“King’s Painter” Tevdore and his inscriptions

Abstract

The paper deals with “King’s Painter” Tevdore and his inscriptions preserved in three churches of Upper Svaneti (northwestern highland region of Georgia) dated back to the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The textual and visual data allow us to reconstruct the status of the painter and his impact on the embellishment of these churches. The inscriptions are considered from various perspectives, with a special emphasis on their political and social context. Tevdore’s title stressing his ties with monarchic power aimed to extend the “royal presence” in Svaneti. The spatial constructs, creating semantic focuses for the display of authors’ inscriptions, permit an evaluation of his status and place in the given social system.