Introduction
This essay is devoted to the discussion of a question about the most convincing explanation for the replacement of the heads of the emperor, the empress, and Christ in the mosaic of Constantine IX in St. Sophia? Before the main discussion we should highlight that St. Sophia church is one of the most eminent architectural and cultural artifacts in world’s history.
Hagia Sophia (known as Ayasophya in Turkish), also known as the Church of Holy Wisdom and the Great church, was the world’s preeminent Christian Church for 1,000 years (Ring, 343).
Main text
The mosaics where Empress Zoe is portrayed date the XIth century. Christ with the dark blue robe on is portrayed in the middle of a golden mosaics background. He blesses emperor and empress with the right hand. There is a Bible in His left hand. The monograms IC and XC above his hear mean IÄ“sous Khristos. He is offering a purse, as symbol of the donation he made to the church, while she is holding a scroll on the mosaics symbolizes money donated to the church.
The previous heads have been replaced by the new ones. There exist several explanations to this action. The first one is that Zoe’s first husband Romanus III Argyrus or her son Michael IV were portrayed. Another opinion illustrates the hypothesis that these mosaics were made much more early by other emperor and empress. That is why there appeared a necessity to replace those heads.
In the mosaic she stands to the left of Christ and is smaller than her husband, and the scroll she carries bears Monomacho’s name, reinforcing the idea that the deed is the work of her husband. Indeed, her presence serves to confirm that the gift is Constantine’s and not her own. The fact that the name and face of Constantine have been changed (from those of Romanos III Argyros, Zoe’s first husband) shows that this relationship between Zoe and her husband remained constant through her life (Eastmond, 133).
The question about real persons portrayed on the mosaics was investigated by many other scientists. The most reasonable and complete explanation of this phenomenon is presented in the article by Kalavrezou. This scientist explores historical material as well as the mosaics portrayal technique.
His visual critique contains the following points. Having investigated several iconographic works of the same style, he observed the general rules of position of the eyes, head, and body portrayal. He points out that the couple occupies central position in the mosaics. Their heads are turned inwards a little bit. But the position of Christ is strange in some way: “Christ, although blessing with the right hand directly before his body, has his right leg and knee turned toward the emperor, a position not required by his seated pose” (Kalavrezou, 247). The eye direction is also not understandable. Though in original portraits it might be different.
The question of real depicting of Zoe is well discussed by Duggan.
Zoe’s representation is quite problematical. It shows the immobile features of a young woman, whereas Zoe was sixty-four years old at the time of the scene apparently depicted in the panel. This seeming contradiction between image and reality, combined with the “mask-like” quality of Eirene Komnene’s depiction in the companion mosaic suggests that the material sources, like texts, provide images behind which the realities of empress and empire in middle Byzantium may be concealed (Duggan, 142).
Conclusion
In conclusion I would like to say that in spite of the numeral arguments about the reasons of three heads replacement, there is no single right opinion. A lot of scientific work must be done to put an end to this discussion. In any case the replacement of heads on the mosaics influenced not much the total value of St. Sophia church as historical and cultural artifact.
Bibliography
Duggan, Anne J. Queens and Queenship in Medieval Europe: Proceedings of a Conference Held at King’s College London, April 1995. Boydell Press, 2002.
Eastmond, Anthony. Royal Imagery in Medieval Georgia. Penn State Press, 1998.
Kalavrezou, Ioli. Irregular Marriages in the Eleventh Century and the Zoe and Constantine Mosaic in Hagia Sophia. Harvard University Press, 1994.
Ring, Trudy et al. International Dictionary of Historic Places: Southern Europe. Taylor & Francis, 1996.