{"id":1239,"date":"2020-12-04T08:49:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T08:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arthistory.tsu.ge\/murals\/?post_type=painting&p=1239"},"modified":"2021-11-22T18:24:59","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T18:24:59","slug":"gareji-white-desert-murals-of-church","status":"publish","type":"painting","link":"https:\/\/arthistory.tsu.ge\/murals\/painting\/gareji-white-desert-murals-of-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Gareja, Murals of Tetri Udabno Church"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Building:<\/strong><\/td>\nGareja, Tetri Udabno, Church<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Layer of the Murals:<\/strong><\/td>\nOne Layer<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Date\/Period:<\/strong><\/td>\n7th-8th cc.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Donor(s):<\/strong><\/td>\nUnknown<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Painter(s):<\/strong><\/td>\nUnknown<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Building\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"Gallery\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n
[toc]<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Inscription(s)<\/h4>\n

of the Donor(s)<\/h6>\n
of the Painter(s)<\/h6>\n\n
\n

Description<\/h4>\n

Only the apse of the chancel has survived from the church. Therefore, it is unclear whether it was completely painted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chancel<\/h6>\n

A big-size radiant cross inscribed in an oval mandorla is depicted in the conch. The upper part of the mandorla is intersected and the lower edge is likely to have had the same outline (presently erased). The upper arm of the cross has a plate with a two-line asomtvaruli<\/em> inscription (\u10b5 <\/strong>\u10a8<\/strong>(\u10a4\u10b1)<\/strong>\u10c1 <\/strong>\u10ac\u10a0\u10a6\u10a0\u10b0\u10a4\u10a5\u10a4\u10aa|\u10a8 \u10ab\u10a4\u10c3\u10b4[\u10a4] \u10c0\u10ad\u10c3|\u10b0\u10a8\u10a0\u10a7\u10a0\u10c2 <\/strong>\u2013<\/strong> Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews<\/strong>). Four garnet-colored beams are sent from the intersection of the arms.<\/p>\n

The upper part of the mandorla is represented against the starry sky.<\/p>\n

A fruit-bearing palm-tree with extended branches depicted against the ground was represented on both sides of the lower part of the mandorla.<\/p>\n

A three-figure composition of the Presentation<\/em> is depicted in the center of the apse below the conch. St. Simeon the Righteous (\u10bc<\/strong>(\u10ab\u10a8\u10a3\u10a0)<\/strong>\u10c2<\/strong> | \u10b1<\/strong>(<\/strong>\u10a8<\/strong>)<\/strong>\u10ab<\/strong>(<\/strong>\u10ad<\/strong>)<\/strong>\u10ac<\/strong> \u2013<\/strong> Saint Simeon<\/strong>) holding Baby Jesus (\u10a8<\/strong>(\u10a4\u10b1)<\/strong>\u10c1 \u10b5<\/strong>(\u10b0\u10a8\u10b1\u10b2)<\/strong>\u10a4<\/strong> \u2013<\/strong> Jesus Christ)<\/strong> is represented on the left. The right half of the composition shows the figure of the Virgin (\u10bc<\/strong>(\u10ab\u10a8\u10a3\u10a0)<\/strong>\u10c2<\/strong> | \u10ab<\/strong>(<\/strong>\u10a0<\/strong>)<\/strong>|\u10b0<\/strong>(<\/strong>\u10a8 \u10a0<\/strong>)<\/strong>|\u10ab <\/strong>\u2013<\/strong> Saint Mary<\/strong>) with the right hand raised in front of Her chest.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dating<\/h6>\n

