‘LARGER PICTURE’ OF ARMENIAN, BYZANTIUM CULTURES ANALYZED

Belmont Citizen-Herald
fun/entertainment/arts/x1751719105/-Larger-picture -of-Armenian-Byzantium-cultures-analyzed
Nov 18 2008
MA

Belmont, Mass. – Dr. Helen Evans, Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator
for Byzantine Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City,
presented an illustrated lecture entitled "Armenia and Byzantium:
The Larger Picture" on Oct. 30, at the NAASR Center. The lecture was
co-sponsored by the Ararat Lodge of the Knights of Vartan and NAASR.

NAASR Director of Academic Affairs Marc A. Mamigonian introduced
Dr. Evans and expressed NAASR’s gratitude for the participation of
the Knights of Vartan and in particular the assistance of Nigoghos
Atinizian in making the evening possible.

Evans’ lecture was organized around the magnificent medieval khachkar
(stone) cross from the Lori region of Armenia that is on long-term
loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art from the Republic of Armenia.

Evans stated at the outset that she was "going to consider [the
khachkar’s] role as a gospel in stone, and through that ask how
its images open windows into the character of Armenian art" and the
"larger world picture that often relates Armenia to Byzantium." Noting
that khachkars are a distinctive Armenian art form "that we consider
without parallels in Byzantium," she proceeded to explain why she
relates it to a gospel book — and that it is "the gospels rather
than icons which are generally venerated in Armenia."

At the base of the khachkar are visual representations of the four
gospels: the symbols of the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John:
that is, an angel’s head for Matthew, a lion’s head for Mark, an ox for
Luke, and an eagle for John. Evans then compared these representations
to other depictions in Armenian illuminated manuscripts as well as
in sculptures adorning churches of roughly the same period. It is
significant, as Evans observed, that the cross at the center of the
khachkar "rises directly from the crown of the angel, making explicit
the gospels’ role in the revelation of salvation."

Above the cross on the khachkar is "a large arch and to its sides
on the upper edges … are small pairs of birds facing what must be
fountains." The birds are strongly reminiscent of similarly placed
birds in the elaborately decorated canon tables of Armenian and
Byzantine illuminated manuscripts. The bird imagery is by no means
unique to Armenian tradition, but Evans then posed the question,
"What, if anything, do birds mean in an Armenian religious context?"

By way of an answer, she showed and discussed a famous and important
example: a mosaic floor of an Armenian funerary chapel in Jerusalem
from the 5th or 6th century A.D. that preserves not only one of the
earliest preserved examples of Armenian writing but also an elaborate
decorative program of grapevines and birds. The writing dedicates
the chapel "to the memory and salvation of all Armenians whose name
the Lord knows." Evans explained that in "early Armenian texts, birds
are clearly identified as symbols of the resurrected, those who were
good in life," a concept inherited from Armenia’s Zoroastrian past.

Evans then discussed some of the political interconnections between
Armenia and Byzantium that accompanied the artistic ones. For example,
around the same time the mosaic was made, on Golgotha in Jerusalem
stood a jeweled cross containing part of the True Cross. In the
early 7th century, Jerusalem was sacked by the Persians and the cross
was taken away. In the 620s it was rescued by the Byzantine emperor
Heraclios, whose father was Armenian.

She also examined in detail "the only image of a Byzantine general
in military dress that survives" from the medieval period, in the
Adrianople Gospels, produced in Armenian by the scribe Krikor in
1007. Evans explained that the general who owned the gospel and who is
depicted "must have taken an oath of loyalty to the Orthodox Church of
the empire" or else he could not have achieved such a high rank. Thus,
"the work is an expression of a duality that needs further study. The
general, whose gospel book is written in Armenian, served an emperor
who was a descendant of the half Armenian Byzantine emperor Basil
I and a duke whose family is also thought to have been of Armenian
origin." The gospel book, therefore, "should be understood…as
representing a bridge between two cultures — that of the Armenian
world from which the emperor and the general emerged and that of the
empire which they served."

In the course of her lecture, Evans provided numerous additional
striking examples of the intersection of the two cultures. She summed
up, saying that "In studying Armenian and Byzantine art, we should
understand the importance of identifying what is unique to those
cultures, but we should also seek to understand the interweaving
between peoples that reach across the world." Too often the emphasis
has been on viewing the one to the exclusion of the other — a practice
that, fortunately, has fallen out of favor. Evans’ lecture and her work
as a curator at the Metropolitan Museum stand as a strong statement
in favor of the integrative approach.

Evans is a specialist in Byzantine and Armenian art who has been a
member of the Department of Medieval Art at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art since 1991. She curated the exhibition "Treasures in Heaven:
Armenian Illuminated Manuscripts" at the Morgan Library in 1994
and at the Metropolitan Museum her major exhibitions have been the
acclaimed "The Glory of Byzantium (843-1261)" in 1997 and "Byzantium:
Faith and Power (1261-1557)" in 2004. She installed the museum’s Mary
and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Byzantine Art in 2000 and recently
completed its expansion and reinstallation this year.

More information about the lecture is available by calling
617-489-1610, faxing 617-484-1759, e-mailing hq@naasr.org, or writing
to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress