2010-05-25T23:33:00.000-07:00

Armenian manuscript attracted the attention of scholars and art lovers around 100 years ago.Since that time intensive studies of medieval Armenian art have been conducted. A unique historical panorama of the art of illumination in Armenia, embracing more than thirteen centuries has been given (the first surviving miniatures date from the VI - VII centuries, while the latest ones were created in the XIX century).

The number of manuscripts that appeared within a thousand years on a fairly large territory is vast and different areas were affected by different economic, political and cultural factors.

Early Armenian miniatures are remarkable for their festive grandeur, they make one feel the infinite power of art, the universality of its language. These illuminations also demonstrate a continuity that links the Middle Ages in Armenia with the earlier periods: with late antiquity and ancient Oriental art whose deep impact on Armenian culture and consciousness has never quite faded. Such were the artistic sources of medieval Armenian book painting which inspired the earliest of surviving Gospel manuscripts.
The tradition of illuminated manuscript established at a very early date, required a particular layout in which the main text was preceded by the khorans¹. The obvious architectual prototypes of khorans go back to late antiquity. A small round "tempietto" with a conical roof, a rotunda, a canopy over the martyry of a saint or over a church altar, drawn from architecture inspired the decoration of these folios. The evolution of the khoran form can be traced back to the 10th-century miniatures in the Echmiadzin Gospels, where the "tempietto" pattern was adopted. Here four Corinthian columns are crowned with a lavishly ornamented architrave which is framed with cotton-plant flowers and birds. The roof is surmounted with a cross, the spaces between the columns are decorated with draperies and a lantern, and the whole structure is flanked by cypress-trees. Obviously each element conveys a symbolic message, while the life-like quality of the miniature as a whole is evocative of bucolic scenes in the late аntique frescoes and mosaics.
These decorations in the introductory folios of Armenian manuscripts, conceived as a kind of entry to the Holy Scriptures was not accidental: the columns of this symbolic arcade enclosed the Canon tables which were supposed to confirm the authenticity of the four Gospels.

1 The term khoran refers to the apse-shaped designs composed of columns and arches and used to frame synoptic lists which compare the content of the Gospels.

The introductory folios with the Canon tables or/and Letters, were usually followed by a cycle of full-page illuminations whose composition depended upon the date and origin of the manuscript. But the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Baptism, the Crucifixion, the Transfiguration, and the Descent of the Holy Spirit (so popular in Armenian manuscripts) were always there. The pictorial cycle was followed by the four Gospels, each of them preceded by a portrait of the Evangelist, and the first page had a decorative head-piece.
Later illuminated letters appeared with decoration and sometimes bits of illustration in the margins. Then came manuscripts in which full-page illustrations are evenly spread within the four Gospels; sometimes they even take over a written page the drawings filling the page between the lines.
Early Armenian manuscripts were written on parchment; paper did not appear until much later.
The Matenadaran collection includes several brilliant examples of early illumination.

A medieval Armenian manuscript which came to us reasonably well preserved gives an excellent idea of the art and culture of its period. So every element should be considered: the script, the cycle of illustrations, the binding and even the material glued onto the inside of the cover can be of interest to the art historian. Beside which all these elements are interesting in themselves, because the treatment varied with time and space, and with different schools. The accent of the whole, too, changed with the times.The mid-13th century Cilician School is unique in the brilliance of illumination and their view of the significance of ornament and illustration in a religious book. For masters of that school, an illuminated Gospel manuscript has value both religious and aesthetic. It is a complete entity. In the scriptoria of large Cilician monasteries, scribe, binder and illuminator always worked as a team. Often master could do all three. A case in point is Thoros Roslin, who is known to have been both an outstanding artist and one of the best Cilician calligraphers.
In the Vaspurakan (Van) School, the main accent was on the narrative; on a meticulous but matter-of-fact telling of the events in the Gospels. In this Vaspurakan manuscripts contrast sharply with the Cilician ones. Although there were several branches within that school, they were all united by an archaic iconography, full-page illustrations, a linear treatment of ornamental sheets and a common technical and artistic repertoire. In contrast with the Cilician manuscripts with their varied and brilliant colours, on fine parchment, with an ample use of gold, in magnificent leather-and-silver covers, the Vaspurakan used two or three colours against a plain vellum backgraund, and no gold.

A unique school of painting was organized in Gladzor University ( this University was founded in 1282 by Nerses Mshetsi and functioned for some sixty years) , in which the traditions of miniature painting schools of central Armenia and Cilicia were combined. Some particular features of miniature painting worked out by representatives of the Gladzor school were later reflected in the works of painters in different centers of Syuniq, among them in Tatev manuscripts, the main successor of Gladzor traditions.

The first Armenian printed book appeared in Venice in 1512. After that printed books began to spread rapidly and eventually ousted the more expensive manuscripts . And even though Armenian scribes and miniaturists worked on for another century, the inspiration was gradually lost: art became less and less dependent on religion, and a quest for a new cultural impetus was gaining strength.

Armenian Miniatures