Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/41

ARMENIAN ART. both Persian and Roman influences penetrated simultaneously. Building had been almost entirely in wood, except in the case of the numerous fortresses. The only ruins yet studied of the Roman period are those at Karni. This region seems to have become an important centre for the propagation of that most interesting form of barbaric art which we associate with Goths, Celts, Scandinavians, Anglo-Saxons, Lombards, and other early Germanic tribes, and of which the treasury of Guerrazar is the most brilliant example. Its main characteristics are: The technique of cloisonne enamel, the setting of colored glass in metal bands soldered to a metal ground, and the use of geometric ornamentation. Beginning in Central Asia, it passed westward, apparently with the emigration of the Goths, by whom it was presumably imparted to the other tribes. Shortly after, when the country had become Christianized, the history of architecture and monumental sculpture in this region began. The churches built between the Seventh and Sixteenth centuries are not large, but have considerable character.

The Caucasus felt the influence of Byzantine art at all times, but added to it, and to its own inherited traits, something from Syria, whose missionaries had converted it and formed its literature. At one time Armenia became, in fact, a province of the Empire politically as well as artistically. Then, during the Middle Ages, the Crusaders gave a Western tinge, and still later came the influence of Russian art. The earliest known church of Armenia, Saint Ripsima's at Vagashabad (618), is thoroughly Byzantine, a Greek cross with its four arms ending in apses and a central dome raised on a drum, circular inside and polygonal outside. As in so many Byzantine churches, the cruciform plan does not appear on the outside, as chapels fill in the spaces between the arms. The church at Usunlar, with its peristyle colonnade, dates from 718-729. Both are still without ornament. It is possible that the church at Dighbur, from its similarities to buildings in Central Syria of the Sixth Century, may be even earlier. Pitzeuda (c. Fifteenth Century), with its high dome and tunnel vaults, is very Byzantine. The culmination of a new style appears in the Cathedral of Ani (1010 A.D.), the most interesting church of Armenia. The exterior, with its central dome raised on a high square drum, its exterior decorated with colonettes, its internal clustered piers and pointed arches, as well as its vaulting system, reminds us in many ways of the European architecture. At the same date a church was built at Mokwi, Byzantine in every particular, and with the greatest similarity to the early Russian Church of Saint Sophia at Novgorod. The contemporary Cathedral of Kiutas in Imerethia is of equal importance, but its plan is basilical instead of a Greek cross. This century was most prolific. In Abkhasia, the church of Mowki, with a charming dome and five naves with slender stone piers and cornices of great delicacy; that of Martvili, in Mingrelia, with exquisite decorative details, are samples of a numerous class of which others are at Manglis, Kaben, Sion, Zarzma, etc. Later, in the Twelfth Century, are others at Bethania, Vardzia, Ghelathi. The purely architectural moldings are very simple; a cornice of a simple cove, sometimes decorated with painted or carved palmettes or foliage; a rude, ball-shaped capital; a torus molding woven into patterns and often carried out so as to join the windows and decorative plaques in one scheme of ornament covering the whole façade. The climax is reached in the Fifteenth Century in the Church of Mtzkhet in Georgia, Armenian in its dome and plan, Byzantine in its proportions, Georgian in its rich interlaced decorative patterns with the addition of Byzantine floral designs. Statuary and figures in relief appear to have been systematically avoided, and when used were crude and provincial. In some churches the king, bishop, or architect is represented holding the model of the building; or Christ is blessing. But the animal and decorative sculpture is much more artistic. The fighting animals are a reminiscence of Persian art; the peacocks, doves, griffins, and dragons, heraldically arrayed or intertwined with vines, are derived from Byzantine models.

The most successful use of decorative sculpture is in the broad bands surrounding the church windows and in the panels let into the walls. These are in very flat and low relief, and are often highly original, differing from Byzantine work and bearing a most remarkable resemblance to the patterns in Celtic-Irish, Anglo-Saxon, and Frankish illuminated manuscripts. This is especially the case in churches of the Eleventh to the Fifteenth centuries. It is interesting that inscriptions were turned to extremely decorative purposes, just as they were in Mohammedan art. The most decorative class of smaller works are the sepulchral slabs usually erected like antique stiles on pedestals in the open air. Their design is graceful in outline and delicate in the detail of their arabesque and lace-work patterns around a central cross or rosette. One cannot help seeing in such as these the originals of the famous Irish, Welsh, and Saxon stone crosses, which are far less exquisite in design and execution. Wood-carving and ivory-carving were practiced, as is shown by some church doors and a multitude of images, book-covers, crosiers, crosses, and other bits of handiwork. But the highest efforts of Georgian and Armenian decoration, with its amalgamation of Sassanian-Persian, of Byzantine and Mohammedan design, are shown in the goldsmith's work, where the metals are combined with enamels and set stones. The treasuries of monasteries and churches in Suanetia, Mingrelia, and other provinces are still extremely rich in such works; especially Etchmiadzin, the national sanctuary of Armenia, Ghelathi, Khopi, Tchukul, etc. None of them are earlier than the Tenth Century. In most cases the ornamentation surrounds some sacred image. The elaborate geometric design, so difficult to follow, and yet so thoroughly scientific, winds over the entire gold surface inclosing the enamels surrounded by pearls, the precious stones framed in gold cloisons. The cloisonné enamel employed is another link both with Byzantium and with the primitive jewelry of the Goths and their imitators, the Germanic tribes. It is probable that the process originated in this very region. The local style of figured enamels, of great originality in the Ninth to Twelfth centuries, and independent of Byzantium, is brilliantly shown in those of the Khakul image at Ghelathi and others at Sion, Djumati, Khopi, etc. In jewelry, figured compositions were not avoided, as in large sculpture: especially where the art came strongly under Byzantine influence, and the figures in their crude realism and exaggerated movement again connect with Carlovingian and other branches of