ART AND RELIGION IN MEDIEVAL ARMENIA

By: Helen C. Evans,

Yale University Press, 2022, 136 p. + 100 color illus.

Featuring texts by leading scholars of the history and culture of medieval Armenia, this book offers an in-depth look at its art, trade, and religious traditions. The papers in this volume, first presented at an international symposium celebrating The Met’s blockbuster 2018 exhibition, Armenia!, explore the art and culture of a civilization that served as a pivotal crossroads on the border between East and West. Contributors address Armenia’s roles in facilitating exchange with the Mongol, Ottoman, and Persian empires to the East and with Byzantium and European Crusader states to the West. Essays also explore the ways in which elements of these cultures commingled in Armenian art and religion—Armenian artists and craftspeople produced an astonishing range of religious objects that drew upon influences from both Europe and Asia but ultimately created a uniquely Armenian visual identity. The authors explore the effects of this dualistic tension in the history of Armenian art and how it persists into the present, as this land situated at a crossroads of civilization continues to grapple with the legacy of genocide and counters new threats to its sovereignty, integrity, and cultural language.