Apotheosis The political and cultural life in Greater Armenia experienced a brief development at the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century, with the support of neighboring
Georgia. The Armenians then managed to fight off the Seljuk invasions and experienced a certain boom called the “Zakarid renaissance”. As a result, they formed an
independent principality governed by the Zakarids in which a brief period of relative peace reigned Construction projects of palaces and churches grew in number in the first half of the 13th century. In parallel, the activity of the schools of miniaturists and scriptoria was in full expansion; grammar, language, rhetoric, theology, philosophy, music, painting and calligraphy were all taught there, notably in the universities (hamalsaran) of
Tatev and
Gladzor, often called as the “second Athens”. This last university, "almost contemporary with one of the main centers of European thought, the
University of Paris, could compete with the latter as much in terms of cultural training as by the richness of its library and the diversity of the subjects taught. ”. Only a few ruins of the
University of Gladzor remain today, a result of the Mongol and Timurid invasions. As if to compensate for the catastrophic losses by these invasions, the
Armenian kingdom of Cilicia flourished from the eleventh century to the end of the fourteenth century. Art and culture developed there until its fall at the end of the 14th century under the conquering advance of the
Egyptian Mamluks. This period saw the peak of Armenian illuminated manuscripts: “For example, the miniatures painted in the northeastern regions are distinguished by their monumental character and the intensity of their colors; while the ones in the Vaspurakan school by their simplicity and a tendency to stylization. The illuminations of Bardzr Khaïk, or Upper Armenia, can be recognized by the majestic gravity of the characters and the variety of their
ornamentation; while the Cilician miniatures display remarkable refinement and virtuosity”.
Miniatures of Greater Armenia Upper Armenia The surviving manuscripts of
upper Armenian origins, a northwestern region of historic Armenia, crossing several roads of transit axis in the 13th century, are "always decorated with rich vegetal motifs, curved leaves with the sharpness of a sickle and scrolls with
palmettes”. At first, treated "in a fairly realistic manner", these motifs gradually experienced an "increasingly pronounced stylization", to end up spreading to the art of Transcaucasia, the Near East and the Middle East. In the largest of the known Armenian manuscripts, the Homiliary of
Mush (
monastery of the Holy Apostles, 1200-1202, Matenadaran, Ms. 7729), written in
erkataghir (Armenian
uncials), the pages are filled with vignettes and marginal motifs of
Armenian pagan origin. This is largely due to the pagan and
Zoroastrian sanctuaries getting consecrated as temples dedicated to Christianity, a result of the Christianization of the country in 301 AD with the conversion of the king of Armenia,
Tiridates III from paganism to Christianity. Subsequently, elements inherited from ancient paganism mixed with Christian art, but they carried new meanings. This
homily symbolizes with its ornamentation a search for the renovation of already existing shapes and an effort to create new
motifs. It seems to be the work of three artists of whom only the name of the author of the title page has been preserved:
Stepanos. A second miniaturist executed an important series of more vivid miniatures. With a more fiery temperament, he painted in the
margins of the manuscript vegetal
ornaments of various shapes, in which birds as well as real and fantastic animals are also found. From a stylistic point of view,
warm color combinations are based on the principle of contrasts. The orange tones are shaded with dark brown, they contrast with the light blue of the intense velvety
ultramarine. As for the third miniaturist, he is the author of only a small number of subject miniatures. The harmonious balance of the text and the ornamented parts, as well as the text-image relationship, characterizes well the composition of the pages of this period. The so-called
Gospel of the Translators of 1232 (Matenadaran, Ms. 2743) was written by the scribe Tiratsi and illustrated by the painter Grigor Tsaghkogh. Inspired by the frescoes of the cave temples of neighboring
Cappadocia, his works show a clear individuality: "the dramatic tension of the characters and the coloring where dark blues and purples dominate, with rare flashes of bright red and pink, are so impressive that certain inaccuracies in the design go unnoticed”. The
colophon of a manuscript produced in 1318 at
