Chora Church (Kariye): Byzantine Mosaics & Iconography

Learn to read Byzantine mosaics, symbols, and narrative cycles in one of Istanbul’s greatest monuments

What you'll learn
How to read and interpret Byzantine iconography
How mosaics and frescoes communicate theological meaning
How canonical and apocryphal texts shaped Byzantine imagery
How architecture and sacred space influence visual programs
How to identify major Marian and Christological iconographic types
How symbolism, gesture, color, and composition function in Byzantine art
How to analyze and interpret more than 70 mosaics and frescoes from Chora (Kariye) Church
How Byzantine narrative cycles are constructed through images
How Christian and Orthodox visual traditions developed in Byzantium
How to approach Byzantine art through art history, architectural history, and visual analysis

Requirements
No previous background is required.

Description
Have you ever looked at a Byzantine mosaic or fresco and wondered what it really means?

In this course, you will explore the visual world of Chora Church, also known today as Kariye Mosque and the Kariye Museum. Located in Istanbul, Türkiye, Chora Church is one of the most important surviving monuments of Byzantine iconography, theology, and visual culture, alongside monuments such as Hagia Sophia. The monument is part of the Historic Areas of Istanbul, included on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and is widely recognized for its extraordinary mosaic and fresco program.

Through the mosaics and frescoes of Chora, you will learn how to read and interpret Byzantine iconography by combining art history, architectural history, visual analysis, and aspects of Christian and Orthodox theology. Rather than simply identifying images, this course focuses on understanding how Byzantine visual language communicates meaning through gesture, composition, color, symbolism, and spatial arrangement. By referencing both canonical and apocryphal sources, we will examine how different traditions shaped the development of Byzantine imagery across centuries.

You will learn how scenes such as the Annunciation, the Anastasis, the Last Judgement, and the Dormition function within the architectural space of the church, and how images interact with one another as part of a larger narrative cycle. The course will also examine important Marian icon types such as Hodegetria, Eleousa, and Hagiosoritissa, and explore how these images expressed theological and symbolic ideas in Byzantine culture.

This is not simply a lecture-based course focused on memorizing information. It is a guided introduction to seeing, reading, and interpreting Byzantine images through one of the greatest surviving monuments of the Byzantine world.

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TR: Bu kursta, UNESCO Dünya Mirası Listesi'nde yer alan İstanbul'un Tarihi Alanları'nın bir parçası olan Kariye Kilisesi'nin (Chora) mozaik ve freskolarını keşfederek Bizans ikonografisini okumayı ve yorumlamayı öğreneceksiniz. Anastasis, Son Yargı, Meryem ve İsa'nın yaşamı gibi sahneleri sanat ve mimarlık tarihi ile beraber inceleyerek Bizans sanatının görsel dilini anlamayı öğreneceksiniz. Kurs'ta Türkçe altyazı mevcuttur.

Who this course is for
This course is designed for beginners as well as learners who want to deepen their understanding of Byzantine art, Christian iconography, Orthodox visual culture, archaeology, history, and cultural heritage. No previous background is required.