0347-07_ECA_4(2007)_03 18-08-2008 12:52 Pagina 27 ECA 4 (2007), p. 27-48; doi: 10.2143 / ECA.4.0.2024665 A Newly Discovered Wall Painting in the Church of Mar Giworgis in Qaraqosh, Iraq Bas SNELDERS* Since the 1970s, a considerable number of artistic context of Qaraqosh in general and the medieval wall paintings have come to light in Church of Mar Giworgis in particular. churches and chapels in Lebanon (about thirty), Before turning to these matters, however, some Syria (about ten), and Egypt (about fifteen)1. general remarks should be made. Due to the pres- Together with icons, illuminated manuscripts, ent political circumstances in Iraq, it has not been woodwork and sculpture, they are the visual expo- possible to study the church and the painting in nents of the flourishing Christian culture in the situ. Inadequate photographic documentation fur- Middle East in the period from the eleventh to the ther hampers a thorough analysis. A series of photo- thirteenth century. The numbers of surviving wall graphs were taken in October 2005, shortly after paintings are remarkably high, especially compared the nineteenth-century layer of plaster was taken with other regions in the eastern Mediterranean. Moreover, with an average of approximately two new discoveries a year in Lebanon and Syria, this list is steadily increasing. In Iraq, on the other * The author would like to thank Prof. Amir Harrak (Uni- hand, until now, Christian wall paintings were versity of Toronto) for providing an advance copy of his forthcoming Corpus of Syriac and Garshuni Inscriptions of 2 either only attested in the written sources , or lim- Iraq; bakhdida.com for their permission to publish photo- ited to some minor fragments3. graphs; Nicholas Al-Jeloo for the translation of some Ara- Considering the limited number and rather frag- bic texts; Dr. Gertrud van Loon (University of Leiden) for mentary state of wall paintings uncovered in Iraq so her comments on an earlier version of this article; Kees Snelders for the line drawings; and Maria Sherwood-Smith far, the mural which has recently come to light in for her help in correcting the English in the article. The the ruined Church of Mar Giworgis (St George) in research is funded by the Netherlands Organization for Sci- Qaraqosh, located to the southeast of Mosul, is entific Research (NWO). 1 highly significant. It is the first relatively well pre- Bolman 2002; Cruikshank Dodd 2001; idem 2004; Immerzeel 2004b; van Loon 1999; van Loon/Immerzeel served example from the area. During rebuilding 1998; idem 1999; Schmidt/Westphalen 2005, all with fur- activities conducted at the site in 2005, a nine- ther references. teenth-century layer of plaster covering part of the 2 A summary of Arabic sources, both Christian and Muslim, interior of the church, painted with a rather crude with references to wall paintings in churches in Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Palestine can be found in Nasrallah 1969, 70-80. representation of St George as an equestrian saint, A more systematic compilation and study of such refer- was removed. From underneath the plaster appeared ences, including those found in Syriac sources, would be a a large rendering of the Baptism of Christ. Although valuable contribution to scholarship in this field. Cf. its iconography is largely in accordance with the Snelders, forthcoming 3 Archaeological excavations conducted during the 1990s at common composition of the scene, some of the the site of al-Chenisa (Kanisat al-{Abid; ‘Church of the iconographical details are unusual and appear to be Servants’) in Takrit, for instance, brought to light small unique in Christian art. Until now, this painting fragments of paintings, including isolated figures of monks, has only been introduced briefly on the internet by animal motifs, crosses and ornamental designs (Harrak 2001, 13-14, 16, 19). Although these paintings have 4 Fr. Behnam Sony . In the present article, an attempt not yet been sufficiently studied and published, they may will be made to explain the remarkable iconogra- at least be assumed to date from before the fourteenth phy and to provide a dating for the painting by century, when Christianity had entirely disappeared from means of both iconographic and stylistic analysis. Takrit (Fiey 1963, 289-342; idem 1968, 110-114; Cf. Harrak 2001, 11). Finally, to shed some more light on the date, atten- 4 Sony 2005: www.bakhdida.com/FrBehnamSoni/Icon- tion will also be paid to the wider historical and markorkis.htm (accessed July 2006). 