Fig. 115.—Model of The Church of S. Saviour in the Chora.

The scenes represented on these mosaics are not peculiar to this church, but are a selection from cycles of subjects which from the eleventh century became favourite themes for pictorial treatment on the walls of important churches in the Byzantine world. Several of these scenes are found portrayed also at Daphni, Mistra, S. Sophia at Kiev, in the churches of Mt. Athos, on diptychs and manuscripts, [545] as well as in the chapel of the arena at Padua. The cycle of subjects taken from the life of Mary was developed mainly in Syria, and Schmitt [546] goes so far as to maintain that the mosaics of the Chora are copies of Syrian mosaics executed by a Syrian artist, when the church was restored in the ninth century by Michael Syncellus, who, it will be remembered, came from Syria.

Kondakoff assigns most of the mosaics to the Comnenian restoration of the church by Maria Ducaena in the eleventh or twelfth century. One of them at least, the Deësis, has survived; and there may be others of that period, for, as that mosaic proves, the narthex of the church was decorated when the church was restored by that benefactress of the Chora. But the testimony of Nicephorus Gregoras, [547] of Theodore Metochites, [548] and the date marked on the scene representing the miracle of the wine at Cana, on the right of the figure of Christ over the door leading from the outer to the inner narthex, prove these mosaics to be as a whole the production of the fourteenth century. And this conclusion is confirmed by their unlikeness to mosaic work in the twelfth century, and by their affinity to other work of the same character done in the fourteenth century. [549]

In fact, the mosaics in the Chora represent a remarkable revival in the history of Byzantine art. They are characterised by a comparative freedom from tradition, by closer approximation to reality and nature, by a charm and a sympathetic quality, and by a scheme of colour that indicate the coming of a new age and spirit. Curiously enough, they are contemporary with the frescoes of Giotto at Padua (1303-1306). But whatever points of similarity may be detected between them and the work of the Italian artist, or between them and the Italian school before Giotto, should be explained as due to a common stock of traditions and to the simultaneous awakening of a new intellectual and artistic life in the East and the West, rather than to any direct influence of one school of art upon another. The mosaics of the Chora are thoroughly Byzantine. [550]

The Frescoes in the Parecclesion:—

1.

Round the apse: Six Fathers of the Church (onlyone figure remains, and that badly damaged. No names areinscribed).

2.

In the vault of the apse: a full-length figureof Christ in a vesica dotted with stars. On either side are groupsof figures.

3.

In the crown of the apse-arch: an angel in amedallion.

4.

In the northern wall, next the apse: Christ withtwo attendants; in the background a walled city.
The Eastern bay.

On the northern wall:

5.

Above the arched recess: two medallion heads ofSS. Sergius and Bacchus.

6.

Portions of the figure of a warrior.

7.

In the arch above Nos. 5 and 6: the Gate ofParadise.

8.

In the centre, one of the cherubims on a pillar.On the left hand, a multitude, painted on black background outsideParadise; on the right, Paradise, a garden full of trees on a whitebackground. Here also are John the Baptist and a figure, probablythe Virgin and Child, on a throne, attended by two angels.

Fig. 116.—Plan of the Parecclesion, indicating positions of its Frescoes.