DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27365#0112
100
^4JVD EETEE^EATEED 7EEAD.S
and under Georgian influence from 1204 onwards, ft had a Armenian community of
Chaicedonian confession and one of its members, the Priest-monk Minas, cooperated
with Symeon Piindzahanketsi to translate iiturgicai books.
There is no direct proof of this hypothesis, so we shali leave the matter open. I
merely wish to point out that the appearance of an outstanding artist in the Caucasus
in the 13th century was a natural consequence of historical developments. As the
1204 Crusade laid the region bare, many fled to northern Armenia with its
flourishing Chaicedonian culture, now newly freed from Seljuk rule.
2. Second Master
The Second Master painted the two upper tiers of the south wall, the entire north
wall, except the lower tier, and the vaults of the domed arches. These are the best-
preserved frescoes, with no peeling paint: the few damaged spots were either washed
off or removed with the plaster. The excellent state of preservation allows us to
assume that the frescoes were mostly painted on wet plaster^. This technique
accounts for the absence of preliminary drawings and inscriptions, unlike in the altar
apse.
The final inscriptions, in Greek letters and the Georgian ty-yornfapm//, lead us to
interesting conclusions. Some texts are bilingual; in others the languages alternate,
with the longer inscriptions in Georgian and the shorter in Greek. The Georgian
inscriptions reveal two hands. One is cursive, as in "The Rejection of the Offerings"
and "Christ Before Pilate", and repeats the west wall inscriptions under frescoes which,
doubtless, came from another brush. This means that the longer inscriptions were all
made by one man.
The Greek inscriptions, on the other hand, are elaborate. Calligraphic letters join in
sophisticated patterns, as in the names of St. Joseph and John the Baptist, and are
carefully arranged among the painted images. Their white paint is identical to the one
used in the faces, while the Georgian texts (sometimes not so beautifully inscribed)
use a paint of a different hue and texture. In several smaller paintings, the state of
preservation of the Georgian and Greek lettering varies dramatically as, for instance,
in the medallion of St. John the Baptist, the Greek text of which looks as good as new
while the Georgian letters have peeled off rendering them illegible, which means that
it was added later, on dry plaster.
The Second Master evidently made only Greek inscriptions, with the Georgian
added by others on blank spots (presumably, by the men who painted the west wall)
23 The techniques are close to the fresco, hardly ever met in Caucasian monuments of the 11th-
13th centuries. Mixed techniques were used there, as a rule: the work was started on wet plaster, but
most of it was completed after the plaster dried. This led to the upper layer of paint peeling off.
The technical details were revealed in optic studies of the paint layer in the visible, ultra-
violet and infra-red part of the spectrum by a team led by Y.l. Grenberg from the Restoration Istitute.
See /.sr/cdfnurtennoi ziot'opEt no t'oz/tnoi stene trerAw' AAAto/y (An investigation of the south wall
paintings in the Akhtala church, Preliminary report), Physical chemistry laboratory of the Moscow
Institute of Restoration, Moscow, 1982.
^4JVD EETEE^EATEED 7EEAD.S
and under Georgian influence from 1204 onwards, ft had a Armenian community of
Chaicedonian confession and one of its members, the Priest-monk Minas, cooperated
with Symeon Piindzahanketsi to translate iiturgicai books.
There is no direct proof of this hypothesis, so we shali leave the matter open. I
merely wish to point out that the appearance of an outstanding artist in the Caucasus
in the 13th century was a natural consequence of historical developments. As the
1204 Crusade laid the region bare, many fled to northern Armenia with its
flourishing Chaicedonian culture, now newly freed from Seljuk rule.
2. Second Master
The Second Master painted the two upper tiers of the south wall, the entire north
wall, except the lower tier, and the vaults of the domed arches. These are the best-
preserved frescoes, with no peeling paint: the few damaged spots were either washed
off or removed with the plaster. The excellent state of preservation allows us to
assume that the frescoes were mostly painted on wet plaster^. This technique
accounts for the absence of preliminary drawings and inscriptions, unlike in the altar
apse.
The final inscriptions, in Greek letters and the Georgian ty-yornfapm//, lead us to
interesting conclusions. Some texts are bilingual; in others the languages alternate,
with the longer inscriptions in Georgian and the shorter in Greek. The Georgian
inscriptions reveal two hands. One is cursive, as in "The Rejection of the Offerings"
and "Christ Before Pilate", and repeats the west wall inscriptions under frescoes which,
doubtless, came from another brush. This means that the longer inscriptions were all
made by one man.
The Greek inscriptions, on the other hand, are elaborate. Calligraphic letters join in
sophisticated patterns, as in the names of St. Joseph and John the Baptist, and are
carefully arranged among the painted images. Their white paint is identical to the one
used in the faces, while the Georgian texts (sometimes not so beautifully inscribed)
use a paint of a different hue and texture. In several smaller paintings, the state of
preservation of the Georgian and Greek lettering varies dramatically as, for instance,
in the medallion of St. John the Baptist, the Greek text of which looks as good as new
while the Georgian letters have peeled off rendering them illegible, which means that
it was added later, on dry plaster.
The Second Master evidently made only Greek inscriptions, with the Georgian
added by others on blank spots (presumably, by the men who painted the west wall)
23 The techniques are close to the fresco, hardly ever met in Caucasian monuments of the 11th-
13th centuries. Mixed techniques were used there, as a rule: the work was started on wet plaster, but
most of it was completed after the plaster dried. This led to the upper layer of paint peeling off.
The technical details were revealed in optic studies of the paint layer in the visible, ultra-
violet and infra-red part of the spectrum by a team led by Y.l. Grenberg from the Restoration Istitute.
See /.sr/cdfnurtennoi ziot'opEt no t'oz/tnoi stene trerAw' AAAto/y (An investigation of the south wall
paintings in the Akhtala church, Preliminary report), Physical chemistry laboratory of the Moscow
Institute of Restoration, Moscow, 1982.