Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages2 Helmi

The Deesis Mosaic in the Hagia Sophia

The Deesis mosaic, located in the South Gallery of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, is a monumental work of Byzantine art dating back to approximately 1261 CE. Created during the Palaeologan Renaissance, a period of cultural and artistic rebirth following the Byzantine recapture of Constantinople, the mosaic represents a departure from the rigid, stylized forms typical of earlier Byzantine art. The term "Deesis" translates to "prayer" or "supplication," reflecting the composition's theme: Jesus Christ is flanked by the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist, both of whom are depicted in poses of intercession, pleading for mercy on behalf of humanity. The mosaic is a marvel of optical engineering. Byzantine mosaicists used thousands of tiny glass and stone cubes, known as tesserae, many as small as a grain of rice for delicate features like skin tones. These tiles were often angled to catch and reflect light from nearby windows and candles, creating a shimmering effect that gave the figures a sense of life and movement. The artist's use of complementary colors for shading, such as greens and olives mixed with pinks, achieved a vibrant, lifelike flesh tone that anticipated techniques used by Renaissance artists centuries later. Although the bottom half of the mosaic was lost to time and water damage, the surviving upper portion remains a profound testament to the emotional depth and technical sophistication of 13th-century Byzantine craftsmanship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Joseph Ducreux | Self-Portrait of the Artist in the Guise of a Mocker

Joseph Ducreux (1735–1802) was an innovative French portrait painter known for defying the rigid conventions of 18th-century academic art. After training under masters such as Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Du...

24 Elo 11min

Fernand Léger | Composition in Blue

Fernand Léger was a pioneering French modernist painter whose foundational training as an architectural draftsman profoundly shaped his structured, geometric approach to art. After absorbing the influ...

17 Elo 11min

Stuart Davis | Swing Landscape

Stuart Davis was an influential 20th-century American modernist painter who bridged European abstract movements like Cubism with distinctively American subjects and aesthetics. Born in 1892, Davis stu...

10 Elo 12min

Tamara de Lempicka | Tamara in a Green Bugatti (encore)

Tamara de Lempicka remains the definitive icon of the Art Deco era, blending polished Cubist techniques with the glamorous, high-stakes atmosphere of the Roaring Twenties. From her harrowing escape du...

7 Elo 10min

Artist Interview Emil Wilson | The Nightingales

My guest this week is Emil Wilson, the author and illustrator behind the new graphic novel, The Nightingales. Wilson started his career in advertising before attending art school in his fifties, spurr...

3 Elo 43min

Francisco Goya | The Third of May 1808 (encore)

Francisco Goya (1746-1828) is one of Spain's most important and complex artists. His career bridged the gap between the Old Masters and the modern era. He found success as a court painter for the Span...

31 Heinä 16min

Neil Harbisson | Cyborg Artist (encore)

Neil Harbisson is a contemporary artist who hears colors. He deliberately chose to hear colors and to make that happen, he underwent surgery which has caused him to become the first person ever to be ...

27 Heinä 9min

David Hockney | A Bigger Splash (encore)

Explore the life and work of David Hockney, one of the most influential British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Born in Yorkshire in 1937, Hockney's rebellious spirit and prodigious talent wer...

24 Heinä 16min