History books often tell us that when temples were destroyed in the past, it took ten years or sometimes even a whole generation to rebuild these places of religious worship. In my mind, I could never comprehend the reason for this long completion duration. Why! Nowadays, people construct buildings within three months. It's not a big deal. All you need are some bricks, cement, glass panels and red roof tiles, you're good to go. I thought all buildings of worship were as simple as that.
Thus, the minute I stepped into Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque, I knew I could not have been more misguided.
Building the foundation of the church itself is a complicated maze. Housing tombs, chandeliers and wide pathways, required knowledge of precise architecture mathematics. To decorate its interior, artists were contracted to depict scenes from the Bible as accurately as possible. Unlike people who drew murals on the walls today for decoration, people in the past made every effort to ensure that these works of art were used to educate illiterate citizens on the miracles, stories and lessons of the gospel. So, how did they do it?
They chose to use little, minute, 1cm by 1cm, square mosaic pieces, dyed and coloured before placing them together to depict a picture. While we may have thought that the concept of pixels was created only a few decades ago, with the invention of cross-stitch and computers, it actually originated long before our great-great grandparents were born.
Has mankind really advanced much since the passing of our ancestors? In my opinion, not really. In the pursuit of making our lives more convenient, our natural instinct to be creative has been diminished. Nowadays, to understand art, one has to read or talk with the artist to understand the concept. it depends on how well the artist presents his ideas too. In fact, it seems like child's play compared to that of our forefathers. Gone are the days when art could inspire everyone. As if sensing my desperation in expressing myself on this point, a journalist recently ran an article about his opinion on art. To put it simply, he said this, "There is no original art. Each is a copy, a work of plagiarism from one to another. People are simply putting in different pieces, different elements from various works and piecing them together. Originality, died, a long time ago."
To think that religion played such a central role in the Roman and Ottoman Empire, is pretty amazing. They put in their whole heart and soul to ensure that these houses of worship would be more solid and sturdy than their own homes and palaces. They probably did it with a high sense of reverence and accountability. While residences may have been destroyed throughout eqrthquakes, fires, floods and droughts, these main community buildings such as the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and Ephesus Library have stood throughout it all. Wow. God must have been pretty impressed. Perhaps he was touched, and he made sure that these structures stood the test of time. That it was not to be turned into ruins, but stayed on to serve as a reminder of the blood and sacrifices paid by the people, eons and centuries ago.
Stained Glass in the Blue Mosque
Blue Mosque (From entrance of the Hippodrome)
Hagia Sophia
Interior Decoration of Hagia Sophia
Depiction of Mary and Baby Jesus in the middle, with the names of the Prophet Mohamad and his 4 friends on each pillar
Chandeliers hanging low to facilitate better lighting for people reading.
(In the past, these lights had black ostrich eggs boiled with spices and herbs in it, to ward off spiders)
Stained Glass with Ottoman Designs
Observe the carefully placed pieces of mosaic, just like playing jigsaw puzzle
The Two Thousand Lira Book (~ 4000 Dirhams) book that I yearned to buy...
No comments:
Post a Comment