Искусство Армении. Черты историко-художественного развития

and residential quarters in Russia. In 1815 the Armenian Prince Lazarev founded the Institute of Oriental Languages in Moscow, which eventually became Russia’s main educational centre for Orientalists, particularly specialists on Armenia and the Caucasus. Portraits by Hakop Hovnatanyan (1806 – 1881) opened a new chapter in Armenian paint ‐ ing, hence his unique position in an history. The verve and warmth of Hovnatanyan’s portraits are due to their aim — they were meant as mementoes of the loved ones, as pictures that would capture the likeness and mood of a dear person at a moment of animation or joy. These portraits were memorials in the broadest sense, and it was not surprising that this kind of portraiture was in the middle of the century replaced by photography. After Hovnatanyan Armenian painters turned to European art, reacting keenly to all the major trends. Although most of those painters lived outside Armenia — in Tiflis, Baku, Rostov ‐ on ‐ Don or Moscow, the theme and spirit of their work were linked with their homeland. The late 19th and the early 20th centuries are represented by three outstanding artists. One was Ghevork Bashindjagyan (1857 – 1925), whose landscapes showed a great love of his country. His views, particularly of Mount Ararat and Lake Sevan, contained the very spirit of Armenia, and were very popular. The second was Vardkes Surenyantz (1860 – 1921), founder of Arme ‐ nian historical painting, whose pictures devoted to the legendary or real events of the past symbolized the tragic fate of Armenian people, and, finally, Yegishe Tatevosyan (1870 – 1936) — an almost universal painter, whose enormous legacy still influences Armenian artists. Stepan Aghadjanyan (1863 – 1940) and Thanos Terlemezyan (1865 – 1941), who began painting in the last century, played an important part after 1917 in establishing Soviet Armenian school of painting and founding the first art institute in the Soviet Armenia. Their realistic por ‐ traits and landscapes started a new trend which was characterized by an almost documentary precision of representation and by an interest in the social aspects of life. This school still has followers today. However, the most eminent figure in Armenian painting of the 20th century was Martiros Saryan (1880 – 1972), the forerunner and founder of the contemporary Armenian painting. The main principles of Saryan’s method that later on proved to be so effective and power ‐ ful, had been laid down before the Revolution. Unlike many other artists of the period, whose work was largely effected by 19th century Russian and European painting, Saryan’s art developed in the midst of the stormy and eventful life of the first two decades of our century. He had much more in common with French Post ‐ Impressionist painters, such as Gauguin and Matisse. His quest for new art was shared by young Russian artists, with whom he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Archi ‐ tecture. They formed a group called the “Blue Rose”, and Saryan took part in their exhibitions. But owing to his natural oriental touch, Saryan stood out right from the start, and therefore was immediately noticed by art critics in Russia. Saryan’s decorative approach fundamentally served to convey the inner significance of the subject. The artist benefited much from travelling — he went to Constantinople, Egypt, Persia, Transcaucasia, and brought back canvases in plenty, choosing quite ordinary subjects which he condensed and then transmitted into the very essence of reality. Behind his landscapes, faces and things was a striving to abstract the whole cultural tradition of the East. In the 1910s Saryan’s preferred medium was tempera, and he gave life to this medium in his own inimitable way. Saryan painted portraits, landscape, decorative panels and compositions, worked as an il ‐ lustrator in charcoal and in pen ‐ and ‐ ink, and after the 1917 Revolution tried his hand at stage decor. In the exciting post ‐ revolutionary years all his intrinsic qualities matured, all his promise came to fruition.