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so much more successfully. They are not constrained by the intricacies of a Gothic window, and because the ceilings are much lower they are more easily visible. The glass at Chartres or at King’s College Chapel is very beautiful, but it is not at all easy to see what is going on. The Byzantine mosaics that survive, most abundantly in the Savior in Chora, but also in Hagia Sophia and in some other churches in Istanbul and elsewhere (such as Justinian’s church of San Vitale, in Ravenna), are perfectly clear, perfectly understandable. They follow the contours of a dome or a pendentive and fill niches and cover wide expanses as well. Byzantine craftsmen attained an unsurpassed mastery of the medium—far beyond Roman skills—and because their mosaics are made of small cubes of colored stone or tile, their colors are very well preserved. The work of restoration at the Church of the Savior, and elsewhere in Istanbul, was undertaken by the Byzantine Institute of America. The mosaics are as brilliant and as beautiful now as they were 650 years ago.

There are two series of mosaics, one recounting the life of Christ; the other, the life of the Virgin. There are also separate panels showing saints and angels, or scenes from Byzantine iconography; the special panel honoring Theodore Metochites; and a Deesis—a mosaic of Christ and Mary with a portrait of the emperor Isaac Comnenus tucked into a corner. What is most notable about these mosaics is their immense realism. They are no longer the frozen, formal images of traditional Byzantine art, rigidly delineated in static and conventional poses. In a scene representing the miracle of the loaves and fishes, for instance, Christ is sitting comfortably on a rock while one disciple, in short sleeves, is engaged in voluble discussion with him, gesturing animatedly; a second disciple, in long sleeves, has folded his arms and wears an expression of total bewilderment; and a third, in a toga, is pointing to the dozen miraculous baskets of bread and is clearly asking where on earth they all came from.

Some splendid scenes show a medieval Byzantine’s notion of Hebrew manners and architecture of the first century AD. In one scene, servants at Cana come rushing to fill amphorae with water that Christ will turn into wine; in another, the Holy Family passes the jumbled roofs of a village on its flight into Egypt. Formal images conform to the canons of Byzantine iconography in posture and dress, but even these are done with marvelous subtlety. Very small cubes made of stone, glass, or tile are used, and the colors shade into one another with almost as much freedom as a painter could achieve.

The comparison is easily made in the side chapel, which is decorated with frescoes instead of mosaics. They had suffered from the grime of the ages, but are now splendidly visible again. They proved a revelation for art historians: they are almost exactly contemporary with the work of Giotto and in some ways just as fine. The specialists can now debate which artist influenced the other, or whether each achieved a separate artistic breakthrough spontaneously.

The most important series of frescoes represents the Resurrection, called by the Greeks the Anastasis; and the crowning masterpiece, in the apse at the end of the chapel, shows what is known in Western art as the Harrowing of Hell or the Descent into Limbo. Christ is risen from the dead, has broken the gates of hell asunder, and is raising Adam and Eve out of their tombs, Adam with his right hand, and Eve with his left. These representatives of all humanity are accompanied by saints, angels, patriarchs, and kings of Israel. Satan lies bound under Christ’s feet with a scattering of keys and instruments of torture, and the broken gates. The dominant figure of Christ is shown striding forward, his robes swirling around him, the very image of purposeful movement. If the best of the mosaics are a refinement and a softening of medieval Byzantine art, the Anastasis is a first flowering of the Renaissance, like Giotto’s Arena Chapel.

The lower parts of the walls throughout