Christian Art - (4. The Christian Orient)

Copyright © 2021. Lion Hudson. All rights reserved.
Brown, Michelle P.. Christian Art, Lion Hudson, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/oxford/detail.action?docID=6473802.
Created from oxford on 2023-04-27 13:10:31.
CHAPTER 4
THE CHRISTIAN ORIENT
The Christian Art of Palestine, Armenia, Georgia and Syria
The Greek Church began to achieve ascendancy around the eastern Mediterranean from 381
CE, when an ecumenical (universal) council declared that Constantinople exerted an equal
authority in the East to that of Rome in the West. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE five
supreme patriarchates were established: Constantinople, Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and
Jerusalem. Constantinople was accorded jurisdiction over Asia Minor and the eastern
Balkans and evangelized there. In 588 CE Patriarch John IV of Constantinople declared
himself Ecumenical Patriarch – a title retained by the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church to
this day, while the leader of Catholic Orthodoxy in the West retains the title of ‘Pope’. The
authority of the other early patriarchates was severely curtailed by the spread of Islam from
the seventh century onwards, but the Coptic (Monophysite, named for its espousal of the
doctrine of the ‘single nature’ of Christ) Church is still led by its own pope, the Patriarch of
Alexandria.
Debate and Division

The theological debates that dominated the fourth and fifth century proved extremely divisive
and led to a hard-line condemnation of heretical sects by the ‘orthodox’ church, which in the
process increasingly defined itself. Almost as soon as the Edict of Milan sanctioned the
existence of the church, disputes concerning its beliefs and practices arose. Eager to prevent
division, Constantine convened the first international ecumenical council at Nicaea in 325 CE.
This condemned Arianism – the heretical teaching of an Alexandrian priest, Arius, which
claimed that Christ was one of God’s created creatures and that his nature was similar to but
not the same as God’s – and promoted the concept advanced by another Alexandrian prelate,
Athanasius, that they were of one substance. In 431 CE the Council of Ephesus condemned
the thoughts of Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, concerning the relationship between
Christ and the Virgin, whom he viewed as mother of the human part of Christ, fearing that
the implications of this would split Christ’s nature into two; this caused the Eastern Syriac
Church to splinter off. The crucial Council of Chalcedon (451 CE), however, pronounced that
Christ did indeed possess two natures, human and divine, which coexisted but were not
merged. The Egyptians objected, championing the Monophysite belief that Christ possessed
only one nature, causing a breach between the Orthodox and Monophysite (Western Syriac or
Jacobite, Coptic, and Ethiopic) Churches. The Armenians, busy fighting the Persians, did not
attend Chalcedon and retained an ambiguous position regarding Monophysitism. Georgia
broke with Byzantium following the Council, but resumed relations in 607 CE, becoming an
autocephalous (self-governing) Orthodox Church – as did the Slavic Churches that were
subsequently established. A number of independent churches therefore came into existence,
each with its own languages, traditions and approaches to art.
Armenia (or Hay as its inhabitants called themselves) was the first nation officially to
adopt Christianity as its state religion in the early fourth century. Its conversion is ascribed to
St Gregory the Illuminator, who emerged from the pit in which he was imprisoned for fifteen
years by King Trdat III to convert him, establish Christianity and become Catholicos of the
Armenian Church in 314 CE. During the fifth century the church suffered persecution at the
hands of the Persians (although there was also a Christian Persian Church which nonetheless
survived), and in a Council at Dvin in 506 CE it was decided that Armenia would subscribe to
the first three great ecumenical councils but would not subscribe to the rulings of Chalcedon
– causing the Byzantines to regard it as heretical and aligned with the Monophysites.
The Development of Armenian Art

