The image of the Virgin in the medieval painting of Svaneti

The perception that the Virgin was largely disregarded in the religious life of Svaneti, especially in comparison with the Holy Archangels and Sts George and Barbara, has been widely held but is not born out of art historical study. Although the Virgin has indeed held a relatively minor place in Svaneti's art, the general picture is not straightforward. Analysis of images of the Virgin in mural decorations of various chronologies – their locations, iconographies, theological meanings, and conceptual contexts – finds that, over the entire span of Svaneti's painting school (ninth/tenth to the seventeenth centuries), the image of the Theotokos appears in diverse contexts and is depicted in various iconographic types. Her significance is by no means ignored but, rather, emphasized. The same is also evidenced by the diverse iconographic types of the Virgin in the icon painting and repoussé art of Svaneti.