Erzincan bears the following content: "Due to the difficult times, I had emigrated five times before being able to finish my manuscript...". Only two names of miniaturists from Ani have survived:
Margare and
Ignatios Horomostsi. The former decorated the Gospel of 1211 (known as the Haghpat Gospel, Matenadaran, Ms. 6288) copied at
Haghpat Monastery, illustrated at the
Bekhents Monastery and bound at the
Horomos Monastery, near Ani; it is characterized by a thematic repertoire extended by the illustrations of the daily life contemporary to the miniaturist. The aspiration to
realism is noticed especially in the treatment of the characters. It is especially noticeable in a single Gospel scene,
the Entry of Christ into Jerusalem. The impressions experienced are reflected in the crowd massed to welcome
Christ; and even a certain form of
secularization is noticed in the treatment of the characters. The second painter, Ignatios, worked at the Armenian monastery of Horomos in the middle of the 13th century and witnessed the
Mongol invasion. He left a manuscript that he illuminated in this colophon: "the manuscript was written at the painful and fatal time when Ani, the capital, was taken and when we witnessed countless destructions of cities and of the country ". In the work of
Khatchikian, about "the Colophons of the Armenian manuscripts...of the fourteenth century", he noted that one can read these words which as a testament to the harshness of the period in which these painters lived, without ever interrupting their work; words added as a postscript: "Times are so hard that for four years I have been writing while resting my book on the palm of my hand". Despite the poor living conditions, and the constant emigration from one place to another, calligraphers and miniaturists moved from school to school to keep up with their studies, and even into caves, like how the master
Hovhannes Vanakan did during the Mongol invasion, not far from the fortress of
Tavush.
Syunik Syunik, a province in the southeast of
Lake Sevan, is home to the regions where the last two great Armenian academies of the Middle Ages flourished before the foreign invasions: the university of Gladzor and the monastic university of Tatev. The founding of the school of Gladzor dates back to the second half of the 13th century. Young scholars from all over
Armenia and even from Cilicia came to learn from the greatest scholars at the time. Two names stand out the most:
Nerses Mchetsi and
Essai Nchetsi; the first is the founder of this university, he had a great interest in Latin and Greek, and the second is a political figure and a master of rhetoric and philosophy. Mateos, a famously local-oriented artist, is the author of the Gospel illustrations of 1292 (Matenadaran, Ms. 6292). His work shows a particular ornamental richness: “the painter has a preference for large vegetal motifs and has a liking of illustrating elegant peacocks with magnificently outstretched tails in the foliage. These birds are represented in pairs, sometimes drinking from a water source and sometimes intertwining their graceful necks”. A multi-talented artist,
Momik is famous for his intricate
khachkars: he left carved stone
stelae of unparalleled subtlety and extreme finesse. He is also a renowned
architect and a miniaturist who also worked at the
University of Gladzor.
Toros Taronatsi, an Armenian miniaturist and
poet, was the most prolific painter of the school of Gladzor. He was a pupil of
Essai Ntchetsi. At first, influenced by ancient pagan symbols, he then introduced new ornamentation of canon tables and marginal motifs of sirens, sometimes two-headed, serpents and dragons personifying evil, fighting among themselves, torturing their prey or, following a late Christian interpretation, getting struck down by
military saints. The decoration of the leaves of the Eusbian canons in the Bible of 1318 (Matenadaran, Ms. 206). On the other hand, certain
iconographic particularities, such as the way of treating the nursing
mother of Jesus, attest that Taronatsi was familiar with Western art”. The Cilician influence is significant in the composition of his art which can be seen in a gospel he illustrated (Matenadaran, Ms. 7631) with
Sarkis Pitsak. “Tatevatsi's painting can be recognized by the skilful use of elements borrowed from popular ornamentation. The artist fills the entire background with large motifs executed in muted,
monochrome tones, they look like the
carpets hung on the walls of houses, which gives the scenes represented an intimate character (
Madonna and Child,
Annunciation). The posture of the characters is embodied by its quiet majesty. The miniatures of Grigor are also similar to frescoes: the application of color is done in thick and matte touches".
