Armenian Marvels

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Berdj Achdjian writes: Since the dark years of Communism, the most
marvellous Armenian liturgical textiles have lain buried in the
reserves of the National History Museum of Armenia and the Treasury of
Edjmiadsin (the equivalent of the Vatican for Armenians) and, it must
be admitted, under layers of dust. When, in 1978, I went for the
first time to Armenia and saw these textiles,I started to dream that
one day they would be displayed in the world’s greatest museums.

Thirty years later, encouraged by Dickran Kouymjian, Marielle
Martiniani-Reber from the Musée Historique in Geneva and Genevieve
Cornu grasped the importance of the subject and drew up a plan for an
exhibition. Events led to it being the Musée Historique in Lyon which
turned the plan into reality and presented this exhibition of textiles
and works of art from the National History Museum of Armenia and the
Treasury of the Holy See of Edjmiadsin. Much credit is due to
Maria-Anne Privat-Savigny, chief curator of the Musée des Arts
Décoratifs de Lyon, who gave the go-ahead for the project to take
place during the Year of Armenia.

This exhibition is divided into two exhibitions in two locations. The
first, major one is at the Musée des Tissus de Lyon, presenting altar
curtains, clothing and other textiles involved in the Armenian
liturgy. The other, more private exhibition is at the Musée de
Fourvière, presenting liturgical textiles such as embroidered mitres
or chasubles, and in particular works of gold and silver.

I would advise visitors to start at the Musée des Arts
Décoratifs(1). There they will be able to admire choir curtains,
altar curtains, altar frontals, chevet hangings, chasubles (churdjar,
shurjar), tunic collars, priests=80=99 albs (chabik, schabig), mitres
(khoyr, ghoygh), sacerdotal headdresses (saghavart, saravart), chalice
veils and other components of textile art associated with the Armenian
liturgy (cuffs, stoles, epigonations [konk’er] etc…). Then they
should visit the Musée de Fourvière, where the sight of the
Catholico’s chasuble from the Treasury of Edjmiadsin alone is worth
the journey (inv.628, cat.no.55).

It is the veracity, the authenticity of the works that first impressed
me about these exhibitions. The gold is real gold, the silks have a
sublime beauty, the materials overall are of prime excellence. The
quality of the work is of the highest standard. The hours spent in
embroidery, weaving and needlework were not stinted. Here one sees a
character trait of the Armenian spirit since the 17th and 18th
centuries, positioned in the culture of the true, the rich, the
concrete – the culture of gold and linen – and not in the culture of
appearances. These works of art testify and testified to the power and
wealth of those who donated or commissioned them. Moreover, everyone
gave depending on his ability to sacrifice his fortune, time or skill
to make or have made the most beautiful, most lavish and most
intelligent work.

Having lost their nation, Armenians concentrated a large part of their
efforts and energy on gifts to their churches, standard-bearers of
their identity. Gold and silk to demonstrate to all of you who I am,
gold and silk for the salvation of my soul, gold and silk for the
salvation of the Armenian community.

The second idea which struck me most concerning the creation of these
works is the culture of diversity and of the spirit of eclecticism
that they embody. On a technical level: the most sophisticated samite
techniques using gold thread and silk are echoed by the simplest of
technical methods: printing on fabric, the felting technique. The
omophorion (yemiporum, cat.ill.83), dated in the catalogue to the 19th
century but which I believe is in fact attributable to the 17th
century, a jewel of technical prowess (samite), all gold thread and
luxury, is countered by three choir curtains of painted cotton cloth
attributed to the painter Poghos Ter-Mosevov (Boghos Ter-Mo[v]sesov).

On an artistic level, the divergences are identical: one is
transported from figurative art to the cartoon strip, as in a painted
cotton choir curtain (cat.no.15, 3), or even to abstract art, as in an
altar cloth of reserve-printed cotton (cat.no.106).

There is diversity of materials, from gold thread to linen; diversity
of forms and formats, from the monumental to the very small; diversity
of types of sensibility. All these probably derive from the fact that
Armenians were scattered across the Middle East, the Far East and the
West, and all these influences are reflected. From a very early date
Armenians were trading between Amsterdam, Versailles, Marseille, Lyon,
Genoa, Venice, Constantinople, Smyrna, Caesarea, Tiflis, Tabriz,
Isfahan, Madras and Canton … Just as the Silk Route existed, so too
did the Armenian route. These two trading routes often intersected
and, for the Armenians, the major points of convergence were their
major religious centres: Constantinople, Edjmiadsin and Jerusalem. In
this respect, Armenian textile art was already an international art in
the 17th, 18th and19th centuries, reflecting a certain degree of
`globalisation’. It spoke of Jerusalem while passing from Versailles
to Madras.

