The monumental decoration of the Chora’s katholikon consists of two main features: its personalized character and its realization in stages, a fact that is reflected in the adaptability of the iconographic programmes applied in the two narthexes.1 These characteristics have already been pointed out and analysed in relation to the sources drawn upon for the painted decoration of the monument. Unprecedented and extremely rare compositions, such as the enrolment for taxation,2 or even paradoxical arrangements, like the extensive narration of the cycle of the Massacre of the Innocents in the exonarthex, are witnesses to the personal relevance of the decoration for the church’s learned donor, the savant and Megas Logothetes (
A similar logic of reflection is also central to the gesture and attitude of the founder shown kneeling on the lunette above the Royal Door, offering his church to the enthroned Christ while petitioning for salvation and redemption from sin. Metochites therefore presents himself as a visual equivalent to the anonymous basileus placed in a comparable position, i.e. on the lunette above the Royal Door, in the church of Hagia Sophia, while generating many further associations with the imperial mosaics of the latter church.8 This set of identifications is seen even more strongly in the lateral chapel, the iconographic programme of which was designed to fulfil the burial requirements of the space.9 Moreover, Robert G. Ousterhout has already emphasized the fundamental differences between the katholikon and the chapel of the Chora as pertains to the content and meaning of their programmes, the former being oriented towards the subject of the Incarnation and the latter towards that of salvation and redemption.10
Combining to signal the notion of salvation are the scenes of the Descent into Hell, which fills the semi-dome of the apse, along with the raisings of the son of the widow of Naim (Luke 7: 11–17) and of Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5: 21–43, Matt. 9: 18–26, Luke 8: 40–56), in each side of the apse, crowned by a monumental Last Judgement (Fig. 4.1).
General view of the lateral chapel of Chora Church/Kariye Camii, Istanbul
Photo: Athanasios Semoglou
The latter progresses in a unique way into the eastern domical vault, as well as into the eastern part of the northern and southern walls, giving the impression of a three-dimensional representation and communicating to the viewer the intense drama of the Last Judgement.11 The composition of the Second Parousia features Christ the Judge seated in glory on a rainbow, flanked by the figures of the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist in supplication and surrounded by enthroned apostles and a large array of angels (Fig. 4.2).12
Chora Church/Kariye Camii, Istanbul, lateral chapel, eastern domical vault: Last Judgement
Photo: Athanasios Semoglou
Paradise is depicted on the lunette of the north wall, over the door that leads to the diakonikon of the katholikon,13 pointing to the Eucharistic role of the composition14 – as is also the case in the diakonikon of the Metropolis at Mystras.15 Correspondingly, the depiction of hell extends directly across the eastern end of the southern wall.16 In the chapel of the Chora, the torments of hell are limited to the four symbolic ‘communal punishments’ – easily recognizable and widely used, being derived from the Gospels.17 Meanwhile, individual punishments are absent, having no place in this exclusively private chapel of a great monastic katholikon in the capital, especially one of such high-profile sponsorship.18
However, as the most personalized aspect of the Last Judgement, the decoration of the pendentives of the eastern domical vault is notable, for it constitutes a separate iconographic programme. The eastern pendentives host Abraham with Lazarus in his bosom and the Rich Man of the Lukan parable. In the south-west pendentive, the earth and the sea are depicted giving up their dead, and in the north-west pendentive appears an unusual representation of an angel leading a naked soul to Christ the Judge.19 The latter composition is a unicum in the corpus of Byzantine scenes of the Last Judgement, as already pointed out by Paul A. Underwood.20 Sirarpie Der Nersessian commented on this composition, seeing it as a personalized and imaginative episode in which the archangel Michael leads the soul of the founder before Christ the Judge.21 This reading was based on the independent nature of the image, on its proximity to the alleged tomb of Metochites, as well as on the content of the founder’s logos, in which he pleads to the archangel to mediate for him on the day of Judgement.22 Once again, this interpretation, which as far as I am aware has never been challenged, supports the highly personalized character of the iconographic programme of the lateral chapel. Likewise, the parable of the Rich Man is eloquently intertwined with the personalized scene of Metochites’s soul being led before the Judge, justifying the use and function of this evangelical narrative in connection with the donor himself and his posthumous fears and hopes for the salvation of his soul.23
For the composition of the Anastasis in the apse was chosen the symmetrical formula with Christ removing Adam and Eve from the sarcophagi, to either side of their redeemer (Fig. 4.3).24
Chora Church/Kariye Camii, Istanbul, lateral chapel, apse: The Anastasis
Photo: Paul A. Underwood, The Kariye Djami, Vol. 3 (New York, 1966), pl. 341
Directing his gaze to the viewer, Christ walks with great strides towards Adam while turning his body slightly towards the figure of Eve. The luminous garments of Christ combined with the same shades of white, grey, and blue of his mandorla which is following the movements of his body accurately describe “the king of glory who enters as a man and all the dark places of Hades were illuminated,” according to the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, which constitutes the principal source for the composition (21:3). The painter skilfully exploits the entire surface of the concave space in order to display a large number of figures, who participate in the drama of the scene.
