Tevdore

Tevdore was a Georgian painter of religious frescoes and murals who worked in the Kingdom of Georgia at the court of King David IV, known as "the Builder". He is dated to the eleventh and twelfth centuries and is regarded as one of the leading figures of medieval Georgian mural painting. He is best known for the frescoes of four temples in Upper Svaneti, in the northwest of the country, and for the title "King's Painter" recorded in his inscriptions.

His inscriptions allow several of his works to be dated precisely between 1096 and 1130, which is unusual for the medieval Orthodox world. The first was the interior decoration of the Archangels' Church in Iprari, with scenes of the Baptism of Jesus, a Deesis and equestrian warrior saints, which probably expressed loyalty to the monarchy. He then painted the Church of Lagurka, dated to 1112, where the faces convey more emotion, and the Church of Saint George in Nakipari, dated to 1130, where he reduced the turquoise tones and sharpened the dramatic expression.

His style combines dynamic drawing, rich decoration and a strongly three-dimensional arrangement of figures. It is not known where he trained, although his painting shows traits of Komnenian art. He is probably linked to the Georgian Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos. His work is marked by rigour and monumentality, and already in his early period shows the maturity of his artistic expression, which makes him a key reference for twelfth-century Georgian painting.