Q’varsha, Murals of the Church

Building:	Q'varsha, Church
Layer of the Murals:	One Layer
Date/Period:	10th c.
Donor(s):	Unknown
Painter(s):	Unknown

Inscription(s)

of the Donor(s)

of the Painter(s)

Description

In the interior whitewashed with lime fragments of painting have survived in the chancel and the north wall.

Chancel

Colored spots can be observed fragmentarily on the chancel walls. Traces of lapis lazuli can be identified on the area around the window, which must indicate presence of ornaments or images in the aperture.

Aisle

Figures of two riding warriors facing each other can be discerned on the western section of the north wall, on the area confined with an arch; one of them has the right hand bent at the elbow which makes it probable that here an image slaying a dragon or Diocletian was depicted. The composition laid out on the central area of the north-west arch is bordered by a simply rendered registre line which could be pointing to presence of another image/composition in the upper part of the north wall.

Bibliography

Devi Berdzenishvili, Irine Elizbarashvili, Nikoloz Vacheishvili, Javakhet’i: istoriul-khurot’modzghvruli gzamkvlevi [Javakheti: Historical-Architectural Guide] [Guide of Georgia: II] (Tbilisi, 2000), 94–5.

Irine Elizbarashvhili, “Q’varshas eklesia” [“Q’varsha Church”], Sak’art’velos sidzveleni [Georgian Antiquities] 17 (2014), 163.