Vaspurakan The so-called
Vaspurakan school was one of the main centers of Armenian art in the 13th and 14th centuries, nearly 1500 of its manuscripts have survived, with most of them containing miniatures. The most frequent themes of illustrations are the
Creation of the world,
the Sacrifice of Abraham and the
Apparition under the Oak of Mamre. The miniaturists continued the ancient local traditions which had found survival in the form of
reliefs and
frescoes like the ones in the
Holy Cross Cathedral of Aghtamar of the 10th century. According to
Sirarpie Der Nersessian, the introduction of Old Testament scenes as symbols of New Testament subjects appeared as early as the 9th century in Armenian art. This artistic representation in the reliefs is particularly visible in the scene of the Sacrifice of Abraham which led to an iconographic tradition of miniatures among the illuminators of the 13th and 14th centuries (
Simeon Artchichetsi,
Zakaria and Daniel of Uranc). The lack of perspective, typical of
medieval art, is accentuated in the case of Vaspurakan school Miniatures. Common characteristics of this style most notably include flat figurative representation and scenes arranged in a frieze: “the characters are generally represented frontally. Their gestures are abrupt, dynamic and so expressive that they sometimes evoke several movements instead of just one. The goal is to discover the idea that is the basis of the subject, to reveal its very essence, without worrying about the interpretation of the narrative or the potentially meaningful symbols that the scene may have”. The miniaturists of Vaspurakan paid little attention to the
faithful reproduction of concrete details drawn from the observation of the real world. What seems to have concerned them the most is the rhythm. And it is through rhythm that they worked on the symbolism. “They illustrated several types of
ideograms that reveal the hidden meaning of the scenes depicted. The overall harmony stems from the traditional arrangement of the figures and their rhythmic movements. This rhythm, which is not that of ordinary gestures, acquires a deep meaning of perpetual motion. The course of events with their external details and the idealist character of the gestures are relegated to the background, while their symbolic meaning becomes fundamental”. The ornamentation of the Eusebian canons reveals a mastery in its execution in the form of
horseshoe arches adorned with geometric and vegetal motifs. The silhouettes of both real and mythological beings were often intertwined by the vegetal motifs and the complex
scrolls. Beneath the conventional symbolism in the treatment of the characters shines through the spontaneity following the popular way of thinking at the time. This principle of ornamental art addresses religious themes with simplicity and lack of formalism. It is this particularity that gives it its place in the history of Armenian miniature. Its eastern influence brings it closer to the art of Cappadocia, the
art of Arab countries and Syria,
Iran, as well as Mesopotamia; which constitutes a vast set of different but related cultures.
Nakhichivan The influence of the art of Vaspurakan goes beyond the bordering territories. This is noticed in the presence of a strong link between the Vaspurakan school and the school of the previously
Armenian-populated
Nakhichevan. Two illuminated manuscripts are often cited to describe the characteristics of the art of this region: the first is a Gospel (Matenadara, Ms. 3722) copied in 1304 by the artist Simeon and another Gospel (Matenadaran, Ms. 2930) transcribed in 1315 by a miniaturist (and scribe) named Margaret. In the first
manuscript of 1304, the subjects placed in the margins are treated with extreme simplicity that they are almost reduced to the status of symbols. “The Baptism of Christ is symbolized by a cup containing
myrrh. The artist chose to represent exulting shepherds and frolicking lambs for his
nativity while for the
Last Supper he painted a
chalice and two fish; a scene with multiple figures par excellence, and the entry into Jerusalem is represented with only three figures, including Christ mounted on a mule. This pictorial style undoubtedly goes back to ancient traditions, present in particular in the famous Echmiadzin Gospel of 989. This manuscript is abundantly illustrated with figures of animals, ornamental motifs and symbols of pagan origin”.
