Georgia

Christian painting in Georgia dates from the 4th century and shows both Eastern and Western influences, owing to the position of the region as a crossroads of trade between Europe and India. From the beginning of the 5th century the Georgian church approved the representation of the human form in religious painting. Accordingly Georgia was not affected by the wave of iconoclasm in the 8th and 9th centuries—a period that inhibited figural representation in most of Eastern Christendom for more than a century. In addition to a Christian tradition, Georgian painting also drew on a pagan one.

Until the 9th century, mosaics—more or less Byzantine in technique and design—were frequently used in the decoration of Georgian churches. By the 11th century the entire interior of Georgian churches was usually covered with frescoes instead. Many well-preserved examples survive from this period. Although following the Eastern Orthodoxy’s general theological interest in church decoration, the Georgian murals deviated somewhat from Byzantine style and iconography, notably in extensive ornamentation between individual scenes.

The art of manuscript illumination flourished in Georgia from the 6th century onward, and numerous examples survive from all periods. Characteristic of the early works are two Gospel books, the Adishi Gospels (897) and the first set of Gospels of Dzhruchi (936–940). These are distinguished by their decorative treatment of draperies and their excellent drawing.

At the end of the 10th century Byzantine influence became strong in Georgia, and until the end of the 15th century Georgian manuscripts generally followed Byzantine models, differing only in an independent approach to the use of colour. These illuminations are of very high quality.

In the 16th century Persian influence from the East transformed Georgian manuscript illuminations. Ornamentation abounded, and the representation of figures and scenes was flat, decorative, and highly skillful.

Armenia

What little remains of the pagan art of Armenia strongly resembles late Greco-Roman art. With the establishment of Christianity as the official religion in the first years of the 4th century, however, a truly national art developed.

From an early period the interiors of Armenian churches were adorned with frescoes and mosaics showing scenes from the Gospels and images of Christ, the Virgin, and saints. Surviving examples are less plentiful than illustrated manuscripts, however. Important specimens of the latter exist in an almost uninterrupted series ranging from the late 9th to the 17th century. They are executed in ornamental designs of great richness and diversity. Floral, geometric, and animal motifs are painted in vivid colours on a gold background around the canon tables of the Gospel manuscripts (concordances of the four Gospels), on the headpieces, and in the margins and are ingeniously adapted to the capital letters.

As regards iconography, the Gospel scenes follow early Christian and Byzantine models, but the Armenian painters, especially those of the medieval kingdom of Little Armenia, often displayed a marked independence and interpreted traditional formulas in a more lively or dramatic manner. Two artistic trends can be discerned in manuscript painting: one, more Eastern in character, tends to simplify the human form and subordinate it to ornamental interest; the other, under Byzantine influence, shows a subtle blending of naturalism and stylization. This latter trend was predominant in Little Armenia, where a flourishing school of painting developed under the patronage of the court and the church. The 13th-century manuscripts, in particular, belong in the first rank of medieval illumination. Through contacts with the crusaders and the Mongols, the painters of this period became acquainted with the art of the Latin West and of the Far East, and as a result they produced richly imaginative works.

Manuscripts continued to be illustrated throughout the Middle Ages in Armenian monasteries and in the various centres outside the area of Little Armenia where Armenians had settled after the destruction of the kingdom in 1375. These works are often inferior to those of the earlier period, but some original schools developed—for instance, in the area of Lake Van, especially at Khizan and on Aghthamar (modern Akdamar).

Coptic Egypt

Coptic painting—strictly speaking, that practiced by Christians in Egypt from the time when Christianity first took hold there—consists primarily of wall paintings in monasteries, the earliest foundations of which date from the 4th and 5th centuries.

Stylistically, Coptic painting differs from that of pagan Egypt in its emphasis on animal and plant ornamentation; less naturalistic rendering of the human form; simplified outline, colour, and detail; and increasingly monotonous repetition of a limited number of motifs.

In content, the wall paintings resemble other Christian examples of the genre around the eastern Mediterranean. The most usual theme is a frieze of saints with an enthroned figure of Christ or the Virgin. There is little variety of pose, though the features of individual saints are distinguishable. An unusually lively piece is a fragment from Wādī Sarga (now in the British Museum) depicting the Old Testament story of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace; the Hebrews are dressed in Eastern garb and Phrygian hats and are shown as being protected from death by an angel. A celebrated set of wall paintings are those from Bāwīṭ, now in the Coptic Museum at Cairo.

Despite the 7th-century Muslim invasion of Egypt, there was no sudden break in the Coptic tradition. Indeed, some of the most notable surviving examples of manuscript illumination were produced during the first five centuries of Islāmic rule. It was only during the later Middle Ages that specifically Coptic painting ceased as Islāmic culture increasingly predominated.