History of the Armenian Art

P.31. History of the Civilization and Arts of Armenia from the Bronze Age to Present. By Maximillien de Lafayette. The Globe Weekly News

RELIGION AND ARMENIAN SACRED ARTS

ART OF THE SACRED PAINTINGS

THE EARLY RELIGIOUS MANUSCRIPTS PAINTINGS

The earliest form of "Sacred Paintings" art was the sacred art of manuscripts. For the inhabitants of Western Asia. Asia Minor and Anatolia, religion or faith permeates every aspect and facet of their daily life. Consequently, artistic expression and creativity most commonly pertain to religious observance. Armenians were intensely involved with religious carving and religiously obsessed with churches and cathedrals architecture. They placed an enormous attention on religious art in its various and varied forms (manuscripts, stone carved crosses, Holy Bible hand illustrated copies, icons, illustrated parchments, bibles copies and particularly in miniature paintings for religious manuscripts as well as churches, cathedrals and monasteries frescoes. Unfortunately, very few examples of fresco painting survived. Thus, the history of painting in Armenia took birth in and on the pages of religious manuscript paintings. Grosso modo, Armenian religious art produced Armenian contemporary art, even in its most abstract and surrealist forms and expressions. Even today in Armenia, a considerable number of artists extensively and vividly paint religious themes ranging from the Crucifixion to the ascension, from the annunciation to the birth of the child Jesus and from the Christ carrying the cross to the domes and rotunda of early churches buildings. Before the invention of printing, long time before printing was introduced in Armenia, Armenian artists, icons makers, calligraphers and illustrators copied the Bible or several passages of it by hand, in a most unique artistic finesse and an exquisitely stylized penmanship.

Once all the pages were fully copied by hand characterized by a most delightfully beautiful calligraphy then all the pages, one by one were decorated, illustrated and “illuminated” with religious paintings depicting scenes from the life of Jesus Christ, the Apostles, the disciples, saints and martyrs’ episodes of life, sufferings and sacrifices. A traditional Gospel manuscript would commence with numerous pages illustrated and decorated with paintings of passages, episodes and scenes from Jesus Christ’s life and religious scenes known to the masses. All Armenians venerated those manuscripts and looked upon them as masterpieces, a sort of “divine blessings”. Hand made religious manuscripts were considered a national treasure. The manuscripts occupied the highest place of honor in monasteries, churches and houses. They were regarded and viewed as treasures from God himself. Almost all Armenian manuscripts referred to the person or persons who wrote, illustrated and painted them. This was very unique for the era. Even devoted Muslims artists and Muslim Persian rugs makers in Islamic countries were not allowed to sign their work or put a signature or stamp on any rug their presented to the wali, the king, the Shah, the Khalife or the Sultan. The Armenian manuscripts would also bear the date of completion of the manuscript, the name of the individual (s) or family (ies) who commissioned the work as well as the circumstances and events that accompanied the making of the manuscripts. Poor persons and poor families could not afford to commission or purchase manuscripts. So, instead of depriving themselves from the honor, the joy, the satisfaction and the “blessings” of owning manuscripts, they joined forces with other families and commissioned the manuscripts collectively. Those who have contributed more money or goods than others to the making of the manuscripts, their names would appear on the top of the list in a very distinctive manner. Religious manuscripts added certain historical value to their religious importance. In many instances, they served as a chronological narration of what was going on during the time (s) those manuscripts were prepared or made. This chronological narration included, stories, tales, battles, armies movements and troops activities, sieges, invasions by other countries and foreign armies, incidents, description of current political and social conditions and events in the history of the country and were presented as factual accounts, later to be called colophons. Thus, The religious manuscripts became historical documents, a collection of data and sources of information on the current situation and condition of the country.

P.32. History of the Civilization and Arts of Armenia from the Bronze Age to Present. By Maximillien de Lafayette. The Globe Weekly News

Armenian manuscripts painting is classified into two different categories or more correctly into two divergent styles totally different like day and night yet, both styles remained identifiable and recognizable as authentic, original, pure, ethnic, traditional and national Armenian Painting Art!