Armenia has produced a fine tradition of ecclesiastical art, knowledge of which has been
constrained by its usual characterization, until recently, as an orientalized extension of
mainstream Byzantine art. The Early Christian Eastern origins of its art are echoed by the
stone funerary monuments known as khatchk’ars, which continued to be carved throughout
the Middle Ages, and resembled the carpet-pages of Coptic and Insular manuscripts which all
drew upon similar sources of inspiration in the Near East. Its development tends to be
considered in three phases. During the first period (c. 300–750 CE), Syriac and Byzantine
influences were experienced, the Armenian alphabet was invented (by St Mesrop, also
responsible for devising written Georgian), and by 433 CE the Bible had been translated into
the vernacular. Armenian architects, like their Byzantine counterparts, experimented with
church buildings featuring a central dome and the Armenian and Byzantine traditions
converged to influence the architecture and frescoes of the Cappadocian rock-cut churches.
In the second period (c. 862–1021), the inspiration of the past was combined with continued
inventiveness, producing monuments such as the tenth-century frescoes at Tatev and the
carved exterior of Aght’amar. During the third period (c. 1150–1500), following the
disruption from Seljuk invasion, Armenian Cilicia (Lesser Armenia) was formed, enduring
from 1099–1375. Cilicia produced particularly vibrant art during the thirteenth century,
stimulated in part by contact with the Crusader kingdoms and by Franciscan missionary
activity that promoted an interest in Rome and Western traditions of faith and art – not
always to beneficial effect: the novel The Man In the Iron Mask was based on the kidnapped
Armenian Patriarch Avedick (1702–11), who was coerced to become a Latin priest.
The fall of Cilicia in the fourteenth century left Armenian colonies scattered throughout
the empires of Safavid Iran, Ottoman Turkey and Tsarist Russia, all of which influenced them
culturally to varying extents. These focused upon the four centres of the Armenian Church:
the patriarchate of Jerusalem; the patriarchate of Constantinople; the catholicate of Cilicia;
and the catholicate of E˚jmiadsin. From at least the sixth century the Armenian devotion to
pilgrimage to the holy places resulted in the Armenian patriarchate of Jerusalem that helped
to maintain the sites and offer hospitality to pilgrims through the offices of the Armenian
Brotherhood of St James, which had a ministry akin to that of the Franciscans. The Armenian
Lectionary preserves a translation of the Greek liturgy, which is the best surviving witness to
worship in Jerusalem during the fifth century. Armenian royals and nobles made donations
there and a number of mosaic pavements record their munificence in inscriptions, such as
that in the funerary chapel of St Polyeuctos, Musrara, Jerusalem.
In the mid-fifth century another distinctive type of mosaic carpet became popular in the
churches of the Near East: so-called ‘animated landscapes’ with scenes of everyday life,
environs, flora and fauna (such as the Nilotic scenes in Cyrene Cathedral). Likewise, on
Transjordanian church floors there was a vogue for depictions of cities and buildings
picturing the ‘Holy Land’, for example, Gerasa, Sts Peter and Paul and St John the Baptist;
Khirbet Samra, Large Church; and the Madaba mosaic pavement map, with Jerusalem at its
centre.
The Armenian patriarchate later established good relations with the Crusaders, with the
first three kings of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem marrying Armenian princesses. One,
Queen Melisende of Jerusalem (c. 1131–61), who was married to King Fulk, Count of Anjou
(who fell from his horse whilst hunting a rabbit, leaving her as a successful regent), owned a
resplendent psalter in which Armenian, Byzantine and Western styles were blended by
collaborating artists (one named Basilius, a Greek name). The psalter is protected within
intricately carved ivory covers of orientalizing fashion, depicting scenes from the life of King
David and virtues and vices on the front cover, and the works of Charity/Mercy (Matthew
25:35–36) on the back cover.1
Armenia’s greatest artistic contribution is deemed to be its manuscript illumination. One
of the most prominent Armenian artists was T’oros Ŕoslin (his name suggests mixed
Armenian and Western descent – might the surname even allude to the notorious Templar
church of Rosslyn in Scotland?), who signed seven manuscripts dating from 1256–68 and
