The Other Door to the Sanctuary

Beginning in the sixth century, theophanies of Christ conveyed by a mandorla of light or cloud rendered the apse conch as a point of entry for the divine in the church. At the same time, alternative pictorial devices were developed to convey the presence of the Virgin Mary in the church and sanctuary, while drawing greater attention to the apse conch as a threshold to be crossed. This chapter explores the form and function of these motifs in two early Byzantine apse mosaics on the island of Cyprus, in the churches of the Panagia Angeloktistos at Kiti and the Panagia tes Kyras at Livadia.