The placement of the Descent into Hell in the apse requires special attention. Although the Anastasis is a composition widely disseminated in Byzantine iconography, it is very rarely depicted in the apse of the sanctuary, whether in metropolitan or peripheral arts of the East. The prototype could only be the Anastasis of the apse of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where the episode of the Resurrection is believed to have taken place.25 This image, now lost, was altered during the Crusader era, sometime after the execution of a decorative programme with mosaics and frescoes in 1149. As the Anastasis mosaic of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem no longer exists, is must be reconstructed from the descriptions of travellers – for example, those of the Persian pilgrim Nasir Chosrau, who visited the holy places in 1047 and reported being impressed26 – and especially from other compositions that are considered to be faithful copies of the lost mosaic. According to Alan Borg, the scene in the Holy Sepulchre would have been identical in iconography to the Anastasis illustrated in the British Library Codex Egerton 1139, known as the Queen Melisende Psalter, which dates to 1131–43 (Fig. 4.4; fol. 9v).27
British Library, London, Codex Egerton 1139 (The Queen Melisende Psalter), fol. 9v: The Anastasis
Photo: Helen C. Evans and William D. Wixom, eds., The Glory of Byzantium. Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era A.D. 843–1261, exh. cat. (New York, 1997), p. 393
This hypothesis is based on the Greek inscription that accompanies the composition and, in particular, on certain formulae thought to reproduce the motifs of the ancient Byzantine mosaic of the Holy Sepulchre.28
However, if the iconography of the Anastasis of the Holy Sepulchre is reflected in the schema of the Queen Melisende Psalter, then the composition in the Chora bears no resemblance to it. The symmetrical iconography, the frontality of Christ, and the absence of the flying angels holding a labarum make the Constantinopolitan formula distinctly different from the one formerly in Jerusalem. Nevertheless, we cannot exclude a possible influence exerted by the Holy Sepulchre on the choice of the location of the composition in the Chora’s apse. Another such example is the church of the Resurrection at Abu Ghosh, near Jerusalem, a building of the Hospitallers dating to 1160–70, the central apse of which houses the Anastasis (Fig. 4.5)29 – part of a larger iconographic programme reflecting the decoration of the famous pilgrimages of the Holy Land.30
Church of the Resurrection, Abu Ghosh (Jerusalem District, Israel), apse: The Anastasis
Photo: photographic archive of Geoffrey Meyer-Fernandez
For her part, Nada Hélou integrates into the sphere of influence of the Holy Sepulchre the placement of the Anastasis in the apse of the sanctuary in two churches: St Phocas in Amioun (Fig. 4.6) and the rupestrian church of Quidisset Shmouni in the Qadisha Valley, both in present-day northern Lebanon and dating from the end of 12th or beginning of the 13th century.31
St Phocas Church, Amioun (northern Lebanon), apse: The Anastasis
Photo: photographic archive of Mahmoud Zibawi
Although the frescoes of the latter church have been destroyed, those at St Phocas allow us to distinguish between the influence of the Palestinian pilgrimage on the iconography and the position of the scene in the Libanese monument. Thus, following this example, such an arrangement in the chapel of the Chora would testify to the ambitious plan – even to the pretentiousness, or better the ‘snobbery’32 – of Metochites to advance, at the artistic level, parallel readings between his chapel and the Holy Sepulchre. Similar associations to the sanctity of the Holy Land would also have been evoked by the carved crosses in the lower third of two jambs of the west portal to the naos, which probably housed metal content with fragments of relics of the True Cross.33
Another indication of this influence of the Holy Land on the programme of the Chora’s chapel may be the combination of the Anastasis with the Last Judgement in an eschatological ensemble in the sanctuary. Moreover, this solution was also adopted in the church of Abu Ghosh but in different artistic terms, in that the Last Judgement is shared between the north apse – which hosts the Deesis, the core of the Second Parousia – and the south apse, which, as a clear reference to paradise, represents the saved souls in the bosom of the three patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.34 It is precisely the idea of salvation that is emphasized in the two monuments, but, above all, the very notion of the Heavenly Jerusalem, the place of eternal salvation, as Annemarie Weyl Carr judiciously demonstrated for the case of Abu Ghosh.35
At the Chora, what catches our attention in the Anastasis is the juvenile figure of Abel, presented standing on the sarcophagus of his mother, Eve (Fig. 4.7).36
His originality lies first of all in his breaking away from the group to form a counterpart to St John the Baptist. He is further distinguished by his sumptuous clothing as well as his static position compared to the other figures of the composition, a detail that gives him a “statue-like quality,” as Sotiria Kordi noted.37 Turned towards Christ, but with his gaze directed towards the spectator, Abel lifts his shepherd’s crook with his right hand, a symbol of his pastoral function that is lacking, however, from the compositions of the Descent into Hell.38 The collar, sleeves, and ends of his long himation are decorated with golden embroidery, referring more to princely garb than to that of a shepherd. The length of his himation reveals his purple-violet breeches. The similarities between Abel’s attire and that of the king-prophets Solomon and David behind Adam are striking, and strange.
