Basilica Palace Mosaics |
More than 50 years ago, British archaeologists from the University of St. Andrews in Edinburgh headed by J.H. Baxter unearthed a large
peristyle court with an axially joining apse hall and some adjacent parts of a large group of buildings. The complex, erected on an artificial terrace over substructures, extended over fully 3,500 to 4,000 square metres. When the peristyle was redone under
The Great Palace
Justinian I (527-565), the hall floor was decorated with the splendid ornamental pavement The combination of a peristyle adjoined by the palace aula has its roots in the Graeco-Roman design of state and residential buildings. The Great Palace shows the unmistakable influence of the Roman palace building tradition. It is also noticeable how well the orientation of the peristyle court and aula matches that of Hagia Sophia and Hagia Eirene, which are aligned basically along the same axis. Probes underneath the palace mosaic in the north-eastern hall discovered elements of a peristyle dating back to the 4th and 5th centuries. Pottery found in the soil filling underneath the mosaic indicates that comprehensive conversion and construction work, including the laying of the mosaic, took place under Justinian I in the first half of the 6th century. The palace district was enlarged and houses were built on the three lower-lying terraces of the western slope right down to the coast. The main buildings and imperial quarters were shifted to the middle terrace above the palace harbour near the Golden Triclinium.
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Nowhere else in antiquity can we find a tessellated floor of quite the size and quality of the Great Palace Mosaic in Istanbul. This unique masterpiece also provides us with the single reference that we have of the furnishings of the Imperial Palace of Constantinople. At the time of its making, the mosaicist craft, rooted in Anatolia and artistically perfected in Greece and Italy, could draw on a long-established tradition. The best artists from all corners of the Empire were employed to lay this splendidly ornamented floor. With no comparable works available, it is, however, difficult to interpret and date the mosaic solely on the basis of typological and stylistic criteria. The mosaic floor was made up of three layers: the bottom stratum consisted of a thick (0.30 to 0.50 metres) bed of packed quarrystone (statumen), covered by a mortar screed of 9 cm in thickness topped by a compacted insulating layer of loam, soil and charcoal and a hard screed layer containing a high rate of stone chips (rudus), which in turn supported the embedding mortar and tesserae
(nucleus).
Due to destruction and numerous conversions since the days of Justinian I, only some 250 square metres of the floor survived in the south-western, north-western and north-eastern halls of the peristylar court, about one seventh or one eighth of the original expanse. In spite of its fragmented state, the unearthed parts of the mosaic suffice to give us an impression of the splendour common in early Byzantine palaces. The continuous section of the north-eastern hall in particular, which was returned in situ after its successful restoration, provides an excellent view of the technical, artistic and iconographical details of the tessellated pavement. v
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Mosaic Motifs
Hunting the Tiger Two men carrying long hunting spears advance towards an attacking tiger. They wear sleeveless shirts with a wide sash over sleeved tunics. Their long trousers are tucked into fasciae crurales (leggings). The men appear to be courtiers: the shield-like applications on their tunics could be badges of a schola. Hunting the Boar A hunter armed with a spear kneels on the ground. He wears an exomis (coat) and sandals; much of his light-skinned face has been destroyed. In spite of the bad state of repair, we can still see a wild boar on the left hand rushing headlong at the spear. Blood spurts from its grey-black fur, is shagginess depicted by alternating light and dark lines. Hunting the Lion with a Bow and Arrow A highly fragmented scene in the tradition of Hellenistic royal iconography. The lion hunt was deemed the most distinguished of all aristocratic pleasures. Killing the king of beasts was always reserved to the monarch, be it at the Persian court or under Alexander the Great. In this scene, the mounted hunter aims his drawn bow at a lion about to jump and attack the horse from behind. The quiver is partly visible behind the rider's right shoulder. He wears a knee-length tunic (ornamented with platelets across the breast) and coat over trousers tucked into boots. The horse is harnessed without stirrups. The Eagle and the Snake The motif, symbolising the victory of light over darkness, is widespread in all of antiquity (e.g. as a sepulchral symbol on Attic funeral steles from the 5th century BC). It was depicted on the monumental pyre that Alexander the Great had erected for his deified friend Hephaistion in Babylon (324 BC), and it formed part of the standards of the Roman army. Defeat is inevitable for the snake that has wound itself around the raptor's body. The Lion and the Bull Two adversaries of equal prowess meet in this scene: the bull stands straddle-legged, its head bowed low in fury, goring the lion's flank, while the lion in turn tears into the bull's back. Both horns of the bull are visible, a slight prevarication on the mosaicist's part. The Stag and the Snake The stag was considered an adversary of the snake ever since early Hellenistic times: with its breath it draws the reptile from its pit, and it is immune to its poison. Here too, the snake has wound itself around the enemy's body. The stag bows its head so as to get a better grip on the snake. As a result, its legs are slightly abbreviated in the picture. A Group of Bears A half-standing bear has attacked a man who has dropped on his knees. Of his clothes we still recognise a loose tunic, a cloak taken up at the right shoulder and sandals. In the background, a (probably female) bear has climbed a pomegranate tree to shake loose some fruits for its young that sit under the tree. Stallion, Mare and Foal Grazing horses in the wild, symbolising peaceful rural life, were a popular subject of Roman sarcophagi in the imperial period. The horses depicted on the mosaic have small heads in proportion to their bodies. An interesting aspect is the different artistic treatment of their bodies: the brown stallion is shown with all its muscles (except on its back) while in the grey mare and the foal this plastic representation is limited to their legs. T he Monkey as Bird Catcher A tailless monkey stands underneath a date palm, carrying
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