1-Indigenous painting or Oriental Style:

This style is purely Armenian style and can be considered as the direct and indigenous product of Armenia as an Armenian nation, an Armenian society and an Armenian ethnic artistic cell. It is free from foreign artistic, religious and social influences. Many historians and art historians call it Armenian Oriental Style or simply Oriental Style. It originated from and developed its identity in the remote and mountainous areas and regions of Armenia, where natives had no direct contact or interaction with natives from other countries. Vast terrains and high mountains separated them from neighboring countries. Oriental style had a purely Armenian origin. It all began in the Armenian monasteries with Armenian monks as the originators and creators of this style recognizable from its linear qualities in forms and compositions, simplicity in illustrating and painting faces and facial expressions and omitting researched details or accentuated characteristics and details particularities in defining mountains and prairies landscape, ecological setting and natural surroundings.

CANON TABLE by HOVHANNES, GOSPEL 1297 uuu

Exact details in description and illustrations were not the main concerns of the artists monks. In those early days, monks were never subject to foreign influences. They did not study under foreign painters and teachers. They were confined to their monasteries. Consequently, the shapes, forms and figures drawn and illustrated in their work were taken from and inspired by what their eyes saw in their direct surroundings and living spaces. The land and faces depicted in the manuscripts were hundred per cent Armenian lands and Armenian faces. And to render it more Armenian in style and appearances, the Armenian monks reduced their artistic mastery to simplistic presentations of human faces, bodies, hand movements -if any- and backgrounds of the painting setting. Even though, they were concerned with a certain degree of authenticity, Armenian monks never intended to represent human faces with descriptive or analytical expressions and moods as did the early or even the later Christian Classical artists in ancient or contemporary Europe. The human faces were painted with an almost primitive sincerity and simplicity. Their style of painting appeared easy to the eye, to the commoners, to regular and simple people yet, it conveyed austerity and mysticism to the learned ones. They appealed to the masses and to the privileged classes as well.

P. 33. History of the Civilization and Arts of Armenia from the Bronze Age to Present. By Maximillien de Lafayette. The Globe Weekly News

Photo: LUKE THE EVANGELIST by GRIGOR TATEVATSI, 1378, GOSPEL 1297

Important Note on the Evangelists Manuscripts Paintings: A particular style of iconography of the evangelists was adopted in Syuniq of the 14^th and 15^th centuries, particularly in Gladzor and later in Tatev. This style appeared for the first time in Gladzor manuscripts at the end of the 13^th and beginning of the 14^th centuries. Other identical or similar evangelists portraitures and illustrations may be found in the miniatures of Grigor Tatevatsi and much later in the manuscripts paintings of the Anonymous Painter of Syuniq. Grigor Tatevatsi and the unknown Painter of Syuniq were artists of a separate brilliant personality, consequently, each of their individual paintings represents convergent-divergent symbols yet, they were considered as an embodiment of the model. The artists monks intentionally omitted sophisticated or anatomically “correct” realism in their illustrations. They were not concerned with physical reality, figures and bodies contouring, equilibrium and shadings. Their art was everything but classical art. This style was the earliest form of an artistic expression or a plateau for a truly ethnic, national Armenian art. Modern Armenian art and Contemporary Armenian art found their roots in this very primitive and ancient painting style.

2 PAINTINGS BY GRIGOR TATEVATSI: 1. JOHN THE EVANGELIST, 1378, GOSPEL, 1297 2. MATTHEW THE EVANGELIST, 1378, GOSPEL, 1297.

P. 34. History of the Civilization and Arts of Armenia from the Bronze Age to Present. By Maximillien de Lafayette. The Globe Weekly News

PAINTINGS BY GRIGOR TATEVATSI, SAME CIRCA AND SAME GOSPEL .

1-Entry into Jerusalem by Tatevatsi, 1378 2-Title page of gospel according to Matthew 3-Eusebius’s Letter by Tatevatsi, 1378

The astonishing part of this Oriental style is the fact that Armenian monks who were so close to nature and remote areas were never directly and emotionally influenced by their habitat and direct rapport with nature. Usually, an artist is the projection or continuation and continuity of his or her surrounding, environment and living conditions, inter-action with what surrounds him or her, even in his or her fantasies and imaginative world. This was not the case with the Armenian monks. Their main concern was the religious theme not the setting. Consequently nature did not play a paramount role in influencing or shaping their style. Thus, we might come to a conclusion that this early Armenian style of painting was truly ethnically Armenian not in depicting Armenian life or Armenian way of life or even Armenian nature but, because of its national/ethic origin which is defined by an original presentation of religious figures in their most rudimentary, simplistic , even naïve form and expressive genre.

