Burton Wasserman, July 2014
Dr. Burton Wasserman is a professor emeritus of Art at Rowan University, and a serious artist of long standing.
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Many visitors to the world-famous architectural landmark in Istanbul, Turkey, the Hagia Sophia or Church of the Holy Wisdom, have suggested that God dwells there in a structure He shares with humankind. Based on this belief, it is little wonder that great numbers of people from near and far visit this destination with considerable frequency.
On the other hand, here in the Delaware Valley, travelers can do the next best thing to actually flying to that meeting place of continents where Europe and Asia come together. They do so by looking in on the Penn Museum in University City, Philadelphia in order to see a magnificent set of super-size, full-color photographs of that awesome edifice in a show called Sacred Spaces: Photography by Ahmet Ertug. It brings a surrogate presence of the Hagia Sophia into focus, at arm’s length distance, along with excellent views of several other ecclesiastical structures. The exhibition is currently in place, on an extended period basis, with no announced closing date.
The major building (the name is properly pronounced aya-sophia in Turkish) was originally commanded to be built in the sixth century by the Byzantine emperor, Justinian. By general consensus, from the time it was first opened to the present day, Hagia Sophia has been considered by thoughtful connoisseurs to be one of the world’s greatest architectural monuments. It was completed in a relatively short space of time, between 532 and 537, and was designed by Isidorius of Miletus, a noted physicist, in concert with Anthemius of Tralles, a distinguished mathematician of the time.
Today, prevailing scholarship maintains it was erected on the site of an earlier church, believed to have been requested several centuries earlier by the Roman Emperor, Constantius. The ground plan of the building is based on the shape of a longitudinal rectangle. It forms the base of the nave, the central sanctuary of the building which in turn is covered by a huge dome, attached on either side along the longitudinal axis to a half-dome.
Throughout, the placement of windows introduces an abundance of light within the interior space. An especially vivid example of this is the circular necklace of transparent glass panes situated at the base of the large overhead dome, contributing to the making of the space beneath come alive with an intense spiritual presence.
In 1453, Istanbul, then called Constantinople, was conquered by the Ottoman Turks under the control of Sultan Mehmed II, who decided to convert the building from service as an Eastern Orthodox church into an Islamic mosque. It remained a mosque until 1931 when it was closed to the general public for several years. In 1935 it was reopened by the modern day republic as a museum.
The exhibition is installed beneath the vaulted ceiling of the Penn Museum’s first floor Merle-Smith galleries. It consists of massive (some as large as six feet by six feet) squares rendered in crisply detailed colors by the distinguished Turkish photographer, Ahmet Ertug.
Besides the nave, there are also pictures of various painted wall areas and superbly crafted mosaics. A digital-screen slide-show of exterior images of several of the structures pictured in the large photographs enriches the total offering along with a kiosk where visitors may learn about the significance of the rich iconography presented in the various artworks that make up the overall exhibition.
Besides his mastery of the photographic medium, Ertug has also worked as an architect in various places in England, Iran and Turkey. His dedication to photography got underway during a year-long Japan Foundation fellowship to study architecture in Japan. During that time, he traveled extensively, photographing ancient temples and Zen gardens. He is convinced that the foundation of his creativity rises out of a profound knowledge of his heritage. To accomplish this end, he has photographed many Byzantine, Ottoman and Roman remains with a large format camera which has allowed him to capture the rich splendor of his sensitively chosen subjects.
The Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is located at 3600 South St. (on the Penn campus, across from Franklin Field in University City.) The Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and first Wednesdays of each month to 8:00 p.m. The Museum is dedicated to the study and understanding of human history and diversity the whole world over. It brings those aims to realization with extraordinary distinction and success.