Chora Church/Kariye Camii, Istanbul, lateral chapel, apse: Abel, detail from The Anastasis
Photo: Athanasios Semoglou
In fact, Der Nersessian pointed out the prominent appearance of Abel and his sumptuous clothes in the composition, without further elaborating.39 For his part, Underwood noted parallels between Abel’s luxurious garments and those of certain martyrs who appear in the mosaic decoration of the exonarthex, such as St Andronikos, the martyr of Cilicia.40 Yet the righteous kings from the genealogy of Christ, the Three Magi, and the eparch Cyrenius all wear similar clothing, as well.41 Abel’s mode of dress should be considered unusual, despite the overall festive character and spirit of luxury that qualifies the figures and compositions in the Constantinopolitan monument; indeed, we find no other instances in which Abel is depicted in royal attire, except in the case of the church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki (1315).42 At the Chora, both Abel’s manner of dress and prominent placement in the scene are peculiar and call for specific reflection.
It should be noted that the canonical and apocryphal literature offer only indirect allusions to the royal aspect of Abel. Precise references that could justify his exceptional representation are to be found neither in Genesis (4:1–15) nor in the apocryphal text of the Greek Life of Adam and Eve.43 In addition, the fact that the passage from the apocryphal Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, according to which Abel “received two crowns out of his gift and his virginity, because he did not admit any filth in his flesh” (7:2), would not be sufficient to support depicting Abel with royal attributes. In contrast to the Bible, where Abel is not characterized as righteous, Pseudo-Matthew recast this figure as the first righteous one, the first martyr, and the first man to take a vow of virginity.44 He was, moreover, considered a foreshadowing of Christ on account of his qualities as a shepherd, namely charity, virginity, and sacrifice. These virtues of Abel may well be at the origin of the pale almond-green colour chosen for his himation in the Chora, a colour that, in its luminosity, approximates that of the tunic of Christ.
Similarly, the parallels between the life of Abel (as the youngest shepherd) and that of David – rooted in a song that the prophet sings after his anointment by Samuel as king of Israel (Biblical Antiquities 59:4) – seem insufficient to explain the genesis of the royal type of Abel.45 Despite the analogies between the two figures, each a victim of the jealousy of his own brother, there is still nothing sufficient to justify an iconography of Abel in royal clothes at Chora.
On the other hand, Magdalena Łaptaś compares the tunic of the young Abel with the sticharion, an ecclesiastical garment worn by the entire hierarchy of the clergy. She thus interprets Abel’s crook as a pastoral tool with which he leads the souls of the faithful, like a righteous patriarch.46 However, this clerical identification of Abel comes up against the colour of his tunic, which, although luminous, is far from being white as described by John Chrysostom, as well as by Sophronios of Jerusalem, Germanos of Constantinople, and Euthymios of Thessaloniki, who testify to the durability of the white sticharion throughout the Byzantine period and ascribe it an angelic whiteness reflecting the beauty and purity of the soul.47 The only exception is during the Lenten period, when the sticharion of the clergy shifts to purple.
The insufficiency of the written sources on this point is compounded by the rarity of the images of Abel until the 14th century. As noted above, in Byzantium the only representation of Abel comparable to that of the Chora is found in the church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki, which dates from 1315 (Fig. 4.8).
Church of the Holy Apostles, Thessaloniki, eastern part of northern arc: Abel, detail from The Anastasis
Photo: Athanasios Semoglou
The figure of Abel does not, however, occupy such a prominent place as in the Constantinopolitan chapel. Here, he wears a tunic with a collar embroidered in gold, although treated in a much more modest and summary manner. In addition, the bottom of his tunic does not feature gold embroidery, and the sleeves are not visible, being hidden by the framing figures of Eve and the righteous. The golden collar of Abel in Thessaloniki seems to have followed the detail of the yellow collar that appears in the church of Protaton, at Karyes on Mount Athos, a work of the Astrapas painters from Thessaloniki dating to the last quarter of 13th century (Fig. 4.9).48
Church of Protaton, Karyes (Mount Athos), eastern part of northern arc: Abel, detail from The Anastasis
Photo: Athanasios Semoglou
In the Athonite example, the traces of the yellow colour on the shoulders above the greyish tunic of the young shepherd indicate that this is not an embroidered collar but rather the front part of a cloak that hangs down the figure’s back, thus being hidden from view. We believe that in the church of the Holy Apostles the case is exactly the same, the only difference being the much narrower width of the collar and the use of golden tesserae in lieu of yellow paint.