Lydia Durnovo describes the art of the miniaturist as such: "He introduced various ornamentation of the margins motifs of a wide variety, among which there are an abundance of animals, birds, mermaids and human faces thus completing the thematic range and developing the form of the marginal symbols. (...) His work is not precise, but full of vigor and passion, energy and skill. The dynamism of the artist's brush seems to be embodied in the dynamism of the subjects”. The 1315 manuscript contains an extended series of Gospel cycle miniatures, which is more characteristic of the Vaspurakan school than of the Nakhichevan school. The first miniature deals with the theme of Abraham's Sacrifice, borrowed from the Old Testament. The
Descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles is the last scene represented. According to the works of Akopian and Korkhmazian: “The iconography has a number of archaic features, especially in the miniatures representing the Nativity, the
Resurrection and the
Entombment. The artist used for his compositions the most bare variants, which take on a monumental character for his art. The colors are applied in thick and generous layers. The dominant tones are red, velvety green and
sienna”. One manuscript which dates from before 1261: Ms. 378 (Matenadaran) was illustrated by
Toros (not to be confused with
Toros Taronatsi and
Toros Roslin), in the same region, but some of its miniatures were added later. "The manuscripts produced in the southern regions of
Artsakh and in the
Lake Sevan basin are of great
iconographic interest and artistic value. Their illustrations differ significantly from the miniatures of other Armenian schools, which is particularly evident when compared to the productions of the
Vaspurakan school. In the manuscripts of the Artsakh-Sevan group, the Sacrifice of Abraham, an Old Testament theme dear to the Vaspurakan painters, to which it serves as a prologue, is completely absent, as is the traditional miniature of
Christ in Majesty and the thematic cycles of the
Last Judgment, the Advent of the
Son of Man and the
Miracles of Christ. There are also no details of the secular daily life. The most common themes of this school are those of the childhood of Jesus (
the Nativity, the
Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, the
Massacre of the Innocents and
Jesus among the Doctors), the
parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins,
original sin and the
betrayal of Judas. In other words, instead of the narrative subjects and allegorical themes often associated with the Old Testament the painters of this school emphasize the creation of the world, original sin and the dramatic events of the Gospel". One of the particularities worthy of note among others is a representation of the Last Supper. Painted in a unique way, the illuminators chose to show the heads of the apostles
nimbed, while
Judas alone, isolated from the group, is represented full-length. This way of treating the subject remains unique in the history of
medieval art. Another peculiarity scholars are often interested in is a scene of the Annunciation, where an angel with spread wings playing the
flute in the clouds can be found. Thus, the painters of this school are the only ones to represent the scene in this unique way. Strongly influenced also by the classical art of
Syunik, represented here by Momik and Toros Taronatsi, as well as by the Vaspurakan school, the miniatures of Artsakh,
Utik and the
Lake Sevan basin combine the simplicity of the decorative gesture with the appeal of the primitivism of folk origin. According to the specialists of Armenian miniatures of Matenadaran, "the decorative principle clearly prevails over the figurative. The Artsakh-Sevan painters emphasize symbolic attributes, such as the flute of the Annunciation, the twelve partridges which, in the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, symbolize the twelve apostles, and the cross placed on the table of the Last Supper, an allusion to the sacrifice of Christ. These details serve to illuminate the meaning of the scene depicted while also playing the role of decorative elements. This process is characteristic of the Vaspurakan school. In spite of the stylistic peculiarities that differentiate them, the various trends and schools of
miniature painting in Greater Armenia in the 13th and 14th centuries have in common their fidelity to local traditions and folk art. The
Byzantine influence, which played such a great role in the formation of many national schools in the Middle Ages, never prevailed in Armenian art. Its ascendancy was more actively exerted only on the painters of
Cilician Armenia".
Cilician miniatures , from 1199 to 1375. Armenian cultural life slowed down at the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th centuries, but it experienced a new boom in the 13th and 14th centuries, not only in the country itself but also in the new regions to which ethnic Armenians had migrated. Cilicia was the most vital place among these regions to Armenian civilization.
