CONCLUSION

A comprehensive study of the Akhtala murals has enabled
us to gain a clear conception of the history of the church,
the contents and original features of the iconographic pro-
gramme, and of the various painters who worked there with
their different stylistic manners. Research on these questions
also provided a range of other quite specific evidence that
enriches our understanding of the culture of the Armenian
Chalcedonians, of Byzantine and Georgian iconographic
programmes and the stylistic trends in Eastern Christian art
in the early 13th century.
In the first chapter historical evidence, epigraphic monuments
and colophons were used to reconstruct the history of Akhtala,
a monastery transferred from the Monophysites to the Chalce-
donians at the turn of the 13th century. In so doing the cultural
environment in which the murals arose was more clearly eluci-
dated. Particular attention was paid to the colophons of Syme-
on Plindzahanketsi: these writings by a monk of Akhtala from
the first half of 13th century revealed the worldview of the Ar-
menian-Chalcedonians. For the first time a portrait was drawn
of Ivane Mkhargrdzeli, the patron of the paintings, whose own
historical destiny did much to determine the distinctive features
of the frescoes. Finally, the juxtaposition of direct and indirect
evidence proved that the paintings were executed between 1205
and 1216. This precise dating provides a firm point of departure
for the study of other artistic phenomena of the period.