Nevertheless, vestiges of this iconographic peculiarity can be sought in the figures of Abel from the above-mentioned churches of St Phocas in Amioun49 and Abu Ghosh in Jerusalem, despite their fragmentary state of preservation. His metallic shade collar and golden sleeves in the first example (see Fig. 4.6) and his brownish coat in the second (Fig. 4.10), along with the crop of reddish hair evident in both cases, all establish analogies with the Chora, while supporting the hypothesis of the Constantinopolitan monument’s indirect relationship to the Holy Sepulchre, as noted above.
Church of the Resurrection, Abu Ghosh (Jerusalem District, Israel), apse: Abel, detail from The Anastasis
Photo: photographic archive of Geoffrey Meyer-Fernandez
However, neither of these examples highlights Abel in such a panegyric way nor as clearly as at the Chora; indeed, in each he remains a secondary and withdrawn figure, behind his mother, Eve.
To sum up, there remains no satisfactory explanation to justify the prominent position ascribed to Abel in Chora Church – neither this murdered figure’s status as a foreshadowing of Christ and his Crucifixion, nor the symbolism of the Church vis-à-vis Cain, who symbolizes the Synagogue, particularly in the art of the moralized Bibles of the High Middle Ages.50
However, if the theological texts fail to interpret this unusual detail, we must look elsewhere for explanation, namely, to the historical conditions of the period. The fratricide committed by Andronikos III, the grandson of Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos and son of Michael IX, provoked a very violent civil war with his grandfather, and this historical event could be revealing in this regard. I am referring more specifically to the assassination of Prince Manuel Palaiologos, on 1 or 2 October 1320, by the soldiers of his brother, following a love affair, according to Nikephoros Gregoras.51 This act not only caused much mourning and sadness to their father, Michael IX – who died a few days after the announcement of the death of his youngest son and of his daughter Anne, wife of the despot of Epirus, Thomas Doukas – but also angered the assassin’s grandfather, Andronikos II.52 Some historians see behind this event more than an erotic rivalry, namely, an effort on the part of Andronikos III to remove a powerful competitor for the succession to the throne, especially given the vicissitudes of his relationship with Andronikos II.53
The analogies between the lives of Abel and of the young prince Manuel Palaiologos are remarkable. Both fell victim to the jealousy and antagonism of their brothers, with their murders leaving their parents in deep mourning. Moreover, the very interpretation of the name Abel associates it with mourning and affliction, according to certain apocryphal texts, such as the third homily of Pseudo-Clement (26:1).54 An identification of the young prince Manuel with Abel would therefore seem logical, given the exceptionally emphatic placement of the biblical figure in the scene of the Anastasis, as well as his mode of dress, which speaks to a royal origin that is not supported by any known religious sources. In addition, it is interesting to point out that the light green chosen for his himation, which mirrors the colour of the steatite icons, would have evoked both the purity of his character and the high honorary title of protovestiarios, granted to certain future emperors, such as Alexios V and Ioannis III Vatatzes.55
In this context, the Raising of the Widow’s Son and of Jairus’s Daughter, compositions which frame the Anastasis in the apse, would have taken on further meaning, not simply because they relate to the funerary function of the space but because they aspire to the resurrection of a young man and young woman, Prince Manuel and Princess Anne, respectively, while at the same time articulating the deep mourning of their family.
Admittedly, such an interpretation would have effects on the dating of the decoration of the chapel as well as on its functions. Indeed, in terms of function, this hypothesis would transform the space from a private funerary chapel for Metochites and his family into an imperial one. Although the official mausoleum for the Palaiologan family was the church of St John the Baptist, built towards the end of the 13th century by the empress Theodora during the restoration of the katholikon of the Lips Monastery,56 several members of the dynastic family were buried elsewhere, including Chora Monastery. The most significant example is tomb E in the exonarthex, which has been identified as that of Irene Raoulaina Palaiologina, the widow of the emperor’s brother Constantine Palaiologos and the mother-in-law of Metochites’s daughter Irene.57 Other tombs are attributed, albeit tentatively, to members of the Palaiologoi, such as tomb F, based on the monograms of the dynasty,58 and the later tomb H on the north wall of the inner narthex, which Underwood attributes to the despot Demetrios Palaiologos, the son of Emperor Andronikos II.59
I wonder, in conclusion, whether an important person such as the murdered young prince could have been buried in the ground in front of the apse of the chapel, which was excavated in 1958 (Fig. 4.11).