27 0347-07_ECA_4(2007)_03 18-08-2008 12:52 Pagina 28 from the wall, and were subsequently published on side-room contains a baptismal font. From the nave, the internet. Although these photographs are useful a large rectangular doorway (Royal Gate) gives for a preliminary iconographic study, their small size access to the sanctuary, while the side-rooms can be and the general lack of detailed shots make a com- reached from the aisles through small pointed arch- prehensive stylistic analysis impossible. Moreover, at ways. All three rooms are connected with one the time of writing, the painting had not yet been another by means of archways. The only entrance cleaned and the dirty surface hinders detailed exam- to the church is located in the north wall. ination. Therefore, the following discussion should At present, little can be said of the architectural be considered provisional. history of the church, as it has not been possible to study the building in situ. It has been assumed that DESCRIPTION OF THE CHURCH AND CHRONOLOGY the first construction of the church dates back to OF THE BUILDING the sixth or seventh century6, although this has not been established on the basis of any archaeological The Church of Mar Giworgis is located in the or written evidence. The earliest mention of the southern part of Qaraqosh, on the road which leads Church of Mar Giworgis comes from a thirteenth- to the nearby Monastery of Mar Behnam5. The century manuscript (see below). Other historical church is built of bricks and rough stones, and the evidence relating directly to the church dates from interior and exterior of the building are covered more recent times. Two lengthy inscriptions, carved with layers of plaster, of which large parts have in stone and applied on the north wall of the nave, flaked off. The plan of the church is simple, com- inform us of the digging of a well there in 17397. prising a small edifice with an eastern section, a Above the entrance to the northern pastophorion, nave and two aisles separated from each other by an there is a naïve rendering of St George, in blue paint arcade of solid piers (Fig. 1), with an adjoining (Pl. 1). An inscription in the same paint informs us courtyard on the north flanked by subsidiary build- that this commemorates a renovation of the church ings. The nave and the aisles were originally barrel- in 1866, which took place under the direction of a vaulted. The eastern section, separated from the certain priest named Istefo8. In the course of this nave by a transversal wall, consists of a nearly square renovation, the entire structure was probably cov- sanctuary with a straight back wall (as opposed to ered with a new layer of plaster, obscuring the an apsidal sanctuary), surmounted by a dome, and painting of the Baptism from our view. two rectangular side-rooms, pastophoria. A large rec- Apparently, the roof of the nave and the north tangular altar occupies the centre of the sanctuary, aisle collapsed at some point during the twentieth while a smaller secondary altar is placed against the century, thereby creating a large open space. It back wall of the northern side-room. The southern seems, however, that the roof was still left undam- aged when Jules Leroy and Jean-Maurice Fiey vis- ited the church in the 1950s and 1960s. In his cor- pus of illuminated Syriac manuscripts, Leroy 5 Fiey 1965, 458; Harrak, forthcoming. discusses a late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-cen- 6 Fiey 1965, 458; Harrak, forthcoming; Sony 2005. tury specimen which was then still kept at the 7 Harrak 2004, 100; idem, forthcoming. This was done at church9. Fiey refers to the restoration activities the order of the abbot of the Monastery of Mar Behnam, of 1866, but does not mention the painting of Bishop Karas, who was also the instigator behind the 10 rebuilding of many of the village’s churches after the St George . Finally, when Amir Harrak recorded destruction of Qaraqosh by the Persian Nadir Shah in 1743 the Syriac inscriptions preserved at the church, in (Fiey 1965, 444-445, 458; Harrak, forthcoming). 1998-1999, the roof of the nave and the north aisle 8 Harrak, forthcoming. had already collapsed some years earlier11. At pres- 9 Hunt 2000b, 193, Fig. 30; Leroy 1964, 390-396, Pls 142- 144. It is not known when this manuscript, which displays ent, the church is being restored by local craftsmen, some Armenian influence and was probably produced in as part of larger building and restoration activities northern Mesopotamia, entered the Church of Mar Giwor- in the village of Qaraqosh. Unfortunately, this work gis. Leroy mentions that, according to a now lost Arabic has not improved the very poor situation of the inscription, it was donated by a Kurdish prince to the nearby Monastery of Mar Behnam. painting. The entire west section of the church has 10 Fiey 1965, 458. been pulled down in order to substitute it with a 11 Harrak, forthcoming. new structure, in the meantime leaving the mural 28 0347-07_ECA_4(2007)_03 18-08-2008 12:52 Pagina 29 constantly exposed to weather influences.