Церковь Рождества Богородицы в Бетании: история открытия, атрибуция царских и ктиторских портретов и проблема датировки живописи

Искусствознание. 2015. № 3-4. С. 68–94.

Анна-Мария Макарова

This article is devoted to the history of dating the artwork on the murals of the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Bethania, Georgia.  G.G. Gagarin, who was the first to study the cathedral, identified the portraits of Georgian royalty - Giorgi III, his daughter, Tamara, and her son, Lasha Giorgi. Later these portraits and along with them the entire artwork began to be dated 1207, which was accepted by the academic community. However, the wall painting program of the church also includes portraits of the owners of Bethania, from the Orbeli clan, who were annihilated by Tsar Giorgi III as conspirers in 1177. This raises the question (first put forth by E.L. Prtvalova) of the identities of the portrayed church wardens and of the actual time of the appearance of the Tsar family's and church wardens' portraits in Bethania. The author of the study substantiates the new attribution of the portrayed individuals and proposes new approaches to establishing the true dates of the creation of this important monument of Medieval Georgian art.

Keywords: атрибуция, датировка, dating, Бетания, Bethania, G.G. Gagarin, Giorgi III, Orbeli, attribution, Г.Г. Гагарин, Е.Л. Привалова, Георгий III, Орбели, царица Тамара