Mariam Gvelesiani
PhD in Cultural History
The University of Georgia
Tamaz Beradze Institute of Georgian Studies
Chief Researcher
Tbilisi, Georgia
Iconographic Research of Sasanian Motifs of Supreme Authority in Georgian Art
Abstract
Among the countries historically connected with it, Georgia had the longest and most continuous relationship with Iran, which started from the Achaemenid period (6th century BCE) and lasted until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Both historical sources and monuments of material culture evidence this. From the Achaemenid era, before the Sasanians 'reign in the 3rd century CE, Iran and Georgia had peaceful relations.
In Late Antiquity, the Sassanid Empire faced off against the Roman Empire, whose gradual expansion to the east culminated by the end of the 3rd century. For four hundred years after the establishment of the Sasanian Empire, the Kingdom of Kartli (eastern Georgia) was under the political influence of Iran, which especially strengthened from the sixties of the 4th century CE, when the influence of the Romans weakened, which resulted in the dominance of the Iranians in Kartli. Therefore, the Kingdom of Kartli remained in the sphere of political interests of Iran even after the official Christianization of the country.
The conquering policy of Sasanian Iran led to the cultural expansion of Kartli, and that is why Kartli's disobedience to the conquerors was primarily expressed by following the new Christian faith and fighting against the Zoroastrian (Mazdean) religion of the Sasanians. Both the monuments of the current ancient Georgian literature and the various fields of visual art reveal the political, social, and cultural processes that took place in Kartli at that time: this is religious dualism, expressed in the form of the coexistence of fire worship and the Christian religion. This was primarily due to the politics of the ruling dynasty of Kartli - it was of Sasanian, Mazdean origin, but at the same time follower of the new, Christian faith.
Georgian works of fine art exhibit evidence of the political situation of the time, with most depicting either local or Sassanian rulers or high social status individuals or diplomatic gifts. In their iconography, Sasanian elements are incorporated with Christian motifs.
The report deals with some of the fine art samples of the late Antiquity and Early Christian era, whose iconography bears the Sasanian elements echoed thereafter in Georgian textual sources (Sasanian bulla depicting the lion-helmeted ruler from Uplistsikhe/description of the appearance of the Early Christian Georgian king Vakhtang Gorgasli), the Hellenistic origins of this iconography are discussed; The semantic aspect of the Christian "flowering cross" detail coming from the Sasanian "spread wings" (the winged crown of the Sasanian kings presented in the numismatic material) - is analyzed; The forms of its transformation in Christian art are surveyed on the example of Georgian and other countries under the control of the Sasanian Empire, etc.
This period is particularly significant because, during this time, Christian symbols and attributes were established, making Georgia, one of the oldest Christian countries, representative of the early stages of the visualizing of a new religion based on the country's political or religious identity.
Keywords: The kingdom of Kartli, Sasanian Iran, insignia, the divinity Verethragna, numismatics, iconography, the “Flourished Cross”.