**4. Q'intsvisi (1206/7)**

The Q'intsvisi monastery was founded by Antoni Glonist'avisdze, who was the chancellor to Queen T'amar and an influential ecclesiastic of the realm. He came to power after T'amar regained control over the Georgian Church after the death of Catholicos Mik'ael Mirianisdze in the late 1180s. Antoni commissioned the building and decoration of Saint Nicholas's church, possibly to designate it as his burial site. The early thirteenth-century murals at Saint Nicholas's church preserve Antoni's donor portrait and Queen T'amar's dynastic image. The royal panel (Figure 3) is placed on the north wall of the church's north arm; it depicts T'amar between her predecessor Giorgi III and her heir

Giorgi IV Lasha, all standing under a decorative arcade. The figures are praying before an icon panel of an enthroned Christ. T'amar and Giorgi wear a fully imperial Byzantine dress (skaramangia, loroi, 'Georgian' pointed royal crown, jewellery), while Lasha wears a short Georgian courtly dress. T'amar's image is damaged, and her figure only survives as an outline drawing; no inscriptions have survived along her. Technical sophistication and expense of the Q'intsvisi murals, as suggested by the consistent use of gold and lapis lazuli, sugges<sup>t</sup> luxury. The royal panel here has its peculiarities: it omits T'amar's consort Davit' Soslani, and her father is no more invested with a royal sceptre/labarum but now holds it. Moreover, T'amar's heir Giorgi IV Lasha is now depicted as a grown man. It can be therefore assumed that the panel was commissioned soon after the death of Davit' Soslani, making T'amar a widow, and shows T'amar appointing Lasha a co-monarch in c. 1206/7. Overall, the panel clearly shows that Georgian royal imagery was evolving and adapting to the shifting situation in the royal house. Giorgi III no longer needs celestial investiture; the dynastic legitimacy, blessed by Christ, is now firmly established, and grown Lasha guarantees the dynasty's continuity. The Q'intsvisi panel shows how the commissioner of the murals Antoni—the highest-ranking individual at the court—envisioned royal power and authority and his place in their presence. Furthermore, the panel at Q'intsvisi relies on a modified scheme of the Georgian royal portraiture. Blessing figures of the Virgin or Christ are now encapsulated into frame, thus becoming icons (such type of icon 'panel' is also encountered in Bert'ubani, see below). This change hints towards T'amar's and her family's devotional aspirations This is an important aspect while studying the religiosity of royal portraiture (For this portrait, see: [10] (pp. 26–29), [11] (pp. 22–25), [12] (pp. 141–154)).

**Figure 3.** Queen T'amar alongside her deceased father Giorgi III and her heir co-monarch Lasha (future King Giorgi IV), fresco, c. 1206/7, church of Saint Nicholas at Q'intsvisi monastery (Photograph: Neli Chakvetadze).

## **5. Bet'ania (c. 1207)**

Betania, a toponym deriving from the Biblical Bethany, was a dynastic monastery of the Orbeli family. Their leading participation and support of Demna's unsuccessful coup in 1177, resulted in the family's annihilation by T'amar's father. As a result, the ancestral monastery of the Orbelis was seized by royal power. In the 1200s, the main church of the monastery, which already contained a fresco decoration from the middle of the twelfth century, was redecorated and the royal panel was inserted into the programme. The scheme of this royal panel (Figure 4), located on the north wall of the north arm,

repeats the pattern set in Q'intsvisi (Figure 3). Nevertheless, it is inconsistent in nature: it lacks haloes and any intercessory holy figure. T'amar is accompanied by the inscription "T'amar, King and Queen of Queens". This is a first example from T'amar's portraits where she is named with a double title of the 'King of Kings' and the 'Queen of Queens'. This doubling is clearly indicating her position's re-gendering completely. Moreover, it seems that her titling was pushed to limits by appropriating her title with the Christological model for the 'King of Kings' and combining it with the Marian title of the 'Queen of Queens'. The composite title strengthened T'amar's position and left no doubts for her right to rule. It was observed in the 1970s that the royal panel was heavily retouched in the nineteenth century, thus complicating the study of the original (e.g., the correct colours of the royal costumes and regalia). The royal panel was most probably inserted here for declaring monarchic authority over the Orbelis and for commemorating the presumable reconciliation between the two dynasties. This panel bears some trace of forceful insertion—causing omissions and damage to the previous programme. Although the Bet'ania panel employs the same scheme as Q'intsvisi, it is not as coherent as the latter. The panel was probably commissioned by the survining Orbelis to mark and 'celebrate' their obedience to T'amar and concede Bagrationis' right to lawfully reign (For this portrait, see: [10] (pp. 24–26), [11] (pp. 20–22), [12] (pp. 154–169), [16] (p. 105)).

**Figure 4.** Queen T'amar alongside her deceased father Giorgi III and her heir co-monarch Lasha (future King Giorgi IV), fresco, after 1206/7, church of the Virgin at Bet'ania monastery (Photograph: Neli Chakvetadze).
