Guardian of Eden, Guardian of the City: The Lost Mosaic of the Archangel Michael in Hagia Sophia of Constantinople

This contribution aims to shed light on the lost mosaic of the Archangel Michael with a drawn sword once set, according to Niketas Choniates, in a πρόναος of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. After an overview of previous hypotheses, I will argue for a position just outside of the south-west vestibule of the church in the 10th century. Such a location and dating would be in line with the connotation of the Archangel as defender of a sacred space, perceived as a sort of Eden in Byzantine textual and visual sources. The spread of similar representations confirms the role of a reference point that the mosaic soon acquired by virtue of its position at the ceremonial entrance of the most important church of the Empire, not to mention its political importance. The ideological character of the Archangel went a step further during the last centuries of the Empire. A unique use of the First Arab Siege of Constantinople as a stage for St. Michael’s role as sword-wielding guardian in a 14th century Serbian painting is more broadly reflective of a theme throughout Byzantine artistic tradition in varied media. This representation reflected the duty of the Archangel not just as guardian of Hagia Sophia, but also of the emperor, Constantinople and the Empire in a broader sense.

Byzantine Art and Perception

Byzantine art preferred chameleonic materials such as gold, glass, jewels, and variegated marbles with which to make images and shape architectural space. When set in shifting diurnal light and the flicker of candles, the variegated surfaces of the icon and ecclesiastical interiors produced a spectacle of shifting appearances, or poikilia. Both before and after Iconoclasm, ekphrasis explicitly trained the viewer’s perception to interpret these phenomena as manifestations of the ephemeral dwelling of the metaphysical in matter. Focusing on three examples—the ambo and apse mosaics in Hagia Sophia and the portable icon of the Archangel—this essay explores how the perception of animation of the icons and architectural interior emerge out of the synergy among material images, imagined visions, and ekphrasis.

The Origin of Icons

The origin of icons, and by extension of Christian painting, can now be traced to the panel painting tradition of pagan divinities in wide use in Late Antiquity throughout the Mediterranean. Both pagan and Christian panel paintings were employed as votive or thank offerings. According to an ancient phenomenon known as “syncretism,” emperors were identified with gods and Greek gods with Egyptian ones. Triptych paintings were a new way of exploring the implications of syncretism. In the sixth century, icons went from being single offerings to an assembly on the templon barrier. The earliest surviving evidence of church iconography, decoration and ritual cult, or liturgy, comes from Constantinople, at the churches of St. Polyeuktos and Hagia Sophia.

Impact of coronavirus infection on children and adolescents with mental disorders

The article presents the results of the study of changes in the frequency of hospitalizations and the nosological composition of diagnoses of children and adolescents hospitalized in the Regional Clinical Psychiatric Hospital of Hagia Sophia during the period of self-isolation from March to May 2020, compared to the same period in 2019. The clinical cases that demonstrate the development of a new-onset psychotic disorder under the influence of stress factors provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic are presented. English version of the article on pp. 730-735 is available at URL: https://panor.ru/articles/impact-of-coronavirus-infection-on-children-and-adolescents-with-mental-disorders/70278.html