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Ani Cathedral

Nina Garsoïan: [Ani]... said to have had a population of 100,000 inhabitants. Even if this figure is exaggerated, Ani was considerably larger than contemporary urban centers in Western Europe. Towering above its other religious monuments, some of which still survive, the great cathedral was completed by Gagik I's wife, Queen Katramide of Siwnik'. According to the historian Asoghik [Asolik]: [She] completed the building of the church with brilliant splendor, lofty vaults, and a sanctuary surmounted by a heaven-like dome. And she adorned it with tapestries embroidered with purple flowers and gold and with vessels of silver and gold through whose resplendent brilliance the holy cathedral in the city of Ani shone forth like the heavenly vault.

Քարե մատյան, Անիի Մայր տաճարի շինարարական արձանագրությունը (1001 և 1011 թվականներով)։ Ամբողջական տեքստը և վիմագրի մասին այլ մանրամասներ կարելի է կարդալ հղվող հոդվածում՝ Կարեն Մաթևոսյան, Անիի Մայր տաճարի շինարարական արձանագրության կարծեցյալ հիջրայի թվականի մասին, «Բանբեր Մատենադարանի», N 31, Երևան, 2021, էջ 23-40։ https://banber.matenadaran.am/ftp/data/Banber31/2.K.Matevosyan.pdf

Gothic

Kenneth John Conant (1959) Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture, 800 to 1200, pp 209-210

Exchange of Influences

The Problem of Armenia

Critics with sound architectural training - and Sir Alfred (Alfred Clapham) was one - are little impressed by superficial and literary resemblances when practical and structural elements do not correspond. This objection is valid in the case of Armenian architecture, which is the most subtle, finished, and impressive of all the proto-Romanesque styles.
The Armenian architects dealt with the same elements and many of the same conditions as the Romanesque architects of the West. They developed parallel solutions at an earlier period, and since they faced their buildings with ashlar, the superficial appearance of the buildings is sometimes quite similar to Romanesque. One of the most notable buildings in this respect is the cathedral of Ani (989-1001) by Trdat. This is a domed basilica possessing grouped piers; pointed arches, ribs, and vault; decorative exterior arcading somewhat resembling Pisan work, and (before its destruction) a graceful crossing tower with a dome on drum and pendentives. The Armenian church designs most typically 'build up' into domes and towers of this type. The noticeable lack of this arrangement in supposed imitations counts heavily against the idea of direct infuence from Armenia on the Occident.
Similar doubt attends the idea of direct influence from Armenian ribbed vault construction to the West. The history of this sort of vault construction in Armenia begins with Surb Hripsimé at Valarshapat (618), where twelve decorative ribs exist, probably suggested by St Sophia in Constantinople, but forming (in groups of three) the arms of a large decorative cross on the soffit of the dome. The Romanesque-looking Armenian ribbed work of the tenth century is a passing phase; for the development continues into ingenious combinations of ribs arranged (sometimes over four supports) like a printer's sign for space (# ) with a turret at the summit, centrally placed. In fact, the Armenians were always interested in centralized rib schemes, and these have had only slight influence in the West. It is known that the Armenians were good masons, and perhaps something of the fine quality of the Crusader churches in Syria is due to them; but the Syrians, equally, are good masons, and doubtless good masons came from France. It is significant that when the French patrons were actually close to Armenia and its architecture - and indeed there were Armenians in Jerusalem also - the architectural influence was nil, or but little more. In- stead, we have an "école d'outre-mer' which is very largely Burgundian and Provençal French.

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David Talbot Rice, The appreciation of Byzantine art, 1972, p. 179

But it is harder to explain the close similarities that are to be observed between late Romanesque and early Gothic architecture in the West and Armenian architecture two hundred years earlier. Pointed arches, engaged columns, ribbed vaulting, and other features that were to be developed by the Gothic builders in the later twelfth and thirteenth centuries were being used freely in Armenia in the tenth. The interior of Ani cathedral, a longitudinal stone building with pointed vaults and a central dome, built about 1001, is astonishingly Gothic in every detail, and numerous other equally close parallels could be cited.

