(jazzy piano music) Voiceover: We're looking
at a mosaic that dates from the late Byzantine
period from the 1200s, but it's in a church,
Hagia Sophia in Istanbul that dates to the 500s, the very beginning of
the Byzantine period. Voiceover: We normally
think about a building and its decoration dating
from the same period, but we also know that we
decorate our own homes so we're familiar with that idea. Voiceover: Now, it's important
to know that this mosaic, which is just glorious, was actually covered
up for a very long time because this church became a mosque and when it became a mosque, all of its images, all of its crosses were either removed or were covered. It's wonderful to see it, but
it hasn't survived very well. Voiceover: We only have about
one-third left of this mosaic. Voiceover: Luckily we have the
faces of the three figures. Voiceover: This is called the De�sis. It shows Christ in the center with His right hand blessing, His left hand holding the Gospels. He's flanked by the Virgin
Mary and St. John the Baptist. Voiceover: That's what De�sis means. This is a subject that we
see often in Byzantine art. It's an intercession. That is both of these
figures are coming to Christ on behalf of mankind. Voiceover: It's really easy to see the appeal of this medium. Small pieces of glass, some
with gold in them, some colored. These are tesserae and
what's fabulous about them is they're set in the wall
at slightly different angles so they all catch the
light in different ways. Voiceover: The artist
has created a pattern in the background of that gold
that also catches the light. Voiceover: This is a massive mosaic. These figures are much larger than life and it's also fairly high off the ground, so they really do stand above us and that gold ground reminds us that this is a heavenly space. This is not an earthly space. They are distant from us,
but they're also proximate. We feel as if there is
emotional connection. Voiceover: There is
abstraction to the background. We see no landscape, we see
no architectural setting and yet, the face is carefully modeled, especially of Christ. The artist has used light
and dark to create a sense of three dimnensionality
in the face and in the neck and the hands of the fgiures. That's also true of Mary and John though perhaps to a lesser extent. Voiceover: Yet there is
still these striations, that is the use of line and the drapery to define the folds. It still a kind of drawing
as opposed to modeling. Voiceover: Christ seems
to look directly out at us and seems to be in the middle of raising His hand for that blessing. Voiceover: It's interesting
because He does look up, but the other two figures, they're bowed. There is a kind of solemnity, that quiet. Voiceover: Both of these figures would have their hands forward
in gesstures of prayer. We're in the 1260s here
and this is just after a very tumultuous
period, to say the least, in Byzantine history. Voiceover: This church, which is the heart of the Eastern Orthodox tradition, had been controlled briefly by the Latins, that is by the Roman
Catholics, the Western Church. Voiceover: In 1204 during
the Fourth Crusade, as the crusaders were
heading toward Jerusalem, they stopped and instead sacked the very wealthy city of Constantinople. Voiceover: It was a terrible event and there was tremendous violence and really long-term scarring. Some historians look at that
moment, the Fourth Crusade, as the moment of the long
downward spiral of Constantinople. Nevertheless, after the
Byzantines reclaimed their city, there were a couple of hundred
years of a real flowering and this mosaic is one of the
great expressions of that period which some even call a Renaissance. Voiceover: This is a great example of late Byzantine work. It might even remind us of what's going on in
Italy at the same time with the artist like Duccio. Voicemaker: Look at the
elongation of the bodies. It's not naturalism for all
that's emotional engagement. These are tremendously elegant figures. Look at the lengthening of the faces, of the nose, of the fingers. Voiceover: Elegant but also emotional. Look at the St. John. There is an awareness of the terribleness of Christ suffering on behalf of mankind. Voiceover: I think this
is a gorgeous mosaic, but in some ways it feels out of place. It's important to remember that when this church
was first consecrated it's extensive mosaics
were not figurative. They didn't show the Virgin Mary and Christ and St. John. They showed abstract symbols
of the cross or patterns. In some ways, they really
emphasized the structural forms, the volumes of the building as opposed to pictures on its walls. Voiceover: We know that there is tension around the use of images from
the beginning of Christianity. Do you picture Christ? Do you picture Mary? We know that in the Judaic
tradition that was disallowed. On the other hand, looking at this image, I can see the incredibly profound value of images in aiding prayer, in helping one to engage with the Divine
and the Transcendent. (jazzy piano music)