This report focuses on the mosaic decoration in the church of the Holy Apostles (Thessaloniki), founded by Patriarch Niphon I in 1310–1314. Mosaics adorn the upper part of the naos above the cornice, except the semidome of the apse and the east barrel-vault which remained undecorated because of the Niphon’s removal from the patriarchal throne. The mosaic decoration was badly damaged during the conversion of the church into a mosque between 1520 and 1530, when the gold tesserae were removed and the mosaics were covered over with plaster. However, the surviving fragments are enough to appreciate the highest quality of mosaics and their very picturesque style.
The stylistic similarities with the mosaics in Kariye Camii (1316–1321) prompted some scholars to suggest that the mosaics in the church of the Holy Apostles had been executed by the metropolitan workshop that subsequently worked in the Chora Monastery, or with the assistance of Constantinopolitan masters. Some iconographical details of the mosaics reveal close connections with Constantinople (a form of the Pantocrator’s left hand (in the dome), the Holy Vernicle, etc.).
At the same time, the mosaic decoration in the church of the Holy Apostles has a number of specific features. These include, firstly, a free drawing and more picturesque rendering of forms in comparison with Constantinopolitan monuments of the first quarter of the 14th century that gives to the mosaics of the church of the Holy Apostles an expressed Hellenistic character. The second feature is a widely used silver-gray color, which makes a number of images, such as figures of prophets, almost monochrome, thereby they call ancient statues to mind. Thirdly, the approach to the ornamentation of the church of the Holy Apostles differs significantly from the decorative principles used in Kariye Camii. In our opinion, these features may indicate that the mosaics in the church of the Holy Apostles could be executed by local Thessalonian masters.

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