Dictionary of the Middle Ages, vol. 1, 1982,

https://pdfhost.io/v/MScSX.77r_dictionary_of_the_middle_ages
https://web.archive.org/web/20240923175315/https://pdfhost.io/v/MScSX.77r_dictionary_of_the_middle_ages

Lucy Der Manuelian, "Armenian Art"

p. 494 The cathedral of Ani, built by the architect Trdat, who was invited in 989 to rebuild the fallen dome of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, displays at a much earlier date (1010) features associated with Gothic architecture in the West: clustered piers, pointed arches, and slightly pointed, ribbed ceiling vaults.

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Harvey, John H. (March 1968). "The Origins of Gothic Architecture: Some Further Thoughts". The Antiquaries Journal. 48 (1): 87–99. doi:10.1017/S0003581500034417. ISSN 1758-5309.

Parallels have been found in Persia and in Armenia and have given rise to inadequate theories of the wholesale borrowing of Gothic architecture from Iran or from the region of medieval Armenia and Georgia.
It is even noteworthy that in western Anatolia after centuries of Turkish and Islamic dominance (for example, at Iznik and Bursa) the local style of all buildings, both religious and civil, remained round-arched. The same is true of almost all the leading monuments of Great Armenia, that is, the region on both sides of the frontier between modern Turkey and the Soviet Union. With the problem of a very few exceptional traces of pointed-arch style we shall deal later. Here it must be stated firmly that the impression given by all the Armenian buildings of relevant date (and this applies also to all important Georgian buildings that survive) is one of consistently round-arched style. The links between the buildings of Armenia and Georgia on the one hand, and those of Carolingian and Romanesque Europe on the other, are indeed close, and must indicate far closer and more direct contacts than might have been expected. But they give no suggestion whatever of the coming change to Gothic, apart from a few isolated instances of the introduction of slightly pointed arches or vaults.

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Gothic Architecture - Louis Grodecki

... Gothic architecture first emerged as a coherent style : the Cathedral of ... ( Ani , Nicorzminda ) , diagonal arches on a square field ( Ani ) , and arches ... Armenian examples ) . However , these Norman ex- was supported by ...

Jurgis Baltrušaitis (art historian), Le Problème de l'ogive et l'Arménie, 1936 https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3373527j

Marcel Aubert

Dieulafoy and Arthur Upham Pope sustained the theory of a Persian origin for the ribbed vault, but these early Persian vaults are later than several Armenian churches with ribbed vaults. Bultrusaitis has shown their existence in Armenian churches of the tenth century. Ani, Armenia, church of the Holy Apostles -- here there are ribs which interlock in a continuous diamond pattern , but do not carry carry a vault directly . Instead they carry small walls , which in their turn support a flat ceiling made of great slabs of stone .  

https://archive.org/details/byzantinearchite0000hami/page/n9/mode/2up Byzantine Architecture and Decoration - Page 75 - John Arnott Hamilton · 1934

... Ani . The Cathedral of Ani ( Plate xxx ) is one of the most illustrious ... Gothic appearance of its pointed arches and clustered columns . The ... Armenian . Mention may be made of the churches at the Monastery of Gelati in the ...

p. 69 The churches of Armenia are not, as is sometimes stated, built entirely of squared stone, but are faced on both sides with squared volcanic stone, the blocks being carefully fitted together. They bear an impression of solidity and firmness and are characterised by a simple and severe dignity. In the exterior of the actual structure the preference is always for the straight line.

p. 75 The Cathedral of Ani is one of the most illustrious monuments in Armenia. An inscription records its completion by Katranideh, Queen of Armenia, in 1010. Travellers who penetrated to Ani in bygone days were impressed by the Gothic appearance of its pointed arches and clustered columns.

Maranci

• Maranci, Christina (1998). Medieval Armenian Architecture in historiography: Josef Strygowski and His Legacy (PhD thesis). Princeton University. OCLC 40827094.

Texier made an equally important contribution to the interpretation of Armenian architecture-- he noted the resemblance between the building forms at the Cathedral of Ani (fig. 8) and Gothic churches of Western Europe. Texier also compared the arcaded facades of the Cathedral to Romanesque examples in Italy.31 [30 Charles Félix Marie Texier, Description de l'Arménie, de la Perse, de la Mésopotamie, publié sous les auspices des ministrés de l'intérieur et de l'instruction publique, Paris, 1842, 2 vols., which includes a portfolio of drawings, plans, maps, and ten plates.]