Beginnings The origins of Cilician miniature go back to the Armenian miniatures of the 11th century. According to the colophons found in these manuscripts, they were taken from Armenia to
Cilicia. There, they enjoyed a certain prestige and subsequently served as models for Cilician miniaturists, with their simplicity and their sober but intense colors and their characters with majestic and voluminous silhouettes. The Cilician painting had its roots in the stylistic peculiarities of the art of Greater Armenia, but the new historical and social, political and economic conditions could not but shake up the cultural and pictorial principles of the region. The changes affected the form, structure and style of the art form. Despite the fact that in the 12th and 13th centuries, the formats of the manuscripts were more manageable, and easy to hold in the hand as they no longer rested as they did in the 10th and 11th centuries on the
ambon of the churches or in the
sacristies. The ornamentation did become richer, and the space previously given to the miniatures was increased to full pages or the middle of the text. From the middle of the 13th century, there was a dramatic increase in the number of illuminated manuscripts. Bibles,
lectionaries and
psalters were starting to get illuminated. Moreover, not only did the style got refined, it became richer and more ornamental in nature. According to one of the specialists of Cilician miniature in the Matenadaran, "The thick layers of paint in large sizes and the small range of the colors reminded me of frescoes. The Cilician miniature of the 13th century is, on the contrary, a book painting in its own right: it is made to be looked at closely, because this is the only way to fully appreciate the elegant and complex lines, the finesse of the ornaments and the richness shown by the range of colors. It collaborates shades of thick blue with bright red, the refinement of purplish mauves, the delicacy of pink and pale green, light blue and the shimmer of gold". Several schools or artistic centers can be distinguished, including
Hromgla, a
fortified monastery located on the banks of the
Euphrates, it was the seat of the
Catholicos, the head of the Armenian Church;
Drazark,
Akner and
Grner near
Sis, the capital of the kingdom and Skevra in the lands of the
Hethumids, of which the
Skevra Evangeliary (in the
National Library of Warsaw) is an example (late eleventh century). Among the dignitaries, some names appear such as
Nerses the Gracious,
Nerses Lambronatsi, the catholicos
Constantine I Bartzabertsi and archbishop
Ovannes. According to Drampian: "the art of illumination in Cilicia knew its greatest splendor between 1250 and 1280. But this period of flowering was prepared by a century and a half of evolution and continued for another half-century, although with less brilliance. The Cilician style began to define itself at the end of the 12th century and asserted itself in the 13th century, especially after 1250". The middle of the 13th century was a period of new phases in the search for pictorial elements. The forms came out of the rigidity of the medieval canons, the painting depth in the composition widened, and the characters acquired curves, rich modeling and more natural postures.
Toros Roslin This trend of realism was asserted with the coming of
Toros Roslin, (disciple of a man named Kirakos who was his immediate predecessor, his older contemporary and probably his master). Few of his biographical details are known, the same is true for other painters of this period. According to the colophons from 1250 to 1260 AD, he worked in
Hromgla. He was considered the most prominent miniaturist of the scriptorium while enjoying the patronage of the
Catholicos Constantine I. There are currently only seven manuscripts signed by him. All of them were produced in Hromgla between 1256 and 1268. The latest and most well-preserved of the seven surviving manuscripts is the
Malatia Gospel of 1268 (Matenadaran, Ms. 10675). Roslin was the leading artist of his time, notable for his use of a wide range of bright colors and his choices of color plays, most notably allying blue with gold enhanced by a linear white speckled with red and pale mauves with velvety greens. The figures found in his miniatures are known for their realistic proportions, something rare during the medieval period. He seems to have borrowed the motifs and ornaments he uses from everyday life. “A serene solemnity emits from Roslin's paintings, a strange fusion of peaceful joy and slight melancholy. The aesthetic ideal of the artist shines through in the regularity of the facial features of his characters, a reflection of their spiritual beauty. In his miniatures,
Jesus does not have the majestic and severe expression of
transcendence. His face is imbued with gentleness and nobility, traits that must have belonged to the inner world of the artist himself. Roslin wanted to make the image of Christ more human and accessible to his contemporaries”. Another anonymous manuscript of Matenadaran has been attributed to Toros Roslin, but only 38 of its pages remain. These are fragments of the Gospel of 1266 (Ms. 5458) executed at the monastery of
Hromgla, at the order of King
Hethum I. "The
calligraphy is of great beauty: the subtly drawn black and gold characters, initials and finely ornamented marginal patterns are arranged on the page with remarkable taste and sensitivity. There are only two marginal miniatures representing Christ. Their technical perfection exudes a deep spirituality. All these qualities suggest that this manuscript was one of the most beautiful specimens of Cilician art," says
Irina Drampian in her study.