Chora Church/Kariye Camii, Istanbul, lateral chapel, apse, excavated tomb
Photo: Robert G. Ousterhout, The Architecture of the Kariye Camii in Istanbul (Washington, D.C., 1987), fig. 90
However, I cannot concur with the hypothesis maintaining that this central tomb belongs to the founder, Metochites.60 Rather, Underwood’s identification of tomb A as that of the donor61 seems more compatible with the iconographic programme of the adjacent space, with its very personalized character.62 Furthermore, the selection of such an eminent placement for his own tomb would have been an exaggerated option and ostensibly arrogant even in the case of a private chapel. On the other hand, if this tomb in the sanctuary was an exceptional addition to the chapel, as Ousterhout suggests,63 then an attribution to Prince Manuel Palaiologos would seem logical in light of its urgency and unforeseen nature. Regardless, the plundering of the tomb in modern times makes it impossible to further advance this supposition.
The adaptation of the adjacent diakonikon via its renovation with paintings in the 14th century, and especially via its connection with the funerary parekklesion to form a separate space, could be better justified within the framework of this hypothesis: by these means, it was transformed into a space that combines the characteristics of a small side chapel,64 possibly intended to house the tomb of Prince Manuel Palaiologos. The decoration of the dome in the diakonikon with the figures of the apostles (Fig. 4.12),65 far from being typical for the late period,66 would likely have been inspired by another famous Constantinopolitan monument, namely, the church of the Holy Apostles, which does not survive but whose function as a mausoleum is well known.67
Chora Church/Kariye Camii, Istanbul, diakonikon, dome
Photo: Athanasios Semoglou
On the southern portion of the west wall of the diakonikon, the decoration of the frescoed niches with crosses on a white background68 could evoke a place of deposition and veneration of relics, such as that of the True Cross,69 defining a function that would have been absolutely compatible with the overall funerary character of the space. Finally, according to our hypothesis, the programme of the apse could not have been completed until 1321.70 It would therefore have been one of the works with which the painters concluded a challenging project – a project that came to fruition over several years and was marked by the drama of its time, which would intensify in the years to come.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to my colleagues Michele Bacci, Alessandra Ricci, and Manuela Studer-Karlen for inviting me to participate in the congress. I would also like to express my warmest thanks to my colleagues Maria Paschali and Dimitris Minasidis for comments and corrections of my English as well as to my dearest friends and scholars Mahmoud Zibawi and Geoffrey Meyer-Fernandez for their kindness in providing me precious photographic material from the churches of St Phocas in Amioun (Lebanon) and Abu Ghosh (near Jerusalem) for the purposes of my paper.
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Papamastorakis, Titos. Ο διάκοσμος του τρούλου των ναών της Παλαιολόγειας περιόδου στη Βαλκανική χερσόνησο και την Κύπρο [The Dome decoration of the Palaiologan Churches in the Balkan Peninsula and Cyprus]. Athens, 2001.
Semoglou, Athanasios. “L’éloquence au service d’archéologie. Les ‘enfants aimés’ de Théodore Métochite et sa bibliothèque dans le monastère de Chora,” Series Byzantina. Studies on Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art 8 (2010), 45–65.
Semoglou, Athanasios. “Damned in Hell, Damned in the Church. Imagery and Space in Byzantium,” in Hell in the Byzantine World. A History of Art and Religion in Venetian Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean, edited by Angeliki Lymberopoulou, 2 vols. Cambridge, 2020), 1:281–309.
Semoglou, Athanasios. “Ο Χριστός Αναπεσών στο Πρωτάτο και η δυναστική προπαγάνδα του Ανδρονίκου Β’ Παλαιολόγου” [Christ Anapeson in Protaton and the dynastic Propaganda of Andronikos II Palaiologos], Βυζαντινά [Byzantina] 37 (2019–2020), 93–112.
Ševčenko, Nancy P. “The Portrait of Theodore Metochites at Chora,” in Donations et Donateurs dans le monde byzantin. Actes du colloque international de l’Université de Fribourg, edited by Jean-Michel Spieser, and Elisabeth Yota, pp. 189–205 (Réalités Byzantines 14). Paris, 2012.
Smyrlis, Kostis. “Contextualizing Theodore Metochites and His Refoundation of the Chora,” Revue des études byzantines 80 (2022), 69–111.
Stoufi-Poulimenou, Ioanna. Η Βυζαντινή Ανάστασις. Ζητήματα της παλαιολόγειας εικονογ ραφίας [The Byzantine Anastasis. Issues of Palaiologan Iconography]. Athens, 2019.
Troupkou, Nikoleta.
