Art of the Armenians

On the far Eastern edge of the Christian world - often isolated or overwhelmed by Christian cultures - the Armenians have produced a distinctive artistic tradition. The collection assembled here opens with the objects from the great medieval periods in Greater Armenia and the Kingdom of Cilicia. Later centuries are represented by paintings and books created in communities dominated by other cultures or far from the homeland, like the series of manuscripts here from Constantinople. The artists of these times demonstrate to us how they were able to enrich their works by taking the best elements of Persian, Turkish, Greek and Western European art. These elements are always absorbed and fused into a particular Armenian art, which is among the great arts of the world.