Byzantine Churches in Constantinople Part 5

S. JOHN OF THE STUDION, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.

_To face page 48._]

The church was converted into a mosque in the reign of Bajazet II.

(1481-1512) by the Sultan's equerry, after whom it is now named.

_Architectural Features_

The church of S. John the Baptist of the Studion is a basilica, and is of special interest because the only surviving example of that type in Constantinople, built while the basilica was the dominant form of ecclesiastical architecture in the Christian world. It has suffered severely since the Turkish conquest, especially from the fire which, in 1782, devastated the quarter in which it stands, and from the fall of its roof, a few winters ago, under an unusual weight of snow. Still, what of it remains and the descriptions of its earlier state given by Gyllius, Gerlach, and other visitors, enable us to form a fair idea of its original appearance. The recent explorations conducted by the Russian Inst.i.tute at Constantinople have also added much to our knowledge of the building.

It is the oldest church fabric in the city, and within its precincts we stand amid the surroundings of early Christian congregations. For, partly in original forms, partly in imitations, we still find here a basilica's characteristic features: _the atrium_, or quadrangular court before the church; on three of its sides surrounded by _cloisters_; in its centre, the marble _phiale_ or fountain, for the purification of the gathering wors.h.i.+ppers; the _narthex_, a pillared porch along the western facade, where catechumens and penitents, unworthy to enter the sanctuary itself, stood afar off; the interior area divided into _nave_ and _aisles_ by lines of columns; the semicircular _apse_ at the eastern extremity of the nave for altar and clergy; and _galleries_ on the other sides of the building to provide ample accommodation for large a.s.semblies of faithful people.

NOTE

Gyllius (_De Top. Constant._ l. iv. c. 9) describes the church as follows: 'Quod (monasterium) nunc non extat; aedes extat, translata in religionem Mametanam; in cujus vestibulo sunt quatuor columnae c.u.m trabeatione egregie elaborata; in interiore parte aedium utrinque columnae sunt septem virides, nigris maculis velut fragmentis alterius generis lapidum insertis distinctae, quarum perimeter est s.e.x pedum et s.e.x digitorum. Denique earum ratio capitulorum, epistyliorum opere Corinthio elaborata, eadem est quae columnarum vestibuli. Supra illas s.e.x existunt totidem columnae in parte aedis superiore. In area aedis Studianae est cisterna, cujus lateritias cameras sustinent viginti tres columnae excelsae Corinthiae.'

Gerlach (_Tagebuch_, p. 217; cf. pp. 359, 406) describes it under the style of the church of S. Theodore, for he confounds the monastery of Studius with that of the Peribleptos at Soulou Monastir: 'Das ist eine sehr hohe und weite Kirche (wie die unsern); hat zwei Reyhen Marmel-steiner Saulen mit Corinthischen Knaufen (capitellis), auff einer jeden Seiten sieben; auff deren jeden wieder ein andere Saule stehet. Der Boden ist mit lauter buntem von Vogeln und anderen Thieren gezierten Marmel auff das schonste gepflastert.' (This is a very lofty and broad church (like our churches). It has two rows of marble columns with Corinthian capitals, on either side seven; over each of which stands again another column. The floor is paved in the most beautiful fas.h.i.+on entirely with variegated marble, adorned with figures of birds and other animals.)

Choiseul Gouffier (_Voyage pittoresque en Grece_, ii. p. 477), French amba.s.sador to the Sublime Porte (1779-92), speaks of the church in the following terms: 'Dans l'interieur sont de chaque cote sept colonnes de vert antique, surmontees d'une frise de marbre blanc parfaitement sculptee, qui contient un ordre plus pet.i.t et tres bien proportionne avec le premier. Je ne sais de quel marbre sont ces secondes colonnes, parce que les Turcs qui defigurent tout ont imagine de les couvrir de chaux.'

Ph. Bruun (_Constantinople, ses sanctuaires et ses reliques au commencement du XVe siecle_, Odessa, 1883) identifies with the Studion one of the churches dedicated to S. John, which Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo visited in Constantinople when on his way to the Court of Tamerlane. But that church was 'a round church without corners,' 'una quadra redonda sin esquinas,' and had forty-eight columns of verd antique, 'veinte e quatro marmoles de jaspe verde, ... e otros veinte e quatro marmoles de jaspe verde.' What church the Spanish amba.s.sador had in view, if his description is correct, it is impossible to say.

