Restoring Byzantium Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery
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Virtual Reality: Outer Narthex, Bay 6


Turkey, Istanbul, Kariye Camii, Interior View: Outer Narthex, Bay 6 © Columbia University in the City of New York 2004

Iconography

Cycle of the Infancy of Christ and of Christ's Ministry
  • The sixth bay of the outer narthex includes scenes from both the Infancy of Christ and the Ministry cycles.
The Massacre of the Innocents is in the south lunette of the sixth bay [107]. In an attempt to remove his potential rival, Christ, Herod orders the massacre, and his soldiers set out in pursuit of innocent Jewish children.

The Soldiers Slaying the Children is in the west lunette of the sixth bay [108]. The narrative focuses on details to represent the massacre.

Christ Healing the Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda [121, 128], in the large domical vault at the southwest corner, originally contained eight scenes of Christ's healing miracles, of which significant portions of three remain. In two related episodes in the northeast corner, the paralytic sits stiffly in bed; miraculously cured, he carries the bed frame on his back.

Christ Healing the Paralytic at Capernaum is in the southwest corner of the same vault [124]. Christ addresses the paralytic, who is richly outfitted in bed and accompanied by four bearers.

Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well is in the northwestern pendentive of the same vault [127]. Other scenes in this vault are preserved only in fragments.

Christ Healing the Blind Born [129] is located in the northeastern pendentive.


This discussion of the Kariye Camii iconography is adapted from Robert G. Ousterhout, The Architecture of the Kariye Camii in Istanbul, Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1987.  We would like to thank Professor Ousterhout for generously allowing us to adapt his text for this Web site.
     
Overview

The outer and inner narthexes are decorated with mosaic cycles of the lives of the Virgin and Christ. Both begin at the northern end, with thematic and visual references linking the two cycles.

The cycle of the infancy of Christ
and of Christ's ministry begins in the domical vault of the first bay of the outer narthex and concludes in the south bay of the inner narthex. The story is taken up directly from the previous narrative. As in the inner narthex, the narratives are sometimes contorted to fit the domical vaults. Normally two different episodes appear in each vault.



   
               
 
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