The double St. George
The two-faced icon โ the centuries' fine riddle.
Marsyas โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Joyofmuseums โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Francesco Bini โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Francesco Bini โ CC BY-SA 4.0
It is a civilisation's chapter, not a creed's lesson: Byzantium was the thousand-year empire beside the Caliphate, arguing and trading arts with it โ and the ornament, gold and craft here read to a Muslim eye with strange familiarity. Lovers of Istanbul's museums find the other shore.
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The Byzantine Museum carries the thousand years the antiquities route drops: pagan Athens turning church by church, to Constantinople's fall and after โ the world's richest Byzantine collection (25,000 pieces) inside the Florentine Villa Ilissia the Duchess of Plaisance built (1848). The route is a conversion tale: the From the Ancient World to Byzantium halls show Athens changing gods โ pagan carvings turned crosses โ then the icon summit: the double-faced St. George, Constantinople's mosaics and goldwork, gilded manuscripts, church frescoes transplanted with their vaults. Its terraced garden of olives, ruins and cafรฉ is the quiet quarter's secret โ with the Benaki on the same pavement: the complete after-antiquity pair.
The two-faced icon โ the centuries' fine riddle.
Gods turning crosses โ Athens changing its sky.
Vasilissis Sofias 22, 10675 Athens