Nothing in Western Europe even now gives a spectator who is
able with an educated eye to restore it to something like its former
condition, so deep an impression of unity, harmony, richness, and
beauty in decoration as does the interior of the masterpiece of
Justinian. All that wealth could supply and art produce had been
lavished upon its interior--at that time, and for long afterward, the
only portion of a church which the Christian architect thought
deserving of study. "Internally, at least," says a great authority on
architecture, "the verdict seems inevitable that Santa Sophia is the
most perfect and most beautiful church which has yet been erected by
any Christian people. When its furniture was complete the verdict
would have been still more strongly in its favor."
We have seen that to Nicetas, who knew and loved it in its best days,
it was a model of celestial beauty, a glimpse of heaven itself. To the
more sober English observer, "its mosaic of marble slabs of various
patterns and beautiful colors, the domes, roofs, and curved surfaces,
with gold-grounded mosaic relieved by figures or architectural
devices," are "wonderfully grand and pleasing.
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