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Tinatin Khoshtaria Wall Paintings of Motsameta Article 2, Inferno Volume IX, 2004

The Wall Painting of the Chapel-martyrium Motsameta in theRockcut Monastery Complex of Udabno a!id"are#i$

Dr Tinatin Khoshtaria

eorgian monument painting spans more than fifteen centuries. Atdifferent stages of its development throughout the centuries various artschools have emerged in different Georgian regions. Despite the fact

that all of these schools had much in common, each bore its own individualstamp. One such school was set up in Kakheti, in the eastern province ofGeorgia. The David-Garei Desert served as a centre for this school. Adistinctive feature of this school was compositional simplicit! and bright colors."ere severe asceticism was blended with humanism#. $cons of national saintslike %t. David, as well as the miraculous "ol! deeds accomplished b! this%aint, dominate David&Garei painting.

The monaster! comple' of Garei is situated in a desert area, ()&*)kilometres east from Tbilisi, along the mountain ridges of the rock s!stem,which divides the basins of the rivers +tkvari and ori. The first monaster! ofGarei was established in the si'th centur! b! %t. David, one of the so&calledThirteen %!rian athers/, founders of monastic life in eastern Georgia. The+onasteries of Garei had a large religious, cultural and educational value inthe life of medieval Georgia. %mall vaulted and domed churches were cutinto the rock in the Garei monasteries in the ninth to tenth centuries. These0hurches were adorned with murals. The numerous frescoes at Garei arecharacteri1ed b! their originalit! and depict episodes from the hagiograph!

of Orthodo'&0hristian Georgia.Among the numerous churches of the monasteries of Garei, there is

situated at the top of a mountain in west of the mine comple', the littlechurch of the ort! +art!rs, or +otsameta. The paintings of this chapel-mart!rium, +otsameta, have special significance in the stud! of the Gareianpainting school. $n the Garei desert there were other mart!riums, in%abereebi, 2ertubani and Tsamebuli for e'ample, but paintings are rarel!found in these edifices. +art!riums were painted more commonl! in2!1antium than in Georgia. Thus the church of +otsameta is a rare e'ampleof a Georgian painted mart!rium. $ts further stud!, particularl! with the aim ofestablishing parallels with similar medieval 3uropean monuments, is ver!important.

The %istoriography of the Monument

$nformation e'ists about the church of the ort! +art!rs from the #*4)s. TheKathalicos-patriarch of Kakheti, Anton the #st52agrationi6, wrote in his work,The Book of Martirika2, about the si' thousand Georgian mart!rs who weree'ecuted b! %hakh-Abas on 3aster night, #(#7. According to Anton8sinformation, the monks were laid to rest in the 93aster church8, and afterwardstheir bones were buried in the mart!rium +otsameta, which was built b! King

Ale'ander the :rd

5#*th

c.6 of Kakheti. The bones were placed in asatsnakheli;a crusher for grapes


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The =ussian pilgrim Andre! +uraviov described the church during histravel in Garei. "is book, Georgia and Armenia, was published in #4>4 and init he talked about the 0hurch of the ort! +art!rs.: According to hisinformation, the bones of the monks were laid there b! King Archil 5#((#-#(*76,who built the small church into the cave. %o we have two different opinions?

was the mart!rium built b! King Archil or King Ale'ander :rd@ The art historianGeorge 0hubinashvilisupposed that it was King Archil, who was responsiblefor much reconstruction work in the monasteries of David-Garei, and datesthis building to the #(*)s.> The cave, however, with its alter table andsatsnakheliwere there much earlier. There is also a reference to the ort!Gareian +art!rs in the collection of Georgian religious writings b! thenineteenth centur! monk +ikhail %abinin.7

