**3. Nat'limtsemeli (1190s)**

Nat'limtsemeli—the cave monastery of Saint John the Baptist in the Gareja desert— alongside all other monasteries in this monastic region, was a 'royal peculiar'. The monastery's main church was decorated with frescoes in the 1190s, possibly through T'amar's direct commission. The wall paintings contain the dynastic portraits of the Bagrationi family (See scheme of the heavily damaged portraits in [19] (Figure 10)), all attending in prayer before Saint Davit' Garejeli, founder of monastic life in Gareja. The row of

images reads from the northern wall's eastern end. The line is led by the Catholicos's image (tentatively identified as Nikolaoz Gulaberisdze, a twelfth-century Georgian catholicos who had contributed a theological justification to T'amar's female rulership and had supported T'amar's quest for church reforms) ([15] (pp. 105–107) and is followed by T'amar's predecessor, Bagrationi, and monarchs of the united Georgian kingdom: Bagrat IV, Davit' IV the Builder, Demetre II, and Giorgi III (as at Vardzia (Figure 1)—the monarch is offered a sceptre by an angel). The row then follows and concludes on the western wall with T'amar's family portrait (Figure 2a,b)—a unique example in her imagery. In this panel, T'amar is depicted alongside her husband Davit' Soslani and a young heir Lasha Giorgi, future King Giorgi IV. The figures in T'amar's panel wear a complete set of the Byzantine imperial robes (Burgundy skaramangia (?), bejewelled and gilded loroi, red tzangia, crowns with pendilia hanging down (only T'amar's crown survives), jewellery (rings and earrings)) and carry the labara. It should also be pointed out that, in this portrait, T'amar already wears a different crown—the Byzantine crown present at Vardzia (Figure 1) is here substituted with a much higher, pointed crown, which presumably was introduced during her reign [20]. The figures are accompanied by the inscriptions: "Tamar, King of Kings, daughter of the grea<sup>t</sup> King of Kings [Giorgi]", "Davit', King of Kings", "Their son, Lasha". This set of dynastic portraits was painted with grea<sup>t</sup> luxury—using gold and silver leaf and expensive pigments. The royal panel at Natl'lismtsemeli amplifies the themes of legitimacy and justification, already set out in Vardzia. The queen's re-gendering still persists, even when depicted alongside her consort—both have male titles and wear male costumes (For these images, see: [12] (pp. 124–41), [17] (pp. 5–14)).

**Figure 2.** (**a**). Queen T'amar alongside her husband, King-Consort Davit' Soslani, and her heir, Prince Lasha (future King Giorgi IV), fresco, 1190s, main church of Nat'limstemeli monastery, Gareja desert (Photograph: Neli Chakvetadze). (**b**). Graphic scheme of the fresco (Zaza Skhirtladze).
