DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27365#0096
84
/CfWOGVGl/WC PHOGHAMME
the pagans was vividly expressed in this composition among the murals of Iprari
(1096) in Svaneti where the Old Testament scene was set alongside St George on a
horseback crushing the emperor Diocletian^
In this connection we may recall that Ivane Mkhargrdzeli, the donor of the
monastery, was a military leader in the Georgian kingdom and at the time that the
murals were being painted he and his brother Zakare won a number of brilliant
battles against their Muslim overlords. The use of this rare symbolic image in the
Akhtala iconographic programme may have been a reflection of a real historical
situation. The patron of the murals saw himself as trying to be a new Joshua who,
with divine aid, defeated the infidels.
There is one extremely rare and distinctive feature of the "Joshua before the
Archangel Michael": the depiction of the church above the now non-existent figure of
Joshua. The possibility of such an image was provide by the Old Testament text where
the heavenly messenger told the commander "Loose thy shoes from off thy foot; for
the place whereon thou standest is holy," (Joshua 5:15). The place where Joshua met
the messenger became the prototype of the sancutary in which he and others would
meet with God. This interpretation is directly linked to the next story from the book of
Joshua (6:1-19). The Jewish army captured Jericho without a battle by conducting a
service of worship: a procession carrying the Ark of the Covenant accompanied by
seven trumpeting priests circled the city seven times and the "walls fell down flat". In
the Akhtala composition the theological meaning of the image of the church is quite
understandable: only with the aid of the Church and by celebrating the liturgy before
battle would the righteous commander be victorious.
The appearance of such an unusual detail in the Akhtala murals, in our view, might
well have a foundation in contemporary historical events. Not long before the murals
were painted a major controversy arose in the religious life of the Caucasus: was it
permissible for the Armenian Monophysites to use a "held church" during their
lengthy military campaigns or not? " T he Georgians accused the Armenians of having
no held churches", recounted Kuirakos Gandzaletsi, "and that they would remain
unshriven and not celebrate the feasts of the holy martyrs at the end of each day."i8i
The Monophysite leader of the Georgian-Armenian forces, Zakare, insisted that it was
essential to use mobile churches and did not want in any respect to concede to the
Chalcedonians among whom his brother Ivane, the newly converted patron of
Akhtala, occupied the most prominent place. Zakare's position met with sharp
resistance from the Armenian clergy wh'o opposed the policy of reconciliation with the
Chalcedoneans and upheld national customs in questions of ritual. Finding no support
in the church of Eastern Armenia, the commander turned to the king of Cilicia and
the Catholicos who replied that he "might do as he requested; for this not only did not
contradict Holy Writ but there is also a decree of our own fathers ... "182. The
Catholicos Iovannes even sent Zakare a "tower with a cupola in the form of a church
180 gee N.A. Aiadashviii, G.V. Aiibegaslivili & A.t. Volskaya, ZAh'O/V.mgyr; .s/jAo/u .S'sYMgfn (Paintings
of Svaneti), Tbiiisi, 19S3, pp. 47-49.
181 Kuirakos, p. 120.
182 See Pnrtfan, p. 171.
/CfWOGVGl/WC PHOGHAMME
the pagans was vividly expressed in this composition among the murals of Iprari
(1096) in Svaneti where the Old Testament scene was set alongside St George on a
horseback crushing the emperor Diocletian^
In this connection we may recall that Ivane Mkhargrdzeli, the donor of the
monastery, was a military leader in the Georgian kingdom and at the time that the
murals were being painted he and his brother Zakare won a number of brilliant
battles against their Muslim overlords. The use of this rare symbolic image in the
Akhtala iconographic programme may have been a reflection of a real historical
situation. The patron of the murals saw himself as trying to be a new Joshua who,
with divine aid, defeated the infidels.
There is one extremely rare and distinctive feature of the "Joshua before the
Archangel Michael": the depiction of the church above the now non-existent figure of
Joshua. The possibility of such an image was provide by the Old Testament text where
the heavenly messenger told the commander "Loose thy shoes from off thy foot; for
the place whereon thou standest is holy," (Joshua 5:15). The place where Joshua met
the messenger became the prototype of the sancutary in which he and others would
meet with God. This interpretation is directly linked to the next story from the book of
Joshua (6:1-19). The Jewish army captured Jericho without a battle by conducting a
service of worship: a procession carrying the Ark of the Covenant accompanied by
seven trumpeting priests circled the city seven times and the "walls fell down flat". In
the Akhtala composition the theological meaning of the image of the church is quite
understandable: only with the aid of the Church and by celebrating the liturgy before
battle would the righteous commander be victorious.
The appearance of such an unusual detail in the Akhtala murals, in our view, might
well have a foundation in contemporary historical events. Not long before the murals
were painted a major controversy arose in the religious life of the Caucasus: was it
permissible for the Armenian Monophysites to use a "held church" during their
lengthy military campaigns or not? " T he Georgians accused the Armenians of having
no held churches", recounted Kuirakos Gandzaletsi, "and that they would remain
unshriven and not celebrate the feasts of the holy martyrs at the end of each day."i8i
The Monophysite leader of the Georgian-Armenian forces, Zakare, insisted that it was
essential to use mobile churches and did not want in any respect to concede to the
Chalcedonians among whom his brother Ivane, the newly converted patron of
Akhtala, occupied the most prominent place. Zakare's position met with sharp
resistance from the Armenian clergy wh'o opposed the policy of reconciliation with the
Chalcedoneans and upheld national customs in questions of ritual. Finding no support
in the church of Eastern Armenia, the commander turned to the king of Cilicia and
the Catholicos who replied that he "might do as he requested; for this not only did not
contradict Holy Writ but there is also a decree of our own fathers ... "182. The
Catholicos Iovannes even sent Zakare a "tower with a cupola in the form of a church
180 gee N.A. Aiadashviii, G.V. Aiibegaslivili & A.t. Volskaya, ZAh'O/V.mgyr; .s/jAo/u .S'sYMgfn (Paintings
of Svaneti), Tbiiisi, 19S3, pp. 47-49.
181 Kuirakos, p. 120.
182 See Pnrtfan, p. 171.