Η Ελληνική γραφή των εντοίχιων ψηφιδωτών της Ύστερης Βυζαντινής περιόδου [The Greek Script in wall mosaics of the late Byzantine Period]. PhD diss., Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 2016.Troupkou, Nikoleta. “Ο τάφος του δεσπότη Δημητρίου στη Μονή της Χώρας και η Παναγία Ζωοδόχος Πηγή” [The Tomb of the Despot Demetrios in Chora Moanstery and the Virgin Zoodochos Pege], Βυζαντιακά [Byzantiaka] 33 (2016), 301–317.
Tsigaridas, Efthymios. Θεσσαλονίκη. Η βυζαντινή ζωγραφική σε ναούς της πόλεως (9ος – 15ος αιώνας) [Thessaloniki: The Byzantine Painting in the City’s Churches (9th–15th century)]. Athens, 2021.
Underwood, Paul A. The Kariye Djami, 3 vols. New York, 1966.
Underwood, Paul A., ed. The Kariye Djami. vol. 4, Studies in the Art of the Kariye Djami and Its Intellectual Background. Princeton, N.J., 1975.
Virdis, Alberto. “Le absidi di Abu Gosh. Pittura murale in Terrasanta nel XII secolo,” in Itinerando. Senza confini dalla preistoria ad oggi. Studi in ricordo di Roberto Coroneo, edited by Rossana Martorelli (Pubblicazioni del Dipartimento di Storia, Beni culturali e Territorio dell’Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Archaeologia, Arte e Storia 1.2), pp. 545–561. Perugia, 2015.
Weyl Carr, Annemarie. “The Mural Paintings of Abu Gosh and the Patronage of Manuel Comnenus in the Holy Land,” in Crusader Art in the Twelfth Century, edited by Jaroslav Folda, pp. 215–244 (British Archeological Reports, International Series 152). Oxford, 1982.
Xyngopoulos, Andreas. Η ψηφιδωτή διακόσμηση του ναού των Αγίων Αποστόλων Θεσσαλονίκης [The mosaic Decoration of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki]. Thessaloniki, 1953.
Paul A. Underwood, The Kariye Djami, 3 vols (New York, 1966), 1:35.
Robert S. Nelson, “Taxation with Representation: Visual Narrative and the Political Field at the Kariye Cami,” Art History 23 (1999), 56–82.
Ibid., p. 75. See also: Athanasios Semoglou, “L’éloquence au service d’archéologie. Les ‘enfants aimés’ de Théodore Métochite et sa bibliothèque dans le monastère de Chora,” Series Byzantina. Studies on Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art 8 (2010), 45–65. See also the contribution of Manuela Studer-Karlen to this volume.
Nelson, “Taxation,” pp. 58–59; idem, “Heavenly Allies at the Chora,” Gesta 43/1 (2004), 31–40, esp. 34.
Nelson, “Taxation,” p. 73.
Semoglou, “L’éloquence,” p. 54.
Nancy P. Ševčenko, “The Portrait of Theodore Metochites at Chora,” in Donations et Donateurs dans le monde byzantin. Actes du colloque international de l’Université de Fribourg, ed. Jean-Michel Spieser, and Elisabeth Yota, Réalités Byzantines 14 (Paris, 2012), pp. 189–205, esp. 193. For the references in Metochites’s portrait to the mosaics of Hagia Sophia, see also: Robert S. Nelson, “The Chora and the Great Church: Intervisuality in Fourteenth-Century Constantinople,” Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 23 (1999), 67–101.
Engin Akyürek, “Funeral Ritual in the Parekklesion of the Chora Church,” in Byzantine Constantinople. Momuments, Topography and Everyday Life, ed. Nevra Necipoglu, (Leiden/ Boston/Cologne, 2001), pp. 89–104.
Robert G. Ousterhout, “Temporal Structuring in the Chora Parekklesion,” Gesta 34/1 (1995), 63–76, esp. 66–69.
Athanasios Semoglou, “Damned in Hell, Damned in the Church. Imagery and Space in Byzantium,” in Hell in the Byzantine World. A History of Art and Religion in Venetian Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean, ed. Angeliki Lymberopoulou (Cambridge, 2020), 1:281–309, esp. 302.
Underwood, The Kariye Djami, 3: pl. 204.
Ilhan Akşit, Museum of Chora: Mosaics and Frescoes (Istanbul, 2005), p. 140.
We have to note that the Eucharistic role of the composition is also based on its proximity to, among others, the image of Abraham carrying poor Lazarus, painted on the north-east pendentive, thus illustrating the commemoration of the deceased during the Eucharistic liturgy and their call by Germanos of Constantinople to rest with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the mystical banquet of the Kingdom of God; see Catherine Jolivet-Lévy, “Aspects de la relation entre espace liturgique et décor peint à Byzance,” in Art, Cérémonial et Liturgie au Moyen Âge. Actes du Colloque de 3e Cycle Romand de Lettres, ed. Nicolas Bock, Peter Kurmann, Serena Romano, and Jean-Michel Spieser (Rome, 2002), pp. 71–88, esp. 76–77.
