DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27365#0105
Chapter Three
THE PAINTERS AND THE REPRESENTED TRENDS
Even the first glance at the Akhtala murals reveals their stylistic differences in
terms of composition, colour scheme and painting techniques. A closer examination
allows us to divide them into three groups: the altar apse, the south and north walls,
and the west wallk The first and second can be ascribed to two artists, each with a
pronounced individual manner. The west wall was painted by several masters close to
each other in manner, discordant with the first two. To all appearances, the Akhtala
murals belonged not to a team but to individual painters, whom the patron Ivane
Mkhargrdzeli selected to carry out an ambitious and exceptional work, the painting of
the main church of the Plindzahank Monastery, which was intended to become a
centre for the Chalcedonians.
All the artists were experienced in mural painting, as indicated by the ideal
harmony between the frescoes and the architecture, the exquisite proportions and the
monumental expressive means. Their effort stood on a par with the best samples of
medieval Armenian and Georgian art, and its quality brought out the versatility of
individual styles. No other example of llth-13th century Caucasian monumental art
presents such a varied impression as the paintings of Akhtala. In other places we see
individual manners brought together by a predominant style. Here all the trends exist
side by side, to form a visual anthology Eastern Christian painting at the beginning of
the 13th century.
So here we shall describe the most outstanding artists one after another to single
out and classify their particular styles as new material is introduced into scholarly
studies. In this work on the style of the Akhtala murals, I do not aspire to regard the
whole artistic wealth of the time, but to throw light on some general problems of
monumental art in the early 13th century, one of the least studied aspects of Eastern
Christian art.
1 The proposed classification received support in an analysis of the painting techniques carried out
by the taboratory of physical chemistry of the Moscow Institute of Restoration. See Y.I. Grenberg &
S.A. Pisareva, "The Murais of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Akhtaia Seen in the Light of
Technical Research", norMt'e (forthcoming).
THE PAINTERS AND THE REPRESENTED TRENDS
Even the first glance at the Akhtala murals reveals their stylistic differences in
terms of composition, colour scheme and painting techniques. A closer examination
allows us to divide them into three groups: the altar apse, the south and north walls,
and the west wallk The first and second can be ascribed to two artists, each with a
pronounced individual manner. The west wall was painted by several masters close to
each other in manner, discordant with the first two. To all appearances, the Akhtala
murals belonged not to a team but to individual painters, whom the patron Ivane
Mkhargrdzeli selected to carry out an ambitious and exceptional work, the painting of
the main church of the Plindzahank Monastery, which was intended to become a
centre for the Chalcedonians.
All the artists were experienced in mural painting, as indicated by the ideal
harmony between the frescoes and the architecture, the exquisite proportions and the
monumental expressive means. Their effort stood on a par with the best samples of
medieval Armenian and Georgian art, and its quality brought out the versatility of
individual styles. No other example of llth-13th century Caucasian monumental art
presents such a varied impression as the paintings of Akhtala. In other places we see
individual manners brought together by a predominant style. Here all the trends exist
side by side, to form a visual anthology Eastern Christian painting at the beginning of
the 13th century.
So here we shall describe the most outstanding artists one after another to single
out and classify their particular styles as new material is introduced into scholarly
studies. In this work on the style of the Akhtala murals, I do not aspire to regard the
whole artistic wealth of the time, but to throw light on some general problems of
monumental art in the early 13th century, one of the least studied aspects of Eastern
Christian art.
1 The proposed classification received support in an analysis of the painting techniques carried out
by the taboratory of physical chemistry of the Moscow Institute of Restoration. See Y.I. Grenberg &
S.A. Pisareva, "The Murais of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Akhtaia Seen in the Light of
Technical Research", norMt'e (forthcoming).