მცხეთის წმ. ჯვრის ეკლესიის ერთი რელიეფის გამო

Abstract

Giorgi Chubinashvili was the first to consider the kneeling figure of a man in profile placed on the small relief on the south facet of the dome drum of the Holy Cross Church in Mtskheta as the architect of the building. According to his observation, the relief should have been initially inserted over the window on the south facet of the dome and was displaced after the renovation carried out in the 10th century.

The relief slab is inserted in the masonwork in the manner to present leftward the pious figure thereof, accordingly with its back to the East. Such orientation of the donor’s figure seems inconsistent with the Christian imagery. At the same time, the slab with the Calvary Cross image that survived on the east facet, by its size, color and outline fits to the stone plate with the image of the kneeling figure. These two slabs, when united, create the composition of a figure in kneeling prayer before the cross.

Based on the aforesaid it seems that these two reliefs were initially designed as a single composition to depict a kneeling donor in front of the Calvary Cross erected on the pedestal. The relief’s placing in the highest heavenly sphere on the dome drum must be indicative of distinguished social status as well as contribution to the construction of the church among the representatives of the house of the rulers of Kartli.

Arguably, the donor composition created by two slabs was initially inserted in the north or north-east facet of the church’s dome. Probably the relief, like other donor images, was accompanied by the inscription (seemingly done on a separate slab).

Supposedly, these two slabs were separated and displaced in the 10th century in the process of restoration and rearrangement of the church’s facing damaged as a result of the Arab invasion.