Armenian Treasures at the Met: Gospel Illuminations

The Metropolitan Museum has moved from displaying the origins of Christian art as they applied to Western Europe to trying to display the wealth and importance of the larger Byzantine sphere, which includes Armenia. This is one of my favorite works at the Met, the Four Evangelists, each holding his gospel, each named in Armenian. It's wonderfully Baroque coloring, and it's been suggested by some that this is in fact what clergy in Armenia at this time wore. This is painted on vellum, and on the reverse you have a scene that at first glance is difficult to recognize, but if you work your way through it, we again have an emphasis on the promise of salvation. You have the tomb as this geometric form, the angels guarding it above it here at the edge. Christ is appearing after his resurrection. Now this one is on paper, and Armenian texts are written on paper quite early because Armenia is a major site on the trade routes, and China is where the paper starts from. This is the first page of the Gospel of John, and it has this wonderful blues and greens and this marginal marker, and then the text written in these quite fun Armenian letters shaped out of birds, where you go from the angel of Matthew through the lion of Saint Mark to the ox of Saint Luke, and then at the end of the letter, the eagle of Saint John, which is holding a golden gospel in its mouth. So you are emphatically stating the importance of the four gospels through the symbols of the evangelists who are all flanking this quite lovely image of Christ. He has his hands in blessing, and he has wonderfully soulful eyes. I always think that he is looking at all of us a little disappointed and offering us the promise that we can yet overcome.