Cilician miniatures after Toros Roslin When the end of the “classical” period arrived, another trend is known as the "Armenian baroque" appeared at the beginning of the 1280s. The manuscripts of this period were executed in monasteries located near the city of
Sis. The Lectionary (Matenadaran, Ms. 979) of 1286 is the most lavish and richly illustrated manuscript of this period in the history of Armenian illumination. Commissioned by the Crown Prince (the future
Hethum II to whom also belonged the
Gospel of Malatia of
Toros Roslin), this manuscript is adorned with miniatures on almost all of its pages, the number of which exceeds four hundred. According to Drampian: "The manuscript reflects the new orientations taken by Cilician painting from the 1280s onwards. There is a convulsive and dramatic expressiveness. These features are reflected in the general structure of the miniature as well as in detail elements, such as the shape of the silhouettes, the contour lines and the refinement of the intense and vibrant tones". Another Gospel (Matenadaran, Ms. 9422), whose original
colophon was lost and replaced in the 14th century, recounts the turbulent history of the manuscript when it was in the
monastery of Saint John the Holy Precursor of
Mush.
Iconographer Irina Drampian reports the story as such: "In the mid-14th century, the monks of this monastery were forced to hide a series of manuscripts, including this Gospel (Ms. 9422), to save them from strangers. They only opened their hiding place several years later and found that many manuscripts had gotten
moldy and could not be read, so they buried them. Fortunately, a certain deacon named
Simeon got wind of the matter, dug up the manuscripts, gave them away for restoration, then returned them to the monastery of Mush. Despite all these misfortunes, this Gospel retains an astonishing freshness, shimmering and vibrant colors, and we admire the aesthetics of its miniatures which are among the most poetic of the book art in Armenia". These monks had a lot of idiosyncrasies in their imagination, and it is not always easy to decipher their symbolism. "There is no doubt that the Cilician miniaturists knew the writings of
Nerses the Gracious, since he was destined for them. But they were careful not to follow the prescriptions exactly. They did not always take into account the symbolic meaning attributed to certain motifs and grouped them according to their own fantasy, so as to obtain purely decorative effects. If the birds that quench their thirst in the water of a basin are the souls thirsty for immortality, if the pomegranates that hide the sweetness of their fruits under a bark symbolize the goodness of the
prophets, if the slender palms represent the
righteousness that rises to the sky, it is more difficult to explain the presence in the canons of elements such as a human silhouette with a monkey or goat head that holds a flower or a
horn of abundance and dancers or naked horsemen, etc. life that bubbled around artists, with its circus performances, its mysteries, its hunting. They are also certainly the fruit of the fertile imagination of illuminators"....”. Pitsak remained a very skillful painter. He enjoyed great prestige among the miniaturists of the Vaspurakan school of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He imposed it by the ornamental richness of his painting, more familiar and more accessible, it is true, to the artists of the people than by the research and finesse of the miniatures of the 13th century. This painter, rather cold, does not take into account all the novelties introduced in the illumination by
Roslin and his successors. For the
iconography analyst Irina Drampian: "his miniatures have no architectural elements or landscapes. The silhouettes are arranged on a
gold background dotted with ornamental motifs. The characters are not really treated in flat figuration, but the painter has no concern to render the volume of the human body, nor to give the silhouettes natural poses. Movements are conventional and not very expressive, while the modeling of faces is obtained by a wide use of graphic lines more than by the play of color. The contours have lost all expressiveness and all stylistic character, while the shapes have become heavier. The shades of mauve, lilac and soft green have completely disappeared from the color range to make way for colors without shades. Bright red is associated with blue and gray brown, and gold is widely used". The work of these miniaturists marks the end of the golden age of Cilician illumination. Its history suffered a sudden break at the beginning of the 14th century. Toros Roslin's simple style was no longer fashionable. The illuminators of the 14th century got heavily influenced by the iconography of the East. "This abrupt turn in the art of the book in Cilicia coincides with dramatic events that were upsetting the political and social life of the country. The devastating incursions of the Egyptian Mamluks dealt a fatal blow to Cilicia, already weakened by internal strife, causing the Kingdom to fall at the end of the 14th century." As a result, the Armenians came into contact with the art of the countries where they had found refuge, but they still maintained their national traditions. Of these numerous colonies, the Crimean one remained one of the most important and it reached its full bloom in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Crimea Three hundred Armenian manuscripts from
