ხატი საქტიტორო გამოსახულებით აცის მთავარანგელოზის ეკლესიიდან

ანოტაცია

The church of Atsi dedicated to St. Archangel is located in Zemo Svaneti, in the Ipari community. Around ten embossed and painted icons are kept in the small hall-type church. An icon of the Virgin Mary with a donor female figure features among them.

The icon is painted on a small wood outstretched primed canvas panel (40x28.5 cm). Two-figure composition is represented on the central part of the board. The standing figure of the Virgin Mary is represented in the central part of the icon, being before the blessing hand in the upper right corner. The small figure of the standing secular noblewoman is represented in the lower-left corner of the icon, in front of the Virgin Mary. Above the female figure is made a seven-lined supplicatory inscription. Unfortunately, the part of the inscription which would bear the name of the represented image is not readable. Based on the artistic and stylistic peculiarities, the icon might have been painted in the last quarter of the 13th century.

Attention should be paid to the iconographic type of the Virgin Mary depicted on the icon – Hagiosoritissa – praying Virgin Mary. Despite the specific tradition of worshiping the Holy Virgin in Georgia, the above-mentioned donor’s scheme was not popular and widespread in the local painting tradition.

Only some icons of historical figures are preserved in Svaneti. Among these few painted icons, one interesting work of art is the icon with the image of an unknown woman kept in the Atsi church. Proper evaluation of its place within the development of Georgian medieval icons is the subject of further study.