Some Motives of the Decoration of the Monuments of Early Medieval Armenian Architecture

Abstract

The following article concerns the very important aspect of the early medieval art of Armenia, namely the decoration motives of the monuments of the Early Medieval architecture, and their relations with the early Christian and early Byzantine monuments. The centuries-old political and cultural ties with the Eastern Roman Empire have left their mark on the monuments of the artistic culture of Armenia. In particular, this concerns the variety of ornamental motifs that were widely used in the Hellenistic and Roman monuments, after the Christian culture inherited them and through it reached all ends of the Eastern Christian world. In Armenian early medieval architecture these ornamental motifs were the important part of the inner and outer decoration of churches, martyria, as well as stelae, khachkars, etc. In this article, several new decorative motifs that were not considered earlier are highlighted, or they were known in general, however they hadn't been explored from the point of view of their origins and artistic parallels. A new approach could be considered the compositions single out from this point of view on the early khachkars, on the window moldings of the Ptghni church and the acanthus band of the Aruch church, as well as the vine scroll motif on the facades of the Church of the Holy Cross of Aghtamar similar to early Christian decorative compositions of the floor mosaics and sarcophagi.