3 A contemporary of Texier, W. J. Hamilton, also undertook an extensive voyage through Turkey in the late 1830's and early 40's and recorded it in his Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus and Armenia, (London, 1842) a work which was subsequently translated into German (Reisen in Kleinasien, Pontus, und Armenien nebst antiquarischen und geologischen Forschungen, Leipzig, 1843) and gained wide interest. His works include a particularly interesting description of Ani-- Account ofthe ruins ofthe city ofAni in Armenia, London 1839. At the Cathedral of Ani, it is the pointed arches and clustered capitals which most occupy Hamiiton. Of the famous church of the Apostles, on the northeast side of Ani, he writes "The arches which bore the roof were round, but at the middle were pointed arches and here and there one found various other decorations, that one would usually call Gothic."(p. 191) In the final and most intriguing sentence of the passage, he writes "I cannot pull away from the idea that one could follow the origin of the rich Gothic and Saracenic styles if one studied the capitals and the numerous angles or niches between the arches, in which one may find a systematic sequence of complete simplicity in the overladen intricacy." Thus, Hamilton seems to imagine a common origin for the Gothic and Saracenic styles. That Gothic architecture was brought from the east was a theory already born in the seventeenth century, with Christopher Wren, but it continued to enjoy a considerable following. Note also that rather than viewing Armenian architecture as a composite of Byzantine and Saracenic styles, he entertains the idea that in Armenian architecture could be found the origins for both. Hamilton's view of Armenian architecture looks forward to the beginnings of a long-standing comparison between Armenian and Gothic architecture in the early twentieth century. In particular, it anticipates the work of Baltrušaitis, who also sought a structural system common to both traditions.

At Ani, the Cathedral's chief aesthetic merit is, again, the "extreme simplicity of the design".45 Lynch thus praises not the decoration or the proto-Gothic features of the Cathedral, but rather its use of simple, sparingly decorated forms.

To describe Strzygowski's theories as "oriental", and to state that he believed Armenia to be the source for western medieval architecture, generalizes to the point of untruth.1 As this section will show, Strzygowski's thesis was not monolithic

Strzygowski begins with the pointed arch. While scholars had long derived this feature from the East, none of them, Strzygowski tells us, knew that this feature appears throughout Armenia, as at the Cathedral of Ani (fig. 30).102

D. The Cathedral ofAni.. We make these objections, but Strzygowski might well agree with us. After all, he has not claimed an Armenian origin for Gothic architecture yet. Let us consider his discussion of the Cathedral of Ani. After chastising previous scholars120 who did not accept the foundation dates mentioned in its inscription (989 to 1001), Strzygowski proposes a series of questions in the event that the dates are correct.121 "Do we then permit the Cathedral of Ani to demonstrate the occurrence of Gothic architectural features in the Early Christian churches of Armenia? Is not the Gothic system of niche buttressing also formed in Armenia domed buildings…? Do not pointed arches, … ribbed vaults and bundled piers occur here, as in Gothic buildings?»122

Is Strzygowski claiming Armenian origins for Gothic architecture? Strzygowski is far from clear, but a close look at the passage may suggest otherwise. Strzygowski does indeed call Ani "Gothic", as he also calls the Hagia Sophia (and, one will recall, the Sultan Han). But nowhere does he claim that Gothic architecture is Armenian. What then, according to Strzygowski, was the contribution of Armenian architecture? From the above examples, we may conclude that its value lay in its similarities to the Gothic style, similarities generated by a common Northern force.

In Origin, Strzygowski further considers the shared features of Gothic and Armenian architecture, and concludes that "the impression is thus conveyed that the development in both countries was only rendered possible by the promptings which both received from the Northern spirit."123

As we have seen, migration is only part of Strzygowski's thesis. In addressing the early medieval forms of Northern Europe, Strzygowski is confronted with an important question. Given the similarity between forms in Armenia and the North, as in the blind arcades of Gurk and the Cathedral of Ani, to whom are we to grant the origin? Strzygowski's answer is clever-- to both. Armenia and its Northern European counterpart emerge from a common Northern root. This theory is further articulated in his essay on Gothic architecture. Here, no migration of forms needs to come from Armenia. Rather, the North of Europe enjoyed an indigenous artistic development. Armenia, as we have seen, offered a comparative branch of artistic development, but not a homeland, for Gothic forms.

