Sculpture

The development of refined aesthetic forms, the high quality attained by the art of sculpture in the Palaiologan period, is known to us only through a few sculptural architectural members and the relief decoration of two burial monuments from Constantinople, dating from the first quarter of the 14th century. The return to and imitation of earlier models created during periods of particular florescence of the arts, such as the 6th or the 12th century, characterise these works, which reflect the conscious attempt, typical of all the manifestations of the intellectual world of the time, to revive the glorious past.

Among these works, especially worth mentioning is the sculptural decoration of two burial monuments found in the funerary chapel of the Chora monastery - that of Michael Tornikios and that, probably, of Theodore Metochites - placed chronologically after the death of the latter in 1332.

Framed by stylised and decoratively rendered acanthus leaves, the figures of two angels stand out on either side of the first tomb. As they project from the sculptured marble surface, they acquire volume and a third dimension, elements that refer us to earlier Byzantine works, such as the Barberini diptych of the 6th century.

Similarly naturalistic is the impression conveyed by the twelve Apostles, who adorn a marble arch from the Lips monastery. Here, too, the forms project from the marble surface, escaping from the architectural member to which they are bound and acquiring an identity of their own. The skill of the sculptor is also manifest in the faces of the Apostles, which he has endowed with a spirituality that reflects the transcendental nature of their being. These works cannot have been unique, as is indicated by three capitals adorned on their four sides with relief figures of saints. We can thus assume that in Constantinople there existed workshops and craftsmen of superior artistic ability and thoroughly versed in their art.