The Khakhuli triptych (Georgian: ხახულის ხატი, khakhulis khati) is a partially preserved large repoussé triptych icon of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) created in medieval Georgia. It incorporates over 100 specimens of Georgian and Byzantine cloisonné enamel dated from the 8th to the 12th century. The icon is now on display at Art Museum of Georgia in Tbilisi.[1]
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Follower of Daddi, The Aldobrandini Triptych, c. 1336
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CHRISTINA OLSEN: We are in the European galleries of the Portland Art Museum. I'm Christina Olsen. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: And I'm Marybeth Graybill. CHRISTINA OLSEN: And we're standing in front of this incredible object by a follower of Bernardo Daddi, And what we see is a Madonna, the mother of Christ, surrounded by this group of saints and angels. And this is not just a painting. It's really an object. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: What really draws me to this piece of the many, many Madonna and Christ as an infant paintings in this room, is what you've just pointed out, that it is not a flat surface. It's not an easel painting but the whole thing is, in fact, a next, miniature church. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Yes. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: And so that there's the panel, the back panel, which has a steeple above it. And then there are doors. There's an entryway. And these doors can be closed, and when they're closed, as we walk around the side, we can see it's just plain gilt, perhaps gilt leather or gilt wood on the outside. But then when you enter this space-- CHRISTINA OLSEN: Yes! MARYBETH GRAYBILL: --when you open the doors, suddenly you're in the presence of the Madonna. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Absolutely. I love that too. And I love this way in which you realize that the object was both, of course, a representation, but also something that you, the viewer and the devotee, have a relationship with. And the doors open, and you're in the presence of the Madonna and this scene is revealed to you. And let's talk about this scene, because it's really, really not just an image of Madonna, but also the story of her life. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: Right. CHRISTINA OLSEN: We see the angel Gabriel on the top left door. And the angel Gabriel comes down from Heaven and tells Mary that she will be the mother of Christ, that she will bear a son. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: The Anunciation scene. And what's so wonderful in these two is the sensitivity of this artist's gestures. So Gabriel raises his right hand to make an announcement. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Absolutely. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: Mary-- and she, as you've pointed out earlier, places her hand over her heart and inclines her head in this-- CHRISTINA OLSEN: Wonderful. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: --beautifully modest "me?" CHRISTINA OLSEN: Right, right. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: We can imagine-- we can almost hear the conversation between them, because it's so dramatically, if you will, enacted for us. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Right. Absolutely. And then below the angel Gabriel, we see, in fact, the nativity scene when Christ is born in the manger. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: In the manger. With a cow and a donkey. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Absolutely. And angels above with halos. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: Angels above, and Joseph below interacting, I think, with a shepherd. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Right. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: And then over here, on the right hand side is the crucifixion. Christ, on the cross, emaciated. His skin even takes on a deathly pallor. Blood is coming out of his wounds. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Bursting out of his wound. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: And at his feet, standing on the ground, his mother Mary is swooning and accompanied by John-- CHRISTINA OLSEN: By John. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: --and other followers of Jesus. And again, that beautiful-- CHRISTINA OLSEN: And John holds her up in this incredible-- MARYBETH GRAYBILL: Yes, he supports her as she's swooning. CHRISTINA OLSEN: And she's just mourning her son has died. And I love the way in which then the object has both an immediate time and also a narrative time. In other words, we come upon it, and there the version is. But what we see to the left and right is both what has happened before and what will happen to come. So there's this just this unbelievable sense of presence and kind of multiple senses of time in the object. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: And it just occurs to me as you say that, that if you think about it, the panels have narrative things. Things that happened, things that are recorded in the Bible. But the central panel of Mary enthroned, that's not in the Biblical text, but also because that's presented hieratically. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Yes. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: That's eternal. CHRISTINA OLSEN: That's MARYBETH GRAYBILL: It's outside of time. CHRISTINA OLSEN: And that is the relationship with us. I mean, it's really the central panel that is always alive and always-- MARYBETH GRAYBILL: Eternally present. CHRISTINA OLSEN: --speaking to us as both an image, but also an alive, efficacious deity.
History
The Khakhuli triptych derives its name from the medieval Georgian Khakhuli monastery (now Haho, Turkey), where it was originally kept. Early in the 12th century, the Georgian king David the Builder donated several precious stones to the icon while his successor Demetrius I had the icon, already revered as miraculous, transferred to the Gelati monastery near Kutaisi, western Georgia, where it was further refurbished and set in a gold frame with gilded silver wings under Queen Tamar. According to the medieval Georgian chronicles, Tamar particularly honored the icon and donated to it a Caliph’s standard seized in the battle of Shamkor in 1195.[2]
The icon was stolen from Gelati in 1859, allegedly at the instigation of the Russian governor of Kutaisi, Count Levashov(ru). Much of the gold and jewels were torn out and sold in Russia. Later, Levashov commissioned a metal reproduction from a Moscow goldsmith which was presented to the Gelati monastery in 1865. The original icon, as well as many of its medallions, subsequently entered the private collection of the Russian painter Mikhail Botkin and then the Hermitage Museum. The icon was only returned to Georgia in 1923 in a badly fragmented state.[3]
Description
The Khakhuli triptych is one of the largest enamel artworks in the world,[4][5] with its height of 1.47 m and width (with unfolded panels) of 2.02 m.[1]
The centerpiece of the triptych, a large (116 × 95 cm[1]) icon of the Theotokos Hodegetria, was originally of precious metal. The repoussé background is now lost and only the enameled face and hands of the Virgin survive.
The triptych is adorned with 115 cloisonné enamels deriving from the workshops of Georgia and Constantinople from the 8th century to the 12th. The enamels are in the form of round medallions, rectangular and cruciform plaques, chiefly with depictions of saints, and some are ornamented with patterning. The cover of the reliquary is adorned with a 10th-century cloisonné plaque with a Crucifixion scene.[1]
Of particular note is the apical enamel of a royal pair whom a Greek inscription identifies as the Byzantine emperor Michael VII Doukas and his Georgian consort Maria, daughter of Bagrat IV of Georgia, both of whom is represented as crowning. This medallion, possibly brought to Georgia by Maria in 1072, was the only visible figural image when the triptych was closed.[6]
References
- ^ a b c d Speel, Erika (ed., 1998), Dictionary of enamelling, p. 67. Ashgate, ISBN 1-85928-272-5, ISBN 978-1-85928-272-4
- ^ Lordkipanidze, Mariam (1987), Georgia in the XI-XII Centuries, p. 184. Tbilisi: Ganatleba.
- ^ Eastmond, Antony (2001), Eastern approaches to Byzantium: papers from the Thirty-third Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry, March 1999, pp. 216-217. Ashgate/Variorum, ISBN 0-7546-0322-9, ISBN 978-0-7546-0322-1
- ^ Turner, Jane (ed., 1996), Dictionary of Art, vol. 12, p. 329. Macmillan Publishers, ISBN 1-884446-00-0, ISBN 978-1-884446-00-9
- ^ Mgaloblishvili, Tamila (ed., 1998), Ancient Christianity in the Caucasus, p. 13. Routledge, ISBN 0-7007-0633-X, 9780700706334
- ^ Antony Eastmond (1998), Royal Imagery in Medieval Georgia, p. 91. Penn State Press, ISBN 0-271-01628-0.
Further reading
- (in Georgian, Russian, and English) Amiranashvili, Sh. (1972), The Khakhuli Triptych. Tbilisi: Khelovneba. Online version from the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia
External links
- Khakhuli triptych. University of Puget Sound Digital Collections
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