Abstracts - International Initiative for Georgian Cultural Studies

RESTORATION/CONSERVATION
Nicholas, Kintsvisi, the Church of the Mother of God, Timotesubani and the Church of the Virgin, Martvili
– over the period 1996-2008.
The projects have involved both Georgian and foreign experts from a variety of disciplines.
Designing the treatments has involved following a series of general methodological issues applicable to
conservation treatments in general, as well as a series of questions tied more particularly to Georgian works
and to these projects in particular.
For example budgetary constraints meant that treatments had to be highly prioritised to identify the
most necessary treatments, though this was very much in accordance with a principal of minimal intervention
favoured by all members of the teams.
Problems of physical and chemical compatibility were also to the fore: for example, the fact that most of
the paintings considered in the projects were not executed in buon fresco but rather using secco techniques
meant that the use of aggressive cleaning agents was out of the question.
Materials also had to be selected for their long term stability and evaluated against the possibility of their
leading to further deterioration: for example, due to the risk of attack by microorganisms, it was decided
not to use traditional fixatives such as casein to reattach flaking paint.
Finally, in the most recent treatments the perhaps underappreciated problem of aesthetic presentation of
the paintings has also been considered, in terms of the treatment of losses, which attempts to minimise disturbances
to the viewer caused by damage to the images, while at the same time adhering to the principals
of minimal treatment
Nana Kuprashvili
Tbilisi State Academy of Art. Georgia
12 th c Painting Techniques of the Main Church at Gelati Monastery
Among the numerous murals of Gealti monastery the 12 th c frescos of the narthex, the south-eastern the
southern porch and the north-western chapels are the earliest ones.
The study of the painting in the narthex unveiled that the techniques in which the murals are executed is
of a special interest. These painting belong to the minority of those medieval Georgian murals, which are
executed in the mixed technique. The major component of the plaster of these murals is lime - the crucial
factor while employing the mixed technique. The earth pigments are used for the preparatory drawing,
whereas the painting uses the precious pigments such as ultramarine, cinnabar and red led.
Chronologically, from the paintings survived in Gelati the first layer of the murals in south-eastern chapel
comes next. T. Virsaladze dated these murals to 12 th c and considered them to be contemporaneous to
the paintings of narthex. This layer is still visible from the existing painting in some places.
This painting is also executed in the mixed technique. The fragments are survived on the level of preparatory
drawing.
The analyses of the painting of south-eastern chapel and those of narthex revealed that their plasters
differ in terms of both - their content and thickness.
The traces of another example of the early painting are observed in the southern porch, where the painting
is almost vanished. The content of the plaster is similar to that of narthex.
The plaster analyses give rise to the assumption that the narthex and southern porch were painted simultaneously
in 12 th c., whereas the first layer of south-eastern chapel was applied slightly later.
Among the earliest paintings of Gelati also are the three figures of Holy women survived on the level
of the preparatory drawing on the southern wall of north-western chapel, which are also executed in mixed
techniques. The preparatory drawing is applied in red ochre. The plaster analyses unveil the interesting fact
that its plaster is similar to that of the first layer of the south-eastern chapel.
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