You would need weeks if not months to explore all of Istanbul’s incredibly rich heritage, as well as some of the hidden cultural layers. The Victoria & Albert museum’s exhibition Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires somehow manages to give a very good overview and condense 1600 years of history into a space that is no bigger than 4 or 5 large rooms. Yet, this this extraordinary exhibition brings together hundreds of objects spanning from the early fourth century when Emperor Constantine made the settlement the capital of the Roman empire, all the way to the end of the Ottoman empire in 1922.
An early real standout object in the exhibition that the V&A has managed to borrow, from a museum in Istanbul often overlooked by tourists., is the large mosaic (114 x 194 cm ) from the Great Palace. This was one of the most important buildings in Constantinople for almost a thousand years.
Bella Radenović is one of the two curators of the exhibition and an expert on Byzantine art. She explains why this is such a special piece:
The panel (see featured picture) comes from the pavement of the covered portico that surrounded the courtyard. The face of the man who emerges from the scroll is rendered particularly well, with much precision put into the expression of the yes and the mouth. Who is he? He could represent one of the seasons, perhaps Winter, because his moustache appears to be frosty. The hunting scene, the acanthus stems, the the flowers and fruit are all popular motifs in the Greco-Roman and Byzantine decorative repertory.
PLEASE, COME BACK FOR THE FULL REVIEW TOMORROW. I AM STILL EDITING. SORRY, FOR THAT.