Crimea are in the
Matenadaran; these works are at the crossroads of traditions, schools and various trends. The influence of Greek and Italian cultures is dominant because they are known through the emigrants from these countries who settled in Crimea. According to
Emma Korkhmazian, "the art of the book shows a certain
eclecticism at first. But over time, the Armenians of Crimea have formed their own characteristics, such as the association of the visual layout and the painted miniature in the same manuscript: next to the polychrome miniatures, the ornamental patterns are colored in only one or two tones applied in light gradient. The colors of the miniatures are slightly muted. They are laid in thick, compact layers. The most common combination is dark blue and mauve, while red, yellow and ochre are used only in moderation. The most representative painters of these two trends are Avetis, Arakel, Kirakos and Stepanos. This school is characterized on the one hand by the pasty application of color, a pictorial manner without great finesse and a tendency to simplify the shapes, but also by a great thoroughness in the treatment of the characters and especially of their faces". The art of the
Paleologian renaissance has left its mark on the school of Crimea. The Gospel of 1332 (Matenadaran, Ms. 7664), copied and illustrated in Surkhat (modern
Staryi Krym) bears the imprint of this Byzantine influence which demonstrates freedom and boldness, with its desire to accurately interpret the textures and volumes, its ability to place the characters in the most varied movements and postures adds to the brilliance of its dynamism: "the spirit and enthusiasm of some miniatures makes them real scenes of genre. We think in particular of the episode of the
Merchants driven from the Temple, the cycle dedicated to the life of
John the evangelist and the
Passion of Christ. The slightly elongated oval shape of the faces, their delicate model, their soft and almost dull colors, light shadows of a gloomy green, are all unusual elements for Armenian miniatures. They resemble the
Byzantine or
southern Slavic models of the early 14th century. Each miniature stands out against the whiteness of the background with a sharpness and shine reminiscent of
easel painting." The most notable of these miniaturists is the 14th-century painter
Hovhanes, his style was clearly influenced by
Italian art, as can be seen by his use of chromatic contrasts and the play of the light shadows to render the volume.Among the Matenadaran manuscripts that have not preserved a colophon are three
14th-century Gospels (Ms. 318, Ms. 4060 and Ms. 7699) whose origin has recently been located in
Surkhat in
Crimea. The style of their miniatures is a synthesis of Cilician traditions and the style of late Byzantine art, with its Hellenistic elements and its aspiration for a more realistic and pictorial rendering. The use of
chiaroscuro dominates the play of contrasts, and the innovative spirit is revealed in the style of the figures: "their collected, almost palpable figures are built with more freedom. Their faces with animated features and the general softness of the shapes bring the illustrations of these three Gospels closer to the painting of the Southern Slavs contemporary to their time".
Other colonies Apart from Crimea, the oldest and most important manuscript is a part of the Bible copied and illustrated in
Bologna (Matenadaran, Ms. 2705) which dates from the late 12th century, it is known for its rich ornamentation. According to the latest research. After the
fall of Constantinople in 1204, a number of painters emigrated to Italy, "where they exercised until the beginning of the 14th century a significant influence on the development of the arts. The illustrations in the Bologna Bible are of refined elegance and bear witness to a certain artistic taste. The tones are soft and very nuanced, the shapes are modeled with great finesse of detail, while the compositions reveal an unusual mastery. The Western contribution is manifested in the appearance of new subjects, such as the Apocalypse". At the beginning of the 18th century, an Armenian monastery was founded by
Mkhitar Sebastatsi on
San Lazzaro degli Armeni, an island not far from Venice. Its congregation had and still has a rich library of a collection of manuscripts, a museum and a publishing house that make this place an island of Armenian culture on the territory of Italy. == Decline ==