East-West Artistic Transfer through Rome, Armenia and the Silk Road: Sharing St. Peter's (Routledge Research in Art History)

"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"-- Provided by publisher 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 a Eurocentric view, this book explores the role of missionaries, merchants, artists (e.g. Momik, Giotto, Minas, Paolo Veneziano and Dürer) 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 globalisation and 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 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 Acknowledgements 10 List of figures 12 Photograph credits 15 Introduction: geography of the dogma and the Christian Orient 16 1 Compounds at Old St. Peter’s 29 History, setting and function 29 Architecture, decoration, administration and inhabitants 35 The Armenian compound 35 The Ethiopian compound with S. Stefano Maggiore 40 The Hungarian compound with S. Stefano Minore 43 The German “compound” and the Campo Santo Teutonico 46 Administration and inhabitants of the compounds 49 2 Armenia between “East” and “West” 57 Character of Armenian arts 59 Current state of research and problem definition: brief overview 62 3 Historical background 75 Armenians as Europe’s intermediaries 76 Geography: centre and borders 76 Christendom’s longest frontier 78 Silk Road trading colonies 79 Cilician Silk Road trade and a church union with Rome 79 Armeno-French society and culture of Cilicia 80 The Catholics in Armenia 82 Rome’s missionaries in the new heart of the Mongol empire 83 Luxury trade and the Kingdom of Cilicia 84 Dominicans’ most successful missions of the Latin Middle Ages 84 “Against the Tachiks” 85 Rome criticises the Armenian dogma 86 Ayas, the safest harbour in southern Anatolia and the Levant 86 Armenians as specialists in long-distance East-West trade 87 Armenians and luxury trade 87 Armenian merchants’ family palaces 88 Organisation of an Armenian merchants’ family firm 89 Trade with China and central Asia from the second century BCE 90 Armenian position in international silk trade 92 Trading privileges and the Latins in Cilicia 94 Silks and the Armenian production of luxury textiles and dye, vordan karmir 94 Mutual cultural knowledge 96 Imported saints 99 Furnishing the Armenian churches 100 Armenians well-acquainted with Italian book illumination style 101 4 Colonies 107 A mercantile “colonisation” 107 “Obedient ornament to the Roman Church” 117 5 Artistic crossroads 129 Crossroads of languages and alphabets 129 Conclusion 141 Fabrics, silks and patterns 143 Armenian fabrics 144 Armenian nobility and their garments 147 Garments, fabrics and their meaning in Cilicia and Italy 148 Christian Oriental or Muslim fabrics? 158 Display of magnificence 160 Furnished with international taste and style 160 6 A chronology 167 Thirteenth century 168 New image creations in Armenian manuscript illuminations in Rome 168 Fourteenth century 171 Contemporaries: Momik and Giotto 171 Giotto-adaptation 181 Latin-Armenian illumination made in Italy 182 Armenian Latin illuminators borrow Latin elements for the decoration of initials 187 Toros of Taron and Awag 189 The (Latin) Armenian dominican scriptoria 191 Western maps adjusting biblical geography of Armenia. Saints 192 Fifteenth century 195 Florence, Santa Maria Novella 195 Rome, Old St. Peter’s 197 Vaspurakan 200 Eschatological themes 204 Sixteenth century 205 Armenian Renaissance woodcuts 205 Armenian-made gift for the Doge of Venice 209 Armenian “Silk Road Painting”: Jughayets’i, Michelangelo, Dürer and Italy 212 7 International styles 220 Excursus: Ethiopia and Italy 220 Renaissance, periodisation and “International” style 223 Conclusion 227 Bibliography 229 Index 236