Iconography of the Ascension of Christ on Early Christian Georgian Stone Crosses

Abstract

The topic of this paper is compositions of the Ascension of Christ depicted on Early Christian Georgian stone crosses. The Ascension, which is the one of the earliest feasts established by the Church, appears in art as early as the 5^th century onward and is represented in various iconographic versions on different types of artworks. The paper discusses several relief compositions of the Ascension decorating pillars of Early Christian Georgian stone crosses. These compositions differ from each other in their mastery, iconography and place in the overall decoration systems of these cult objects.

The Ascension was a traditional subject of the apsidal conchs of Early Christian churches. Thus, it is quite logical that this composition occupies the capitals of the columns, a semantically significant place. The Ascension is preserved on several stone cross pillars dated to the 6^th-7^th cc. (e. g. stone crosses from Khandisi, Brdazori, Naghvarevi, Khozhorna, and Didi Gomareti). Each carved capital with the mentioned composition offers different interpretations of the subject, yet shares iconographic features of Coptic apsidal decorations, Byzantine ivory diptychs, manuscript illuminations, and pilgrims’ ampulla of the time.

Masters perceived stone pillars’ faces as one “pictorial surface”, and distributed elements of the Ascension over its different sides. Laconic compositions depict only Christ in Mandorla and angels. This reduced version was sometimes placed on one main (western) side of the capital (such as in the Brdadzori stone cross pillar) and was sometimes divided like a diptych on two adjacent sides of the column (as in the capital of the Khandisi cross). There are also cases when the composition is spread over three sides of the capital (as in the Didi Gomareti and Naghvarevi crosses).

The considered relief compositions demonstrate that Georgian culture in the Early Christian period was closely associated with general processes taking place in religious and cultural developments of the time.