was based at Hr’omklay in Cilicia. One fine example of his work, dated 1268–69, was
commissioned by Catholicos Kostandin I as a gift for ‘the handsome youth Het’um’, who
became King Het’um II.2 Particularly detailed colophons are a feature of Armenian books,
giving an unprecedented amount of information concerning those who commissioned and
made such works. One of the oldest Armenian gospelbooks3 contains a colophon which
records that it was commissioned by an anonymous priest, ‘with all his family, for the
adornment and glory of the holy church’. His scribe and fellow priest, Sargis, added that he
‘wrote these holy Gospels in the year 415 of the Armenian era’ (966 CE). The text remains a
significant witness to both the first Armenian translation of the Gospels and the earliest
revision following the Council of Ephesus in 431 CE. It contains a stylized miniature of the
Virgin and Child (the Virgin is shown seated in the orans position of prayer and praise as an
intercessor with the Child standing in front of her, rather than nursing him as the mother of
God), and portraits of the evangelists Mark and Luke, clad in liturgical vestments, perhaps
reflecting the priestly occupations of the book’s patron and its scribe. Indeed, Sargis the
scribe may also have been the painter. The pairing of evangelist portraits between the Gospel
texts is rare; in Early Medieval gospelbooks a single portrait usually appears before each
Gospel. This format, the preference for geometric stylization over figural modelling, and the
largely earth-tone palette give a rare insight into Early Armenian illumination.
Georgian Manuscripts
Another important early kingdom of the Christian Orient was Georgia, strategically placed
between the Black Sea, the Caucasus, Albania and Armenia. During Antiquity Georgia was
contested between Rome and Persia and its kings trod a delicate path between the two until
522 CE, when King Tzathius received Christianity, along with his royal regalia, from the
Emperor Justinian, as a result of which the kingdom of Lazica became bound to Byzantium.
Christianity had been practised in the area perhaps as early as the 320s CE, however, and
tradition links the conversion of King Mirian of the Iberian kingdom to the missionary work
of a slave woman, St Nino, in 337 CE. How soon afterwards scripture was translated into the
native language is uncertain, but at least the Gospels and other Christian writings were
translated before the mid-fifth century. The oldest Georgian manuscripts, dating from the
fifth to sixth centuries, are palimpsests (reused – erased and overwritten – manuscripts), and
contain mostly biblical texts. The Georgian Church, which had a presence in Palestine from
at least the fifth century, initially rejected the rulings of the Council of Chalcedon and
favoured Monophysitism, but in the early seventh century it returned to Orthodoxy and
communion with Byzantium.
The oldest known illuminated Georgian manuscripts date to the ninth century, the First
Jrutchi Gospels4 being one of the earliest examples. It includes colophons by Gabriel, ‘the
hasty scribe’; Grigol, son of Mirdat, the patron; and Tevdore, the illuminator, indicating that
work on the manuscript took place at the Shatberdi Monastery in Georgia (now in Turkey),
from 936–940 CE, with the miniatures added in the fourth year. It features canon tables, a
portrait of Matthew opposite the Virgin and Child, and three scenes of healing opposite the
other evangelist portraits: the Healing of the Blind, facing Mark; the Healing of a Man
Possessed by the Devil, facing Luke; and the Healing of a Man Suffering from Palsy, facing
John. Each scene has two inscriptions: one naming Jesus Christ, in three languages
(Georgian, Armenian and Greek); and the other describing the miracle depicted (in
Georgian).
From this point on, several stages in the development of Georgian manuscript decoration
can be identified, each characterized by distinctive styles. Most are biblical volumes, such as
psalters and gospelbooks; but secular illuminated works also survive, including astronomical
treatises, vernacular literature, and Georgian versions of the fables known as Kalila wa
Dimna and of Firdawsi’s Persian epic Shahnameh (book of Kings). A significant number of
tenth- to fourteenth-century Georgian manuscripts have survived. The Georgian kingdom
was at its zenith: its monasteries were flourishing in Syria and Palestine and producing
recruits for the community of St Catherine’s, Sinai, who required servicebooks in their own
language, or bilingually alongside Greek. One of the manuscripts in the Georgian language
