Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

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Two of three mosaic portraits of bishops that have been uncovered on the south tympaneum in the Hagia Sophia. On the left is St. John Chrysostom (4th-century Patriarch of Constantinople) and on the right is St. Ignatius the Younger, Patriarch of Constantinople (846-858, 867-877). St. Ignatius of Antioch (2nd cent.) is the third bishop mosaic.

In the 9th or early 10th century, both north and south tympana were decorated with mosaics of 16 prophets and 14 bishops in two registers.

Knowledge of these mosaics is derived from the drawings made by the Fossati brothers, when they removed the plaster coating that covered them since Sinan's time (1573). The cleaning operations of the Byzantine Institute of America uncovered these mosaics on the blind arches.

Photo courtesy of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.