THE
CILICIAN
STYLE
FROM
ITS GLORIOUS DAYS, ITS ORIGIN, ITS RISE, ITS GLORY TO ITS FALL AND DEATH ON
THE HAND OF THE MAMLUKS!
Photo:
The hlowers of Chamlihai by Martiros Saryan.
Even copying a manuscript was considered as praise worthy as building a church. Upon fleeing their monasteries during foreign invasions by hostile armies and greedy monarchs. Armenian monks would carry with them the most valuable possessions; possessions they could carry by hand or be placed on the back of their donkeys or chariots if they were available. The most precious possession was the illuminated manuscripts.
ENTERING THE 14th
CENTURY AND THE END OF A GOLDEN ERA
By the 14th
century, a major artistic event occurred, a sort of a U-Turn; the return of
Armenian painting to its roots and to the dawn of its origin. Looking upon
the paintings of the pioneer and leader Sarkis Pidzak , we observe a
complete divergence and an opposite/contradictory style, far away and so
different from the Cilician style of the 12th and 13th
centuries. Pidzak’s paintings incorporated simple and simplistic geometrical
patterns, free of complicated and richly designed figures and ornamental
forms. His figures were not elegant and refined. They were heavy, short and
sort of tough. A sense of repetitious conformity and a disciplined
consistency order followed rigorously on all the pages of his illuminated
manuscripts. Unfortunately, we do sense the absence of elegance and variety
in forms, ornaments, patterns, designs, figurations and configurations. A
style so different from the illuminated manuscripts paintings of previous
centuries where each page was illustrated and painted differently. Each
single page had its own design, colors, patterns, width and size of margins,
particular rich and warm textiles colors quality to each single page,
sometimes, each single section of the page. All this magnificent artistic
rich display of varied visions, colors, creativity, beauty vanished in a way
in the 14th century.
THE
END: THE DISASTROUS FALL AND THE END OF THE GREAT CILICIAN ART
The Mamlooks (also Mamlukes) are here. It
means disastrous events of an apocalyptic proportions, decay and death of
the arts and humanities! And this is what exactly happened to the Cilician
art on the hand of the conquerors. A cataclysmic horror! Catastrophe and
paroxysm ad infinitum. The Mamelukes conquered the kingdom of Cilicia,
thus ending the Cilician art for good. But, the great and noble spirit of
the Armenian continued to shine and produce in Greater Armenia until the 17th
century. Other disastrous events in forthcoming centuries will follow soon.
And the Armenian art will suffer again! This shall constitute our future
topics in many parts to come.
FROM THE EARLY ICONS ERA TO THE PRE-MODERN ART PERIOD: HAKOP HOVNATANIAN.
The Armenian modern painting era commenced with Hakop Hovnatanian (1806-1881) favorite son of the Hovnatanian family masters and monopolists of the Armenian miniaturists dynasty in the nineteenth century. Called in the West and in the East “The Raphael of Tiflis”. Miniature is one of those primordial forms of medieval way of thinking in art with universal, human and artistic values and upon which canons were extensively elaborated for numerous centuries. Referring to Hakop Hovnatanian is simultaneously referring to the members of the Hovnatanian as a whole. An illustrious family which produced splendid frescoes that occupy a place of honor and pride in eastern Armenia churches and majestic cathedrals and painted portraits of well to do Armenians displayed in museums in Yerevan and Tiflis. The illustrious Hovnatanyan family was under the auspices of Naghash Hovnatan (1661-1722), the venerated and well-known poet, illustrator and painter. He was the patriarch of the family by all means. While his grandson Hovnatan Hovnatanian (1730-1801) was in charge of the immense panel paintings of Etchmiadzin, Hakob Hovnatanian , his son was responsible for pioneering and perfecting the art of portraiture. A craft the family practiced for years and passed it on to its grand children. Their clientele consisted of the wealthy and the upper class Armenian families including the bourgeoisie of cosmopolitan Tiflis in the second half of the nineteenth century. During all the nineteenth century, the majority of Armenian artists, with the exception of Hakob Hovnathanian received their training and learn the trade on the hand of Russian artists and teachers in St. Petersburg, Paris, Munich and other European art academies.
Continues on the next page.