Trici Venola
ST JOHN’S BASILICA: Drawing in the Wake of the Gospels
ST JOHN’S BASILICA The vast rambling ruin of St John’s Basilica: demolished by earthquake, ravaged by marauders, scavenged by later builders; it looks like it… Read More »ST JOHN’S BASILICA: Drawing in the Wake of the Gospels
TIGERS IN EPHESUS: Drawing in the Aura of the Virgin
WHERE WORLDS MERGE Years ago I went to Ephesus with my friend Cynthia from Maui. We were exactly the same age, both born in the Year… Read More »TIGERS IN EPHESUS: Drawing in the Aura of the Virgin
THE COVERED FEAST: Drawing in the Grand Bazaar
I’ll never forget the first time I saw it. I was with a bunch of other tourists, at a dead run, trying to keep up… Read More »THE COVERED FEAST: Drawing in the Grand Bazaar
• A DATE WITH AN ANGEL: Worlds Collide in Hagia Sophia
NOTE: Since the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque, several of the artworks described here are no longer visible, but they’re still there. Behind… Read More »• A DATE WITH AN ANGEL: Worlds Collide in Hagia Sophia
• PEACE IN THE RUINS: Drawing the Hospital of Sampson
A huge fire in Constantinople burned so fiercely that the lead sheets on the top of Hagia Sophia melted, it was said, and poured like… Read More »• PEACE IN THE RUINS: Drawing the Hospital of Sampson
• ROLLING THE BOUKOLEON BONES
“Something in me has always wanted to crouch at the edge of an alien civilization, making art. Just now I’m looking out over dull silver drifts of sea… Read More »• ROLLING THE BOUKOLEON BONES
• ROCKING THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION: Drawing on The Hasankeyf Train
PRECEDENT Around 1830, beloved literary giant Victor Hugo learned that the old Gothic pile in the middle of Paris was to be pulled down. A… Read More »• ROCKING THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION: Drawing on The Hasankeyf Train
• GHOST CHURCH: Drawing Theotokos in Chalkoprateia
5th century AD: Furious clamor as police descend on Constantinople’s Chalkoprateia, the Bronze District, where Jewish artisans live, creating and selling bronze items. Screaming in… Read More »• GHOST CHURCH: Drawing Theotokos in Chalkoprateia
• HOT CROSSES: Crusader Graffiti in Hagia Sophia
TWO LEAD CROSSES They’re only visible from a few inches away. Carved at eye level into the side of a malachite pillar in Hagia Sophia’s lower… Read More »• HOT CROSSES: Crusader Graffiti in Hagia Sophia