ST. GREGORY

St. Gregory of Nazianzos Church, Guzelyurt-Cappadocia

We visited one of the first Byzantine Churches in Guzulyert, Turkey.  This building has been called the inspiration and model for Hagia Sophia and was built in the 4th century.  It has a Greek cross as its basic plan.  As we now understand for early Byzantine architecture, a series of domes and half domes comprise its structure.

Also as we might expect, when the Ottomans took over Byzantium, they converted this church to a Mosque.  So they knocked down the bell tower in front of the church while still saving the portal.  Then they built their minaret on top of the portal.  In this manner, the minaret is not part of the architecture of the building because it is so separate.  As time went on, the Ottomans would place their minarets closer to the Byzantine basilica.

Nevertheless, in this example, the minaret is standing in a rather lonely position in relation to the church.  I wanted to somehow capture the confluence of Islamic and Christian architecture.  I elected to place the minaret on axis with the basilica.  If I would have drawn this representationally, the geometric relationships between the minaret and the dome would not have been clear.  After making this drawing, I started to wonder why the minarets were cylindrical in the same manner as the basic dome?   Not all minarets are round.

I was also captivated by the concept that you essentially walk thru the minaret and then you walk under the dome.  This very powerful spatial relationship would not have been this clear if I would have made a representational drawing.  Transparency provides insight.

This example also illustrates my recommended Transparent Drawing methodology when traveling.  I made this drawing from the photographs that I took from both the exterior and the interior of the building.  When we went to this Mosque, it was towards the end of a very full, and therefore very tiring day.  The sun was already low.  So there was not really time, nor energy, for me to sit down on the site and draw.  The next morning, while sitting in the courtyard of our hotel, I was able to focus on the relationships between the eastern and western architectural influences.  I really do not believe that I would have produced this type of drawing if I were sitting on the site with my sketchbook.