Dimitr! Gordeev described the monument in an unpublishedmanuscript of #B)-#B#.("e compared the mural paintings of +otsameta toother Georgian monuments such as those at Timotesubani, Kintsvisi, 0hule

and %afara, and accordingl! dated them to between the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries. Gordeev considered the Ascension depicted on aceiling and tried to distinguish whether it was of 0hrist or the 0ross. The muralof the ceiling painting was difficult to distinguish, due to damage$ On thebasis of the general tendenc! in Garei of ceilings commonl! depicting theAscension of the 0ross, he decided that it is a 0ross in +otsameta also. Thisopinion is also held b! 0hubinashvilis. 0hubinashvili published his book The Rock-cut Monasteries of Gareji in#>4.* The book is the basic scientific work for an!one interested in the histor!of Garei to this da!. On the basis of a pilgrim inscription of the si'teenth ofcentur! he named the church The 0hurch of the ort! %ebastian +art!rs/. "ealso uses the names +otsameta and +art!rium. "e connected the paintingsof this church to those of the main church of the eleventh centur! Gareicomple' and attributes them to the hand of a single artist. According to thisreasoning, the mart!rium was created no later than the eleventh centur!. Thesatsnakheli, stone bo' for the bones of the mart!rs, means that before thepainting of the north wall, the painting compositions e'isted. The location ofthesatsnakheliindicates that the north wall was painted after the stone bo'was cut out there.

Guram Abramishvili in his book, The Ccle of Da!id-Garejeli in GeorgianMural "ainting, studied and described the frescoes of +otsameta.4 "e

considered that there are, in fact, two la!ers of paintings, eleventh andthirteenth centur!. $n his opinion the western wall probabl! belongs to theeleventh centur!, whilst the north wall and ceiling belong to the thirteenthcentur!. %halva Amiranashvili dates the mural paintings of +otsameta to theeleventh centur!. +! opinion about the date of the mural painting of+otsameta is different. $t is likel! that the cave was made in the eleventhcentur!, here $ am in agreement with 0hubinashvili and Abramishvili, and themural paintings were created b! #B>). The reasons for this identification will beoutlined below.

%istorical Re!ie& of the Monument

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The +art!rium stands on the site where %t. David used to pra!, and where heworked numerous miracles. $t is not surprising therefore that the walls of thisrock-cut mart!rium carr! representations of the miracles of %t. David. Thechurch consists of two parts. The first is the cave, which is decorated withmural paintings. $n this part, at the northern wall is a rectangular stone basin

for bones. The second part is the building, e'ecuted in stone and brick, whichwas constructed b! Archil, King of Kakheti. $t is the opinion of 0hubinashvilithat the cave section was made no later than the eleventh centur!, so thepaintings on the walls are dated to this time. $n a later period the cave tookthe function of a sanctuar! and was separated from the e'tension b! achapel-barrier. The cave has a roughl! rectangular form, with the dimensions:.#>m ' :. :7m. At the east wall was situated the table and an altar table.Due to atmospheric influence and the action of enemies the mural paint isbadl! damaged. "owever, close e'amination does reveal the followingcompositions, which are without framing, and function as a continuous

pictorial work. On the basis of anal!sis of the painting, it is possible todistinguish two distinct manners of e'ecution. The first is more academic, whilstthe second is less so. The Ascension of the 0ross, on the ceiling, is e'ecutedwith more artistic plasticit! than the painting on the northern and westernwalls, which e'hibit rough proportions, flatness and a sharpness of silhouetteand lines. $n m! opinion there were two different artists. The Ascension of the0ross-on the ceiling was painted b! the first artist, and all the rest b! thesecond artist.

escription and 'nalysis of the Mural Paintings

On east wall, above the altar table,are representations of the "ol! 2rothers.On the left is %t. Gregor! the Theologian and %t. 2asil the Great, on the right is%t. Cohn 0hrisosthomus. The north wall shows the mart!rdom of the sacredfathers at the hands of the militar!, who beat the sacred fathers withhammers.

