Abstract
This chapter is devoted to a general description of the painted program of the Armenian church and to a new appreciation of its cultural and historical meaning. A special emphasis is laid on those murals which have been rediscovered thanks to the recent restoration campaign, namely the images of Saint Theodore on horseback, Saints Paraskeve and Helena, the vita-icon of Saint John the Baptist, and the Dormition of the Virgin. Each mural is analyzed in its specific iconographical and stylistic features and interpreted in light of its association with Armenian tradition and Famagusta’s specific context of cross-cultural interactions, with a special focus on the authorship of the painted program in its different phases, the connections with Palaiologan arts, the relationship with other painted programs in Famagusta, the worship for both Armenian and Cypriot saints, and the involvement of some images in devotional practices associated with individual or corporate religious life.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Angar, M. “Stiftermodelle in Byzanz und bei christlich-orthodoxen Nachbarkulturen.” In Mikroarchitektur im Mittelalter. Ein gattungsübergreifendes Phänomen zwischen Realität und Imagination. Edited by C. Kratzke and U. Albrecht, pp. 433–453. Leipzig: Publisher, 2008.
Bacci, M. “Arte e raccomandazione dell’anima nei domini latini del Levante: alcune riflessioni.” In Oltre la morte. Testamenti di Greci e Veneziani redatti a Venezia o in territorio greco-veneziano nei sec. XIV-XVIII. Atti dell’incontro scientifico, Venezia, 22–23 gennaio 2007, edited by Chr. Maltezou and G. Varzelioti. Venice: Publisher, 2008.
Bacci, M. “Side-Altars and ‘pro anima’ Chapels in the Medieval Mediterranean: Evidence from Cyprus.” In The Altar and Its Environment, 1150–1400, edited by V. M. Schmidt and J. Kroesen. Turnhout, Publisher, 2010.
Bacci, M. “Le bienheureux Gérard de Valenza, O.F.M.: images et croyances dans la Toscane du XIVe siècle.” Revue Mabillon, n.s., 12 (2001): 97–119.
Bacci, M. “Patterns of Church Decoration in Famagusta (Fourteenth to Sixteenth Centuries).” In Famagusta. Art and Architecture, edited by A. W. Carr, pp. 203–276. Turnhout: Publisher, 2014.
Bacci, M. “Images ‘votives’ et portraits de donateurs au Levant au Moyen Âge tardif.” In Donation et donateurs. Edited by Spieser and Yota eds, pp. 293–308.
Bacci, M. “The Armenian Church in Famagusta and Its Mural Decoration: Some Iconographic Remarks.” In Culture of Cilician Armenia, proceedings of the international symposium (Antelyas, Armenian Katholicossate of Cilicia, 14–18 January 2008), Antelyas, Catholicosate of Cilicia, 2009 = Hask hayagitakan taregirk’ 11 (2007–2008).
Bacci, M. “Identity Markers in the Art of Fourteenth-Century Famagusta.” In The Harbour of all this Sea and Realm. Crusader to Venetian Famagusta, edited by M. J. K. Walsh, T. Kiss, and N. H. Coureas. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2014.
Bacci, M. “Syrian, Palaiologan, and Gothic Murals in the ‘Nestorian’ Church of Famagusta.” Deltion tes Christianikes archaiologikes hetaireias ser. 4, 27 (2006), 207–220.
Chatterjee, P. The Living Icon in Byzantium and Italy. The Vita Image, Eleventh to Thirteenth Centuries. Cambridge: Publisher, 2014.
Coureas, N. “Non-Chalcedonian Christians on Latin Cyprus.” In Dei Gesta per Francos. Études sur les croisades dédiées à Jean Richard, edited by M. Balard, B. Z. Kedar and J. Riley-Smith. Aldershot: 2001.
Dasnabedian, Th. “Mariologie de l’église arménienne orthodoxe.” Hask hayagitakan taregirk’ 10 (2002–2006).
Dédéyan, G. “Les Arméniens à Chypre de la fin du XIIe au début du XIIIe siècle.” In Les Lusignans et l’Outre-Mer. Poitiers, 1995.
Djurić, V. J. Byzantinische Fresken in Jugoslawien. München: Publisher, 1976.
Dournovo, L. A. Očerki izobrazitel’novo iskusstva srednevekovoj Armenii. Moscow: Publisher, 1979.
Edwards, R. W. “Ecclesiastical Architecture in the Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia: Second Report.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 37 (1983), 134–141.
Eleuteri, P. and A. Rigo. Eretici, dissidenti, musulmani ed ebrei a Bisanzio. Una raccolta eresiologica del XII secolo. Venice: Publisher, 1993.
Grivaud, G. “Les minorities orientales à Chypre (époque medieval et moderne).” In Chypre et la Méditerranée orientale. Lyons: Publisher, 2000.
Hadjichristodoulou, Christodoulos. “O naos tes Ypsoses tou Timiou Stavrou.” In A. Tsagaris (ed.), Oi naoi ton Pelendrion. Istoria-architektonike-techne. Nicosia: Publisher, 2005.
Imhaus, B. “L’église arménienne de Famagouste. Description et historique de sa rehabilitation (XIVe-XXe siècle),” in La Méditerranée des Arméniens XII e -XV e siècle. Paris: Publisher, 2014.
Immerzeel, M. Identity Puzzles. Medieval Christian Art in Syria and Lebanon. Leiden: Publisher, 2009.
