The doors still further from the centre, right and left, that is to say the two end doors of the five entering the narthex, have each leaf divided into three panels. The top and bottom panels are charged with crosses; and the centre one, which is smallest, bears an annular boss; the styles are studded with discs. The south door of narthex, and also the end doors in the west wall of the nave are similar to these; the others in this wall, including the great central door from the narthex, have the big panel in the centre and two smaller ones with circular boss top and bottom (see [Fig. 68]).
Fig. 67.—Bronze Door of Narthex. Scale about four feet to an inch.
The outer doors of the porch at the south end of narthex are still more remarkable. The panel margins are made up of cast bronze decorated with meanders, frets, and leaf mouldings, very delicately modelled in high relief. These are evidently of antique workmanship, possibly they may be as late as the fourth century, but they can hardly have been wrought later. The ancient doors have been enlarged by adding outer margins, consisting of later relief work, and flat metal studded with little leaf ornaments which form the heads of pins. The panels have been filled with plates of bronze, which bear an inscription ingeniously made up of monograms, arranged on crosses in circles; these are deeply engraved into the metal plates and filled with silver. It is interesting to find here an example of the damascened work of which some of the doors in Italy brought from Constantinople are such remarkable specimens.[365] The letters are beautifully designed, and in all cases the horizontal arm of the cross is above the centre of the circle in which it occurs.
Good engravings of these doors are given by Salzenberg, who however incorrectly transcribes and arranges the inscription on the panels. Of this we here give a corrected version, [Fig. 69]. (The top line in the figure is actually above the right-hand monograms.)
The inscription has been deciphered in the previously mentioned Transactions of the Greek Syllogos at Constantinople.
| [ΘΕΟΦΙΛΟΥ ΚΑΙ] ΜΙΧΑΗΛ ΝΙΚΗΤΩΝ | |
| ΚΥΡΙΕ ΒΟΗΘΕΙ | ΘΕΟΦΙΛΩ ΔΕϹΠΟΤΗ |
| ΘΕΟΤΟΚΕ ΒΟΗΘΕΙ | ΘΕΟΔΩΡΑ ΑΥΓΟΥϹΤΗ |
| ΧΡΙϹΤΕ ΒΟΗΘΕΙ | ΜΙΧΑΗΛ ΔΕϹΠΟΤΗ |
| ΕΤΟΥϹ ΑΠΟ-ΚΤΙϹΕΩϹ | ΚΟϹΜΟΥ SΤΜΘ ΙΝΔ.Δ |
| (of Theophilus and) | Michael Conquerors |
| (1) Lord, help | (2) Theophilos Emperor |
| (3) Mother of God, help | (4) Theodora Augusta |
| (5) Christ, help | (6) Michael Emperor |
| (7) Year from the creation | (8) of the world 6349. Ind. 4 |
The sixth and eighth monograms show evidence of having been altered. The silver has been removed from the earlier form, and the grooves having been filled up with bronze fresh letters were inlaid: the lines stopped out however show a different colour from the original ground, and so the palimpsest can be read. The revision was made “after the birth of Michael the first son of Theophilus in 839 and his coronation in the year 840.[366] Before this time the monogram of John the patriarch, which may still be traced, occupied the position of Michael’s monogram: and instead of 6349 Indiction 4, the date was 6347 Indiction 2, thus giving the year beginning September 838, when John the Sixth was Patriarch of Constantinople.”[367] The inscription “Michael Conquerors” (which is formed by piercing a bronze plate, not by damascening, as shown by Salzenberg) occupies the top of the right-hand leaf of the door: that on the left corresponding to it is lost. MM. Curtis and Aristarches have restored this as above. The existing words, it is evident, must have been added after Michael’s birth and with the alteration of the monograms probably form a memorial of his coronation. Murray’s Handbook 1893 suggests that the word Nikêtôn refers to the restoration of images; but the revision of the inscription was made during the lifetime of Theophilus, who was the last of the iconoclastic emperors. According to Muralt[368] Theophilus died Jan. 20 A.M. 6350 (842). Just before, feeling himself to be dying, he made the empress swear not to re-establish images, and not to depose the patriarch John. Three weeks however after the emperor’s death, Methodius was named patriarch. “The victory of the image-worshippers was celebrated by the installation of the long-banished pictures in S. Sophia on the 19th of February 842, just thirty days after the death of Theophilus.”[369] It is almost certain that the conjectural restoration is correct for Theophilus and Michael are thus associated in a mural inscription[370] and Niketes was a common title from Constantine downwards. On the panels are certain pin-holes[371] placed symmetrically between the monograms; these must have been for the attachment of reliefs.
Fig. 68.—Bronze Doors in Narthex. Scale about four feet to an inch.