity where innocent lives are taken due to pointless acts of aggression in the name of religion, greed or even 15 minutes of fame. Divisive politics that encourage racism, sexism, intolerance and hatred for views and people other than their own, only aggravates the situation even more. While a multitude of psychopathic terrorist groups are wreaking havoc in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia, mass-shootings are becoming a weekly occurrence in America. Combined with the tragic fate of the refugees trying to escape from war-torn countries facing death, humiliation and rejection, it is almost hard to believe we live in a civilized, advanced world.

Upper Jaw of one of the three Serpent's heads from the Delphic Column at Constantinople, Hippodrome                
(Istanbul Archaeology Museums)

While the governments, armies and politicians seem to be powerless or unwilling to solve any of these problems, the ordinary citizens have become spectators recalling the crowds at public executions from bygone eras. We are all glued to our computer screens, following the latest breaking news, minute by minute, as it unfolds before our eyes, riveted yet helpless to do anything about it.

Oil Lamp in the Shape of a Sandaled Right Foot, 1st-2nd cent.
(Istanbul Archaeology Museums)

The History of Constantine the Great through the Eyes of a 17th century Baroque artist, Peter Paul Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens, The Marriage of Constantine and Fausta, 
The History of Constantine the Great tapestry series, 1623-25 (Philadelphia Museum of Art) Photo: Philadelphia Museum of Art Website

Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor who is celebrated as the first Christian emperor has been a source of inspiration and fascination for more than sixteen centuries. As a remarkable figure who changed the course of history, Constantine embodies a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Personally, I feel a certain kinship with the man who founded my beloved city, Constantinople, Istanbul. There is a new exhibition, Rome, Emperor Constantine's Dream, Art Treasures from the Eternal City, that opened at De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam today, which reminded me of a set of 17th century tapestries, The History of Constantine the Great, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Peter Paul Rubens, The Triumph of Constantine over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, The History of Constantine the Great tapestry series, 1623-25  (Philadelphia Museum of Art)    Photo: Philadelphia Museum of Art Website

The vast Roman Empire had become a tetrarchy by 293, ruled by two senior emperors titled Augustus and two minor emperor titled Caesar, a system that came to an end following Civil Wars between the co-emperors from 306 -324.   Constantine's victory over his co-emperor and brother-in-law, Maxentius, at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 is considered to be the precursor to the end of the tetrarchy and Constantine as the sole emperor of the Roman Empire.

Cybele, the Mother of the Gods

Goddess Figurine, Catalhoyuk, 5750 B.C.E.
(Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara)

Since it's mother'day today I thought it would be a great opportunity to take a look at the ancestors of what we have defined as the image of motherhood for centuries. Cybele, Magna Mater, Meter, the Mother of the Gods was an Anatolian deity with many attributes and symbolism we are still trying to figure out to this day. As Bettany Hues reveals quite dramatically in her BBC documentary Divine Women there was a time "When God was a Girl," and some of her ancestors lived in Anatolia...
There is a figurine from the sixth millenium B.C.E. excavated in Catalhoyuk at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara of the first archaeological evidence of what has been identified as a Mother Goddess. She sits enthroned between two feline figures giving birth.

Orthostat of a Mother Nursing her Child, Karatepe, 8th century B.C.E.

Why Art History - The Treasures of Constantinople

Pope Francis is on a three-day visit to Turkey where he is spending Saturday and Sunday in Istanbul as a guest of Patriarch Bartholomew. I thought this would be a good occasion to recall another Papal visit to Constantinople in 523 by Pope John I. Bishop Ecclesius of Ravenna (mentioned below) was part of his entourage. There is one theory that Anicia Juliana might have commissioned the Church of St. Polyeuktos in accordance with this trip.

The following is an article that was originally posted on Hasan Niyazi's website Three Pipe Problem in August 2013 as a response to the question Hasan posed "Why Art History?"

The remains of the 6th century Church of St. Polyeuktos

It all started with peacocks... those dazzling creatures that represented the eternity of the spirit and had associations with Roman empresses... There once was a church, built by a royal princess who was the noblest in the land, that had a golden dome and was lavishly decorated with the most precious marbles from the empire, colors of green, blue and gold glittering everywhere, with peacock motifs decorating column capitals and niches around the church, it was known to have been inspired from the temple of Solomon. No one knew of its existence till half a century ago when magnificent marble fragments appeared as if by magic in the middle of Istanbul... This, was the Church of St. Polyeuktos in Constantinople, built in the 6th century by Anicia Juliana, a descendant of both Eastern and Western emperors ...

Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem

The first time I had every heard of the Church of St Polyeuktos was when I was doing a book review for this blog on And Diverse are their Hues, exploring the significance of color in Islamic art and culture. In his article "Blue Behind Gold: Inscription of the Dome of the Rock and its Relatives" Dr. Lawrence Nees gave the example of St. Polyeuktos as being one of the fore-bearers for the color scheme and type of decoration used on Dome of the Rock. Dr. Nees painted a radiant picture of a Byzantine church with peacock blue and green used behind gold inscriptions that left me enthralled with this mysterious, magnificent structure and its founder, I had to find out more...

It was during my semester in Istanbul last fall, at a visit to Istanbul Archaeology Museum, I recalled Anicia Juliana and her church once again, upon seeing a capital with peacock motifs. I found the section set aside for the Church of St. Polyeuktos among the Istanbul galleries of the museum, identified by the name of the present day neighborhood where they had been excavated, Saraçhane. There were some beautiful, intricately carved late antique marble works, capitals and columns with a few colored glass still intact, but visualizing the splendor and comprehending the significance of this church required more research.

 

Chora: the Church of the Holy Savior Outside the City Walls

The Anastasis, Church of the St. Savior in Chora, Parekklesion, 1316-21
Chora Museum

The image of the Hagia Sophia always looms commanding and magnificent when one thinks of Istanbul but there is one other Byzantine church that also deserves just as much attention as her bigger, more famous sister, the Church of the St. Savoir in Chora. The magic about the Chora starts with its name, giving us a glimpse into a time and a city that was so far removed from what we know as Istanbul today. The name Chora comes from the Greek word Hora which has been translated as "land", "country" or "in the country," and in this case "outside the wall." Although it is located inside the Land Walls built by Theodosius II in the 5th century, near Adrionople gate, the first church built on this spot was outside of the city walls Constantine established in 324, hence the name. This was due to the ascetic lives lead by monks - at first monasteries would be built away from the city, outside of the city walls, a characteristic that would change in time as private, aristocratic houses in Constantinople would start to be turned into monasteries.

Yedikule Orchards- Destruction of Another Cultural Memory in Istanbul

The Orchards lining the Land Walls of Constantinople

Turkey as a country is probably one of the richest and most diverse when it comes to the cultural memory of its lands and people. The Thracian and Anatolian landscape that we, as Turks inhabit is the birthplace of not only Western civilization but also Christianity as well. Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and finally Ottomans lived and ruled these lands, each leaving behind the traces of their unique culture and history. The historic peninsula in modern day Istanbul is the visual manifestation of the fusion of the two great empires that made it their capital, the Roman and the Ottoman. It is futile to insist a disassociation with the city's Byzantine past just as it is with its Ottoman past... although some still try. As Istanbulites, we are blessed with such a rich cultural memory which unfortunately perishes a little bit more every day.

Bakirkoy, Shore Road

Whenever I fly back to Istanbul my chosen route to get into the city is to take the shore road that runs along the Marmara sea from Bakirkoy all the way past the historic peninsula with its prominent remainders of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. It is not only a scenic drive with beautiful vistas all along the way, it is also the same route the Byzantine Emperors had taken,when coming back to their capital from the West, starting in the fourth or fifth century.  It requires quite a vivid imagination today to visualize Bakirkoy as Hebdomon, the seventh milestone from the Roman city. There were seaside palaces and two churches with one built to house the relic head of St John the Baptist.  Like the Campus Martius in Rome, this was where the army camped, exercised and gathered to leave for campaigns. It was also the place where emperors were claimed as emperors by the army in late antiquity.

Francesco Scarella,
Yedikule Fortress (The Fortress of the Seven Towers), ca. 1685

Happy Birthday Constantinople!

Beyan-i Manazil-i Safar-i Iraqayn-i Sultan Sulayman Khan(View of Istanbul from Sultan Suleiman's Iraq campaign),
Matrakci Nasuhi, 1537-1538 *
(Istanbul University Library)

Founding a city in the ancient world was akin to a God-liked benefaction and in 324, right after defeating Licinius in Adrianople, Constantine the Great (the first Christian Roman emperor) set out to make his new city.  It has been suggested that he considered Troy first but then changed his mind and moved up north to the ancient Greek city of Byzas. Unfortunately, today there is not much left in present day Istanbul, from Constantine's city to give us a substantial picture of how it might have been. The website Byzantium1200 is a great resource to get an idea of how the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire might have looked in the year 1200. We may not have the Forums or the porticoes of fourth century Constantinople but we do have artifacts that we can use to form a composite picture of "New Rome" as it was dedicated on this day in the year 330. 