Kalokyris, C. D. “La Dormition et l’Assomption de la Théotokos dans l’art de l’église orthodoxe.” Epeteris tes theologikes scholes tou Aristoteleiou Panepistemiou Thessalonikes 19 (1974): 133–143.
Korunovski, Sašo and Elizabeta Dimitrova, Macedonia. L’arte medievale dal IX al XV secolo. Milan: Publisher, 2006.
Tsvetan Grozdanov, Živopisot na ohridskata arxiepiskopija. Studii. Skopje: Publisher, 2007.
Kotadjian, N. “Les décors peints des églises d’Arménie,” In Armenia Sacra, edited by Durand, Rapti, and Giovannoni.
Kouymjian, D. “The Holy Mother of God Armenian Church in Famagusta,” edited by M. J. K. Walsh, P. W. Edbury, and N. S. H. Coureas. Medieval and Renaissance Famagusta. Studies in Architecture, Art and History. Farnham, 2012.
Lazarev, V. N. Storia della pittura bizantina. Turin, 1967.
Lidov, A. The Mural Paintings of Akhtala. 2nd ed. Moscow, 2014.
Lidov, A. “Iskusstvo armyan-xalkedonitov,” In Istoriko-filologičeskij žurnal AH Arm. SSR 128 (1990).
Mahé, Jean-Pierre. “L’église arménienne de 611 à 1066,” edited by A. Vauchez, Histoire du Christianisme. T. 4: Évêques, moines et empereurs (610–1054). Paris, 1993.
Mahé, Jean-Pierre. “Le christianisme arménien avant et après l’Islam: rupture et continuité,” eds. J. Durand, I. Rapti, and D. Giovannoni, Armenia sacra. Mémoire chrétienne des Arméniens (IV e –XVIII e siècles), exhibition catalog. Paris, Louvre, September 21, 2006–July 14, 2007. Paris, 2006.
Muyldermans, J. “Le costume liturgique arménien. Étude historique.” Le Muséon 39 (1926), 253–324.
Nordiguian, L. and J.-C. Voisins, Châteaux et églises du Moyen Âge au Liban. Beirut, 1999, 371–372.
Papamastorakis, T. “Pictorial Lives. Narrative in Thirteenth-Century Vita Icons.” Mouseio Benaki 7 (2008), 33–65.
Paschali, M. “Mural Decoration in Saint George of the Greeks.” in Carr, Famagusta.
Prolović, J. Die Kirche des Heiligen Andreas an der Treska. Geschichte, Architektur und Malerei einer palaiologenzeitlichen Stiftung des serbischen Prinzen Andreaš. Vienna, 1997.
Ramazyan, S. ‘K voprosu o prichinakh ikonoborchestva v srednevekovoy Armenii,’ Vestnik PCTGU III: Filosofiya 5 (2013).
Rapti, I. “La voix des donateurs: pages de dédicaces dans les manuscrits arméniens de Cilicie.” In Jean-Michel Spieser and Élisabeth Yota (eds.), Donation et donateurs dans le monde byzantin (Paris, 2012.
Revel-Neher, Élisabeth. The Image of the Jew in Byzantine Art (Jerusalem, 1992), 81–84;
Saadya, Alifa. ‘Convert or Desecrator? The Image of the Jew in the ‘Jephonias Episode’ in Icons of the Dormition’, in SICSA Annual Report 1999 (Jerusalem, 1999), 23–26.
Schildtberger, Johannes. “Travel to the Holy Land,” edited by V. Langmantel, Hans Schiltbergers Reisebuch nach der Nürnberger Handschrift. Tübingen, 1885.
Ševčenko, N. P. ‘The Vita Icon and the Painter as Hagiographer’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 53 (1999), 149–165;
Subotić, G. Terra sacra. L’arte del Cossovo (Milan, 1997).
Todić, B. Manastir Resava. Belgrade, 1995.
Todić, B. Serbian Medieval Painting in the Age of King Milutin. Belgrade, 1999.
Underwood, P. The Kariye Djami, volume 2. Washington, D.C., 1966.
Wratislaw-Mitrović, L. and N. Okunev. “La Dormition de la Sainte Vierge dans la peinture médiévale orthodoxe,” Byzantinoslavica 3 (1931), 140–141.
Zarras, N. “Reflections of Palaiologan Style in Cypriot Monumental Painting,” in Symmeikta. Collection of Papers Dedicated to the 40th Anniversary of the Institute for Art History, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. Belgrade, 2012.
S. Der Nersessian, ‘Une apologie des images du septième siècle’, in idem, Études byzantines et arméniennes (Louvain, 1973), 379–403, esp. 384.
K. Skabavias, entry no. 7, in M. Vassilaki (ed.), The Hand of Angelos. An Icon Painter in Venetian Crete (Athens, 2010), 82–83.
Chr. Walter, The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition (Aldershot, 2003), 44–66; idem, ‘Saint Theodore and the Dragon’, in Chr. Entwistle (ed.), Through the Glass Brightly. Studies in Byzantine and Medieval Art and Archaeology Presented to David Buckton (Oxford, 2003), 95–106.
Chr. Walter, ‘The Portrait of Saint Paraskeve’, Byzantinoslavica 56 (1995), 753–757.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bacci, M. (2017). The Painted Program of the Armenian Church in Light of Recent Discoveries. In: Walsh, M. (eds) The Armenian Church of Famagusta and the Complexity of Cypriot Heritage. Mediterranean Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48502-7_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48502-7_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-48501-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-48502-7
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)