Good Shepherd

In Christian art, the Good Shepherd is an image of care, protection, spiritual guidance, and self-giving love. In the Gospel of John, Christ identifies himself as the Good Shepherd who knows his sheep and lays down his life for them, which is why the motif carries meanings of guardianship, guidance, and sacrificial love in Christian symbolism. The Good Shepherd appears in Levan Margiani’s work from the very beginning: he himself names it among his early Gospel themes. That feels natural within his art, since his miniature world is rooted largely in New Testament canonical motifs and shaped by church mural and icon-painting techniques. For that reason, the Good Shepherd reads not as an isolated subject, but as one of the defining signs of his visual language.