From Duccio to Ai Weiwei: The Multiple Lives of the Work of Art

Antonio, Allegri da Correggio, Leda and the Swan, around 1532
(Gemaldegalerie, Berlin) 

At a time when the sculptures and artifacts which have made their way to some of the finest institutions in the West are crying to be reunited with their country of origins, and the dealings behind these acquisitions are coming into daylight, I had the privilege of attending a lecture which presented the other side of the proverbial coin.  Philippe de Montebello, a legend in his own right, with numerous awards and honors including two Presidential medals and a Legion d'Honor, gave a riveting lecture, "The Multiple Lives of the Work of Art" at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles two weeks ago. His prose was captivating with interesting details and most surprising of all, a sense of humor. Although this should not come as a surprise, when Philippe de Montebello speaks, people stop and listen. Since this post concerns the lecture and not my personal views, I will try not to offer my own perspective, for now.

Aelia Eudocia Augusta, whose husband Theodosius II built the Land Walls of Constantinople

Bust Weight of Aelia Eudocia Augusta ?, First Half of 5th century
(Istanbul Archaeology Museum)

There is a small display case in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum that holds some very intriguing objects. They are Empress Bust Weights that were used in the marketplace to weigh everyday commodities. One of the figures thought to be Eudocia, wife of Theodosius II, wears a diadem and a necklace which help to identify her as an Augusta and  a garment that tightly covers her shoulders. While she holds a scroll in one hand and with the other makes the gesture of speech. The gesture of speech normally reserved for Christ, Church figures and imperial officials and sometimes muses, refers to the empresses well-educated status.  The scroll and the wrapped garment also recall the standard gesture of orators and philosophers. With her iconography referring to her learnedness, her imperial diadem claiming her to be an augusta her wide-open eyes suggesting both piety and watchfulness,this fifth century bust weight of Eudocia would have ensured "the fairness of commercial transactions" in the marketplace. 1  

Byzantine Pilgrimage Objects - Phenomenon of Sacred Artifacts or Contemporary Reality?

Qual-at Sem-an
© Thomas Roth 2003

As fascinating as we may find a slab of stone, an object  or a painting from the past, these objects we study as art historians or archaeologists may seem irrelevant or even trivial to someone with no connection to the specific culture.  While we can wax lyrical about the iconography or the theories related to a work of art, to someone with no knowledge, interest or cultural memory of the object of our admiration, these might sound like peculiar ramblings.  Being able to engage with a work of art on a personal level, however, can have the ability to change one's perception of the significance of these artifacts.  But, since the vast majority of artifacts remaining from the past represent the lives and concerns of the privileged classes, this can be cause for further impediment to this engagement. Ironically, while studying Byzantine pilgrimage objects, I have come to consider the phenomenon of early Christian pilgrimage objects, as an occurrence that has the potential to transcend centuries and reach the souls of a vast audience of people no matter what their religious affiliations or cultural background.

Searching for traces of Byzantine Empire in Modern Istanbul

View from the Golden Gate, 2012

 "When I was subsequently dwelling in the "City of the Sultan", and that reality had succeeded to anticipation, much of the mist of romance, indeed, rolled away: but the fair face of the landscape suffered little from its absence, for Constantinople needs no aid from the imagination to make one of the brightest gems in the diadem of nature:  its clear calm sky, its glittering sea, its amphitheatre of thickly-peopled hills... its surpassing novelty, tend to make every day and every hour in that gorgeous scene, and under the sunny sky, a season of intense enjoyment"

                                            - Miss Julia Pardoe, The Beauties of the Bosphorus (London 1839)

Being already somewhat familiar with the "City of the Sultan," in coming to Istanbul this time, I was hoping to discover the "City of the Byzantine Emperors".  I aspired to visualize Istanbul as the Roman city it once was which is challenging in spite of Hagia Sophia's indisputable and iconic presence.

Knowing Constantinople was celebrated as the "New Rome" for more than a thousand years, beginning with the 11th of May of the year 330 by Roman Emperors with all their displays of imperial magnificence adorning the environs of the city, might be cause for expectation on one's part. Although it is possible to still hear the humming of the distant tunes from bygone eras around every corner in Istanbul, finding tangible traces of Byzantium can be a perplexing endeavor.   Even with the few remaining monuments dispersed throughout the city, uninterrupted habitation combined with the change of ideology of the consecutive empires has caused Istanbul to metamorphose into a totally unique entity.

Byzantium and Islam : Age of Transition

Although my ancestors are from Asia Minor, the geography that has been identified as the Heartland of Byzantium, and I spent most of my life in its capital city, Istanbul (Constantinople) where the biggest monument to this once great empire, the Hagia Sophia, is part of the backdrop of everyday life, there was something I always found a little elusive in deciphering the Byzantine civilization and culture.  Considering Byzantium was actually an extension of the Greco-Roman culture which happens to form the foundations of the predominant culture in the West today, it is actually quite surprising how little is clearly known of this once central power of late antiquity and early middle ages, especially in contrast to the obsession we seem to possess for the culture of ancient Greece and Rome.  Thanks to the enlightening exhibition going on at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that is due to close on July 8th, I feel I have finally found some of the clues to these curious concepts.