Two graffiti drawings in the church of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople
Two graffiti drawings in the church of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with two graffiti-drawings in the Church of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople. The first drawing is located at the east part of the south aisle of the church and at the south side of the soffit of the bema arch. It is a carefully painted full-length figure of an archangel dressed in loros costume with staff in his left hand. The vessel next to the archangel’s right side is the most enigmatic thing in the drawing and according to the authors, it is a wooden bucket with metal hoops. The bucket is an allusion with the story of the building of Hagia Sophia or with its climactic moment when the archangel remained to guard the building tools and became the permanent guardian of Hagia Sophia. The result is a new and very personal vision of Archangel Michael based on a popular tale like Diegesis. The time span most probably lies between the second half of the 9th century and the end of the 10th century. The second graffito is also located in the south aisle of the church. It was engraved on a marble wall plate on the right side of the last door leading to the south-west end of the inner narthex. The graffito displays an image of the type of the standing Virgin Hodegetria where Theotokos holds the Christ Child with her left arm and points to him with her right arm. An angel is relegated to the secondary position, standing on the left hand of the Theotokos. In spite of all mistakes, the author’s intention was to depict the Mother of God in a standing pose known as Hodegetria, gesturing with her right hand toward her Child, who sits upright on her left arm holding a scroll. This type of Hodegetria, probably flanked by two angels, was a well-known preiconoclastic motif. On the ground of the newly discovered graffiti drawing at Hagia Sophia, the authors comes to the conclusion that they are a reflection of what their authors saw within the church – a mosaic or a concrete detail from the church ritual. In this way the graffito drawing may be a hint as to the conclusion that the original image in the apse was precisely a standing Hodegetria, that was replaced in the late 10th or early 11th century with an image of the Mother of God on a throne. Judging by the iconography of the graffito one can date it between the 9th and the 10th centuries.

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