No other writer describes such a church in Constantinople. See the Note at the end of this chapter for the full text of the amba.s.sador's description.

The northern wall of the atrium is original, as the crosses in brick formed in its brickwork show. The trees which shade the court, the Turkish tombstones beneath them, and the fountain in the centre, combine to form a very beautiful approach to the church, and reproduce the general features and atmosphere of its earlier days.

The narthex is divided into three bays, separated by heavy arches. It is covered by a modern wooden roof, but shows no signs of ever having been vaulted. The centre bay contains in its external wall a beautiful colonnade of four marble columns, disposed, to use a cla.s.sical term, 'in antis.' They stand on comparatively poor bases, but their Corinthian capitals are exceptionally fine, showing the richest Byzantine form of that type of capital. The little birds under the angles of the abaci should not be overlooked.

The entablature above the columns, with its architrave, frieze, and cornice, follows the cla.s.sic form very closely, and is enriched in every member. Particularly interesting are the birds, the crosses, and other figures in the s.p.a.ces between the modillions and the heavy scroll of the frieze. The drill has been very freely used throughout, and gives a pleasant sparkle to the work.

In the second and fourth intercolumniations there are doorways with moulded jambs, lintels, and cornices, but only the upper parts of these doorways are now left open to serve as windows.

The cornice of the entablature returns westwards at its northern and southern ends, indicating that a colonnade, with a smaller cornice, ran along the northern and southern sides of the atrium, if not also along its western side. The cloisters behind the colonnades, were connected at their west end with the narthex by two large and elaborately moulded doorways still in position.

Five doors lead from the narthex into the church; three opening into the nave, the others into the aisles.

The interior of the church, now almost a total ruin, was divided into nave and two aisles by colonnades of seven columns of verd antique marble. But only six of the original columns have survived the injuries which the building has sustained; the other columns are Turkish, and are constructed of wood with painted plaster covering.

The colonnades supported an entablature of late Corinthian type, which, as the fall of the Turkish plaster that once covered it has revealed, had the same moulding as the entablature in the narthex. The architrave was in three faces, with a small bead ornament to the upper two, and finished above with a small projecting moulding. The frieze was an ogee, bellied in the lower part. Of the cornice only the bed mould, carved with a leaf and tongue, remains.

Above each colonnade stood another range of seven[76] columns connected, probably, by arches. Along the northern, southern, and western sides of the church were galleries constructed of wood. Those to the north and south still exist in a ruined condition, and many of the stone corbels which supported the beams remain in the walls. Only scanty vestiges of the gallery above the narthex can be now distinguished. Its western wall, the original outer wall of the upper part of the church, has totally disappeared. Its eastern arcade has been replaced by the Turkish wall which const.i.tutes the present outer wall of that part of the church. But beyond either end of that wall are visible, though built up, the old openings by which the gallery communicated with its companion galleries; while to the west of the wall project the ragged ends of the Byzantine walls which formed the gallery's northern and southern sides.

The nave rose probably to a greater height than it does now, and had a roof at a higher level than the roofing of the aisles. It doubtless resembled the basilican churches at Salonica, either with clearstory windows, as in S. Demetrius, or without such windows, as in Eski Juma Jamissi.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE IX.

(1) S. JOHN OF THE STUDION. EAST END.

_E. M. Antoniadi._ (2) S. JOHN OF THE STUDION, NORTH SIDE, EAST END.

_To face page 52._]

The nave terminates in a large apse, semicircular within and showing three sides on the exterior. Only the lower part is original; the Turkish superstructure is lower and on a smaller scale than the Byzantine portion it has replaced. There are no side chapels. Under the bema the Russian explorers discovered a small cruciform crypt. The large quant.i.ty of mosaic cubes found in the church during the recent Russian excavations proves that the church was decorated with mosaics, while the remains of iron plugs in the western wall for holding marble slabs show that the building had the customary marble revetment. But what is curious is to find the mortar pressed over the face of the stones, and broad decorative joints formed by ruled incised lines and colour. Mr. W.

