Lonely Planet İstanbul Guide

To the right of the nave is the parecclesion, a side chapel built to hold the tombs of the church’s founder and his relatives, close friends and associates. This is decorated with frescoes that deal with the themes of death and resurrection, depicting scenes taken from the Old Testament. The striking painting in the apse known as the Anastasis (item 51) shows a powerful Christ raising Adam and Eve out of their sarcophagi, with saints and kings in attendance. The gates of hell are shown under Christ’s feet. Less majestic but no less beautiful are the frescoes adorning the dome, which show Mary and 12 attendant angels (item 65). The Last Judgement (item 56) strikingly depicts this scene from the Book of Revelation in dazzling white with gilt accents, with the rolling up of heaven represented by a coiling motif surrounded by the choirs of heaven. Though no one knows for certain, it is thought that the frescoes were painted by the same masters who created the mosaics. Theirs is an extraordinary accomplishment, as the paintings, with their sophisticated use of perspective and exquisitely portrayed facial expressions, are reminiscent of those painted by the Italian master Giotto (c 1266–1337), the painter who more than any other ushered in the Italian Renaissance and who was painting at around the same time. The message behind the perspective is important: the objects at the back are as big as those at the front, because the artists were giving the impression that the picture ends in the viewer. Such artistic sophistication has led historians to speculate that the Byzantines would have started the Renaissance had the Ottomans not taken İstanbul. Indeed, Byzantine artists who fled Constantinople to Europe did have some influence on Early Renaissance art. Marble The nave and the narthexes feature very fine, multicoloured marble work. The marble door in the north axis of the nave is an imitation of the bronze-and wood doors of the 6th century, and is one of the few surviving examples of its kind. Restoration