Reassessing the Periodization of Mural Paintings in the Cave Church of the Southern Mangup Monastery

Abstract

Introduction. The Southern Monastery is located in the southern part of the Mangup plateau in a natural rock grotto. The cave church is in the eastern side of the grotto. It is decorated with mural paintings. The murals of the church are concentrated in the altar. Frescos are divided into the images on the apse, on the altar arch and on the vaults of the church. Methods. Authors give the periodization of frescos comparing iconography and stylistics. Analysis. The images on the apse are flat. The eaves of the altar arch are similar to the icon row. Saints on the arches of the church have their original compositional solution. The apse’s painting was formed earlier than other architectural divisions of the church interior. The fundamentally different organization of the tectonics of the pictorial surface of the altar arch eave and vaults suggests that different artists made these images at short intervals. Results. The church’s murals of the Southern Mangup Monastery were probably formed in three stages. Different artists, who were the representatives of various eastern Christian schools of sacred painting, made the murals. Due to the closed compositional scheme the painting system appears as an indissoluble whole, despite the definite duration of the murals’ formation in the church of the Southern Mangup Monastery. In general, the paintings of the church of the Southern Mangup Monastery date from the early – the third quarter of the 15th century. Probably this monastery is associated with the ruling dynasty of Theodoro.