Medieval Svaneti: Objects, Images, and Bodies in Dialogue with Built and Natural Spaces

The essays collected in this volume emphasize the importance of Svaneti, a historical region of the Georgian Great Caucasus as an unparalleled treasury of medieval arts, describe some of its outstanding monuments, provide interpretations of their political and religious role at the intersection of different cultural traditions, and explore the dynamics whereby they have constantly invested with new functions and associations throughout their long history.

Introduction
Michele Bacci & Ivan Foletti
Svaneti and the Rhetoric of Distance

Irine Elizbarashvili & Irene Giviashvili
Architecture of the Upper Svaneti

Salome Meladze
Painted Chancel Screens in Upper Svaneti. The Evidence of Early Monuments

Nina Chichinadze
The Interactions of Images in Sacred Space. A Case Study: The Church of St Barbara in Khe, Upper Svaneti

Marine Kenia
The Image of the Virgin in the Medieval Painting of Svaneti

Ekaterine Gedevanishvili
Iprari Murals. Reading of the Scene of the Apparition of the Angel to Joshua

Manuela Studer-Karlen
Image and Liturgy. The Church of the Archangels in Tanghili

Antony Eastmond
Icons, Saints, and Society in Svaneti

Nana Burchuladze
Icons from Svaneti in the Context of Byzantine Paintings

Nutsa Batiashvili & Nikoloz Aleksidze
Symbolic Treasure, Care, and Materiality in Upper Svaneti