Georgia between West and East as Seen in the Fine Arts

Abstract

During centuries the Southern Caucasus has been at the junction of different civilizations being a bridge between Europe and Asia. Forming the original and complicated stylistic forms of self-expression, the region since the ancient times was also a permanent recipient of many external influences. For Georgia particularly Late Antiquity and Early Middle ages were marked by wide political, trade and cultural contacts with world superpowers of that time - – Sassanian Iran and Byzantine Empire. These contacts determined specific multicultural development of the country. All these events and relationships formed original image of Georgia, its cultural heritage of a great importance. The article deals with some samples of the Medieval Georgian fine arts, reflecting multicultural concept in very evident visual form. The issue of the cultural influences of Sassanian Iran on Antique and Early Medieval Georgia is already discussed by many scholars – both the Georgians and Europeans. We also have dedicated some articles to this problem researching samples of Early Christian architecture in Georgia. On the one hand they show the close contacts with Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture, and on the other – some analogies with the old Iranian Zoroastrian temples.  The buildings like this were spread in Georgia during the 5th-7th cc.: some of them were built as new churches, others became the Christian churches after reconstruction of old pagan temples, most of them being once, before the adoption of Christianity, the fire-temple.