This Round Table will bring together scholars who investigate the interactions between Byzantium and Georgia, whether based on written, social, ethnographical, visual or material evidence. It will focus on the centuries between the arrival of Georgian monks on Mount Athos to establish the Iviron Monastery in the 980s and the summoning of the artist Manuel Eugenikos from Constantinople to western Georgia in the 1380s. This span of 400 years saw an enormously diverse range of contacts rooted in the shared Orthodox faith of both states, including the translation of liturgical and philosophical texts, the movement of manuscripts, enamels, textiles and icons, and the travel of monks, artists and nobility; all against a diplomatic background that shifted constantly between alliance, peace, tolerance and war. Our concern is to examine the nature of the exchanges and to develop models to evaluate their impact. It looks to move beyond a simple model of source and influence to examine the multi-directionality of such exchanges, especially how there are expressed in the artworks like those found on the walls of churches, on objects, or in architectural features and illuminated manuscripts. We hope to bring together scholars to establish a more nuanced and negotiated model of exchange than the centre-periphery model that has dominated most earlier scholarship, and which can be applied to networks of relationships between Byzantium and its other neighbours in this period.
This paper explores how the physical presence of royal and ecclesiastical authorities shaped the layout of congregational space in medieval Georgian cathedrals, palace chapels, and royal monasteries. Royal representatives and high clergy occupied privileged positions, usually in the eastern bays near the sanctuary with better visibility and separation. Areas reserved for authority, indicated by niches,…
From the 12th century onwards, with the growing visualization of central components of the liturgy, the image gained relevance within sacred space for its ability to interweave and superimpose different temporal levels. A complex network emerged comprising liturgical texts and commentaries, rites, mural cycles, sacred objects, manuscripts, and architectural structures. These elements were closely interrelated…
This paper will explore the relationship between Georgia and Byzantium in the 13th and 14th centuries. It will do so through the lens of enamel-making and consider the 80+ enamels that were attached to icons belonging to members of the Dadiani family in Guria (western Georgia) in this period. This was the largest collection of…
The beginning of the 11th century marked a profound shift in the history of ecclesiastical painting in Georgia. Paintings adorning entire interior spaces became obligatory. The “classical” system of adornment, which was borrowed from Byzantium, underwent some significant transformations on Georgian soil. The local spesifisities of the iconographic programs of the Georgian churches can already…
This paper examines the Khakhuli Triptych, one of the most significant works of Georgian medieval art, and explores the practice and meaning of repurposing in the medieval world. Commissioned by King Davit Aghmashenebeli (r. 1089–1125), the enormous golden triptych (147 × 202 cm), now housed in the Tbilisi Museum of Fine Arts, embodies the cultural…
Gelati monastery in Georgia, a 12th-century foundation initiated by King Davit IV ‘the Builder (r. 1089–1125) and inaugurated by his heir, King Demetre I (r. 1125–55/6), is heralded by Georgian scholarship across the disciplines as a symbol of unified, dominant state in its ‘Golden Age’, and a major religious, educational and charitable centre of its…