TheTamaz Beradze Institute of Georgian Studies, University of Georgia
Art Historian, PhD
n.burtchuladze@ug.edu.ge
nanaburchuladze@gmail.com
Abstract
The activities and name of the famous 9th-century cleric, Saint Hilarion of Iberian (Georgian), were widely known not only in Georgia, but throughout Christianity, as is evidenced by the medieval written sources dedicated to his life. As for the images of the saint that have survived to this day, their number is scarce, although the geographical area of their location is quite wide. They are preserved in Armenia - in the early 13th-century mural of the Akhtala Monastery of Lore, on Mount Sinai - on the painted icon of the 14th-15th century of the Catherine Monastery, in Bulgaria - in the 14th-century wall painting of the Petritsoni (Bachkovo) Monastery crypt, and, of course, in Georgia: in the 14th-century paintings of the Ubisi and Zarzma churches, in the illustrations of Georgian manuscripts of the 16th-19th centuaries, on the icon of the Katskhi iconostasis of the 17th-18th century, in the 19th-20th centuries murals of several Tbilisi churches and in the hagiographic collection „Paradise of Georgia" published by Mikhail-Gobron Sabinin in 1882.
There is no doubt that the icons of the saint, famous for his miracles during his lifetime, who worked largely in leading religious centers abroad, and who had an international reputation, existed on Mount Athos (where various editions of his “Lives” and texts of the encomiums were written in the 10th-11th centuries), in Constantinople, Thessaloniki, the Holy Land, Mount Olimpus in Bythunia, etc., as well as in the churches and monasteries he founded in Georgia (primarily in Gareja desert and Akura located in Kakheti), although,
unfortunately, not only these images, but even information about them has not reached our days.
A study of the images of St. Hilarion of the Iberian known to us shows that he was mostly depicted together with other national saints, and rarely individually. In addition, in most cases his facial type, age, hair and beard style, and clothing remained unchanged. As for the style of the St. Father's images - in this respect, it changed in accordance with the artistic trends of the corresponding era. Important conclusions can also be drawn from the consideration of the portraits of St. Hilarion in the context of his `Life` and the history of the churches and monasteries where they were created or donated.
It is noteworthy that St. Hilarion is one of the few national saints to whose names the title "Luminary of the Georgians" is added. This is how he is referred to on the above-mentioned polyptych of Mount Sinai, on which, in addition to him, eight other Georgian saints are depicted. On one wing of this polyptych, next to Hilarion, St. Peter the Iberian and St. Shio Mgvimeli (the Caveman) are depicted, to whom an explanatory inscription "Luminaries of the Georgians" is also addressed.
Keywords: Medieval Georgian art, Christian Georgia, Georgian murals and manuscript miniatures, Mount Sinai icons, National saints of the Georgian Church and their images, Saint Hilarion the Iberian.