Collections and Critiques

In the Warburg Room of the Fogg Museum yesterday was hung a full size reproduction of one of the mosaics of the great Byzantine church of Santa Sophia in Constantinople. Filling a lunette over the southwest entrance of the church from the vestibule to the narthex, it represents the Virgin and Child with two emperors, one holding a model of the city, the other a model of the church.

The reproduction, which measures about sixteen feet by ten feet, is a photographic print of a tracing made over the mosaic. Every detail of the design is clearly shown, and although no colors are brought out, yet there is some indication of the lights and darks of the coloring.

Mosaics Concealed by Paint

The section represented here was, like all the others in the church, concealed under a coat of paint by the Turks when they occupied the city. Lately, the present Turkish government has converted the building into a sort of national monument and the Byzantine Institute of America was given permission to uncover the mosaics. This section has just recently been exposed to view and photographed.