ABSTRACT
The previous chapters on the form and external decoration of Hagia Sophia have all centred on a similar issue. This is that the appearance of the church (if not always the messages that that appearance attempted to convey) seems to lie outside the mainstream of Byzantine art and culture. However, when we turn to the paintings in the interior of the church we seem to be faced with a paradox, which reinforces the alien nature of the exterior; for the wall paintings return us to a recognisably 'Byzantine' world, both in terms of the style of the paintings and their subject matter. To investigate the paintings of Hagia Sophia after an examination of the exterior sculpture in particular seems to be to move into a different world.
