Illustrations to the Poem “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” (№599, 1646) by Artist Mamuka Tavakarashvili in the Context of the Late Medieval Art of Georgia

The poem “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” by Shota Rustaveli is a world-renowned masterpiece of Georgian literature, the first existing illustrations of which date back to the 17th century. Of those, the most interesting for a researcher are the miniatures created by the Georgian artist Mamuka Tavakarashvili in 1646 and preserved in the National Centre of Manuscripts in Tbilisi, as they have never been widely studied in terms of art. This study represents the first comprehensive analysis of the historical, iconographic, and stylistic features of these illustrations. Despite the fact that Georgian artworks of the seventeenth century were significantly influenced by Persian and Ottoman art, the miniatures of manuscript No. 599 are considered to be local and distinctive. In the course of the study it was revealed that the miniatures have their own specific iconography of images, as well as peculiar stylistic features, which distinguish them from other late medieval artworks of Georgia.