Abstracts - International Initiative for Georgian Cultural Studies

the ways in which this significant work of primary documentation may lead toward a better understanding
of medieval architectural history in the region, especially during the thirteenth century. These buildings
testify to a complex period of cultural interactions in eastern Anatolia and the southern Caucasus during the
thirteenth century. We will focus on the Georgian aspects of these two buildings, and explore the problems
of building chronology, technology and style, as well as issues of identity, function and meaning.
Rosemary Basic
The University of Oklahoma. USA
Georgia and Croatia: A Case of Common Source
This paper explores some striking stylistic elements shared by a famous eleventh-century icon of Our
Lady of Tenderness from the Church of SS Cyricus and Julitta in Lagurka, Svanetia, and thirteen-century
example of the Virgin Mary with Child from the Church of Virgin Mary from Spalato (Split) in Croatia.
Despite the fact that both paintings officially belong to different geographical and religious traditions, they
share traces of formative style that was originated and perhaps transmitted by masters who appropriated an
eclectic and rather unique manner of expression recognized in these two works.
It is my intention to trace the background of these two examples and offer possible answers on the
following questions: where and when this style was formatted? It is a known fact that from tenth century
on, the Georgian masters were turning away from Judeo-Palestinian models replacing them with the tradition
of the Church in Constantinople. At the time, the Byzantine capital was famous for iconographers
who created numerous innovative styles that were transmitted with model-books to various parts of the
Empire. The cultural origin of these masters, like in Croatian case, was most likely Italian, enhanced the
“originality” of appropriated style and transformed it in what is known as the maniera latina work. On the
other hand, the Georgian example reveals the mixture of both, genuine Byzantine and maniera latina elements.
The possible source of both versions of this mode of expression was the Monastery of St. Catherine,
a Greek stronghold at the Sinai desert in Egypt, where numerous artistic workshops were engaged in
creating, transmitting, and preserving multicultural and religiously diversified iconography of long-lasting
icon producti
Leila Khuskivadze
G. Chubinashvili National Center of Georgian Art History and Monuments Protection. Georgia
Ornament in Medieval Georgian Repousse work
Ornamental decoration is the branch of Georgian medieval art, distinguished with great accomplishments. In
this regard, alongside with the architecture, repousse work occupies an important place. The array of these
rich and diverse artworks demonstrates the complexity and variety of Georgian ornamental art, which on
one hand reflects the traditions of Ancient Eastern and Greek-Roman world, and on the other, demonstrates
the accomplishments of medieval culture in general. In addition the latter unveils the peculiarities,
developed due to the Georgian masters’ creativity, rich imagination and their relish for decorativeness.
Georgian ornaments are someway linked with the Byzantine ones; however the ongoing stylistic changes,
especially of foliage ornaments associate them with evolution processes of Greek and Western European
ornament. The fact that repousse ornaments help to identify certain artistic schools or workshops assume
the additional important role to them.
The successful development of medieval repousse ornament in Georgia had a broad background – on one
hand the rich traditions of pre-Christian Georgian art, and on the other, of folk art and namely of wood
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