S. George suggests that this was a temporary decoration executed pending some delay in the covering of the walls with marble. He also thinks that the importance given to the joint in late Byzantine work and in Turkish work may be a development from such early treatment of mortar.

The floor of the church was paved with pieces of marble arranged in beautiful patterns, in which figures of animals and scenes from cla.s.sic mythology were inlaid. Gerlach[77] noticed the beauty of the pavement, and Salzenberg[78] represents a portion of it in his work on S. Sophia.

But the members of the Russian Inst.i.tute of Constantinople have had the good fortune to bring the whole pavement to light.

A noticeable feature is the number of doors to the church, as in S.

Irene. Besides the five doors already mentioned, leading into the interior from the narthex, there is a door at the eastern end of each aisle, and close to each of these doors is found both in the southern and northern walls of the building an additional door surmounted by a window. The latter doors and their windows have been walled up.

The exterior is in two stories, corresponding to the ground floor and the galleries. It has two ranges of eight large semicircular-headed windows in the northern and southern walls, some of them modified, others built up, since the building became a mosque. The five windows in the gable of the western wall are, like the wall itself, Turkish.

Pilasters are placed at the angles and at the apse.

On the south side of the church is a cistern, the roof of which rests on twenty-three columns crowned by beautiful Corinthian capitals.

NOTE

The full text of the description given of the church of S. John, mentioned by Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, reads as follows:--

e la primera parte (puerta?) de la Iglesia es muy alta e de obra rica, e delante desta puerta esta un grand corral y luego al cuerpo de la Iglesia, e el qual cuerpo es una quadra redonda sin esquinas muy alta, e es cerrada al derredor de tres grandes naves, que son cubiertas da un cielo ellas y la quadra. e ha en ella siete altares, e el cielo desta quadra e naves e las paredes es de obra de musayca muy ricamente labrada, e en ello muchas historias, e la quadra esta armada sobre veinte e quatro marmoles de jaspe verde, e las dichas naves son sobradadas, e los sobrados dellas salen al cuerpo de la Iglesia, e alli avia otros veinte e quatro marmoles de jaspe verde, e il cielo de la quadra e las paredes e de obra musayca, e los andamios de las naves salen sobre el cuerpo de la Iglesia, e alli do avia de aver verjas avia marmoles pequenos de jaspe.[79]

With the kind help of Professor Cossio of Madrid, the Spanish text may be roughly translated as follows:--

And the first part (door?) of the church is very lofty and richly worked. And before this door is a large court beside the body of the church; and the said body is a round hall without corners (or angles), very lofty, and enclosed round about by three large naves, which are covered, they and the hall, by one roof. And it (the church) has in it seven altars; and the roof of the hall and naves and the walls are of mosaic work very richly wrought, in which are (depicted) many histories. And the (roof of the) hall is placed on twenty-four marble columns of green jasper (verd antique). And the said naves have galleries, and the galleries open on the body of the church, and these have other twenty-four marble columns of green jasper; and the roof of the hall and the walls are of mosaic work. And the elevated walks of the naves open over the body of the church,[80] and where a bal.u.s.trade should be found there are small marble columns of jasper.

Outside the church, adds the amba.s.sador, was a beautiful chapel dedicated to S. Mary, remarkable for its mosaics.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE X.

S. JOHN OF THE STUDION. CISTERN.

_To face page 51._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 12.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 13.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 14. AND 15.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 16 AND 17.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 18.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 19.]

[35] The Latin thesis of Eugenius Marin, _De Studio coen.o.bio Constantinopolitano_, Paris, 1897, is a most useful work.

[36] Gyllius, _De top._ C.P. p. 313.

[37] _Itineraires russes en Orient_, p. 306, _traduits pour la Societe de l'Orient Latin par Mdme. B. de Khitrovo_.

[38] _Ibid._ p. 231. For all questions concerning the walls of the city I refer, once for all, to my work, _Byzantine Constantinople: the Walls and adjoining Historical Sites_, published in 1889 by John Murray, London.