The account of the coronation ceremony describes how the royal persons were seated in the gynaeceum, screened by “golden velothyra,” so that they should not be seen until the psaltae sang the “Lift up,” when immediately the velothyra were raised. Of these hangings in the interior we have a picture in the account given in the continuation of Theophanes of an ambassador, Iber Curopalates, who visited Constantinople in 923, and “was taken to the church of S. Sophia, that he should inspect its beauty and size and precious ornaments. Now the walls were all draped with cloth of gold before they led him in, and he, struck with the great size of the church and its wealth of adornment, exclaimed, ‘Truly this is the house of God,’ and returned home.”[149] The Ceremonies mention gold hangings in Catechumena above Royal Door.[150] Nicetas tells us how the Crusaders “spared neither the house of God nor His ministers, but stripped the great church of all its fine ornaments and hangings, made of the richest brocades of inestimable value.”
We have no doubt that S. Sophia was frequently adorned inside by the arcades of both tiers having hangings suspended from the iron bars, which cross all these arches at their springing, exactly like those shown in the mosaic of Theodoric’s palace. Indeed Ignatius of Smolensk (circ. 1395), who was present at the coronation of Manuel, says that the women in the galleries remained behind curtains of silk so that none might see their faces.[151]
These hangings seem either to have had simple figures such as squares with large “gammidae” at the corners worked on them, probably in gold, or they were patterned over with figures, animals, and flowers, woven in the stuff like the elaborate veils of the altar described by the Silentiary. The linen vestments found at Panopolis in Egypt show us that the “gammidae” originated in embroidered shoulder straps, with seal-like ends applied on either side of the neck opening. [Fig. 13] shows two of the door veils represented at Ravenna; that on the right is from the mosaic in S. Apollinare Nuovo showing the palace. The gammidae are here exactly of the form found on the early Coptic linen vestments, and it cannot be doubted that they were “applied” in a similar way. The pattern on the left is the door-hanging from the mosaic of S. Vitale; the plain squares are of gold. The designs on the robes in this mosaic are interesting. Justinian’s chlamys is covered with birds in circles, the border of Theodora’s robe displays the three Magi making their offerings; one of her attendants has a robe powdered with swimming ducks and a mantle with four petalled red roses on a gold ground, and another robe has five pointed leaves scattered over its field. Many examples of the figured silks are preserved in museums. There is at South Kensington Museum a piece of pictured silk of this kind, probably of Justinian’s time, which is covered with circles, in each of which is figured a man and a lion. More than a century before the time of Justinian, Asterius, Bishop of Amasius, had made these elaborately figured stuffs a subject of satire: “When men so draped appear in the streets the passers-by regard them like painted walls. Their clothes are pictures which little children trace out with their fingers. There are lions, panthers, and bears, also rocks, woods, and hunters. The most devout carry Christ, His disciples, and His miracles. Here we may see the marriage in Galilee and the pots of wine; there is the paralytic carrying his bed, the penitent woman at the feet of Jesus, or Lazarus come again to life.”[152]
Fig. 13.—Door Veils of the Sixth Century: Ravenna Mosaics.
Later the patterns became more heraldic and larger in scale, figuring for the most part great displayed eagles, and griffons, or lions affronted. A piece of a textile of this kind in the museum at Düsseldorf, of which there is a full-size copy at South Kensington, bears golden lions about two feet six inches long, and the names of Constantine VIII. and Basil on a pallid purple ground. Frauberger[153] compares this with another signed example of the same age and similar design preserved at Siegburg, and a third at Autun, “all of which were intended for church hangings.” The same writer says that after Justinian’s introduction of silk weaving in 552 and the loss of Bosra with its purple-dye vats to Chosroes, an imperial textile industry was established by the Golden Horn, which existed until the fourteenth century. Here these hangings were probably produced.
Carpets.—Portions of the floor of S. Sophia were almost certainly strewn with carpets. Porphyrogenitus relates of the New Church of Basil that “woollen carpets (nakopetai) called prayer carpets, of wonderful size and beauty, and resembling the bright plumage of peacocks, were laid one over another, completely covering the mosaic pavement of valuable stones.” The carpets and prayer-rugs of the mosques thus had their direct parallels, if not their prototypes, in the Byzantine churches.
Synods.—The patriarchal registers, dating from the fourteenth century, speak of synods sitting “in the right-hand catechumena”; this probably refers to the south gallery, where the vault has displayed in mosaic the descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles.
Across this gallery there is at present a screen, which possibly, as Paspates suggests, shut off the part used by the Synods. (See dotted line on [Fig. 6].) The screen is made up of two marble slabs, each sculptured into the form of panelled double doors, with architraves and carved panels. Above the opening left between these is a coloured marble slab. At the top is a carved wood beam, which, being exactly like the permanent vault ties, is evidently of Justinian’s age; but the whole is certainly not an original assemblage of the parts. Each slab, which imitates a pair of wood doors, has a representation of a bronze ring handle and a lock-plate on one half, and a hasp on the other, all exactly copied in sculptured marble. We believe that these imitation doors are earlier than the church; the idea was common in late classic times. De Vogüé and Dr. Merrill[154] found several tomb doors, similarly panelled, studded with imitation nails, and having elaborate knockers, all carved in stone. An example in marble now in the museum at Leeds closely resembles the S. Sophia slabs.
Clergy and Ritual.—In the time of Justinian the total number of clergy was 525, but at the time of Heraclius this had been increased to 600.[155] They were thus divided:—