On the western wall the events of %t. David8s life, including his meetingwith the feudal lord 2ubakar, are depicted. This stor! was recorded b! a writerof the tenth centur! in the life of %t. David.#)The legend depicted is that of theoccasion when the retinue of =ustavi 2ubakar were hunting a hawk, whichtook refuge with %t David. The feudal lord went up to %t David and asked who

he was, and what he was doing there. %t David answered, that he was theslave of God, and asked "im to renounce his sins$The feudal lord ordered himto return the bird, and when he was refused he took out a sword intending tostrike %t David, but his hand was withered. 2ubakar understood his mistake,and repented, then David pra!ed for him and God cured his hand. Thus thepagan 2ubakar was converted to 0hristianit!. $n the second half of theeleventh centur! the monasteries of Garei were hit hard as the result of theTurkish campaigns. The pagan 2ubakar is depicted in the dress of a %eluTurk, who had recentl! devastated Garei.##On the western wall there are twosingle compositions represented these miracles. The first is the Ossification of

2ubakar8s hand and the second is the 0onversion 2ubakar to 0hristianit!.


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$n the middle of the ceiling is the Ascension of the 0ross and in thecorners there are Angels and busts of the four evangelists in medallions. TheAscension and the Glorification were ver! popular subects in feudal Georgia.This is traditional throughout the 3astern 0hristian world, and can be found inchurches in man! areas, such as 3g!pt, %!ria and Ealestine. The Ascension

was a dominant theme in Georgia in the si'th-eighth centuries. $t remainedpopular in the monumental painting of the late middle ages.#B Analogouscompositions in round frames, can be found in the paintings of variouschurches including in the diaconicon of the +ain church of the monaster!comple' of Fdabno, David-Garei, of the thirteenth centur!.The wall paintingsare badl! damaged and faded and are therefore difficult to anal!se."owever it is possible to note the graceful combination of colours. These arepredominantl! green, !ellow and brown colours. The cross-rh!thmicdistribution of colours is an interesting arrangement. This use of colour in thechapel&mart!rium is similar to the murals of the main eleventh centur! church

in Fdabno. This colour scale characteri1es the monaster! of Gareian %chool,which repeats the colours seen in the landscape of the Gareian desert.The beginning of the thirteenth centur! was marked b! profound

transformations in Georgian monument painting. The severe, classical,tectonic st!le of the eleventh centur! was replaced b! the antitectonicd!namic st!le that characterised the thirteenth centur!. An increase indecorativeness was also clearl! discernable. Kintsvisi, 2ertubani andTimotesubani are the ke! monuments belonging to this period. Despite thehigh mastership of the thirteenth centur!, the forms are less plastic and theproportions infringed. 3'amples can be found in the enobani church of the%aviour, the Kisoreti church of %t. George and the south-west chapel of theGelati church of %t. George. The +otsameta painting is in accordance withthis st!le and can therefore be considered to have been e'ecuted in thethirteenth centur!.

The (conographic Program of the Murals

The program of the murals of the chapel differs strongl! from the programs ofthe other churches. Generall! cave churches were decorated with reducededitions of the iconograph! of dome churches. $n +otsameta, instead of theusual 0hristian-historical legends, events from the life of %t. David were

depicted. This choice of %t. David and the miracles accomplished b! him isdue to the location on the actual site of these events. The paintings of+otsameta thus deviate from traditional iconograph!. The! have aneschatological message, and with a small number of images conve! asignificant idea. The composition of the paintings are defined b! the idea ofsalvation during the Hast Cudgement. The selection of images in the mart!riumis consistentl! determined b! this function. $n its pursuit of this goal it ignores orinfringes on the historical seuence of events. $n the mart!rium of 2ertubani ofthe twelfth to thirteenth centuries, in another +onaster! in the Gareia Desert,are depicted compositions which carr! the same s!mbolical character and

programme, reflecting the idea of salvation during the Hast Cudgement.

#:

Thecompositions of 2ertubani and +otsameta are different, but the selection of

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their iconograph! program is similar, which is important. As we have alread!noted, around the altar on the east wall of +otsameta are the figures of the"ol! 2ishops, the pillars of the 0hristian faith. The mart!rdom of the monks isrepresented on the northern wall. On the ceiling of the church is depicted theAscension of the 0ross and on the western wall there are %t David8s miracles.

