Revue des études byzantines
Thomas Mathews, The Early Churches of Constantinople.
Architecture and Liturgy.
Christopher Walter
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Walter Christopher. Thomas Mathews, The Early Churches of Constantinople. Architecture and Liturgy.. In: Revue des études
byzantines, tome 31, 1973. pp. 375-376;
https://www.persee.fr/doc/rebyz_0766-5598_1973_num_31_1_1475_t1_0375_0000_2
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BIBLIOGRAPHIE 375
and upon the practice of using a topos which corresponded to a general idea, modifying
only the detail to adapt it to a new subject. Thus I feel critical of Dr Stichel's description
of the Cup of Death as a death scene. It is, actually, a representation of sickness, albeit
mortal as the presence of a mourner in the version of the Serbian Psalter indicates. Dr
Stichel, in fact, notes the parallel between the Tomic Psalter representation and scenes
of the Nativity of the Virgin (for example Vatican, gr. 1162, f. 29) without apparently
having grasped the reason for the parallelism between these scenes.
On the other hand there does not seem to be any obvious prototype for the scene
of the Dry Bones. Dr Stichel's parallel with John and Peter at the sepulchre (Florence
Laurent. VI 23, f. 209v) is not convincing, for the sarcophagus seems to be closed. The
development of the Dormition series to admit of the apostles staring into the Virgin's
empty tomb would perhaps not be anterior to the prototype of the Serbian Psalter
miniature. This may, therefore, be an « invented » miniature. Dr Stichel's account of the
subsequent history of this iconographical theme, whereby the dead body is attributed to
Alexander, is a fascinating piece of research.
Unfortunately the quality of the reproductions is not adequate. It is a pity that
publishers are so reluctant to spend money on adequate photographs of the key pictures
illustrating a monograph. In the case of the Dry Bones miniature a drawing should also
accompany the photograph, for the state of the miniature is sadly deteriorated.
Christopher Walter
Thomas Mathews, The Early Churches of Constantinople. Architecture and
Liturgy. — The Pennsylvania State University Press 1971. 26x19. 194 p.,
99 planches, 53 figures. Price : $ 19,50.
Dr Mathews offers us, in this revised version of his doctoral dissertation, an
interdisciplinary study. He begins by presenting what we actually know from archaeology and
the written sources about churches constructed in Constantinople between the foundation
of the city and the death of Justinian. He then proceeds to explain from liturgical and
other sources the peculiarities of Constantinople churchbuilding.
The somewhat rigid plan upon which the book is constructed makes it difficult for the
reader to appreciate at once the originality of Dr Mathews's research. The key pages are
those where he describes the characteristics of the Constantinopolitan plan (p. 104-110).
Dr Mathews calls attention to its extraordinary openness of design, to the abundance of
its entries, including doors at the east end flanking the apse which are « principal entries
to the church ». None of these primitive churches has a triple-sanctuary plan ; there is
no integrated skeuophylakion, nor prothesis. The characteristics, found elsewhere, only
appear in Constantinople in the xth century. On the other hand the West end is amply
developed with propylaea, atria and nartheces. Nearly all the churches have a gallery
« usually of a U-shaped plan wrapped around the central nave on three sides ». In three
churches there are remains of a lofty synthronon, « a simple yet monumental semicircular
tier of benches or steps ». On three sites there is evidence for locating the altar a few
metres in front of the apse. The chancel juts forward into the nave in some churches,
although in others, as in later architecture, the screen is set straight across the front of
the apse. Generally communication with the upper galleries is from outside not inside
the church.
Dr Mathews seeks a liturgical explanation for these features of early Constantinopolitan
churches. He attributes the galleries to the catechumens, who could leave the church by
the outside ramps without disturbing the rest of the congregation. He allows the faithful
full access to the nave of the church, reserving only the sanctuary for the clergy. He suggests
that the liturgy was built up upon a series of processions. The clergy, whose vestments
were simple — « merely patricians' dress and a stole » — needed no sacristy. The crowd
waited for them in the atrium and entered with them in procession into the church through
the west door. Readings were delivered from the ambo. The homily could be delivered
either from the bema or from a seat placed upon the ambo.
