East-West Artistic Transfer through Rome, Armenia and the Silk Road: Sharing St. Peter’s

Description

This book examines the arts and artistic exchanges at the ‘Christian Oriental’ fringes of Europe, especially Armenia. It starts with the architecture, history and inhabitants of the lesser known pilgrim compounds at the Vatican in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, of Hungary, Germany, but namely those of the most ancient of Churches, the Churches of the Christian Orient Ethiopia and Armenia. Without taking an Eurocentric view, this book explores the role of missionaries, merchants, artists (for example Momik, Giotto, Minas, Domenico Veneziano, Duerer), and artefacts (such as fabrics, inscriptions and symbols) travelling into both directions along the western stretch of the Silk Road between Ayas (Cilicia), ancient Armenia and North-western Iran. This area was truly global before globalization, was a site of intense cultural exchanges and East-West cultural transmissions. This book opens a new research window into the culturally mixed landscapes in the Christian Orient, the Middle East and North-eastern Africa by taking into consideration their many indigenous and foreign artistic components and embeds Armenian arts into today’s wider art historical discourse. This book will be of interest to scholars in art history, architectural history, missions, trade, Middle Eastern arts and the arts of the Southern Caucasus. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgements List of figures Photograph credits Introduction: geography of the dogma and the Christian Orient 1 Compounds at Old St. Peter’s History, setting and function Architecture, decoration, administration and inhabitants The Armenian compound The Ethiopian compound with S. Stefano Maggiore The Hungarian compound with S. Stefano Minore The German “compound” and the Campo Santo Teutonico Administration and inhabitants of the compounds 2 Armenia between “East” and “West” Character of Armenian arts Current state of research and problem definition: brief overview 3 Historical background Armenians as Europe’s intermediaries Geography: centre and borders Christendom’s longest frontier Silk Road trading colonies Cilician Silk Road trade and a church union with Rome Armeno-French society and culture of Cilicia The Catholics in Armenia Rome’s missionaries in the new heart of the Mongol empire Luxury trade and the Kingdom of Cilicia Dominicans’ most successful missions of the Latin Middle Ages “Against the Tachiks” Rome criticises the Armenian dogma Ayas, the safest harbour in southern Anatolia and the Levant Armenians as specialists in long-distance East-West trade Armenians and luxury trade Armenian merchants’ family palaces Organisation of an Armenian merchants’ family firm Trade with China and central Asia from the second century BCE Armenian position in international silk trade Trading privileges and the Latins in Cilicia Silks and the Armenian production of luxury textiles and dye, vordan karmir Mutual cultural knowledge Imported saints Furnishing the Armenian churches Armenians well-acquainted with Italian book illumination style 4 Colonies A mercantile “colonisation” “Obedient ornament to the Roman Church” 5 Artistic crossroads Crossroads of languages and alphabets Conclusion Fabrics, silks and patterns Armenian fabrics Armenian nobility and their garments Garments, fabrics and their meaning in Cilicia and Italy Christian Oriental or Muslim fabrics? Display of magnificence Furnished with international taste and style 6 A chronology Thirteenth century New image creations in Armenian manuscript illuminations in Rome Fourteenth century Contemporaries: Momik and Giotto Giotto-adaptation Latin-Armenian illumination made in Italy Armenian Latin illuminators borrow Latin elements for the decoration of initials Toros of Taron and Awag The (Latin) Armenian dominican scriptoria Western maps adjusting biblical geography of Armenia. Saints Fifteenth century Florence, Santa Maria Novella Rome, Old St. Peter’s Vaspurakan Eschatological themes Sixteenth century Armenian Renaissance woodcuts Armenian-made gift for the Doge of Venice Armenian “Silk Road Painting”: Jughayets’i, Michelangelo, Dürer and Italy 7 International styles Excursus: Ethiopia and Italy Renaissance, periodisation and “International” style Conclusion Bibliography Index