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In 563 AD Paul the Silentiary visited Hagia Sophia
in Constantinople and described the wondrous
lighting effects, ‘Thus is everything clothed in
beauty…no words are sufficient to describe the
illumination in the evening: you might say that
some nocturnal sun filled the majestic church
with light.’ The church was lit by polycandela, an
early type of candelabra that held glass oil lamps
rather than candles. The lamps were either
conical or shaped like round bowls with an
elongated stem attached beneath. This example
consists of two pierced bronze discs that would
have been suspended one above the other. Both
have the remains of three loops and parts of the
metal chains from which they were hung. The
larger disc features an openwork cross in the
centre, surrounded by twelve circular
perforations for the lamps. The majority of
surviving polycandela held between three and
nine lamps, so this example is particularly
elaborate. The smaller disc is simpler in design
with nine circles, divided up into groups of three.
The design of the pierced work was crucial
because when the lamps were lit, they cast a
flickering shadow on the walls of the building.
The inclusion of the cross suggests that this
piece was originally from a church, but they were
also used in secular contexts. An effective and
very atmospheric source of lighting, polycandela
required considerable skill in casting and
glasswork. Amidst the burning of incense and
the chanting of prayers, the flickering light must
have helped to inspire pious devotion.
Contemporaries certainly attest to this feeling
and among the surviving accounts, that of Arculf,
Bishop of Gaul, is particularly affecting. In 670 he
went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and visited the
Church of the Ascension, ‘…to the customary
light of the eight lamps…on the night of the
feast of the Lord’s Ascension it is usual to add
innumerable other lamps; and under the terrible
and wondrous gleaming of these, pouring out
copiously through the shutters of the windows,
all Mount Olivet seems not alone to be
illuminated, but even to be on fire, and the whole
city, situated on the lower ground nearby, seems
to be lit up.’ (AM)
- (LK.144)
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