So
little remains of the wall paintings that we could think of them as being
very rare, and reserved for apses, but a 7th century treatise against
iconoclast (attributed to the poet Vrdanes Kertogh) provides interesting
information on church decoration. In the first place, the author declared
that "Armenians being unable to depict image," they were made
by Greeks, and he listed the most popular themes: representations of Christ,
the virgin Theotokos, saints and evangelical scenes.
The best preserved example of paintings is at Lmbatavank,
where a prophetic vision taken from Ezekiel (1, 1-21) and Isaiah (6, 1-9)
is represented in the apse: Christ-God is seated on a throne ornamented
with precious stones, between seraphs and apse, above wheels and flames.
There are no living creatures, only those creatures covered with eyes
that are found on the paintings of the eastern Christian cultures.
|
 |
Church
of St. Stephen at Lmbatavank (Ayrarat), 7th century |
 |
Painting. Church
of the Holy Cross at Aghtamar (Vaspurakan), 10th century |
 |
Painting. Church
of the Holy Cross at Aghtamar (Vaspurakan), 10th century |
|
The
major factor concerning Armenian mural painting during the Age of Kingdoms,
sometimes called the First Renaissance (9th - 12th century), is that it
was banned from the Kingdom of Ani because it was feared that images would
lead congregations to adhere to Greek Chalcedonism. Paintings were therefore
only used in neighboring kingdoms or the lands to which Armenians had
emigrated. Even there large compositions seem to have been commissioned
in exceptions circumstances, sometimes requiring assistance from foreign
artists, which eliminates comparative study of these works.
This is not to say that there were no Armenian painters at
that times, and the historian Stepanos Orbelian mentions that a man called
Eghishe painted the décor at Gndevank. Two other small decorations
were probable executed by itinerant Armenian monks: a Crucifixion surrounded
by Armenian inscriptions is painted on a panel in cave chapel No.7 in
the Georgian "desert" of Sabereebi, next to a Georgian painting.
Another painting decorates the altar apse of the White monastery at Sohag
in Egypt.
|
 |
Head of Smbat. Church of Saint Sion
at Ateni, (Georgia),12th century |
 |
An Unidentified Saint.Three-apsed
church at Til, (Fourth Armenia) 11th century |
 |
The Daughters of Sion. Cave Church
#7 at Sabereebi (Georgia), 9th century |
|
Mural
paintings were as widely used in eastern Siunia as in Vaspurakan, at Gndevank
and at Orotnavank, but they are now only insignificant traces. The only
mural still quite well preserved is in the church of St. Peter and St.
Paul in Tatev. It was commissioned by the Metropolitan Yakov I in 930,
and fragments of a Last Judgment, of a Nativity, and also
of figures of prophets and Apostles in the altar-apse. The composition
of the Last Judgment derives from the Carolingian and post-Carolingian
tradition, which associates the separation of the good and the bad with
the resurrection of the dead. In the Nativity, the shepherds and
the angels are placed in the western manner. As for the Bathing of
the Child, it may be of eastern origin, but it had been a widely spread
motif since the 6th century, and the surviving figure of the midwife is
typically Carolingian.
Indeed, the style of these paintings, characterized by the
nearly Cubist treatment of the faces, the radiating style of the shadows,
and the broken lines of the drapes belongs to a composite art reminiscent
of 8th and 9th century Roman and northern Italian art, of the miniatures
produced by the Schools of Ada, Tours (France), and of the art of the
School of Reichneau of the late 10th century.
|
 |
A Midwife Bathing the Infant Christ.
Church of St. Peter and St. Paul at Tatev, 10th century |
 |
Two Prophets at the Feet of Christ.
Church of St. Peter and St. Paul at Tatev, 10th century |
 |
Christ in a Medallion. Church of Bakhtaghek
at Ani (Ayrarat), 13th century |
 |
Scenes from the Life of St. Gregory.
Church of St. Gregory of Tigran Honenci at Ani (Ayrarat), 13th century |
|
During
the Council of Sis (1) in 1204, the interdiction of depicting images of
Christ and the saints was tacitly lifted "they will not be rejected
as pagan images any more." Consequently, painting blossomed in new
churches and also in existing buildings. This art form was so foreign
to the Armenians that patrons were obliged to call on Georgian painters.
These artists were very much influenced by Byzantine art, and introduced
its style and iconography into Armenia.
This is illustrated in two of the best preserved compositions,
one in the large church at Kobayr (12th century), the other, in the church
of St. Gregory of Tigran Honenci at Ani (13th century).
|
 |
Nativity. St. Gregory of Tigran Honenci at Ani,
13th century |
 |
The Community of the Apostles, The large church
at Kbayr, 12th century |
|
| In modern
times, interior mural painting was quite fashionable, especially in the
southern provinces of Armenia, where it tended to be used as in mosques:
vine scrolls in cartouches, disposed symmetrically on arches, or radiating
from a rosette in cupolas, as at Aghulis and Abrakunis in Nakhijevan,
but also geometrical motifs, gratings with flowers as at Tiramor at Van,
in Vaspurakan, or Xulevank in Fourth Armenia. But there were also figures
and scenes: religious hierarchy and the most famous Armenian saints are
depicted in a resolutely European style in the jamatoun at Varag (1648).
Scenes from the Old and the New Testaments, and figures of military saints
are shown on brightly colored panels surrounded by flowered frames at
Aznaberd in Nakhijevan. |
 |
Jamatoun of St. George at Varagavank,
17th century |
 |
Paintings in the Choir. St. george
at Mughni (Ayrarat), 17th century |
|
