Armenian Lady, GG Gagarin (1840s). Daghestan Museum of Fine Arts PS Gamzatova.

"Armenian Wedding" - Postcard collection of Maggie Land Blanck

Armenian peasant woman from Turkey on the background of the local hut. From the book: Van Lennep H.J. The oriental album: twenty illustrations, in oil colors, of the people and scenery of Turkey, with explanatory and descriptive text. New York, 1862.

Louis Dupré (1789-1837). Wealthy Armenian from Istanbul, 1825 lithograph of the book: Dupré L. Voyage à Athènes et à Constantinople ou collection de portraits, de vues et de costumes Grecs et Ottomans peints sur les lieux, d'apres nature, lithographie et colorie par L. Dupré de David. Paris, 1825.

National Geographic October 1915. Collection of Maggie Land Blanck "ARMENIANS PREPARING "BASTOURME" BEEF DRIED IN THE SUN"

"Armenian Women late in the Late 19th century" From The Armeninas by Adriano Alpago Novella, 1986

Women's Dress - Armenians in Turkey (19th c.), Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck

National Geographic October 1915. Collection of Maggie Land Blanck "ARMENIAN GIRLS, CONSTANTINOPLE, 1914, REPRESENTING VARIOUS TYPES OF ARMENIAN PEOPLE"

Armenian from Sasoun (19th c.)

Armenian woman, near Persian border (19th c.) from the St. Petersburg Museum of Anthropology.

Armenian woman from Shusha, Nagorno-Karabakh (19th c.)

Armenian mother and her son, Constantinople (20th c.) Photo collection of Maggie Land Blanck

Two Armenian young girls ( 20th c.) Raphael Khndamian Photographe Kadi-Kcuy

Armenian girl in traditional clothes, (19-20th c.) Galata, Constantinople, Tchobanian brothers atelier.

Young woman in traditional clothes, (20th c.) Photo collection of Maggie Land Blanck.

Family of Hamshen Armenians (1901) - archive of I.V. Kuznetsova

National Geographic October 1915. "ARMENIANS DANCING" (Hamshentsi Armenian dance) Collection of Maggie Land Blanck

An Armenian merchant portrayed by Giovanni Grevembroch in the 18th century. -Correr Museum, Venice

I found this wonderful article (from New York Times) full of interesting insights into the historic relations between the Italian city of Venice and Armenia. 

EXHIBITION REVIEW

The Key to Armenia’s Survival

VENICE — Armenian civilization is one of the most ancient of those surviving in the Middle East, but for large parts of its history Armenia has been a nation without a country. This has given the spoken and written word, the primary means through which Armenian identity has been preserved, enormous prominence in its people’s culture.

Over the centuries this emphasis has fostered a particular regard for books and the means of producing them. Scribes added notes on the proper care and conservation of books and advice on hiding them during dangerous times, even on “ransoming” them should they fall into the wrong hands. A late 19th-century English traveler observed that the Armenians prized the printing press with the same “affection and reverence as the Persian highlanders value a rifle or sporting gun.”

A gospel dating from 1331 with an illumination of St. Matthew with the artist himself, Sargiz Pitzak, kneeling at the feet of the evangelist. - Library of the Mekhitarist Fathers, San Lazzaro

In 1511 to 1512 (the exact date is uncertain), the first Armenian book was printed in Venice. The event was especially significant for this scattered nation, which did not acquire a modern homeland until 1918 and then only in a small part of its ancestral lands.

The anniversary is the occasion for “Armenia: Imprints of a Civilization,” an impressive exhibition organized by Gabriella Ulluhogian, Boghos Levon Zekiyan and Vartan Karapetian of more than 200 works spanning more than 1,000 years of Armenian written culture. These range from inscriptions and illuminated manuscripts to printed and illustrated books, including many unique and rare pieces from collections in Armenia and Europe.

