Underwood Paul A. The Kariye Djami: Volume 1: Historical introduction and description of the mosaics and frescoes

Pantheon Books, 1966. — 354 p. — (Bollingen Series 70).This volume and the two volumes of plates which it accompanies constitute the systematic descriptive and illustrative record of all the mosaics and frescoes that still exist in the Kariye Djami, at Istanbul, which was known before the days of its conversion into a mosque as the church of the monastery of the Chora. My foremost purpose in the present volume is to assemble those types of historical, descriptive, and explanatory matter concerning the Kariye Djami and its representational arts that may be required by students and scholars of varied interests or approaches. In introductory sections the history of the monastery, the structural history of the church itself, and the architectural setting and layout of the iconographic program are discussed; separate chapters are devoted to the techniques thatwere employed by the mosaicists and painters. The major part of the text, however, consists of the descriptive record of the individual subjects of mosaic and fresco presented in catalogue form. No attempt is made to discuss, in the context of art history, the place of these works in either the stylistic or the iconographic development of Byzantine art. References are made to other monuments only if they provide strong evidence for the identification of fragmentary scenes or for determining the manner in which some partially preserved mosaics or paintings should be reconstructed.