Hagia Sophia at Engravings

Abstract

Gravure which is used as a printing technique and applied in creation of works of art can be described as a form of etched, dented or carved print. The design to be printed is first reproduced on wood, metal or stone plate by various methods (e.g., by hand-carving or by application of acid), then the plate is daubed with ink. When the surface of the plate is wiped, the ink remains in the grooves and hollows and the design on the plate is transmitted on paper through pressure. Even since its appearance in the 15th century, the art of gravure has been and is still being use widely by artists. Since the Roman period, there are many engravings on Istanbul which is frequented by travellers and artists. Constantinople, plundered by crusade during Byzantine period, didn't lose its impressiveness, the travellers continued their visits. Hagia Sophia the largest temple of Istanbul took place in the engravings of travellers before and after the conquest. Florentine traveller Cristoforo Buondelmonti's early 15th century engraving of the city is the oldest one that describe realistic the city before the conquest. Within the meaning of structure Hagia Sophia, has been representing the largest emoticons in the gravure. After the conquest in the flourished capital city of the Ottoman Empire Istanbul, Hagia Sophia, now a mosque and engravings began to be described as a mosque. However, after the conquest period, there had been some artist depicted the Hagia Sophia as its original the temple of Christian. During the time of conquest to the present day onwards, it had been depicted as the minaret of a mosque and by the time the complex of buildings. In the preconquest of İstanbul engraving Hagia Sophia was depicted as the most dominant in the compositions are plotted in a Latin style of the temple. European travellers interpreted the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople as by comparing the external facade adorned churches in Italy. Gravures subject on Hagia Sophia's interior and exterior design are important, for to inform us about the temple changes had become the in different terms. Their works tell us the evolution of Hagia Sophia, its environment and silhouette of Istanbul. When a conservation or restoration project being prepared, this gravures are the most important info to be source for restitution.