DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27365#0110
98
EzMArHERS AND EEEEE5EATED TEEND5
the Ravdouchou mura! shows the development of the style, with no outward
manifestations of expressive power and pronounced in its overaii intensity. Its
generalised voiumes and schematic treatment of preciseiy arranged iights enable us to
posit an invisible but highly important line separating the two frescoes, made before
and after 1200. Not only chronologically but in style, the Akhtala apse murals wholly
belong to the new art of the 13th century. The geometrical quality of their generalised
shapes, the deliberate schematic approach, the static thick-set figures, the similarity of
their postures, and grim concentration in the faces all point not to the fanciful yin Je
.sicc/c" style but to a rebirth of the archaic stage in a new cycle of artistic evolution.
This style, noted in the Akhtala murals, was pronounced in Cyprus and the
Athenian monasteries. We see it in Macedonia, for instance, the wall paintings at
Prilepi^, and in the icon "Descent into Hell" at the Sinai Monastery, painted about
1200'8, It had an impact on Russian art where it determined the manner of the first
two painters of the Church of the Saviour in Nereditsa (1199), as well as that of the
painters of Church of the Annunciation of Myachino^. it was echoed in some 13th-
century icons, among which the "Christ the Pantocrator" (presently at the Andrei
Rublev Museum of Mediaeval Russian Art, Moscow) is particularly striking. In her
study of this icon, Dr. Smirnova stresses its stylistic similarity to the Akhtala altar
murals^o. This extends even to minor details like the crease on the palm of Christ's
hand and reveals the special methods which were followed by adherents of a particular
trend whose contacts cannot be proven historically.
AH the monuments enumerated here reveal striking differences of quality and
individual manners. The Akhtala apse murals are somewhat inferior to the best, but
spectacularly surpass the mediocre. Despite these differences, we see the paintings as
aspects of one artistic system which played an important role in the culture of the turn
of the 13th century. The man who painted the altar apse at Akhtala was not a
backward provincial nor a retrograde. His frescoes of 1203-1216 were thoroughly
up-to-date and followed one of the principal trends of the Byzantine expressive style
in the early 13th century. All attempts to ascribe it to a "backwoods decorative culture
of the 13th century" are refuted by the ample indications of its metropolitan
origin. The simple and powerful style was very popular in the provinces, however, at
a time when the leading artistic centres were in decline and standards falling.
We can safely assume that the Chief Master of Akhtala was educated in a centre of
Byzantine culture. His style was not merely alien to early 13th-century Georgian art
12 See Djuric, Mzantj/Aejrerke, pp. 184, si. 9-10.
See Aony no Sofia-Belgrade, 1966, p[. 33.
' 1 The order of the painters is given according to Artamonov's ciassification. See
M.I. Artamonov, "The Painters of Nereditsa", NovgorodAn /rtor/cAAK r&crnA (Novgorod Historical
Cotiection), tssue 5, Novgorod, 1939, pp. 33-36. In the 1920s T.S. Shevyakova copied both the
Nereditsa murals (which perished in the Second World War) and the extant murals of the Akhtala altar
apse. In response to my report on the Akhtala murals, at the conference on "Monumental Painting of
the Medieval East", she pointed out major likenesses between the style of the Akhtala Chief Master
and certain manners of the Nereditsa painters.
20 See Smirnova, "L'icone du Pantocrator", pp. 435-46, 437.
EzMArHERS AND EEEEE5EATED TEEND5
the Ravdouchou mura! shows the development of the style, with no outward
manifestations of expressive power and pronounced in its overaii intensity. Its
generalised voiumes and schematic treatment of preciseiy arranged iights enable us to
posit an invisible but highly important line separating the two frescoes, made before
and after 1200. Not only chronologically but in style, the Akhtala apse murals wholly
belong to the new art of the 13th century. The geometrical quality of their generalised
shapes, the deliberate schematic approach, the static thick-set figures, the similarity of
their postures, and grim concentration in the faces all point not to the fanciful yin Je
.sicc/c" style but to a rebirth of the archaic stage in a new cycle of artistic evolution.
This style, noted in the Akhtala murals, was pronounced in Cyprus and the
Athenian monasteries. We see it in Macedonia, for instance, the wall paintings at
Prilepi^, and in the icon "Descent into Hell" at the Sinai Monastery, painted about
1200'8, It had an impact on Russian art where it determined the manner of the first
two painters of the Church of the Saviour in Nereditsa (1199), as well as that of the
painters of Church of the Annunciation of Myachino^. it was echoed in some 13th-
century icons, among which the "Christ the Pantocrator" (presently at the Andrei
Rublev Museum of Mediaeval Russian Art, Moscow) is particularly striking. In her
study of this icon, Dr. Smirnova stresses its stylistic similarity to the Akhtala altar
murals^o. This extends even to minor details like the crease on the palm of Christ's
hand and reveals the special methods which were followed by adherents of a particular
trend whose contacts cannot be proven historically.
AH the monuments enumerated here reveal striking differences of quality and
individual manners. The Akhtala apse murals are somewhat inferior to the best, but
spectacularly surpass the mediocre. Despite these differences, we see the paintings as
aspects of one artistic system which played an important role in the culture of the turn
of the 13th century. The man who painted the altar apse at Akhtala was not a
backward provincial nor a retrograde. His frescoes of 1203-1216 were thoroughly
up-to-date and followed one of the principal trends of the Byzantine expressive style
in the early 13th century. All attempts to ascribe it to a "backwoods decorative culture
of the 13th century" are refuted by the ample indications of its metropolitan
origin. The simple and powerful style was very popular in the provinces, however, at
a time when the leading artistic centres were in decline and standards falling.
We can safely assume that the Chief Master of Akhtala was educated in a centre of
Byzantine culture. His style was not merely alien to early 13th-century Georgian art
12 See Djuric, Mzantj/Aejrerke, pp. 184, si. 9-10.
See Aony no Sofia-Belgrade, 1966, p[. 33.
' 1 The order of the painters is given according to Artamonov's ciassification. See
M.I. Artamonov, "The Painters of Nereditsa", NovgorodAn /rtor/cAAK r&crnA (Novgorod Historical
Cotiection), tssue 5, Novgorod, 1939, pp. 33-36. In the 1920s T.S. Shevyakova copied both the
Nereditsa murals (which perished in the Second World War) and the extant murals of the Akhtala altar
apse. In response to my report on the Akhtala murals, at the conference on "Monumental Painting of
the Medieval East", she pointed out major likenesses between the style of the Akhtala Chief Master
and certain manners of the Nereditsa painters.
20 See Smirnova, "L'icone du Pantocrator", pp. 435-46, 437.