Lang

David Marshall Lang

• Lang, David Marshall (1970). Armenia: Cradle of Civilization. London: Allen & Unwin.

218 The main glory of the city of Ani is the cathedral, the dome of which has long since fallen in. This is the work of the illustrious Armenian architect Trdat, and was commissioned by King Smbat II shortly before his death in 989. The erection of this masterpiece of world architecture

With this experience behind him, it is not surprising that Trdat’s creation of the Cathedral at Ani turned out to be a masterpiece. Even without its dome, the cathedral amazes the onlooker. Technically, it is far ahead of the contemporary Anglo-Saxon and Norman architecture of western Europe. Already, pointed arches and clustered piers, whose appearance together is considered one of the hallmarks of mature Gothic architecture, are found in this remote corner of the Christian East. The rigorous simplicity of design, like a Mozart symphony, gives Ani Cathedral a stately and sublime quality. The rectangular, oblong outer walls are of delicate rose-pink stone. The external decoration is simple and harmonious. False arcades rise almost up to roof level, and embrace niches on three of the walls. Within the edifice, the lofty arches of the arcades curve gracefully to form a delicate horseshoe; the niches have vaulting shaped like Chinese silk fans or peacocks’ tails.

sorted

When Josef Strzygowski's landmark book on medieval Armenian architecture and the West was published in 1918,10 Ani's medieval churches attracted the attention of European scholars. Strzygowski proposed that it was the Armenians who first discovered how to build a stone church with a stone dome successfully, so the dome would be properly supported. He also proposed that the source for the Romanesque and Gothic architecture of Western Europe came from Armenia. He based his conclusions on Armenian churches such as the Cathedral of Ani begun in 989, and more ancient Armenian churches such as the fifth century church of Tekor, the seventh century church of St. Hripsime, the cathedral of Ojun and others. However, Strzygowski did not have firm evidence to substantiate his hypothesis and overstated his case. But we still do not have the informa- tion we need to explain the resemblances between the Armenian churches which came first in time and the European churches which were built later. Although we have documentary evidence of the presence of Armenians in Western Europe during the Middle Ages who could have transmitted information to the West, more research must be done before any firm conclusions can be drawn.

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The Cathedral of Ani, dedicated in 1001, was the work of the renowned architect Trdat, ... The cathedral was begun by Smbat II in 989 and completed by Queen Katramide, wife of Gagik Bagratuni.

In its design, the cathedral harks back to the plan and the proportions of the seventh-century domed basilica at Mren, which may have served as its model, while elaborated inside and out with architectonic detailing. The tall mass of the building rises above a stepped base, its walls and vaults constructed of carefully carved facing of the distinctive reddish stone characteristic of Ani. As at Mren, there is no narthex. Elegant decorative arcading lines the exterior, the façades punctuated by V-shaped recesses, which correspond to the structural divisions of the interior. Windows are tall and thin, with sculpted frames. The compound piers and arches of the interior are similarly thin and elegant, articulated with multiple setbacks, the linearity of the supports emphasizing the attenuated height. The dome, 7.5 meters in diameter (or 10.4 meters to the midpoint of the piers), rose above pendentives; the central bay is proportionally larger and more prominent than its counterpart at Mren.

The structural clarity evident in the cathedral has long intrigued Western visitors: for example, the stepped profiles of the compound piers continue into the vaulting in a way that recalls the articulation of forms in European Romanesque architecture, seeming to clarify the structural system in a similar way. But this view is a bit misleading, as the architectonic detailing in Caucasian buildings of this period is primarily decorative and not always coordinated with the structure. In its “structural rationalism” the cathedral may be unique to the region. While elegant and rational in the major spaces, it is somewhat less so in the side aisles, and the arcading of the exterior bears no relationship to the structural system. From a Western perspective, we expect structural rationalism, but the inconsistencies indicate that within the Caucasus, structure and decoration were usually separate concerns. As a mason who traveled, Trdat may have observed the structural clarity of surviving Roman (as opposed to Romanesque) monuments.

