DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43337#0330
INTRODUCTION | 3^7
Mouriki concentrates her attention mainly on the emphatically ex-
pressive frescoes of the altar apse, which she links with the murals
of the refectory in the monastery on Patmos17. In Mouriki’s opinion
the Akhtala paintings show a specifically Byzantine treatment, ex-
pressively combined with numerous Greek inscriptions which are
rarely found in Georgian murals before the beginning of the 14th
century.
The first special publication, «The Akhtala "Last Judgement"», be-
longs to Nicole Thierry18 and appeared in 1982 on the wave of interest
in the monument. Apart from a detailed description of the composi-
tion of the Last Judgement in the west part of the church, it contains
some general opinions about the style and manners of the painting.
In Thierry’s view, the stylistic manners are connected with the dif-
ferent trends in the Comnenian art which became widespread in the
late 12th and early 13th centuries. The pronounced graphic quality of
all the manners is seen as deriving from the Georgian origin of the
painters, who embodied the stylistic models of the age in less In gen-
eral the existing literature on the Akhtala murals is a confused mo-
saic which contains some valuable isolated observations but does not
give any clear idea of the date, iconographic programme or style of
the paintings. Some hypotheses are fallacious. For example, the wide-
spread opinion about the paintings’ temporal diversification is not
borne out by the facts. There is no evidence to support the view that
all the masters were of Georgian origin. And the proposed dating,
which fluctuates over a span of two centuries, needs a careful revi-
sion. Several compositions in a poor state of preservation have been
wrongly identified.
Many errors were due to the impossibility
of making a careful study of paintings which
were located high on the walls and sometimes
almost totally obscured by the deposits of the
centuries. The situation changed when resto-
ration of the wall paintings began in 1978. The
erection of scaffolding and cleaning of the fres-
coes made it possible to examine the painting
close up and resolve certain disputed points.
The technical study of the Akhtala murals car-
ried out over a period of several years by a spe-
16 Lafontaine-Dosogne J. Monumen-
tal Painting // Art and Architecture
in Medieval Georgia / ed. by Alpago-
Novello A., Beridze V., Lafontaine-
Dosogne J. Louvaine-la-Neuve, 1980,
p.95.
17 Mouriki D. The Formative Role of
Byzantine Art on the Artistic Style of
the Cultural Neighbours of Byzantium
//Jahrbuch der osterreichischen Byzan-
tinistik, 31/2 (1981), s. 741.
18 Thierry N. La Jugement Dernier
dAkhtala // Bedi Kartlisa. Revue de
Kartvelologie,XL (1982), p. 147-168.
Mouriki concentrates her attention mainly on the emphatically ex-
pressive frescoes of the altar apse, which she links with the murals
of the refectory in the monastery on Patmos17. In Mouriki’s opinion
the Akhtala paintings show a specifically Byzantine treatment, ex-
pressively combined with numerous Greek inscriptions which are
rarely found in Georgian murals before the beginning of the 14th
century.
The first special publication, «The Akhtala "Last Judgement"», be-
longs to Nicole Thierry18 and appeared in 1982 on the wave of interest
in the monument. Apart from a detailed description of the composi-
tion of the Last Judgement in the west part of the church, it contains
some general opinions about the style and manners of the painting.
In Thierry’s view, the stylistic manners are connected with the dif-
ferent trends in the Comnenian art which became widespread in the
late 12th and early 13th centuries. The pronounced graphic quality of
all the manners is seen as deriving from the Georgian origin of the
painters, who embodied the stylistic models of the age in less In gen-
eral the existing literature on the Akhtala murals is a confused mo-
saic which contains some valuable isolated observations but does not
give any clear idea of the date, iconographic programme or style of
the paintings. Some hypotheses are fallacious. For example, the wide-
spread opinion about the paintings’ temporal diversification is not
borne out by the facts. There is no evidence to support the view that
all the masters were of Georgian origin. And the proposed dating,
which fluctuates over a span of two centuries, needs a careful revi-
sion. Several compositions in a poor state of preservation have been
wrongly identified.
Many errors were due to the impossibility
of making a careful study of paintings which
were located high on the walls and sometimes
almost totally obscured by the deposits of the
centuries. The situation changed when resto-
ration of the wall paintings began in 1978. The
erection of scaffolding and cleaning of the fres-
coes made it possible to examine the painting
close up and resolve certain disputed points.
The technical study of the Akhtala murals car-
ried out over a period of several years by a spe-
16 Lafontaine-Dosogne J. Monumen-
tal Painting // Art and Architecture
in Medieval Georgia / ed. by Alpago-
Novello A., Beridze V., Lafontaine-
Dosogne J. Louvaine-la-Neuve, 1980,
p.95.
17 Mouriki D. The Formative Role of
Byzantine Art on the Artistic Style of
the Cultural Neighbours of Byzantium
//Jahrbuch der osterreichischen Byzan-
tinistik, 31/2 (1981), s. 741.
18 Thierry N. La Jugement Dernier
dAkhtala // Bedi Kartlisa. Revue de
Kartvelologie,XL (1982), p. 147-168.