DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27365#0036
24
/CCWOGRzirWC .PROGRAMME
While they share a common approach to the main theme, there were distinctions
in the way the cupola frescoes were interpreted in 13th-century Georgian and
Armenian-Chalcedonian churches. At the Georgian churches of Kintsvissi and
Timothesoubani the archangels are depicted full face in imperial garments as the
guard of the King of Heaven and located under the cross in the mandorla^. The
composition is emphatically pictorial and dates back in its basic features to models
from the pre-Iconoclast era. Over a long period of time they enjoyed great popularity
in Georgia thanks to the national cult of the Cross'*. The resulting image-symbol
conveys the triumphant appearance of the heavenly hosts.
In Armenian-Chalcedonian frescoes the theme of praise was linked with
remembrance of the central event in the history of salvation. Christ in the mandorla
formed an organic part of the "Ascension" composition and simultaneously recalled
the culmination of His earthly life, His presence in heaven and His coming again. The
dogmatic content and pictorial structure of the composition enables the symbolic
images and scenes of the murals to constitute a single and continuous narrative of the
history of salvation. It was probably this which explains the interest shown in the
"Ascension" as a subject for iconographic programmes in 12th-century Byzantine art.
Inspired by liturgical texts, they presented a fluent combination of timeless symbolic
images with a detailed narrative that created an internally evolving and ideally
complete whole^. The cupola frescoes of the Armenian-Chalcedonians offer an
interpretation that belongs with the Byzantine art of the period, differing substantially
from contemporary Georgian approaches.
We can therefore speak of the existence of "liturgical" and "representational" cupola
decorations in 13th-century Caucasian frescoes. In Akhtala it seems most likely that
the former, Armenian-Chalcedonian variant was used. The absence of any scene of
the "Ascension" elsewhere in the church offers additional, indirect support for this
supposition.
77:e Evongc/ots b; the Ec/:bcubvcx
The depictions of the four Evangelists in the pendentives no longer survive. However,
D.P. Gordeev, who described the church in the 1920s, saw certain fragments that
permit us to conclude that half-length, three-quarter face figures holding books were
formerly depicted here in medallions^. Similar images can today be seen in the
frescoes of Tigran Honents in Ani, and in Kintsvissi and Timothesoubani. In the latter
two cases flying angels, who have their origins in the geniuses of Roman triumphal
compositions, accompany the medallions. This is part of a Georgian iconographic
tradition that goes back to early models also reflected in certain Cappadocian
monument^.
3 For a description of the iconographic programmes, see Gordeev, "Schemes", pp. 3-7.
4 See Lafontaine-Dosogne, "Recherches", p. 6.
3 The opinion that the dome "Ascension" is archaic, widespread in schoiarly iiterature, needs
reconsideration and detaiied study.
^ See Gordeev, "Akhtaia near Lori", p. 89.
7 On this tradition, see Privatova, p. 17.
/CCWOGRzirWC .PROGRAMME
While they share a common approach to the main theme, there were distinctions
in the way the cupola frescoes were interpreted in 13th-century Georgian and
Armenian-Chalcedonian churches. At the Georgian churches of Kintsvissi and
Timothesoubani the archangels are depicted full face in imperial garments as the
guard of the King of Heaven and located under the cross in the mandorla^. The
composition is emphatically pictorial and dates back in its basic features to models
from the pre-Iconoclast era. Over a long period of time they enjoyed great popularity
in Georgia thanks to the national cult of the Cross'*. The resulting image-symbol
conveys the triumphant appearance of the heavenly hosts.
In Armenian-Chalcedonian frescoes the theme of praise was linked with
remembrance of the central event in the history of salvation. Christ in the mandorla
formed an organic part of the "Ascension" composition and simultaneously recalled
the culmination of His earthly life, His presence in heaven and His coming again. The
dogmatic content and pictorial structure of the composition enables the symbolic
images and scenes of the murals to constitute a single and continuous narrative of the
history of salvation. It was probably this which explains the interest shown in the
"Ascension" as a subject for iconographic programmes in 12th-century Byzantine art.
Inspired by liturgical texts, they presented a fluent combination of timeless symbolic
images with a detailed narrative that created an internally evolving and ideally
complete whole^. The cupola frescoes of the Armenian-Chalcedonians offer an
interpretation that belongs with the Byzantine art of the period, differing substantially
from contemporary Georgian approaches.
We can therefore speak of the existence of "liturgical" and "representational" cupola
decorations in 13th-century Caucasian frescoes. In Akhtala it seems most likely that
the former, Armenian-Chalcedonian variant was used. The absence of any scene of
the "Ascension" elsewhere in the church offers additional, indirect support for this
supposition.
77:e Evongc/ots b; the Ec/:bcubvcx
The depictions of the four Evangelists in the pendentives no longer survive. However,
D.P. Gordeev, who described the church in the 1920s, saw certain fragments that
permit us to conclude that half-length, three-quarter face figures holding books were
formerly depicted here in medallions^. Similar images can today be seen in the
frescoes of Tigran Honents in Ani, and in Kintsvissi and Timothesoubani. In the latter
two cases flying angels, who have their origins in the geniuses of Roman triumphal
compositions, accompany the medallions. This is part of a Georgian iconographic
tradition that goes back to early models also reflected in certain Cappadocian
monument^.
3 For a description of the iconographic programmes, see Gordeev, "Schemes", pp. 3-7.
4 See Lafontaine-Dosogne, "Recherches", p. 6.
3 The opinion that the dome "Ascension" is archaic, widespread in schoiarly iiterature, needs
reconsideration and detaiied study.
^ See Gordeev, "Akhtaia near Lori", p. 89.
7 On this tradition, see Privatova, p. 17.