The show opens with the atmospheric painting of 1889 by the Armenian artist Ivan Aivazovski, “The Descent of Noah From Mount Ararat,” from the National Gallery in Yerevan. It shows the Old Testament patriarch leading his family and a procession of animals across the plain, still watery from the subsiding Flood, to re-people the earth.

The extraordinary grip that this mountain has had on the Armenian imagination is tellingly demonstrated by subsequent sections on sculpture, the Armenian Church and the Ark — the conical domes of Armenian churches seeming eternally to replicate this geographical feature that symbolizes the salvation of the human race.

Christianity reached Armenia as early as the first or early second century. And Armenia lays claim to having been the first nation that adopted the faith as a state religion, sometime between 293 and 314, a date traditionally recorded by the Armenian Church as 301.

There followed, in around 404 or 405, an initiative that has been one of the cornerstones of the endurance of the Armenian ethnos: the invention of a distinctive alphabet capable of rendering the language’s complex phonetic system. This made possible the translation of the Bible — the majestic 10th-century Gospel of Trebizond is on show here — and the foundation of Armenian literature in all its manifestations, sacred and secular.

The desire to illustrate the gospels and other Christian texts was the primary impetus for the development of Armenian art, which drew on an unusually wide range of sources thanks to the country’s position at the crossroads of several civilizations.

As Dickran Kouymjian writes in his essay in the exhibition’s substantial and wide-ranging catalog, which is available in English, French and Italian: “Armenian artists were remarkably open to artistic trends in Byzantium, the Latin West, the Islamic Near East and even Central Asia and China.”

A sumptuous display of these illuminated books brings together some of the finest surviving examples from the ninth to the 15th centuries, and it is curious to discover that even after the advent of printing, the tradition of illumination continued in Armenian monasteries for a further two and a half centuries.

The acme of the Armenian miniature was reached in the 13th century, during the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, which ruled over a substantial part of Asia Minor (1198-1375), until it was overthrown by the Mamluks of Egypt.

Armenian contacts with Venice date to the period when the nascent lagoon republic was a remote western outpost of Byzantium, where Armenians held senior positions in the administration and the military. In the sixth century the Armenian governor Narses is credited with introducing the cult of Theodore, or Todoro, Venice’s first patron saint and Isaac the Armenian is recorded as the founder of the ancient Santa Maria Assunta basilica on the island of Torcello.

A 7th-century sundial with Armenian numbers from Zvartnots Cathedral in Echmiadzin, Armenia. - Zvartnots Cathedral Museum, Echmiadzin

Contacts became frequent during the Kingdom of Cilicia as Venetian merchants expanded their activities in the Levant and their Armenian counterparts sought opportunities in Europe.

In 1235 the Venetian nobleman Marco Ziani left a house to the Armenian community at San Zulian near Piazza San Marco, which came to be called the Casa Armena and provided a focal point for Venice’s ever more numerous Armenian residents and visitors.

The testament drawn up in 1354 by the governess of this house, “Maria the Armenian,” indicates that by that time there was not only a thriving community of merchants, but also clerics and an archbishop, to whom she left three of her six peacocks. Later the church of Santa Croce was founded on the same site, still today an Armenian place of worship. Both Marco Ziani and Maria’s wills are on show.

A precious copy of the first Armenian book printed in 1511-1512, a religious work titled the Book of Friday, is also on display. The innovation led to the setting up of a host of Armenian presses all over the world. The fruits of these — from locations as far-flung as Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna and St. Petersburg to Istanbul, Isfahan, Madras and Singapore — form the absorbing last section of the exhibition.

Venice was given a further boost as the global center of Armenian culture by the arrival in the lagoon of Abbot Mekhitar and his monks in 1715. This visionary was born in Sivas (ancient Sebastia) in Anatolia, and had spent time in Echmiadzin and Istanbul. Later he took the community he had created to Methoni in the Peloponnese, which had been conquered by the Venetians in the 1680s. But the prospect of the town’s recapture by the Ottomans led to Mekhitar’s decision to take refuge in Venice. In 1717 he and his followers were granted a lease on the island of San Lazzaro, which has been their headquarters ever since.