Gabriel Millet, La dalmatique du Vatican (Paris, 1945), pp. 38–39. See also Suzy Dufrenne, Les programmes iconographiques des églises byzantines de Mistra (Paris, 1970), pl. 7, sch. V.
Underwood, The Kariye Djami, 3: pl. 209.
The Gnashing of Teeth, the Outer Darkness, the Sleepless Worm, and the Everlasting Fire.
Semoglou, “Damned in Hell,” pp. 302–03.
Underwood, The Kariye Djami, 3: nos 205–08.
Underwood, The Kariye Djami, 1:208.
Sirarpie Der Nersessian, “Program and Iconography of the Frescoes of the Parecclesion,” in The Kariye Djami, vol. 4, Studies in the Art of the Kariye Djami and Its Intellectual Background, ed. Paul A. Underwood (Princeton, N.J., 1975), pp. 305–49, esp. 331.
Eleni Kaltsogianni, “Theodore Metochites and His Logos on the Archangel Michael: An Essay on the Text’s Sources and Its Intellectual background,” Parekbolai 5 (2015), 17–52, esp. 22.
Semoglou, “Damned in Hell,” pp. 305–07.
Anna D. Kartsonis, Anastasis. The Making of an Image (Princeton, N.J., 1986), p. 9.
Alan Borg, “The Lost Apse Mosaic of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem,” in The Vanishing Past: Studies in Medieval Art, Liturgy and Metrology Presented to Christopher Hohler, ed. Alan Borg, and Andrew Martindale (Oxford, 1981), pp. 7–12, esp. 7–8.
I owe this information to Nada Hélou, “Le décor des absides dans les églises médiévales du Liban,” Iconographica 5 (2006), 32–47, esp. 41.
Borg, “The Lost Apse Mosaic,” 7–12. See also Jaroslav Folda, “Queen Melisende’s Psalter,” in The Glory of Byzantium. Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era A.D. 843–1261, exh. cat., ed. Helen C. Evans, and William D. Wixom (New York, 1997), pp. 392–94.
Folda, “Queen Melisende’s Psalter,” p. 393.
Alberto Virdis, “Le absidi di Abu Gosh. Pittura murale in Terrasanta nel XII secolo,” in Itinerando. Senza confini dalla preistoria ad oggi. Studi in ricordo di Roberto Coroneo, ed. Rossana Martorelli, Pubblicazioni del Dipartimento di Storia, Beni culturali e Territorio dell’Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Archaeologia, Arte e Storia 1.2 (Perugia, 2015), pp. 545–61, esp. 547, fig. 2.
Gustave Kühnel, Wall Painting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Berlin, 1988), p. 176. See also Gil Fishhof, “Hospitaller Patronage and the Mural Cycle of the Church of the Resurrection at Abu-Ghosh (Emmaus) – A New Reading,” in The Military Orders, vol. 6.1, Culture and Conflict in the Mediterranean World, ed. Jochen Schenk, and Mike Carr (London/New York, 2017), pp. 81–93; Geoffrey Meyer-Fernandez, “Le décor peint de l’église d’Abu Gosh (troisième quart du XIIe siècle): miroir de lieux saints de Syrie-Palestine,” in L’église d’Abu Gosh. 850 ans de regards sur les fresques d’une église franque en Terre Sainte, ed. Jean-Baptiste Delzant (Paris, 2018), pp. 123–36.
Erica Cruikshank Dodd, “Christian Arab Painters under the Mamluks,” ARAM 9–10 (1997–98), 257–88, esp. 260–62, fig. 1; Hélou, “Le décor,” pp. 40–41, fig. 15.
Cyril Mango, The Brazen House. A Study of the Vestibule of the Imperial Palace of Constantinople (Copenhagen, 1959), p. 142.
Jasmina S. Ćirić, “Theodore Metochites Mosaic at Chora and the Relics of the True Cross,” Journal of Mosaic Research 14 (2021), 41–51, esp. 46.
Virdis, “Le absidi,” p. 547.
Annemarie Weyl Carr, “The Mural Paintings of Abu Gosh and the Patronage of Manuel Comnenus in the Holy Land,” in Crusader Art in the Twelfth Century, ed. Jaroslav Folda, British Archeological Reports, International Series 152 (Oxford, 1982), pp. 215–44, esp. 220–21.
Underwood, The Kariye Djami, 3: no. 201, pl. 340–59.
Sotiria Kordi, The Chora Parekklesion as a Space of Becoming (PhD diss., University of Leeds, 2013), p. 156.
Kartsonis, Anastasis, pp. 209–10. For examples, see also Ioanna Stoufi-Poulimenou,
Der Nersessian, “Program and Iconography,” p. 322.
Underwood, The Kariye Djami, 1:194–95.
