All About Encaustic
Winter 20
Ancha icon
The Ancha Icon of the Savior, known in Georgia
as Anchiskhati, is a medieval Georgian encaustic
icon, traditionally considered to be the Keramidion,
a “holy tile” imprinted with the face of Jesus Christ
miraculously transferred by contact with the Image
of Edessa (Mandylion). Dated to the 6th-7th century,
it was covered with silver chasing and amended in
the following centuries. The icon derives its name
from the Georgian monastery of Ancha in what is
now Turkey, whence it was brought to Tbilisi in 1664.
The icon is now kept at the National Art Museum of
Georgia in Tbilisi.[1][2]
History
The medieval Georgian sources identify the Ancha
icon with the Keramidion, a “holy tile” imprinted
with the face of Christ miraculously transferred
by contact with the Mandylion. According to the
Georgian hymnist Ioann, bishop of Ancha (fl. 1195),
the icon was brought in Georgia by Apostle Andrew
from Hierapolis. An 18th-century inscription on the
icon covering associates the Anchiskhati with the
Image of Edessa, an “icon not made by hand”,
brought to the cathedral of Ancha in the Georgian
princedom of Klarjeti to preserve it from the iconoclastic
campaign by the Byzantine emperor Leo III
the Isaurian.[1]
After the Ottoman conquest of the Georgian Principality
of Samtskhe, of which Klarjeti was part, in
the 16th century, Christianity went in decline in the
area. In 1664, the merchant Amirjan Ievangulishvili
brought the icon of Ancha to Tbilisi, where it was
acquired by the Georgian catholicos Domenti II for
2,000 silver coins for the newly refurbished church
of the Nativity of the Theotokos in Tbilisi, henceforth
known as the Anchiskhati church.[3] The
icon remained one of the most venerated relics of
Georgian Christianity until after the Soviet takeover
of Georgia it was moved to the National Art Museum
of Georgia in the 1920s. The Anchiskhati church
was closed down and would only be reopened
in the last years of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Since then, there have been repeated calls from
the Orthodox Christians to return the icon to the
church’s property.[1]
Description
Ancha Icon of the Savior is an encaustic icon dated
to the 6th-7th century as it was identified by the
detailed analysis by art historian Shalva Amiranashvili
in the 1920s. By the end of the 12th century
the icon was covered with gilded chasing by the
Georgian master Beka Opizari at the behest of the
bishop of Ancha, Ioann Rkinaeli, and the queen
Tamar of Georgia.[4] In the early 14th century, the
icon was converted into the triptych at the expense
Ancha Icon of the Savior (Art Museum of Georgia,
Tbilisi).
of the Jaqeli princes of Samtskhe. The chasing
was amended several times and embellished with
various inscriptions that date to the 12th, 14th,
16th, and 18th centuries. The 14th and 17th-century
chasing of the lateral leaves depicts 12 scenes
from the New Testament, from the Annunciation to
the Ascension of Jesus.[1][3]
The icon (105X71X4.6 cm without a kiot, an icon
box) is enclosed into the middle panel of the triptych
so that only the face of the Savior remains visible.
The silver chasing, remodeled in 1825, presents
Christ Pantocrator, while the original encaustic
painting shows the bust of Jesus. The frame of
the central panel is adorned with Beka Opizari’s
work, a high point of the medieval Georgian art.
The two symmetrically located standing figures of
John the Baptist and Mary, combined with the icon
of Jesus, creates the scene of deesis. The archangels
Michael and Gabriel and the apostles Peter
and John can be seen in the corners of the frame.
[1][3]v
From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancha_icon
www.EAINM.com