DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43337#0381
378 | THE WALL PAINTINGS OF AKHTALA MONASTERY
sentation of the Virgin in the Temple» is located on the adjoining eastern
slope of the vault but today only the silhouettes of Joachim with the young
Mary standing before him have been preserved. This comparatively rare
cycle is evidently here because of the church’s dedication to the Virgin65.
The interpretation of the «Nativity of the Virgin» is itself entirely
traditional but one of the most detailed variants has been chosen66.
From the right three women approach Anne who is reclining on
a white couch. They bear gifts in strict accordance with the Byzantine
imperial ritual for greeting a new mother. A servant with a fan stands
behind St Anne’s back and in the left corner behind the Virgin’s mother
is shown a cradle and a serving woman who holds out hands covered
in a white cloth to St Anne. In the lower right hand part of the com-
position a bathing scene that goes back to classical models is shown:
one woman holds the swaddled Mary on her knee and lowers her hand
into the font while another pours in water from a jug. The small figures
in these scenes serve as a border for the large figure of St Anne on the
couch. The narrative elements do not constitute separate subjects but
refine and add to the main symbolic idea of the composition which
was to recall the Virgin’s miraculous birth.
Only the central of the three scenes, which accompany the «Nativ-
ity of the Virgin»67 like the marginal scenes on a hagiographical icon,
has been well preserved. Its theme, the «Rejection of the Offerings»,
goes back to the first words of the Proto-Gospel of James and this,
as a rule, was the composition with which the Virgin cycle began68.
Sh.Ya. Amiranashvili has identified the first and third scenes, respec-
tively, as «Joachim and Anne caressing Mary» and the «Presentation in
the Temple»69. This is not correct, however.
In the first scene we can clearly see Joachim sitting with a book open
on a stand in front of him; beside him stands St Anne. These features
65 The Monophysite church of the 12th century was already dedicated to the Mother of God. The
dedication remained after the monastery was taken over by the Chalcedonians and the church
rebuilt. This is clearly indicated by the colophon of Symeon Plindzahanketsi (1227) and the
inscription of 1247 at the Matesovank Monastery, which mentions «The Virgin of Plindzahank».
However, medieval sources do not give any specific indications of the feast of the Mother of
God. In the 19th and 20th centuries, feasts were held on 15 August (Dormition) and 8 September
(Nativity of the Virgin).
66The composition is badly damaged, but its concept can be fully reconstructed.The iconographic
type and the source of the principal motifs are studied in Babic G. Sur I’iconographie de la
composition «Nativite de la Vierge» dans la peinture byzantine//36opHi4K радова Византолош-
ког института, 7 (1961), рр. 169-175.
sentation of the Virgin in the Temple» is located on the adjoining eastern
slope of the vault but today only the silhouettes of Joachim with the young
Mary standing before him have been preserved. This comparatively rare
cycle is evidently here because of the church’s dedication to the Virgin65.
The interpretation of the «Nativity of the Virgin» is itself entirely
traditional but one of the most detailed variants has been chosen66.
From the right three women approach Anne who is reclining on
a white couch. They bear gifts in strict accordance with the Byzantine
imperial ritual for greeting a new mother. A servant with a fan stands
behind St Anne’s back and in the left corner behind the Virgin’s mother
is shown a cradle and a serving woman who holds out hands covered
in a white cloth to St Anne. In the lower right hand part of the com-
position a bathing scene that goes back to classical models is shown:
one woman holds the swaddled Mary on her knee and lowers her hand
into the font while another pours in water from a jug. The small figures
in these scenes serve as a border for the large figure of St Anne on the
couch. The narrative elements do not constitute separate subjects but
refine and add to the main symbolic idea of the composition which
was to recall the Virgin’s miraculous birth.
Only the central of the three scenes, which accompany the «Nativ-
ity of the Virgin»67 like the marginal scenes on a hagiographical icon,
has been well preserved. Its theme, the «Rejection of the Offerings»,
goes back to the first words of the Proto-Gospel of James and this,
as a rule, was the composition with which the Virgin cycle began68.
Sh.Ya. Amiranashvili has identified the first and third scenes, respec-
tively, as «Joachim and Anne caressing Mary» and the «Presentation in
the Temple»69. This is not correct, however.
In the first scene we can clearly see Joachim sitting with a book open
on a stand in front of him; beside him stands St Anne. These features
65 The Monophysite church of the 12th century was already dedicated to the Mother of God. The
dedication remained after the monastery was taken over by the Chalcedonians and the church
rebuilt. This is clearly indicated by the colophon of Symeon Plindzahanketsi (1227) and the
inscription of 1247 at the Matesovank Monastery, which mentions «The Virgin of Plindzahank».
However, medieval sources do not give any specific indications of the feast of the Mother of
God. In the 19th and 20th centuries, feasts were held on 15 August (Dormition) and 8 September
(Nativity of the Virgin).
66The composition is badly damaged, but its concept can be fully reconstructed.The iconographic
type and the source of the principal motifs are studied in Babic G. Sur I’iconographie de la
composition «Nativite de la Vierge» dans la peinture byzantine//36opHi4K радова Византолош-
ког института, 7 (1961), рр. 169-175.