Ibid., 2: nos 55, 56, 103, pls. 73, 173, 176.
Andreas Xyngopoulos,
André Dupont-Sommer and Marc Philonenko, eds., La Bible. Écrits intertestamentaires (Paris, 1987), pp. 1771–73.
François Bovon and Pierre Geoltrain, eds., Écrits apocryphes chrétiens (Paris, 1997), 1:126.
Dupont-Sommer and Philonenko, La Bible, p. 1381.
Magdalena Łaptaś, “An ‘Enigmatic Man’ in the Anastasis Scene from the Lower Church in Banganarti. An Attempt at Identification,” Études et travaux 28 (2015), 105–20, esp. 114–17.
Konstantinos Koukopoulos,
Gabriel Millet, Monuments de l’Athos, vol. 1, Les peintures (Paris, 1927), pl. 19.2. For a plate in colour, see: Agioreitiki Estia, ed.,
Cruikshank Dodd, “Christian Arab Painters,” pp. 262, 276, fig. 4.
See the conclusions of Sabine Maffre, L’iconographie de Caïn et Abel en France du XIe siècle au début du XVIe siècle (PhD diss., École des chartes, 2010).
Nikephoros Gregoras, Byzantina Historia, ed. Ludwig Schopen, and Immanuel Bekker, Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae (Bonn, 1829), VIII, 13, I, 284.
Constantinou P. Kyrri,
Ursula Victoria Bosch, Kaiser Andronikos III. Palaiologos. Versuch einer Darstellung der Byzantinischen Geschichte in den Jahren 1321–1341 (Amsterdam, 1965), p. 15.
Pierre Geoltrain, and Jean Daniel Kaestli, eds., Écrits apocryphes chrétiens (Paris, 2005), 2:1290–91.
Ioli Kalavrezou-Maxeiner, Byzantine Icons in Steatite, Byzantina Vindobonensia 15 (Vienna, 1985), pp. 79–85; Henry Maguire, Nectar and Illusion. Nature in Byzantine Art and Literature (Corby, 2012), pp. 131–32; Alexander Kazhdan, “Protovestiarios,” in Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. Alexander Kazhdan (New York/Oxford, 1991), 3:1749.
Theodore Macridy, “The Monastery of Lips and the Burials of the Paleologi,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 18 (1964), 253–77, esp. 269–72.
Underwood, The Kariye Djami, 1:280–88 and 3: pl. 540–45.
Ibid., 1:288–92 and 3: pl. 546–47.
Ibid., 1:295–99 and 3: pl. 550–53; Sarah T. Brooks, “The History and Significance of Tomb Monuments at the Chora Monastery,” in Restoring Byzantium. The Kariye Camii in Istanbul and the Byzantine Institute Restoration, ed. Holger A. Klein, and Robert G. Ousterhout (New York, 2004), pp. 23–31, esp. 29, fig. 11. See also Nikoleta Troupkou, “
Sharon E.J. Gerstel, “The Chora Parekklesion, the Hope for a Peaceful Afterlife, and Monastic Devotional Practices,” in Kariye Camii, Yeniden [The Kariye Camii Reconsidered], ed. Holger A. Klein, Robert G. Ousterhout, and Brigitte Pitarakis (Istanbul, 2011), pp. 107–45, esp. 133–36.
Underwood, The Kariye Djami, 1:270–72. See also Robert G. Ousterhout, The Architecture of the Kariye Camii in Istanbul (Washington, D.C., 1987), p. 59. Ousterhout’s remark that the tomb was enlarged in order to include other members of his family finds me in full agreement.
Brooks, “The History and Significance,” pp. 25–26.
Ousterhout, The Architecture, p. 60, fig. 90.
Ibid., p. 46.
Underwood, The Kariye Djami, 1:264–66 and 3: pls. 525–29.
In the Palaiologan period, the iconographic formula of Christ surrounded by the apostles in the dome is only found in the scene of the Ascension, and even such examples are very limited; see Titos Papamastorakis,
Richard Krautheimer, Zur Konstantins Apostelkirche in Konstantinople. Ausgewälte Aufsätze zur Europäischen Kunstgeschichte (Cologne, 1988), pp. 81–90. See also Nikolaos Gkioles,
Ousterhout, The Architecture, p. 49.
Ćirić, “Theodore Metochites Mosaic,” pp. 41–51.
Kostis Smyrlis backdated the completion of the works in the Chora from 1321 to 1317, based on a document from the monastery of St John the Prodrome in Serres; see idem, “Contextualizing Theodore Metochites and His Refoundation of the Chora,” Revue des études byzantines 80 (2022), 69–111. However, if the decoration of Chora dates from 1310–15, we are faced with the major question of the simultaneous presence of the same scribes and perhaps the same workshops of artists who seem to have worked in the church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki; see Nikoleta Troupkou,