Andrey Vinogradov, Anna Zakharova
National Research University Higher School of Economy, Russia; Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
The most important Byzantine sources on the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople are the famous ekphraseis by Procopius of Caesaria, Paul the Silentiary (6th century), Michael of Thessaloniki (12th century) and the 9th century legendary Account on the building of the Great Church included in the Patria Constantinopolitana. These texts were translated in full or in part into some modern languages and were used by scholars for the hypothetical reconstructions of those parts of the building that had been changed or lost. Moreover, these sources describing a rather well-preserved monument are precious for understanding how the Byzantines themselves experienced and interpreted the symbolic meaning and aesthetic appeal of the architectural forms. The latter aspect is of great interest. In our paper we would like to share some considerations produced during our work on the full translation into Russian of these sources which we are now preparing.
The texts are very different in their style: the text of Procopius is descriptive, that of Paul is poetic, that of Michael of Thessaloniki is scholarly rhetoric, the Account on the building of the Great Church is a folklore narrative. This makes it difficult to compare these texts and to evaluate each of them in the context of the classical and Byzantine tradition of ekphrasis.
One of the most important problems we are facing is the correlation of the descriptions with the preserved and especially not preserved parts of the building. However, the correct understanding of this correlation is essential not only for the theoretical reconstruction of the lost architectural and decorative elements, but also for a fuller comprehension of the artistic conception of the building.
Another important issue is the correct understanding of special technical terms and names of materials and their correlation with surviving details.
Yet another problem is an adequate translation of the descriptions into Russian, which requires finding a balance between the clearness of meaning and literary qualities of style. In this respect it is the poem of Paul the Silentiary that presents the major difficulties: written in sophisticated hexameters, it is hard to comprehend for the modern Russian reader.
In our paper all these aspects will be illustrated by certain examples.
The research has been carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Humanities, project № 14-04-00377.