$n mart!riums, both in Georgia and in 2!1antium, the "ol! athers and mart!rsare freuentl! represented. This is because the! have a sufficient grace torescue souls and can aid entr! into Earadise without facing the HastCudgement. The! carr! double worth, both earthl! greatness and "eavenl!virtue. Their representation is intended to aid in the rescue of souls. $t has notbeen possible to find direct iconographic parallels to other Georgianmonuments of the +iddle Ages, but the selection of compositions and thefree choice of the composite programs, which is so unusual in Georgianmart!riums, all conve! the idea of the Hast Cudgment and the hope ofsalvation. The +otsameta mural painting of the miracles of %t. David makes it

uniue. Fsuall! mart!riums contain c!cles of +art!rdoms, not the life of %aints.The unusual content of the +otsameta chapel is due to its location on the sitewhere %t. David used to pra!.

inal mention should be made of 0hubinashvili8s opinion, that themart!rdom depicted is that of the ort! %ebastien mart!rs. The ort! %ebastienmart!rs are usuall! depicted either on the fro1en lake or in the cold water.Iear the lake there is commonl! the hot bath house, with the less devotedmart!rs running into its entrance, whilst, on the other hand, one soldier umpsinto the water and oins the mart!rs.#>There is a completel! different scene inthe chapel of +otsameta. There is no lake, no bath, the mart!rs are dressedas the clerg!men and the method of e'ecution depicted is different.Therefore it is likel! that the mart!rs depicted on the wall are Gareien monks,not %ebastiens. The mural painting describing the life of %t. David, which isrepresented in the mart!rium of +otsameta, is ver! important for the stud! ofGeorgian painting. Frgent stud! of mart!riums is reuired and the results ofsuch research will allow the monument to take an appropriate place in thegenesis of painting of this t!pe.

A0KIOJH3DG3+3IT%The research presented in this paper was supported b! grant $ITA% ellowship

% )#-#4.

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1Virsaladze T., Osnobnye etapy razvitia Gruzinskoi srednevekovoi monumentalnoi jivopisi[The Main Stages ofDevelopment of the Georgian Medieval Monumental Painting], G. Chubinashvili Institute of the Georgian Art, GeorgiaAcademy of Sciences. The 2ndInternational Symposium, Tiblisi 1977, 10-11 (in Russian).2Anton pirveli (Bagrationi) Dzveli hagiografiuli literaturuli dzeglebi [Old hagiography literature monuments], VI, 189-208; V. 246, Tiblisi 1880 (in Georgian).3Myravyov, A., [Georgia and Armenia], 55-116. St.Petersburg, 1848 (in Russian).4G. Chubinshavili, - [The Rock-cut Monuments of Gareji], Tibilisi 1948, 93-94(in Russian).5

M. Sabinin, Sakartvelos samotkhe [Georgian Paradise] in Georgian hagiography selected works Sakartvelossamotkhe,St Petersberg, 1882, 568-579 (in Georgian).6D. Gordeev, Handwritten documents from 1820-1921 concerning Mravalmta of Gareji in the archives of the GarejianMuseum of Art. Page 260. (in Russian).7Chubinshavili, - , 958G. Abramishvili, Davit Garejelis cikli qartul kedlis mkhatvrobashi[The cycle of David Garejeli in Georgian Muralpaintings], Tbilisi 1972, 101-108 (in Georgian).9Sh. Amiranashvili, The History of Georgian Monumental Painting, Tiblisi 1957, 50 (in Russian).10I. Abuladze,Asurel mogvatseta tskhovrebis tsignta dzveli redaqciebi. Ckhovrebai da moqalaqeobai tsmindisa mamisachvenisa Davit Garejelisa[Ancient Record of activity of the Syrian Hermits in Georgia: Life and activity of St. David fromGareji], Tbilisi 1955, 144-187 (in Georgian).11N. Chopikashvili,Qartuli kostumebi(6th14th s.) [Georgian Costume: 6th-14thcenturies], Tbilisi, 1964. (in Georgian)12N. Aladashvili, Monumental Georgian Sculpture: Fifth to Eleventh century: Bas- reliefs, Moscow, 1977 (in Russian).13Chubinshavili, - , 5714O. Demus, Two Palaeologan Mosaic Icons in the Dumbarton oaks collection, Dop 14, Washington 1960 and P.Mijovi , Fathers of Sinai and Raithu 40 Martyrs of Sebaste, Belgrade 1972.

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