Kataula, Murals of the Church of St. George
| Building: | Kataula Church of St. George |
| Layer of the Murals: | One Layer |
| Date/Period: | The end of 10th century |
| Donor(s): | Unknown |
| Painter(s): | Unknown |
 |
 |
Inscription(s)
of the Donor(s)
of the Painter(s)
Description
Currently, fragments of the painting in the interior of the church can be observed in the chancel. Only the chancel apse must have been painted in the interior of the middle nave of the three-church basilica.
Chancel
In the chancel the painting is composed of two registres.
Christ in Majesty was represented in the conch – the Savior seated on a richly decorated throne with a pedestal is depicted in a circular mandorla surrounded by an ornamented border.
The second registre of the painting is separated from the conch representation with an ornamented border of the Savior’s mandorla (the ornamental frieze contains stylized floral and geometrical patterns). The registre is divided into two parts by the chancel window (its lintels are filled with floral ornaments) which is additionally framed with a folded ornament.
Left of the window is an image of the Virgin in supplication (Ⴃ(ႤႣ)Ⴀ Ⴖ(ႫႰႧႨႱႠ)Ⴢ – Mother of God). Right of the window a damaged representation of St. John the Baptist in the posture of supplication can be discerned.
Next to the figures of the Virgin and St. John the Forerunner, on the edges of the apse, a figure of a glorifying angel dressed in a loros (the figure represented on the north wall of the apse is better identifiable).
The whole composition of the chancel is surrounded and bordered by a wide frieze of a folded ornament.
Bibliography
Ekaterina Privalova, Rospis’ Timotesubani [Timot’esubani Murals] (Tbilisi, 1980), 160 (note 33).
Mzia Mgaloblishvili, “Kataulas ts’. giorgis eklesia” [“Kataula Church of St. George”], in Sak’art’velos istoriisa da kulturis dzeglt’a aghts’eriloba [The Survey of the Historical and Cultural Monuments of Georgia] 5 (Tbilisi,1990), 168.
Zaza Skhirtladze, Otkht’a eklesiis p’reskebi [The Frescoes of Ot’kht’a Eklesia] (Tbilisi, 2009), 111–2, ill. 110.