Though depiction of a winged angel as a young woman is not an early Christian tradition but a later practice, Gabriel Mosaic is one of the most beautiful mosaics of Hagia Sophia. Located in the bema vault, The Archangel Gabriel has a crystal ball in one hand and a scepter in another.
Wearing a ribbon in the hair, it has a fair complexion. Clothed in dark royal clothes with a cape, it shines with golden tesserae. It faces another angel, Michael whose relics are just four feathers of its right wing, one of his feet, and the part of a feather of its left wing.
Though I work as a Doctor,Byzantine or better East Roman research has always been a great temptation for me.
Congratulations on your work! You keep unraveling treasures well buried under the facts.
During my last visit to Hagia Sophia, a couple of days ago, with sorrow I realized the transformation of the church to a mosque may be but surely to a form far different from what it was meant to be.
Mostly I was embarrassed by the darkness of the building at night, while all the surrounding was showing bright.
I estimate all of the researchers and the history lovers have to protest to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and the Istanbul state.