Fig. 9.—Marble Pavement at centre of West Gallery.
Font.—A fine marble font formerly in the precincts of the Mosque Zeinab Sultana at the west of S. Sophia, and now in the Imperial Museum, is the one referred to by Paspates as being probably the font of S. John Baptist (the Baptistery). He writes that there were only two remaining in Constantinople, the other being a smaller font in the precincts of the Mosque Kotza Mustapha Pasha.[142] The font in the museum which we illustrate is 8 feet 2½ inches long, 6 feet 1½ inches wide, and 4 feet 6 inches high, wrought out of one fine block of Proconnesian marble. The outside is carefully finished, which shows that it stood above the floor. The inside is formed into steps, and about the rim are several roughly sunk crosses, which we suggest were filled by inlaid votive crosses of metal. Similar fonts are shown in the mosaics at S. Mark’s and other places. Texier found one in the marble quarries of Synnada with steps inside, and others are found in Palestine, one of which, illustrated in the Memoirs of the Exploration Fund,[143] closely resembles this at Constantinople, which we may therefore look on as a typical Byzantine font.
Fig. 10.—Font from Constantinople.
Consecration or other Crosses.—On the great verde antico columns of the north side of the nave, about six feet above the floor, appear sunk crosses about six inches high; on the south side shallow sunk panels occupy similar positions, formed we may suppose by the Turks for the purpose of destroying the crosses. Similar sunk crosses occur on some of the marble columns in the gallery at S. Sergius and at Bethlehem; at Sinai the nave columns bear inlaid bronze crosses. From the character of those at S. Sophia we should suppose that they were also formerly filled by inlaid metal; their similarity in size and the regularity with which they are placed seem to show that they are of the nature of consecration crosses rather than being merely votive, or rather that they were made by the builders, just as a farmer crosses his bags of wheat. In most of the cisterns of Constantinople one column at least bears a large fairly wrought cross.
Miraculous Marbles and Mosaics.—Clavijo describes a large white slab in the right of the gallery naturally figuring “the Virgin with Christ in her most holy arms:” beneath this was an altar in a little chapel where they said mass. These marbles, in which accidental resemblances to figures might be traced, were evidently much valued. Felix Fabri describes a slab at the Holy Sepulchre in which S. Jerome and his lion appeared. “This picture was not produced by art, but by simple polishing alone.”
The column of S. Gregory Thaumaturgus, mentioned by Anthony of Novgorod as by the entrance and “covered with bronze plates,” may possibly be the celebrated “sweating column,” which is the first square pillar in the north aisle. At about five feet from the floor it is cased with bronze, in which a hole is left over the cavities in the pillar which are supposed to exude the dampness. The indents are smooth, and look like natural cavities discovered in the marble when it was wrought. Canon Curtis, who was kind enough to examine the pillar for us, says it was perfectly dry, and the attendants assured him that water never oozed out of the cavities, although “a few drops of water might be easily kept in each of them.” Sweating columns are well known in the legends of the middle ages. Benjamin of Tudela speaks of two in Rome which sweated on the anniversary of the fall of Jerusalem, and Mandeville mentions four pillars in the Holy Sepulchre “that always drop water, and some men say that they weep for our Lord’s death.” Stephen of Novgorod speaks of a mosaic of Christ in S. Sophia from which holy water flowed from the wounds of the feet.
Water Vessels.—At the west end of the church in the right and left exedras stand two large white Proconnesian marble urns about seven feet high, of beautiful gourd-like forms. They rise from the centre of polygonal basins, and water is drawn from them through bronze taps. It has been said that they were brought from Pergamus or Marmora by Sultan Murad III.[144] The carving of the turban-like tops is certainly Turkish, but the vessels seem to be of Byzantine form, and we are disposed to agree with Grelot, who saw them in their present position before 1680. He says they were kept full of water “to cool the Mohammedans overheated by their devout gesticulations.” “If they are not very ancient, they stand in the place of others, which contained holy water for the Christians who entered the church.” He associates with these the palindrome inscription given by Gruter (see our page [191]), which he says was written on these, or similar, vessels in gold letters.[145]
Now a beautiful cantharus in the Church of S. Peter and S. Andrew, on the island of Murano,[146] which is almost identical with those of S. Sophia, is stated to have been brought back thence with the Venetian booty, and bears a Byzantine inscription:—
ΑΝΤΛΗϹΑΤΑΙ · ΥΔΩΡ · ΜΕΤΑ · ΕΥΦΡΟϹΥΝΗϹ · ΟΤΙ · ΦΩΝΗ · ΚΥ · ΕΠΙ · ΤΩΝ · ΥΔΑΤΩΝ ·