Create an Amazon Business Account


Create an Amazon Business Account

Georgian miniature from a 17th century manuscript of Shota Rustaveli’s poem,
The Knight in the Panther’s Skin (Vephkhistqaosani)

Fig. 14. Avtandil with Wawel-type helmet secured to the saddle pommel. Tavakarashvili’s copy of The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, manuscript H599, f. 255. National Centre of Manuscripts of Georgia.

      The Wawel-type helmet was very popular in Georgia and, slightly modified, it was in use for three or four centuries, until the end of the feudal period. This fact is referred to simultaneously and independently of each other by two sources in which the Georgia of the 1^st half of the 17^th c. is described: Mamuka Tavakarashvili’s miniatures of The Knight in the Panther’s Skin³⁴ and Christophoro Castelli’s albums.
      Tavakarashvili, Secretary of the King of Imereti, when kept prisoner at the court of Levan II Dadiani in Samegrelo in 1646, copied The Knight in the Panther’s Skin. In his miniatures two types of helmets are represented: the turban helmet (comparatively rarer) and the Wawel helmet with a slight modification. In miniature 255 a helmet secured on to the pommel of Avtandil’s saddle, is analogous to the Wawel helmet: the shape of the dome, decorative eyebrows, aventail, rosette on the top of the helmet, shape of the crown, its upper part exactly repeating the ornament of the Wawel helmet³⁵ (fig. 14). The warriors, depicted in a whole group of miniatures (138, 187, 199, 319. 341 and 429), also wear such helmets. A slight modification was introduced into the back of the helmet whose metal part extends downward, completely covering the back of the head, the upper part of the neck and the ears³⁶. In separate cases in place of a globule, the top of the helmet is adorned with a small flag, which was popular in the late Middle Ages.

³³ This is further corroborated by the representations of the Wawel-type helmets dating from a later period, they confirm my conjecture and refer to the fact that the artists were under a certain limitation when depicting helmets of a covered type. The discussion of the 17^th-c. examples connected with this iconographic problem is presented below.
³⁴ Manuscript H599, preserved at the National Centre of Manuscripts.
³⁵ It is understandable that due to the small size, the artist’s presentation of the trefoil ornament is simplified. It is noteworthy that Avtandil’s outer garments are entirely covered with trefoil ornaments (miniatures 255; 300 and 310); in The Knight in Panther’s Skin Levan Dadiani’s, Tariel’s, Nestan Darejan’s and Rostevan’s clothes are also adorned with trefoil patterns.
³⁶ It means that the Georgian helmet underwent the same transformation the European bascinet had undergone in the 14^th c., beginning with the year 1330, it extended downward, covering the ears and the neck (Blair 1958, 67). It is difficult to say when it happened in Georgia, because, as a matter of fact, no information is available about the 15^th-16^th-c. helmets.

Source: pp.92-94, The Helmet from the Wawel Royal Castle Museum and its Place in the Evolution of Oriental Helmet by Mamuka Tsurtsumia