DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43337#0387
384 I THE WALL PAINTINGS OF AKHTALA MONASTERY
northern lunette. The likeness in their iconographic treatment empha-
sised the symbolic kinship of the two scenes: the «Nativity of Christ»
would have been impossible without the «Nativity of the Virgin» but
the latter only acquired a deeper significance with the second birth.
The central importance of the «Nativity of Christ» for the icono-
graphic programme is stressed by its location and dimensions. Yet the
«Virgin on the couch» is the chief image within that composition and
is rightly seen as one of the most important in this church dedicated
to the Mother of God. Of great interest here is the gesture made by
the Virgins hands. She presses her left hand with its drooping wrist
to her face while pointing with her right to the infant Christ. This
was very familiar in Byzantine art and was repeatedly to be found in
depictions of the Virgin beside the Crucifixion where it was an ex-
pression of boundless sorrow. A bust of the Mother of God with hands
in this grief-stricken posture, moreover, became a separate subject in
the 13th-century Byzantine icons. Together with a bust of the crucified
Christ it formed a special diptych, the liturgical significance of which
was shown by H. Belting81. In the Akhtala composition of the «Nativi-
ty» the Virgin lays next to the newborn Christ and, at the same time, is
present at the Crucifixion. This fresco recalls both the beginning and
the end of Christs earthly life. The Incarnation and the Redemption
are here shown as a single image and an indivisible whole.
This latter formed an important theme in the Byzantine theology
and iconography of the 11- 12th century. It was then that the icono-
graphic types such as the «Virgin Glycophilousa» would become wide-
spread and that the «Lamentation» as a separate composition would
take shape82. In the new depictions of this idea, the Incarnation and
the Redemption were frequently so interwoven as to be quite insepara-
ble. This not only recalled the specific events of the salvation of man-
kind but also created the image of a liturgical act: each element here
has the fullness and completion of the whole, and remembrance of the
birth of Christ inevitably recalls thoughts of his death.
The theme of the unity of the Incarnation and the Redemption ac-
quired particular importance from the latter half of the 12th century
onwards. The Constantinople synod of 1156-7, as the first such coun-
cil especially devoted to liturgical issues83, did much to determine
the importance of this theme and played an exceptional role in the
history of Byzantine theology. One of the four main dogmatic de-
northern lunette. The likeness in their iconographic treatment empha-
sised the symbolic kinship of the two scenes: the «Nativity of Christ»
would have been impossible without the «Nativity of the Virgin» but
the latter only acquired a deeper significance with the second birth.
The central importance of the «Nativity of Christ» for the icono-
graphic programme is stressed by its location and dimensions. Yet the
«Virgin on the couch» is the chief image within that composition and
is rightly seen as one of the most important in this church dedicated
to the Mother of God. Of great interest here is the gesture made by
the Virgins hands. She presses her left hand with its drooping wrist
to her face while pointing with her right to the infant Christ. This
was very familiar in Byzantine art and was repeatedly to be found in
depictions of the Virgin beside the Crucifixion where it was an ex-
pression of boundless sorrow. A bust of the Mother of God with hands
in this grief-stricken posture, moreover, became a separate subject in
the 13th-century Byzantine icons. Together with a bust of the crucified
Christ it formed a special diptych, the liturgical significance of which
was shown by H. Belting81. In the Akhtala composition of the «Nativi-
ty» the Virgin lays next to the newborn Christ and, at the same time, is
present at the Crucifixion. This fresco recalls both the beginning and
the end of Christs earthly life. The Incarnation and the Redemption
are here shown as a single image and an indivisible whole.
This latter formed an important theme in the Byzantine theology
and iconography of the 11- 12th century. It was then that the icono-
graphic types such as the «Virgin Glycophilousa» would become wide-
spread and that the «Lamentation» as a separate composition would
take shape82. In the new depictions of this idea, the Incarnation and
the Redemption were frequently so interwoven as to be quite insepara-
ble. This not only recalled the specific events of the salvation of man-
kind but also created the image of a liturgical act: each element here
has the fullness and completion of the whole, and remembrance of the
birth of Christ inevitably recalls thoughts of his death.
The theme of the unity of the Incarnation and the Redemption ac-
quired particular importance from the latter half of the 12th century
onwards. The Constantinople synod of 1156-7, as the first such coun-
cil especially devoted to liturgical issues83, did much to determine
the importance of this theme and played an exceptional role in the
history of Byzantine theology. One of the four main dogmatic de-