LITURGICAL INFLUENCES IN THE WESTERN PART PAINTINGS OF TBILISI CHURCHES IN 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES

Abstract

At end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, several churches were painted in Tbilisi, but not many of them have survived and I would like to focus on the scenes in western part of the three churches. These are: The Choir of Mtatsminda Mama-daviti Church, the paintings of gate of Holy Trinity Church and the western arm of St Nicholas of Chugureti. In western parts of these churches, artists placed illustrations of Gospel parables, so these three churches have much in common, they are influenced by liturgy, depicting scenes: “Pharisee and Publican” and “Firstborn Son”. The following research is substantial, iconographic schemes in ecclesiastical art are not randomly selected, and beyond these images both art historian and contemporary artist must seek basis for what led to selection of given scenes, as well as how they are interwoven into common idea. The research problem in this paper is the influence of the liturgy on the paintings of the churches and the connection of these scenes with other scenes of this church as well as with other churches of the mentioned period, i.e. showing relationship. Literally speaking, the illustration of Gospel parables in the western part of the church seems to be conditioned by the instruction of one who enters it, but in addition to these two themes, doctrine also has a liturgical content, namely, before Lent begins, the church celebrates the Sunday of Pentecost; and their presentation serves and presents purification of man, his spiritual, inner eye. This problem has not been stated by anyone before, it should also be noted that as I mentioned, there is no uniform opinion among scholars about paintings of churches of this period and it is less studied, which once again emphasizes the problematics of issue to be studied. On the one hand, I use method of iconographic analysis as method of research, which as a whole implies both theological understanding of forms and the judgment of artistic performance analysis, as well as comparative method.