Hagia Sophia, 1850-1950
Holy Wisdom Modern Monument
304 pages
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11 color plates, 119 halftones
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8-1/2 x 11
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© 2004
Hagia Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom, sits majestically atop the plateau that commands the straits separating Europe and Asia. Located near the acropolis of the ancient city of Byzantium, this unparalleled structure has enjoyed an extensive and colorful history, as it has successively been transformed into a cathedral, mosque, monument, and museum. In Hagia Sophia, 1850-1950, Robert S. Nelson explores its many lives.
Built from 532 to 537 as the Cathedral of Constantinople, Hagia Sophia was little studied and seldom recognized as a great monument of world art until the nineteenth century, and Nelson examines the causes and consequences of the building's newly elevated status during that time. He chronicles the grand dome's modern history through a vibrant cast of characters—emperors, sultans, critics, poets, archaeologists, architects, philanthropists, and religious congregations—some of whom spent years studying it, others never visiting the building. But as Nelson shows, they all had a hand in the recreation of Hagia Sophia as a modern architectural icon. By many means and for its own purposes, the West has conceptually transformed Hagia Sophia into the international symbol that it is today.
While other books have covered the architectural history of the structure, this is the first study to address its status as a modern monument. With his narrative of the building's rebirth, Nelson captures its importance for the diverse communities that shape and find meaning in Hagia Sophia. His book will resonate with cultural, architectural, and art historians as well as with those seeking to acquaint themselves with the modern life of an inspired and inspiring building.
Built from 532 to 537 as the Cathedral of Constantinople, Hagia Sophia was little studied and seldom recognized as a great monument of world art until the nineteenth century, and Nelson examines the causes and consequences of the building's newly elevated status during that time. He chronicles the grand dome's modern history through a vibrant cast of characters—emperors, sultans, critics, poets, archaeologists, architects, philanthropists, and religious congregations—some of whom spent years studying it, others never visiting the building. But as Nelson shows, they all had a hand in the recreation of Hagia Sophia as a modern architectural icon. By many means and for its own purposes, the West has conceptually transformed Hagia Sophia into the international symbol that it is today.
While other books have covered the architectural history of the structure, this is the first study to address its status as a modern monument. With his narrative of the building's rebirth, Nelson captures its importance for the diverse communities that shape and find meaning in Hagia Sophia. His book will resonate with cultural, architectural, and art historians as well as with those seeking to acquaint themselves with the modern life of an inspired and inspiring building.
Association of American Publishers: PROSE Book Award
Honorable Mention
Honorable Mention, 2004 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division
Architecture and Urban Planning
"[Nelson's] account is never boring. The illustrations are eloquent. . . . The book is a delight to read, to handle and to browse through."
"Well-researched and gracefully written, this book demonstrates that Hagia Sophia has been repeatedly re-imagined both rhetorically and visually, as political and artistic climates have shifted. . . . This revealing examination of the cultural construction of meaning makes an important contribution to the study of religious architecture."
"Thought-provoking, entertaining, informative, and very readable throughout."
“The architectural history of the Great Church is here taken for granted: instead the author addresses the structure as a modern monument, recounting the history of its reception. . . . This well illustrated volume . . . is a weighty and rewarding path of approach to one of Christianity’s greatest monuments.”—Art & Christianity
“Astute historiographer and subtle detective, Nelson offers a complex and captivating narrative which takes us from the Bosphorus to Boston to the Bronx. At the core of this perceptive study is a new account of Hagia Sophia’s restorations, in words and in stone, at the hands of western architects and art historians. But in turn the reader discovers new vantage points for understanding some of the most famous, as well as some of the most curious, landmarks of 19th and 20th century European and American architecture. Nelson’s work should prove an inspiration for other critical histories of artistic reception.”<\#209>Barry Bergdoll, Columbia University
“The single most important monument of Byzantine civilization, the cathedral of old Constantinople, has been a puzzle and a fascination for modern scholarship. Nelson’s unraveling of the history of this interest exhibits the minds of the scholars as much as the mind of Byzantium. The author brings to his study a wide-ranging and very engaging erudition and illustrates it with a splendid selection of new or rarely seen photographs and engravings.”<\#209>Thomas Mathews, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
“Robert Nelson has written a book ‘to keep a drowsy Emperor awake,’ as Yeats would have it. His historiography of Byzantine studies, fashioned around its greatest monument, Hagia Sophia, will teach Byzantinists a great deal about themselves. But <I>Hagia Sophia<I> also addresses a broader audience. To anyone who is interested in the West's intellectual relationship to the East, the book offers significant, though understudied, episodes of nineteenth–century appropriation.”<\#209>Annabel Jane Wharton, Duke University
"Nelson's remarkable achievement is a cultural and intellectual history more nearly than an architectural one. . . . His book doubles, brillinatly, as a historiographic essay illuminating a larger context for the growth and particular shape of the Byzantine specialization. . . . Nelson's insightful, intelligent, timely, and illuminating analysis will find satisfying readers among historians and cultural critics in many fields."
"This fascinating investigation . . . amasses a wealth of documentation. . . . Intelligently and beautifully written, and well produced with 119 figures and ten color plates, the important monograph . . . should appeal to the scholar and the general reader alike."
"[Nelson's story] is a majestic one, the recovery of Byzantine civilization in the consciousness of the West. . . . With the Byzantine revival brought into focus . . . one can more readily see how a lost and reviled world served as a vital school for art and literature in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries."
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Great Church in Ceremony and Censure
2. Romantics and the Throne, 1840-1860: Prussia and France
3. Stones of Byzantium: John Ruskin and The Stones of Venice
4. Making a Picturesque Monument
5. Redemption in England: William Morris, W. R. Lethaby, and Lord Curzon
6. "Starlit Dome": The Byzantine Poems of W. B. Yeats
7. Unveiling the Mosaics: Thomas Whittemore and His American Patrons
8. Revival to Wright: Modern Sophias
Abbreviation List
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Great Church in Ceremony and Censure
2. Romantics and the Throne, 1840-1860: Prussia and France
3. Stones of Byzantium: John Ruskin and The Stones of Venice
4. Making a Picturesque Monument
5. Redemption in England: William Morris, W. R. Lethaby, and Lord Curzon
6. "Starlit Dome": The Byzantine Poems of W. B. Yeats
7. Unveiling the Mosaics: Thomas Whittemore and His American Patrons
8. Revival to Wright: Modern Sophias
Abbreviation List
Notes
Index
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Architecture: Middle Eastern, African, and Asian Architecture
Art: Middle Eastern, African, and Asian Art
Literature and Literary Criticism: British and Irish Literature
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