Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1920 — WORKS OF ART PRESERVED [ARTICLE]

WORKS OF ART PRESERVED

Art World Interested in Uncovering of Old Paintings In the Mosque of Saint Sophia. An important result that may be looked for whenever Constantinople ind the mosque of St. Sophia pass from under the control of the Turks Is the verification of a belief, not generally known, that the Interior walls jf the building still hold in practically perfect condition the ornamentation with which the Byzantine artists decorated them, says a writer in Christian Science Monitor. The statement is made with convincing detail by the (talian architect. Fossatl, who was employed by Sultan Abdu-ul-Mejid to put the mosque In complete repair.' To do this work Fossatl removed the matting that lined the walls and took lown the huge disks, covered with Arabic inscriptions, that here and there jrnamented them; and behind these roverings he found the work of the undent Byzantines. Hagla Saphla, taken 3y the Turks in 1453, was converted to their own uses by the addition of minarets and by covering the walls, the religion of its new possessors forbidding them to make or destroy any picture or statue of man. Fossatl, with the ancient glories of the Christian ediQce temporarily uncovered, made the notes for his book, and painted colored facsimiles of some of the mosaics; then he sealed them from view by replacing the coverings.