The overlooked corners inside

• Anastasis (The Harrowing of Hell) Fresco

  Look up at the apse of the side funerary chapel (the Parekklesion): against a deep indigo ground, Christ blazes in white-gold robes at the centre of a star-studded mandorla — an almond-shaped halo of divine light — his vestments swept as though caught by a sacred wind. This Anastasis is one of Chora's most celebrated scenes and is considered a masterpiece of Late Byzantine art from the Palaiologan period (13th–14th centuries). Look at his hands: Christ has already shattered the gates of Hell and is pulling Adam and Eve bodily from their sarcophagi — one on each side. The chapel was built as a burial space, and the scene on its ceiling speaks directly to that purpose: resurrection, and the promise of life after death.

  Sources: tr.wikipedia.org

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