Under Mekhitar, San Lazzaro became the epicenter of a worldwide Armenian cultural revival. The community created a study center and library, was responsible for printing scores of books in Venice and elsewhere, and established an international network of schools, where a high proportion of Armenia’s religious and secular elite received an education into modern times.

The Armenian Academy of San Lazzaro has published Bazmavep, a literary, historical and scientific journal since 1843, one of the oldest continuous periodicals of its kind. And the first Armenian newspaper-magazine was Azdara (The Monitor), founded in Madras in 1794.

San Lazzaro’s most famous foreign student was Lord Byron, who learned Armenian there with the scholar Harutiun Avgerian, with whom he collaborated on the production of an Armenian and English grammar, containing translations by the poet.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/arts/24iht-conway24.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

This poster was issued by Intourist, the official travel agency of the former Soviet Union, in around 1936. It was included in the V&A's Art Deco exhibition in 2003. It advertises the former Soviet Republic of Armenia as a tourist destination. Intourist had the state monopoly on travel during the Soviet era, and still dominates the travel trade to many provincial Russian locations. The image of Soviet Armenia communicated here is a glamorous and varied one. The train and the car in the foreground boast the advanced modern machinery of the period and the high railway bridge is an example of Soviet engineering skills. The beauty of the country's natural landscape is shown in the background. The poster creates an image of glamorous tourism, and is similar to travel posters produced in western Europe at the time.

Armenian pastoral staff (1700-1825). Portions of a priest's staff, silver gilt, comprising the head and three knops; the volute is in the form of a serpent's neck and head, covered with scales, which are formed by small 'cloisons', filled with coloured enamels; the jaws are wide open, showing rows of teeth and a long tongue. The lower part of the head of the staff is of filigree work, and the three knops are each divided into four compartments, decorated with synmetrically arranged floral ornament, formed in the same manner as the scales.

Armenian pastoral staff (1700-1825)

An Armenian bishop or priest who holds the degree of doctor of theology carries a pastoral staff. It is formed with either a single or double serpent to signify the wisdom of the office. A full-length staff would be approximately 1.5 metres long and end with a tau cross, like the letter T.

Armenian pastoral staff (1600-1850) Pastoral staff of ebony with tau-head and mounts of silver parcel-gilt. Eight sided, decorated with strips of silver chased with a vine pattern, parcel gilt, and divided into sections by four oval knops, spirally fluted and chased with leaves. The tau head is formed of two scrolls with dragon/snake heads chased with foliated ornament. At the bottom of the shaft is a baluster shaped foot.

Armenian pastoral staff (1600-1850) Silver & Silver-gilt

Armenian pastoral staff (17th century) Carved ivory set with uncut gems. This is a head of a carved ivory Tau cross made in 17th century Armernia. This head is formed of two half-serpents, their bodies joined in the centre, their heads twisted round underneath. On either side, in the middle, under a round arch are figures of a bishop with a staff and a saint holding a book. Set with uncut gems

Medieval Armenian pastoral staff, Ivory tau head

Armenian pastoral staff (17th century) This Tau Head of ivory is by an unknown artist from Armenia executed in the 17th century. It shows two dragon's heads, the eyes formed by cabochon rubies in gold settings. The floral scrolls engraved on the shaft and prominent portions of the arms have been inlaid partly with gold, partly with black composition.

Statue of the Armenian Goddess Anahit (1st c. BC.)

You CAN join the cause by signing the digital petition HERE

and/or joining THIS Facebook page

The Armenian minister of Science and Education took the initiative of returning the fragments of a statue of the Armenian pagan Goddess Anahit from UK to Armenia. Anahit was the goddess of fertility and healing, wisdom and water in pre-Christian Armenian mythology. In early periods she was the goddess of war. By the 5th century BC she was the main deity in Armenia along with Aramazd. The annual festivity of the month Navasard, held in honor of Anahit, was the occasion of great gatherings, attended with dance, music, recitals, competitions, etc. The sick went to the temples in pilgrimage, asking for recovery. Armenians used to erect golden statues of Anahit which where sometimes plundered by the Romans. Anahit was always highly regarded by the Armenians even by the early Christians. According to ancient Armenian historian Agathangelos, the first Christian King Trdat praised the: great Lady Anahit, the glory of our nation and vivifier . . .; mother of all chastity, and issue of the great and valiant Aramazd.