1-Virgin Mary and Child Jesus by a student of Tatevatsi 2-The Crucifixion attributed to a student of Tatevatsi

An important note on the Crucifixion painting: This is a religious theme known in early Christian illuminated art from the 5^th century. The Armenians monks and manuscripts painters did not have an iconographic version of the Crucifixion subject. Until the mid

P. 35. History of the Civilization and Arts of Armenia from the Bronze Age to Present. By Maximillien de Lafayette. The Globe Weekly News

mid of the 7^th century, the cross was usually presented without Jesus Christ. In the early 11^th century, a great number of iconographic versions and illuminated manuscripts paintings had a simple but significant changes in representing the theme of the Crucifixion. The Crucifixion scene was painted without thieves. To compensate for the lack of authenticity and or lack of rapport with realism, Armenian monks found their answers in the use of stylized patterns and somber tones without intensifying the effects and aspects of shading. This very particular art appealed to villagers and peasants and people of limited financial resources. In brief, it appealed to the masses and commoners. As such, it was referred to as the peasant art, or more precisely painting for the peasants. Nothing was intellectually conceived or intentionally classically sought and depicted by the early Armenian monks. Yet, later on, those magnificent so-called ” rudimentary and un-intellectual” manuscripts became the focus and paramount interest of highly sophisticated art collectors, art critics and art historians known for their tendency to prefer and admire classical art. On concluding on this subject, it would be accurate to state that Armenian art began as a natural, simplistic, naïve, candid, humanly authentic form of art unconcerned with realism but sincerely motivated and nourished by religious fervor and simplistic form of symbolism.

tNativity Scene, a painting by Tatevtasi, 1378, Gospel, 1279

IMPORTANT COMMENT ON THE NATIVITY THEME PAINTING

The principal source of historical information used by Armenian medieval artists as well as other early Christian painters (icons, parchments and manuscripts) for painting the nativity theme was evidently the Gospel. De facto, it was the main and only source they had to work with. Years later, the Nativity scene acquired a greater variety of details, presentations, motifs and interpretations due to various symbols and motifs borrowed from tales, religious stories, folklore and traditions, as well as from apocryphal sources. The source of information for the Nativity scene by Tatevatsi was the story told by the Evangelist Luke, thus the painting became icono-graphically simple. It is evident that apocryphal sources played a paramount role in depicting this scene. They are clearly visible in the adoration of the Magi. Other illuminated manuscripts and icons painted by other artists were slightly different. For instance, the miniature by the anonymous Painter of Syuniq is based on a more sophisticated and charged iconography. More religious symbols were incorporated in his painting such as women giving a bath to Jesus and a red apple in the hand of the Virgin Mary, thus complying with local traditions practiced by the natives.

P. 36. History of the Civilization and Arts of Armenia from the Bronze Age to Present. By Maximillien de Lafayette. The Globe Weekly News

THE ART OF THE ANONYMOUS PAINTER OF SYUNIQ

Gospel, 14^th & 15^th Centuries

This painting reflects the enormous divergence between the two styles of early Armenian illuminated manuscripts art. According to the Byzantine tradition, the prophet Moses is always represented as a young prophet standing to the right side of Jesus Christ. The prophet Elijah is always represented as an old prophet standing at the left side of Jesus Christ. In this painting it is quite the opposite. The positions and places of both prophets are just the contrary, they contradict the Byzantine tradition.

TWO SPLENDID PAINTINGS BY THE ANONYMOUS PAINTER OF SYUNIQ

GOSPEL, 14th and 15th CENTURIES

A- The Baptism of Jesus Christ B- The Presentation of Jesus the Child to the Temple

Painting B needs more elaboration: This religious theme of the Presentation of Jesus the Child to the Temple was introduced for the first time in early Christian art in the 5^th century. There are numerous, various and contradictory versions and adaptations of this scene through out the centuries of illuminated manuscripts painting.