found at St Catherine’s (in the ceiling of the chapel of Sts Cosmas and Damian) is an eighth-
century psalter from Palestine or Sinai5 written on papyrus, as are several Georgian works of
this period, rather than on the parchment generally used. Most Georgian manuscripts had a
wooden binding covered with tooled leather, although lavish treasure bindings have also
survived.
Georgia also produced some fine mosaics (such as those at Ghelat) and frescoes
(including those at David-Garedja, Ghelat, Ateni and Ihari), using a sophisticated if
occasionally somewhat severe version of mainstream tenth- to thirteenth-century Byzantine
styles and featuring a preponderance of earth colours. From the ninth to the eighteenth
centuries Georgian craftsmen also fashioned a marvellous array of metalwork, now mostly
preserved in Tbilisi Museum, much of which is decorated with enamels imported from
Byzantium or made in Georgia during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, such as the famous
Khakhuli Icon.
Syriac Manuscripts
A further important tradition within the Christian Orient was that known as Syriac (divided
into Orthodox and Monophysite ‘Jacobite’ Churches). Syriac is an Aramaic dialect that
became the principal literary vehicle for Semitophone Near Eastern Christianity. This
predominance stemmed from its connection with the important classical and Early Christian
city of Edessa. The conversion of its populace is thought to date to the late second century,
although tradition tells of one of its rulers, Abgar, who sent an embassy to Jesus. It allegedly
returned with a letter of instruction and a portrait, which became the basis of a series of icons
thought to be miraculous likenesses made ‘not by human hand’. Missionary activity carried
the Syriac tradition far into eastern Asia. Numerous manuscripts dating from the fifth century
onwards have been preserved, including scriptures in the Old Syriac and the Peshitta
(‘simple’) versions.
Perhaps the greatest monument of Syriac art in a Christian context, and to Early Christian
manuscript art in general, is one of the earliest surviving illuminated gospelbooks containing
illustrations of episodes from the New Testament: the imposing and intriguing Rabbula
Gospels,6 written by the scribe Rabbula in the Syriac language at the monastery of St John in
Beth Zagba, a little-known site lying inland between Antioch and Damascus. Its scheme of
illumination, although indebted to that of Byzantium, is highly original and inventive and is
structured to emphasize the harmony of scripture in foretelling and relating the incarnation,
death and resurrection of the Messiah. The Gospels are introduced by canon tables, a
concordance system devised by Eusebius in the fourth century in which Gospel passages
were numbered in the margins and the numbers correlated in tabular form, showing where
the four Gospels agreed or diverged. These are adorned with the cross, birds and figures of
the Prophets and evangelists, emphasizing their unity of purpose, and a series of marginal
illustrations narrating events to which the numbers relate – from the Annunciation to
Zacharias of the birth of John the Baptist, to the trial of Christ Before Pilate. The book also
features several full-page miniatures, including the Crucifixion, the Women at the Tomb and
the resurrected Christ Appearing to the Two Maries, scenes from Acts (the Choosing of
Matthias, the Ascension of Christ, and Pentecost), the presentation of the manuscript to
Christ, and an icon of Christ and the Virgin Mary (perhaps from a Palestinian model; for it
corresponds to images on pilgrim flasks, or ampulae, and a pilgrim’s box in the Vatican from
that region). The manuscript of the Rabbula Gospels exhibits signs of extensive repainting,
probably conducted in Renaissance Italy, and seems not simply to have been a restoration but
a concerted attempt to normalize many unusual Syriac features. For example, in several of its
depictions of Christ (including the Crucifixion – one of its earliest occurrences in art) he was
originally portrayed with a pointed face and curling red hair – the so-called ‘semitic’ type of
representation that was probably later considered inappropriate once such stereotypical
characteristics had, regrettably, become associated with pejorative Christian depictions of
Jews.

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Copyright © 2021. Lion Hudson. All rights reserved.

Debate and Division

The Development of Armenian Art

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