There follows the Great Entry. The deacons would have to go to a skeuophylakion
outside the church in order to fetch the bread and the wine. The consecration would
376 REVUE DES ÉTUDES BYZANTINES
then have proceeded in full view of the congregation without any « concealment of the
mysteries » by curtains. Communion would have been distributed either at the entrance
to the solea or at the royal doors. The liturgy ended with a procession out of the church.
One could well ask whether there is anything particularly original in what Dr Mathews
has to say. To my mind the chief merit of his presentation of the Constantinopolitan
liturgy derives from his scrupulous refusal to go beyond what the texts and monuments
actually tell us. The documentation is excellent, and, discreetly hidden in the notes, is a
full and almost uptodate bibliography on the Eastern liturgies. I say almost uptodate,
for the timelag in America between the completion of a manuscript and its appearance
in print is notorious. I therefore readily excuse Dr Mathews for not referring to my
Iconographie des conciles, nor to my remarks on the Saint Sophia chancel (REB 28, 1970,
p. 171-181), nor to my article The Origins of the Iconostasis {Eastern Churches Review 3,
1971, p. 251-267). Less excusable, if I am right, is his failure to refer to V. Lazarev's
Trois fragments d 'epistyles peintes et le templon byzantin (DCAE 4 1964, p. 117-143),
the best account of the history of the templon.
Dr Mathews has a swashbuckling manner of dismissing theories with which he does
not agree (« Lemerle's solution is hardly satisfactory », p. 120 ; « Grabar fails to notice
the connection », p. 147). This is regrettable in discussing a subject where so much is still
hypothetical.
I find it difficult, for example, to believe that the ambo disappeared completely, unless
perhaps it became a moveable article of furniture set up for special occasions such as the
ceremony of venerating the cross or reading aloud the synodikon on the first Sunday
of Lent. By the way, the representation of Christ teaching in Paris, gr. 74, f. 110 would
seem to depend on the practice of preaching seated from an ambo ; the manuscript dates
from the xith century.
I am not convinced that there were curtains, neither across the front of the templon
nor around the ciborium. Curtains are represented across the front of an apse in two
scenes where Christ is teaching, that upon the Brescia reliquary and that upon an ivory at
Dijon. Possibly the curtains remained drawn back during the whole course of the liturgy
and only hid the altar at other times. Dr Mathews's contention that the « curtains » in
Paul the Silentiary's poem are in fact an altar-cloth is ingenious but not sure.
Similarly he may be right that the scenes represented in the apse of San Vitale figure an
entrance and not an offertory procession. But if so it must be one particular entrance
procession, that for the liturgy of the dedication of the church.
Finally it is not correct (p. 151) that the only representations in Byzantine art of a
bishop preaching from the synthronon are the representations of Pentecost. See Gregory
of Nazianzen in Paris, gr. 550, f. 232, illustrated in my Iconographie des conciles, fig. 85.
It is admirable to have abstained so rigorously from using analogous material from
other places to explain and implement the material available in Constantinople. Perhaps,
however, Dr Mathews has been a little too prudish. Are there not common elements,
particularly in the Constantinian basilicas, wherever they were situated ? More than once
(p. 142-143, p. 179) Dr Mathews compares Roman uses with those of Constantinople.
He does not hesitate to derive both from imperial ceremony. One could go further and
suggest that later changes, the emphasis upon appearances rather than processions, also
derive from court ceremonial. The Prokypsis is an important part of imperial participation
in the liturgy of the Church. It only remained to transfer this kind of stage management
from the ritual actions of the emperor to those of the clergy themselves.
Christopher Walter
Alison Frantz, The Church of the Holy Apostles (The AthenianAgora. Volume XX).
— The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton 1971. 44 p.
et 40 pi.
L'église des Saints-Apôtres à Athènes méritait le traitement de faveur qui lui a été réservé
parmi les monuments byzantins de l'Agora et des environs, sacrifiés depuis le xixe siècle
à l'urbanisme et aux fouilles archéologiques. Mais pour retrouver le plan et le décor
primitifs ,il a fallu aussi procéder à des démolitions et contre le gré des occupants. Les