P. 37. History of the Civilization and Arts of Armenia from the Bronze Age to Present. By Maximillien de Lafayette. The Globe Weekly News

TWO SPLENDID PAINTINGS BY THE ANONYMOUS PAINTER OF SYUNIQ

GOSPEL, 14^th and 15^th CENTURIES

Photo: CONSTANTINE AND HELENE BY THE ANONYMOUS PAINTER OF SYUNIQ .

Some paintings’ central focus is Jesus, others is the Presentation of Jesus the Child, others is Simeon holding Jesus the Child, while many other miniatures concentrated on the Presentation brief ceremony itself but in a very different context and places. Some miniatures would place the Presentation outside the Temple, others would locate the event at the door of the Temple, while a third group of miniatures will place the Presentation event inside the Temple. Each miniature representation of the event has its own meaning, symbol an religious message ad infinitum. Most certainly, one would argue that all these various discrepancies are subject to a lengthy debate. In the miniature B (above), the primordial focus is based upon one subject: The first moment Simeon takes Jesus the child in his arms. This is a powerful statement. This is the main theme of the painting, not the presentation of the Child Jesus to the Temple. One of the most predominant traits or characteristic essence of this picture is the moment when Simeon takes Jesus the Child in his arms. This is the very subject of this painting. In other versions, the predominant trait and center of importance is the presentation to the temple. Years later, the symbol and meaning of all those miniatures became more critical. In later miniatures, every single trait or object depicted in a painting reflected many and different meanings and conveyed different messages, especially when Armenian artists began to focus on the background of the miniatures where the Altar began to occupy a place of predominance and religious importance in an artwork. The altar began to acquire and represent a very particular, extremely important and a special significance in the miniatures paintings.

P. 38. History of the Civilization and Arts of Armenia from the Bronze Age to Present. By Maximillien de Lafayette. The Globe Weekly News

Byzantine emperor Constantine the Great, the first Christian Emperor in the history of Christianity and his mother Helen who converted him to Christianity are intentionally presented in this painting in a solemn and serene manner. According to an early Christian legend, Helen and Byzantine legions were searching for years for the Holy Cross. Coincidentally, Helene found the Holy Cross on her way to Our’ Shalaym (Jerusalem.) Thus, the legend became the theme and the basis for this painting and cemented itself as an accountable iconographic historical foundation for future illuminated manuscripts . What is so peculiar about this miniature is the fact that, the emperor Constantine and his mother Helene are placed around a tree known as “Tree of Wisdom” or “Tree of Knowledge” instead of the Holy Cross as both of them used to appear in all the other miniatures. There is an avant-garde theory that explains the replacing of the Holy Cross by the “Tree of Knowledge”. Supporters of this theory claim that the artist of this painting intentionally replaced the cross with the tree, simply because Constantine and Helene were not Saints, Disciples or Apostles. Only those who were directly blessed by Jesus Christ and of course much much later, Armenian martyrs and bishops were worthy and or deserved to be placed around the Holy Cross or surround it. The artist of this painting did not complete it. This is an unfinished painting.

Photo: The Annunciation", by the painter of Syuniq.

The “ANNUNCIATION” painting (left) by the anonymous painter of Syuniq is an another example of contradictory religious and artistic representation of religious themes. In the art of illuminated manuscripts, two thoughts or at least two concepts or artistic visions were considered. The first one was apocryptic and the second one was symbolic, today, we might have viewed it as surrealistic. For instance, certain manuscripts intentionally depict the Annunciation near a spring to indicate that this event in that particular painting is a Pre-Annunciation while other manuscripts represent the Annunciation in a temple as the Annunciation itself. Thus, we have two interpretations of the event or quasi-event, the first one is interpreted by a spring or near a spring, and the second one is interpreted by a temple or inside the temple! The painting here on the left by the Anonymous Painter of Syuniq is an example of the precedent, while Grigor Tatevatsi's own version of the Annunciation event is more sophisticated and intriguing. Another symbolic detail in this painting (left) is worth mentioning; The water jug is placed in the very center of the miniature , thus representing the pre-Annunciation. I do understand what and how you feel by reading all this. All sorts of interpretations, hidden messages, symbolism, realism, surrealism, apocryptic, even “abstractism!” if I am allowed to create such an adjective!? I felt the same way twenty years ago!

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