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.

 

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