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In Armenia!<\/em>, visitors are immersed within the vigorous dynamics of fourteen centuries of Armenian art and architecture as they walk through six different galleries. These separate sections make it clear that the standard approach of looking at Armenian art only through the lens of Christian art has shortchanged this rich culture. The galleries begin with Armenia\u2019s conversion from polytheism to Christianity, and then continue to present sample objects that highlight art and architecture from the Armenian Kingdoms of Bagratid, Artsruni, and Cilicia. The final gallery explores works of Armenian craftsmen during the Ottoman and Safavid Empires.<\/span><\/p>\n The four-sided stela that commemorates Armenia\u2019s Christianity acts as an entry point to the exhibition (Fig. 2). When St. Gregory the Illuminator converted the early-fourth-century CE King Tiridates the Great to Christianity, Armenia became the first region to formally adopt Christianity and to abandon polytheism. Medieval ceramics from Dvin illuminate Armenians\u2019 active trading relationships with other regions. A glazed bowl dated to the eleventh century depicting an eagle \u2014 a heraldic bird \u2014 is one of the luxury lusterware examples on display (Fig. 3). Imported from Iran and Syria, lusterware was considered a luxury item and was widely used by Armenian elites as tableware between the ninth and thirteenth centuries.<\/span><\/p>\n Fantastic animals \u2013 fictional hybrid creatures that represent magic, power and other-worldly mysticism \u2013 are widely depicted in Armenian architecture. The thirteenth century bas-relief of a sphinx from the monastery of Yovhannavank is just one example of their common depiction in Armenian architecture (Fig. 4). Similar fantastic animals are encountered in Byzantine, Georgian, Mongol, and Seljuk architecture of the medieval period. In terms of literature, the Alexander Romance<\/em>\u2013 the body of legends about the career of Alexander the Great \u2013 was popular among the Armenians. A folio from a sixteenth-century manuscript of the Greek Alexander Romance,<\/em>\u201d illuminated by Bishop Zak\u2019ariay of Gnunik\u2019, shows an episode where\u00a0 a giant crab swallows Alexander\u2019s ship, and then afterwards two donkeys lead and accompany him through the land (Fig. 5).<\/span><\/p>\n The cultural production of Armenian art and architecture requires in-depth scholarly analysis and curatorial attention. With this in mind, the MET\u2019s Armenia!\u00a0<\/em>exhibition offers a good starting point for better understanding the distinctive nature of Armenia\u2019s objects and monuments and the fourteen centuries of its cultural interactions and trade relationships with other populations across Anatolia, Iran, the Mediterranean, and the South Caucasus.[3]<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n Download Article<\/a><\/p>\n ____________________<\/span><\/p>\n [1]<\/span><\/a> The author would like to thank the Freer Fellowship of the History of Art Department at the University of Michigan for providing the opportunity to visit this exhibition. The author also thanks Rachel Cochran and Emerson Floyd. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York\u00a0 September 22 – January 13, 2019 The Metropolitan Museum of Art\u2019s exhibition is the first significant attempt in the United States to explore the legacy of Armenian artistic and cultural productions.[1] The exhibition includes works from between the fourth and seventeenth centuries, presenting a complex history that reaches […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12162,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3847"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3941,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3847\/revisions\/3941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"\/sequitur\/files\/2019\/05\/Bihter-Esener-IMG_3374-470x636.jpg\")
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Bihter Esener<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n[2]<\/span><\/a> For more information about the exhibition see Helen C. Evans, ed., Armenia: Art, Religion, and Trade in the Middle Ages<\/em> (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018).
\n[3]<\/span><\/a> For a recent critical survey of ancient, medieval, and early modern periods of Armenian art see Christina Maranci, The Art of Armenia: An Introduction<\/em> (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2018).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"