Saint Gayane Church

Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Seminář dějin umění Saint Gayane Church Bakalárska diplomová práca Autor: Michaela Baraničová Vedúci práce: prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur es Lettres Brno 2020 ii Prehlasujem, že som svoju bakalársku diplomovú prácu vypracovala samostatne a uviedla všetkú použitú literatúru a pramene. .............................................................. Podpis autora práce iii iv On the ancient peak of Ararat The centuries have come like seconds, And passed on. The swords of innumerable lightnings Have broken upon its diamond crest, And passed on. The eyes of generations dreading death Have glanced at its luminuos summit, And passed on. The turn is now yours for a brief while: You, too, look at its lofty brow, And pass on! Avetik Isahakyan, “Mount Ararat”, in Selected Works: Poetry and Prose, ed. M. Kudian, Moscow 1976. v vi My first sincere thanks belong to my thesis’ supervisor, prof. Ivan Foletti, for his observations, talks and patience during this time. Especially, I would like to thank him for introducing me to the art of Caucasus and giving me the opportunity to travel to Armenia for studies, where I spent five exciting months. I would like to thank teachers from Yerevan State Academy of Arts, namely to Gayane Poghosyan and Ani Yenokyan, who were always very kind and helped me with better access of certain Armenian literature. My gratitude also belongs to my friends Susan and colleagues, notably to Veronika, who was with me in Armenia and made the whole experience more entertaining. To Khajag, who helped me with translation of Armenian texts and motivating me during the whole process. It´s hard to express thanks to my amazing parents, who are constantly supporting me in every step of my studies and life, but let me just say: Thank you! vii viii Content Introduction.........................................................................1 I. State of research............................................................3 To travel, to explore..............................................................4 The era of Strzygowski..........................................................8 The 20th century..................................................................11 Beyond Old and New Perspectives......................................16 Summary..............................................................................19 II. The city of Etchmiadzin..............................................21 Architecture and decoration................................................23 Restoration works................................................................27 Summary..............................................................................32 III. The Dating....................................................................33 The question of inscription..................................................33 First sources........................................................................35 Wooden roofs.......................................................................36 Armenian church buildings.................................................37 The domed churches – A Cross in square plan...................38 Georgian, Syrian, Byzantine models...................................41 Summary – Dating..............................................................43 IV. Construction and dedication......................................45 Written sources – The History.............................................46 The story of martyrdom and the cult of saints.....................49 Summary..............................................................................50 V. Function of the sacred space.......................................52 The power of images............................................................53 Sacrifices…..........................................................................53 Place of burials....................................................................54 Decoration – 7th century traditions.....................................55 ix Theories – walls, adornment.......................................................58 Gayane decor..............................................................................60 Movement and the holy roads – The pilgrimage experience…...63 Summary......................................................................................66 Conclusion..................................................................................68 Literature...................................................................................70 Sources........................................................................................70 Secondary sources.......................................................................70 Web pages....................................................................................83 The list of images........................................................................85 x Introduction The Church of Saint Gayane is located only a few hundred meters from the Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin, which seats the Catholicos of Armenia. The view of the church holds the breathtaking Mount Ararat in its background. At first sight, the building will impress us with its simple, but elegant proportions, accentuated by the red colour of the tuff stones. During the centuries, the building underwent several restorations, mostly of minor character, which did not affect the overall look of the building. Visible exception was the narthex, which was added later and was not part of the original structure. It is usually dated to the 7th century, specifically to the time of Catholicos Ezr´s pontificate. The church was named after the abbess, who according to the legend, escaped from Rome with a group of nuns to the land of Armenia, where they were eventually martyred and killed on the command of King Tiridates III and later, where the church was built in that same place. In the first chapter, our main aim will be to summarize the most important bibliography that is concerned with the church of Saint Gayane. It has to be said, that in most cases, the available literature is more or less repeating the same amount of information about the architecture and history of the church and many times, other subjects are overlooked. Unfortunately, the architecture of the church alone did not become the subject of single united monographic study. Therefore, many questions about the initial (mostly interior) decoration, function and use, raised already during our research phase. For that reason, it will be our goal to answer them or at least present paths that can be studied more in the future research. The second chapter will be mostly discussing the formal analysis of the architecture and how its features changed during centuries of reparation works. 1 The third chapter will be focused on the dating of the church. We will present the building in comparison with other 7th century religious structures, mostly from Armenia and Georgia and will try to think about possible models for the construction. We will also analyze the problem of missing inscription and end the chapter with proposing dating. The next paragraph will be for the most part referring to the written historical testimonies that exist about the events of the 7th century and are featuring the development of the Armenian churches, but most importantly, especially mentioning the main point of our interest – Saint Gayane Church. In the last chapter, examples of decoration that was usually used during 7th century in Armenia will be presented and therefore, we will attempt to formulate a theory about possible interior adornment in the church and its use since the moment of the construction. We will try to meditate on whether there might had been some connection between the neighbouring churches located in Etchmiadzin and Saint Gayane, that might have been even displayed in their function. 2 I. State of research The Early history and sources The oldest record of the Saint Gayane Church found during this research phase comes from the work of Yovhannes Drasxanakertc'i's History of Armenia. The History was written by the 10th century Armenian Catholicos Yovhannes who was the head of the Armenian Church (898-929) and major political figure.1 In the text, the historian stated that the Patriarch Ezr (630- 641) had the martyrium of Saint Gayane, the structure which was formerly gloomy and dark, torn down and had a larger and more magnificent edifice built with polished stones and lime mortar. Outside the church, he arranged for a place of habitation for the priests who served the divine altar.2 The History of Armenia is composed of a "Preface", the History, and an epilogue.3 The division of the History into the chapters is most probably work of a later editor. In the English translation of the book done by Krikor Maksoudian, the author had followed the subdivisions of the 1867 Jerusalem edition.4 The biography of Yovhannes Drasxanakertc'i is known to us primarily from references in his own works, i.e., The History of Armenia, and the List of Katholikoi.5 From mentioned two sources we discover more of his life and writings than is known about other historians of Armenian ancestry. The limited details presented by medieval Armenian historians of Yovhannes's personal history in turn evolved from these works, and the same can also be 1 Drasxanakertc´i 1987, pp. 1. 2 Drasxanakertc´i 1987, pp. 100. 3 For the chapter “Preface” from The history of Armenia see pp. v-xii, for the History see pp.

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