The Frescoes of the Haghpat Monastery in the Historical-Confessional Context of the 13th Century

The Haghpat Monastery is one of the famous ecclesiastical centers of medieval Armenia. It was founded in the 10th century under the Bagratids and was completed in the 13th and early 14th centuries under the Zakharids and their successors [12, pp. 9–88; 22]. One of the unique so-called “Savior” khachkars with a scene of Crucifixion dates back to this very period [22, fig. 19]. The Haghpat monastery is better known for its architecture and sculpture. However, inside the earliest Church of the Holy Sign (Surb Nshan), the fragments of the wall paintings are preserved. For many years, they were under soot and remained almost invisible. There were only general notes on frescoes and paleography [12, pp. 9–88; 7, p. 152; 28, p. 208]. However, recently Christine Lamoureux and Ara Zarian from Italy started the restoration of the frescoes1 and published a book [14]. Now the monument is available for study. The Church of the Holy Sign was built between 976–991 by the king Ashot III Bagratid and his wife Khosrovanush for the glory of their sons. The voluminous sculptures of the princes Smbat and Gurgen are fixed in the niche of the eastern pediment, with the model of the church in their hands [22, fig. 1, 8–9]. A few years earlier, the same patrons had built the Church of the Savior (966) of the Sanahin monastery, a complex paired to Haghpat, with the relief images of the same princes. The frescoes of Haghpat have no exact date. The scholars mentioned the two or three layers of the frescoes and suggested different dates from the 10th–11th to 13th–14th centuries [12, pp. 19, 154; 7, p. 152; 28, pp. 208, 410, 534; 23, pp. 191–192; 17, pp. 270–271; 19, pp. 49–50; 14, pp. 111, 180]. There is every reason to consider the lower layer of the murals to belong to the Bagratids. The upper layer dates to the different periods of the 13th century. Namely, the beginning and the middle of the century, or the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries are mentioned. Also, the alternation of different artistic styles is highlighted. In this case, the stylistic and comparative analysis of the frescoes is of a great importance. However, an equal value has the historical context, which outlines more definite frames of time. Therefore, our aim is to examine the murals of the Haghpat monastery considering the historical background. In the Church of the Holy Sign, big fragments of the frescos have been preserved in the sanctuary and on the southern wall. The semi-dome and the altar wall are decorated and divided into three tiers. An ornamental band presenting the row of blooming buds separates the