The Entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, and two decorated Eusebian Canon Tables on a bifolium from a monumental and richly illustrated Gospel Book in Armenian, full-page miniatures manuscript on vellum

provenance

This is a bifolium from a fragment of twelve leaves once owned by  Jean Pozzi (1884-1967), the French Ambassador to Constantinople in the 1930s. They were described in his collection by Archbishop Artavazd Sirmeian in his Mayr ts'utsʿak hayerēn dzeṛagratsʿ Ewropayi masnawor hawakʿumneru (Grand Catalogue of Armenian Manuscripts in European Private Collections), 1950, no. 22, pp. 34-6. Pozzi presented the present leaves to his associate Professor Barrère and they passed to his late wife Madame Micheline Barrère. The remainder of the manuscript was bought by Pierre Berès at the Pozzi sale, Hôtel Drouot 30 April 1971 (cf. S. Agémian, Archives Sirarpie der Nersessian, 2003, pp. 262 & 274).  The Berès leaves were described in a separate catalogue, Bible, Évangiles de Saint Mathieu et de Saint Jean ... Asie Mineure, vers 1040, n.d., and were sold by Picard, etc., Drouot, 7 June 1999, lot B.

text

This bifolium is from an extremely early Armenian Gospel Book. Armenian illustrated manuscripts are some of the most important and richly-decorated codices of the Christian Churches of the Middle East. The Gospels are paramount among these, mainly because of Armenian community's respect for sacred texts, revering them in the same way that the Greek and Russian Christians regard icons. Such texts were often carried into war by Armenian rulers, and particular copies of the Gospels were often given sacred names and were believed to have individual miraculous powers.

Few Armenian manuscripts predate the present example: the oldest are two miniatures of the seventh century which survive as fragments bound into the late tenth-century Etchmiadzin Gospels. After the seventh century, harsh Arab oppression appears to have stifled artistic expression, and no work is known prior to the end of the Caliphate in the mid-ninth century. A handful of manuscripts survive for the later ninth and the tenth, but Armenian illustrated manuscripts are not common until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.  Alfred Chester Beatty, whose Armenian manuscripts are the subject of a two volume work by S. Der Nessessian published in 1958, did not own one as old as the present example.

decoration

The style of the miniatures and the dimensions of the present bifolium identify it as from the eleventh-century Armenian community in the town of Melitene in Asia Minor. The style and coloration is simple, and aims to achieve maximum effect by minimum means. It stands quite apart from the more complex products of scriptoria under the influence of Greek, Syriac and Latin books, suggesting this is a product of a monastic community or literary centre with few influences outside  Armenian culture. Strikingly close comparisons can be made to the famous Gospel of 1038 (now in Yerevan, the Matenadran MS. 6201; reproduced in L.A. Dournovo, Armenian Miniatures, 1961, pp. 40-7) and a fragment of an eleventh-century Gospel Book (now in the Freer Gallery of Art, MS. 35.5, 47-2-4; S. Der Nersessian, Armenian Manuscripts in the Freer Gallery of Art, 1963, no. 1, pp. 1-17, pls. 1-5; T. Izmailova, 'Tables des Canons de deux manuscrits arméniens d'Asia Mineure du XIe siècle' Revue des etudes arméniennes, n.s., III, 1966, pp.91-117).

A notable feature of the artists of this Armenian community is their attention to dramatic effect. In the present example the reduction of the landscape and background to a bare minimum imparts a monumental quality to the scenes and focuses the attention of the viewer on the action itself, and specifically on the person of Christ, who is the only figure to stare back directly at the viewer.

The decoration comprises:

(1) Christ and the apostles entering Jerusalem, 315mm. by 225mm., Christ seated on a donkey ahead of the apostles, riding towards Jerusalem as the inhabitants come out to meet him; all within a frame of interlocking purple panels. Some rubbing and flaking from lower and right-hand areas of scene.

(2) The Last Supper, 320mm. by 220mm., Christ seated on a chair next to the apostles who sit around a table laden with food, all looking at Christ except for Judas who sits in the foreground cradling his head in his hands. Within an arched interior, and all within a frame similar to the other miniature. Some rubbing to figure of Christ and architecture within scene.

(3) Eusebian Canon Table, 288mm. in height, with decorated blue and yellow columns with red heads and feet, all surmounted by a large architectural arch in same and four birds with their heads facing away from the centre of the page.

(4) Eusebian Canon Table, 290mm. in height, decorated as above, but with the four birds facing inwards, the two at the top of the arch (apparently peacocks) interlocking their necks.