Monastery of Constantine Lips, John the Forerunner/Prodromos

Name of structure: Monastery of Constantine Lips, John the Forerunner/Prodromos
Extended name of structure:

Hagia Ioannes Prodromos tou Lisbos.
South church of the Monastery of Lips complex which also consists of the earlier Theotokos tou Lisbos (907). Fenari Isa Camii.
Type of structure: Church
Country or main area: Turkey
Region within country or main area: Marmara
City or area within region: Constantinople
Date of structure: Between 1282-1304
Century of structure 1: 13 AD
Century of structure 2: 14 AD
Specific place of mosaic: Loose tesserae in debris used to heighten floor.
In niches on either side of south aisle door that leads into the preambulatory.
Brief descriptive contents of mosaic:

East niche: figure and inscription.
West niche: inscription and traces of figure.
See Mango and Hawkins (1964) for futher details.


 
Date of mosaic: 13C-14C
Century of mosaic 1: 13 AD
Century of mosaic 2: 14 AD
Silver tessera at site: Unknown
Gold tessera at site: Yes
Colour tessera at site: Yes
Were other materials found at site (i.e., glass cakes)? Unknown
Has analysis been done? Unknown
Samples taken from where? n/a
Excavation and restoration campaigns:

1929: team led by Macridy (published 1964)
1960-: team from Ministry of Mosques continued by Byzantine Institute led by Megaw


 
Bibliography of mainly technical resources:

Krautheimer, Richard, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture (London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1965, repr. 1986), pp. 358-362

Marinis V., The Monastery tou Libos: Architecture, Sculpture, and Liturgical Planning in Middle and Late Byzantine Constantinople (PhD Diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005).


Mango M. M., 'Polychrome tiles found at Istanbul: typology, chronology, and function', in A Lost Art Rediscovered: The Architectural Ceramics of Byzantium, ed by S. E. Gerstel & J. A. Lauffenburger (Baltimore, 2001), 13-41.


Macridy, T., 'The Monastery of Lips and the burials of the Palaeologi', DOP 18 (1964), 253-78.


Mango C. & Hawkins, E. J. W., 'Additional notes on the Monastery of Lips', DOP 18 (1964), 299-315.


Megaw, A. H. S., 'The original form of the Theotokos Church of Constantine Lips', DOP 18 (1964), 279-98.


Megaw, A. H. S, 'Notes on recent work of the Byzantine Institute in Istanbul', DOP 19 (1963), 333-5.


 
URLs:
Comments: In 1636 walls were scraped down to brick and replastered and fragments of mosaic left where they fell.  Fragments in two sepulchral niches. Great deal of tesserae found among debris used to heighten the floor of the Chapel of S. John the Baptist in the South Church.

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