On the pendentives are still four colossal six-winged cherubim of mosaic, which probably formed part of the first decoration. Similar creatures are painted in the nearly contemporary MS. of Cosmas the traveller. The dome probably had a figure of Christ in a circle at the summit and the rest of its surface sprinkled with stars. Right and left on the vault of the bema are still two great angels with wings which reach to their feet. On the vault of the apse itself are also some remains, although much injured and now obscured by paint, of a large figure of the seated Virgin holding in her arms the Saviour who gives the benediction. Probably these are works executed after the Iconoclastic interval.
Anthony, a Russian pilgrim (c. 1200), says that Lazarus the image-painter first painted in the sanctuary of St Sophia the Virgin with Christ in her arms and two angels. Now a celebrated artist of this name was one of those who suffered at the Iconoclastic persecution; he was imprisoned and tortured but he survived to replace over the great gate of the palace called Chalce the image of Christ. Bayet, who quotes the story from the life of Theophilus, speaks of this with some doubt as a monastic legend (Byz. Art, p. 124). This very figure, however, is mentioned within fifty years of the time required in an edict of Leo the Wise known as the Book of the Prefect. In this it is ordained that the perfumers of the city should have their shops between the Milion and the "Venerated image of Christ which surmounts the Portico of Chalce, to the end that the incense should rise toward the image." Further Dr Walsh, who was chaplain to our embassy at the Porte about 1820, writes in a little book entitled Essays on Ancient Coins, "There stood till very late in Constantinople an inscription over the gate of the palace, called Chalce. Under a large cross sculptured over the entrance to the palace were the following words, 'The Emperor cannot endure that Christ should be represented (graphes) a mute and lifeless image graven on earthly materials, but Leo and his young son Constantine have at their gates engraved the thrice, blessed representation of the Cross, the glory of believing monarchs.'" A plain cross had evidently replaced the original image; later, possibly under Michael II, a crucifix was again placed over the gateway. Doubtless a similar alteration was made in St Sophia and other churches, and of one of these we still have ample evidence. The fine conch over the apse of the church of St Irene in Constantinople has only a large plain cross, erect on a stepped base set on a gold background. In St Sophia at Salonica there is a similar plain cross over the apse, and both these are almost certainly of the Iconoclastic period.
After this short description of the central classical example of Byzantine art, St Sophia, Constantinople, it is impossible to attempt any account of other individual buildings. At Salonica there is a wonderful group of churches, including the superb basilica of St Demetrius. In Asia Minor there are a great number of ruined churches, many of which must have been built during the reign of Justinian. One important