Currently the remains of the bronze statue (head and hand) are in possession of the British Museum. According to their website, the fragments of Anahit’s bronze statue were accidently discovered in 1872 by a farmer digging the land in Satagh, Armenian Highland. The head made its way via Constantinople (modern Istanbul) and Italy to the dealer Alessandro Castellani, who eventually sold it to the British Museum. The hand was presented to the Museum a few years later.

As an important relic of the Armenian history and culture, it belongs to be cherished in the land of its people. The widespread turmoil and deportations in the region of historic Armenia have robbed the Armenian people of the very artifacts that would represent the Armenian culture. The physical presence of these remains in Armenia will give the Armenian people the chance to visit their history in museums and galleries without having the need to travel more than 2000 miles to do so. The sentimental value of the Goddess Anahit’s statue is worth far more to the Armenians than to random tourists and visitors of the British Museum. Its importance to Armenians is not only attested by festivals still practiced but also by depictions on modern Armenian currency, postal stamps, books, paintings, company logos, popular name usage and much, much more. Similar cultural retrievals have proven to be successful for countries like Greece and Egypt. Particularly Egypt has succeeded several times in returning cultural values from the British Museum. We can do the same!

I therefore urge everyone to join the cause by signing the digital petition HERE

And/or joining THIS Facebook page.

Eternal gratitude to all participants, and blessings of Anahit!

sources:

http://armenianow.com/arts_and_culture/35325/armenian_goddess_anahit_british_museum

http://www.change.org/petitions/british-ambassador-to-the-republic-of-armenia-return-the-fragments-of-armenian-pagan-goddess-anahits-statue-to-armenia

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bring-the-Goddess-Home-Demand-the-return-of-divine-Anahit-to-Armenia/295274203866839

The chilling testimonies will be published in a book. The news came during the presentation of the “Lux Arcana” exhibition which will display the treasures of one of the world’s oldest archives

In the Secret Vatican Archives documents are stored that testify to the unprecedented and shocking genocide by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians during the First World War. Documents that will be published soon in a book co-edited by the same Vatican Archives.

The advanced news arrived, a little by surprise, during the presentation in the Vatican of the exhibit “Lux Arcana”, which – from next February – will open to the public, for the first time, the treasures of one of the oldest and most extensive archives in the world.

The testimonials, explained the prefect of the Secret Archives, Monsignor Sergio Pagano, describe “in detail” the “procedures of torture that the Turks used towards the Armenians”.   For example, he said, there is evidence of how the soldiers of the Sublime Porte would bet “on the sex of fetuses in the wombs of pregnant women before they quartered them and with the same knife killed the babies”.

These episodes, said the Vatican archivist, “make me ashamed to be a man, and if it were not for faith, I would see only darkness”.

It is easy to imagine that the publication of these documents reignite the tension between the Holy See and Turkey, at a time when the memory of the killing of Monsignor Luigi Padovese, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia, a year ago June 3^rd, is still alive.

The Catholic Church is still waiting for an acknowledgment by the Turkish state, although recently some progress has been made.  For example, it has become easier to perform pilgrimages to the church in Tarsus, the birthplace of St. Paul.

Among the highlights of the exhibit, there are also the authentic and complete dossier of the trial of Galileo Galilei, the ‘Dictatus papae’ in which Gregory VII (1073-1085) sanctioned the supremacy of the papal theocracy over any other power and an autographed document of Michelangelo. 

source: http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/the-vatican/detail/articolo/genocidio-armeno-archivio-segreto-archivo-secreto-secret-archive-armenian-genocide-4385/