Mtskheta, Murals of the Major Church of the Holy Cross

Building:	Mtskheta, Major Church of the Holy Cross
Layer of the Murals:	First Layer
Date/Period:	The beginning of 7th century
Donor(s):	Unknown
Painter(s):	Unknown

Inscription(s)

of the Donor(s)

of the Painter(s)

Description

No trace of the original painting has been preserved in the chancel of the church of the Holy Cross. Nevertheless, it is recognized that the chancel conch was initially decorated with mosaic which was gradually destroyed in the church which was damaged and whose dome collapsed during the Arab invasion. The example of the minor church of the Holy Cross is cited as an evidence of mosaic decoration in the chancel of the church, where yet at the beginning of the 20th century, there had survived traces of mosaic on the triumphal arch of the chancel.

Bibliography

Giorgi Chubinashvili, k’art’ui khelovnebis istoria [History of Georgian Art] I (Tbilisi, 1936), 96–7.

Giorgi Chubinashvili, Pamjatniki tipa Dzhvari [Monuments of the Jvari Type] (Tbilisi, 1948), 12.

Tat’jana Shevjakova, Monumental’naja zhivopis’ rannego srednevekov’ja Gruzii [Monumental Painting of the Early Medieval Georgia] (Tbilisi, 1983), pl. 120.

Nugzar Andghuladze, “Mtskhet’is jvari” [“Jvari of Mtskhet’a”], in Sak’art’velos istoriisa da kulturis dzeglt’a aghts’eriloba [The Survey of the Historical and Cultural Monuments of Georgia] 5 (Tbilisi,1990), 249–50.

Zaza Skhirtladze, “Early Medieval Georgian Monumental Painting: Establishment of the System of Church Decoration”, Oriens Christianus 81 (1997): 169–70.