The third idea I would like to address is the `deep’ function of the
Armenian textile arts. I am not talking about obvious primary
functions =80` collar, chasuble, hanging, curtains etc – but of their
deeper meaning, their absolute reason for existing.

The Armenian mass makes a maximum appeal to the five senses: hearing
=80` the incredible beauty of the musical liturgy of the Armenian
mass, half-canticle, half-opera; smell – the wafts of incense that
intoxicate your nostrils; sight – the luxuriance of silks, gold, the
colours associated with the scenography of the mass, inscribed in the
architecture; touch – invoked by the multiple feel of textiles,
materials, everything one can touch in a church, both by feeling it
with their own hands and through the touch of fellow worshippers; and
even taste, since in the Armenian Church almost everybody receives
communion by ingesting mazz (a form of unleavened bread).

The Armenian mass is a concentration of paradise on earth. This
testifies to a need for re-energisation in a hostile environment where
massacres succeeded wars, where earthquakes were associated with
genocide, where epidemics alternated with food shortages.

In order to soothe the Armenian soul, all these gold and silk
textiles, veritable reflections of divine light, could only captivate
and focus the attention. Religious clothing reflects an idealised
vision of the Armenian nation. Gold glitters from all sides,
captivating eye and spirit. These works – acting as a point of
fixation for the concentration required on the parishioners=80=99 part
and as a sort of textile therapy – had the power to cauterise the
grief of the Armenian people and contributed to the survival of the
group.

These textiles relate both the history of the Armenians and that of
Europeans and Asians. The Last Supper (inv.no.E-1986, cat.no.10),
which includes figures wearing Dutch shoes and a typically Dutch
copper lustrum, tells us as much about Dutch life in the 18th century
as Armenian life. A choir curtain witha Crucifixion scene (inv.no.229,
cat.no.16) reveals as much about Georgian as Armenian art. Another
curtain whose subject is the Allegorical Baptism of Christ
(inv.no.E-1985, cat.no.12, above), brings together influences from
Mughal, Rhenish-Basle and Irano-Zoroastrian art in elements such as
the Wildman andthe treatment of the sun and moon.

Such influences, brought together, in no way stop me personally from
feeling I am facing a work of Armenian art. This testifies to the
formidable capacity of Armenians to adapt to others, to love and
understand them, without forgetting their Armenian specificity. The
important thing is not to fear other people and to remain onself.

This is a major exhibition. Without any doubt it marks the beginning
of a series of exhibitions on textiles `swallowed up’ during
thecommunist years, both in Armenia and in some of the 14 other
republics of the former Soviet bloc. One can start dreaming about
seeing textile masterpieces from Georgia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine
… and indeed Russia. Curators of textile departments, fans of
textile art, textile collectors, go and see it; it concerns you. There
is no doubt that Armenians were active figures in textile creation in
the Middle East and in Asia, and this exhibition is a dazzling
demonstration ofthis. But in addition, for all those who feel
themselves to be men and women of goodwill and who have had to suffer
oppression, sorrow, it represents a marvellous hymn to life and to
survival through the medium of the visual arts, and more particularly
the textile arts.

The general organisers of the exhibition are Maria-Anne
Privat-Savigny, assisted by Claire Clergue (Musée des Arts
Décoratifs), and Bernard Berthod (Musée de Fourvière). Technical
analyses were carried out skilfully by Marie-Hélène Guelton. The
restoration workshop at the Musée des Tissus de Lyon is directed by
Marie Schoefer and Denise Cotta.

Or et Trésors d’Arménie (Gold and Treasures from Armenia)
Musée des Tissus et des Arts Décoratifs de Lyon
34, rue de la Charité
69002 Lyon
Musée de Fourvière
8 place de Fourvière
69005 Lyon
22 March – 15 July 2007

In collaboration with Cultures-France, the National History Museum of
Armenia and the Holy See of Edjmiadsin.