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John Mason Neale

276 https://books.google.am/books?id=B5RQAQAAMAAJ&pg=276

In Ani, once the capital of Armenia, is a church which forms a curious link between Byzantine and Armenian, but rather allies itself to the former: while the cathedral in the same place, also a connecting link, claims greater affinity with the latter. 

300 https://books.google.am/books?id=B5RQAQAAMAAJ&pg=300

I now come to the cathedral of Ani. This, it will be seen, is Byzantine in its general arrangement; but it carries the niche, on three sides, to great perfection. The synthronus is curious; while the mouldings of the whole church are very elaborate.

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Charles Texier https://archive.org/details/McGillLibrary-rbsc_description-armenie_elfDS485T491842ptie1-2-18757/page/n334/mode/1up?view=theater

photos: https://www.armenianimage.org/exhibition-part1-ohannes-kurkdjian/exhibition-ohannes-kurkdjian/?_page=4

inscriptions

inscription on the southern wall reads:

In the year 450 of the Armenians [AD 1001], and 219 of the Romans [Greeks/Byzantines], in the time of the honored by God [and] spiritual lord Sarkis Catholicos of the Armenians and the glorious kingship of Kakig [I] of the Armenians and Shahan Shah [King of kings] of the Georgians, I Kadratine [sic] queen of the Armenians, daughter of Vasak, king of Syunik, took refuge in the mercy of God and by decree of my husband Kakig Shahan Shah, built this holy cathedral, which was founded by great Smpad, and we erected the house of God, a revived and living spiritual offspring, and a perpetual monument; and I embellished it with precious ornaments, gifts to Christ from me and my family, and sons Smpad, Abas and Ashot; you are commanded by me, Lord Sarkis servant of the church, after the death of this pious queen, to conduct at Vartavar, [and] Hisnak [Advent], forty-one [days of service for the dead] unceasingly until the coming of Christ; if anybody takes that inscription as unreal, let him be condemned by Christ to six 1433 months with Adam, in the year 1012 of God taking human form ... when believing in Christ of the Armenians this colophon was written by my own hand.

inscription on the wall of the door on the southern side:

In the year 662 (1213) by the will of God I Dikran servant of Jesus Christ built with my lawful wealth these stairs of this glorious holy cathedral, which after many years were in ruins, and gave as presents to the holy cathedral from my treasury the store in Kagdnots two [books of] festivities and Saint Krikor one by one and two silver skih of the chief altar, and I placed the yoke on the attendants [of the church] to celebrate mass in my name every year until the coming of Christ.

It is understood from this inscription that a wealthy believer named Dikran, seeing in 1213 that the cathedral needed renovations, had repairs done and had this inscription written in order for his memory to be blessed by future generations.

On the western side inscription reads:

Armenian

Կենտրոնական նավը զգալի լայնացնելու, իսկ կողմնայինների լայնությունը նվազեցնելու միջոցով, նա կարողացել է հասնել վաղ միջնադարյան գմբեթավոր դահլիճներին (Պտղնի, Արուճ, Դդմաշեն) հատուկ ներքին տարածության միասնական ընկալման: Ապա մի շարք համահնչյուն միջոցների (փնջավոր մույթեր, պաքաձև կամարներ, որմնակամարներ) օգնությամբ տաճարին հաղորդել է շեշտված վերասլացություն, դինամիկ լարվածություն: Եկեղեցու ներսի տարածության կազմակերպման այս նոր սկզբունքը, որի շնորհիվ ծածկն ասես ճախրում է աղոթասրահի վրա, ինչ- պես բազմիցս նշված է հետազոտողների (0. Շուազի, Հ. Ստրժիգովսկի, Կ. Հովհաննիսյան) 2 կողմից, որդեգրվում ու լայն կիրառություն է գտնում 12-14-րդ դարերում Արևմտյան Եվրոպայի մի շարք երկրներում տարածում ստացած գոթական ճարտարապետության մեջ:

Stepanos Asoghik

1 Պատմիչների տեղեկություններն ու շինարարական արձանագրության բովանդակությունը տարբեր կերպ են մեկնաբանվում առանձին հետազոտողների կողմից: Հիմք է ընդունված Ասողիկի տեղեկությունը․․․