Zaruhi Hakobyan
Yerevan State University, Armenia
The monumental painting of early medieval Armenia is hardly mentioned in the studies on art history. It can be partly explained by the fact that the monumental painting on the territory of historical Armenia is mostly lost. An opinion has been accepted among the scholars that monumental painting was not typical for medieval Armenia. However, the study of the remains of the monumental complexes, as well as archival photographs and notes of the first researchers show that in the 7th century monumental painting in Armenia had unprecedented development and reached its high peak. Another important conclusion is that the brightest moments in the history of Medieval Armenian monumental painting always corresponded with the periods of active contacts with the Byzantine cultural world.
According to the studies, about thirty churches in Central Armenia, in the historical Ayrarat region were decorated with monumental painting. The main churches of the country — the Cathedrals of Echmiadzin and Dvin — had mosaics, while others were decorated with frescoes, and only in the church of Zvartnots (the church of St. Gregory) mosaics were combined with frescoes. The surviving fragments of frescoes give us the ground to assert the existence of two artistic and iconographic trends in early medieval Armenia. One group of monuments reveals a certain affinity with the artistic traditions of the eastern provinces of Byzantine Empire, and the other with the metropolitan monuments. Despite the fact that figural and Christological images are not preserved, the apse compositions reveal a variety of iconographic solutions. We can see the Ascension of Christ, Christ giving the law (Traditio legis), Hetoimasia, Communion of the Apostles, as well as the image of the Virgin. In spite of the great loss and fragmentary state of the monumental painting in Armenia, these ensembles are of great importance for the study of East Christian art, as soon as they are an inseparable part of this culture. Moreover, they partly make up for non-surviving early Byzantine examples.