There are two opinions about creating the painting. According to one, the chancel frescos must have been painted at an early stage of the history of Gareja monasteries, supposedly, in the seventh-eighth centuries (Zaza Skhirtladze, \u201cNewly Discovered Early Paintings in the Gareja Desert\u201d, in Antony Eastmond ed., Eastern Approaches to Byzantium. Papers from the Thirty-Third Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry, March 1999<\/em> [Publications of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies 9] (Aldershot, 2001), 150-5). It is supported by reference of iconographic (archaism of the conch composition) and contentual peculiarities of the painting to local, as well as Christian eastern and western traditions, as well as stylistic features of the painting and paleography of the fresco inscriptions. According to another opinion, the painting was executed in the ninth-tenth centuries. This dating is based on the architectural features of the church, paleographic data of the incised inscriptions, presumable time of establishing of the original literary source of the scheme of chancel murals in Georgia, as well as on individual iconographic characteristics Marine Bulia, \u201cT\u2019et\u2019ri udabnos mokhatuloba da adreuli k\u2019art\u2019uli mkhatvrobis zogiert\u2019I sakit\u2019khi\u201d [\u201cT\u2019et\u2019ri Udabno Murals and Some Aspects of the Early Medieval Georgian Mural Painting\u201d] <\/em>Sak\u2019art\u2019velos Sidzveleni [Georgian Antiquities]<\/em> 15 (2012):<\/em> 48-74).<\/p>\n

Regarding iconographic, contentual and stylistic features, paleography of fresco inscriptions and general context, it is presumable that the painting of the chancel of the church of Tetri Udabno belongs to the seventh-eighth centuries. The wall-painting of the church is one of the early examples of forming painting traditions typical of the monastic environment of Gareja monasteries.<\/p>\n\n

\n

Bibliography<\/h4>\n

Zaza Skhirtladze, \u201cT\u2019et\u2019ri udabnos eklesiis mokhatuloba\u201d [\u201cMurals of the Church of T\u2019et\u2019ri Udabno\u201d], k\u2019art\u2019uli khelovnebis istoriis institutis XXXII sametsniero sesia, mokhesenbat\u2019a t\u2019ezisebi [23rd<\/sup> Session of the Institute of Georgian Art History. Abstracts] <\/em>(Tbilisi, 1997), 22\u20133.<\/p>\n

Zaza Skhirtladze, \u201cNewly Discovered Early Paintings in the Gareja Desert\u201d, in Antony Eastmond ed., Eastern Approaches to Byzantium, <\/em>Papers from the Thirty-Third Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies [Publications of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies: 9]<\/em> (Aldershot, 2001), 150\u20135.<\/p>\n

Zaza Skhirtladze, Adreuli shua saukuneebis kart\u2019uli kedlis mkhatvroba. T\u2019elovanis jvarpatiosani [Early Medieval Georgian Monumental Painting. Telovani Church of the Holy Cross]<\/em> (Tbilisi, 2008), 114\u201319.<\/p>\n

Marine Bulia, \u201cT\u2019et\u2019ri udabnos mokhatuloba da adreuli k\u2019art\u2019uli mkhatvrobis zogiert\u2019I sakit\u2019khi\u201d [\u201cT\u2019et\u2019ri Udabno Murals and Some Aspects of the Early Medieval Georgian Mural Painting\u201d] <\/em>Sak\u2019art\u2019velos Siidzveleni [Georgian Antiquities]<\/em> 15 (2012): 48<\/em>\u201374.<\/p>\n

Nino Chikhladze, Dzveli sak\u2019art\u2019velos monumenturi p\u2019erts\u2019era da misi moamageni [Old Georgian Monumental Painting and its Guardians]<\/em> (Tbilisi, 2017), 49, il. 10.<\/p>\n

Lado Mirianashvili, \u201cTheological Content of a Mural in a Church of the Tetri Udabno Monastery of Gareji\u201d, in David Gareji \u2013 Multidisciplinary Study and Development Strategy, Proceedings of International Conference<\/em> (Tbilisi, 2020).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3425,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":[],"layer":[298],"period":[442,444],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthistory.tsu.ge\/murals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/painting\/1239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthistory.tsu.ge\/murals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/painting"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthistory.tsu.ge\/murals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/painting"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthistory.tsu.ge\/murals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthistory.tsu.ge\/murals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthistory.tsu.ge\/murals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"layer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthistory.tsu.ge\/murals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/layer?post=1239"},{"taxonomy":"period","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthistory.tsu.ge\/murals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/period?post=1239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}