Table of Contents

HAGIA SOPHIA IN TIMUE AND PLACE THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AT THE TIMUE OF FOUNDATION AND DECORATION OF THE CHURCH THE INSPIRATION FOR THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CHURCH THE DECORATION OF THE CHURCH AT DIFFERENT PERIODS THE MUOSAICS THE EMPERORS CONSTANTINE AND IRENE AND THE BISHOP THEOPHILOS, THE SPONSORS FOR THE MOSAICS ON THE SANCTUARY VAULT THE VIRGIN AND CHILD IN THE APSE OF THE SANCTUARY THE GREAT MOSAIC OF THE ASCENSION IN THE DOME, A WORK OF GREAT INSPIRATION THE VIRGIN WITH THE ANGELS FACIAL AND STYLISTIC REPRESENTATIONS OF THE APOSTLES THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE FIGURES THE INSCRIPTIONS, ARCHBISHOP PAUL AND HIS RELATIONSHIP TO THE MOSAICS WALL-PAINTINGS FROMU THE 11TH CENTURY BIBLIOGRAPHY

About the Author

Chrysanthi Mavropoulou-Tsioumi is Professor Emerita at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She began her career in the Archaeological Service in 1965, with a five-year break from 1969 to 1975, during which she was a research fellow at the Patriarchal Foundation of Patristic Studies and for two years studied in Germany as scholarship-holder of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In 1975, she returned to the Archaeological Service and in 1981, when responsibility for restoring the monuments of Thessaloniki after the 1978 earthquakes passed exclusively to the Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, she became director of the Ephorate and continued the restoration project. Her scholarly interests encompass almost all genres of Byzantine art, but particularly Byzantine painting. In 1986, she was elected Professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.