The Culture

Over the centuries, Armenians have expressed their legends, beliefs, and histories in their cultural creations — through art and architecture, festival and music, myth and religion, book and lifestyle. These artistic expressions of culture reside at the core of Armenian identity and tell the unique story
Expressions of ethnic identity are also explored through articles of clothing and jewelry. Armenia's culture is unique in many ways.

During its history, Armenia has gone through so many radical changes in its size and political status, our culture has been influenced by and has influenced many other cultures. The eclectic quality of Armenian art makes it both complex and diverse, encompassing ideas from the Orient and the Occident from the Classical and Byzantine world and the vast realm of Islam. Art had a special role in Armenian life. Most works of art had a Christian meaning. Each was a prayer to God.

In the cultural heritage of the Armenian people the art of manuscript illumination occupies a prominent place.
The Armenian manuscripts that have come down to us, are preserved for the most part (11 000 items) in the book depository of the Matenadaran. The miniature painting is perfectly represented by the manuscripts of its collection. Several other collections of Armenian manuscripts are spread all over the world. Also, after the creation of the Armenian alphabet in 405-406 AD by Mesrop Mashtotz, the written word helped to develope the Armenian language, literature and arts.

Miniature is one of those essential forms of medieval thinking in art, for which canons were elaborated for many centuries, which had absolute, universal value. The ability to express his own thoughts through this absolute value raises the medieval master to the level of individuality.

Armenian painting, like ceramics and carpets, always favored rich and vivid colors. Artists seemed to love elaborate decorations, often very intricate in design. From ancient times carpets and rugs have been regarded as a vital necessity in the Armenian domestic life.

Folk music plays an important part in Armenia's rich artistic heritage. It is eminently traditional and has a resonance characterized by a delicate structure. Naturally, even today it has an important place in the life of the people. Armenian music is ancient in origin and continuous in development

The duduk is an ‘oboe’, made of apricot wood, peculiar to Armenia. It is presented by Djivan Gasparian, one of the great masters of this beautiful instrument (who played it in such films as "The last Temptation of Christ" and "Gladiator"). The music of the duduk has a haunting, dreamy quality, on some pieces accompanied by a dool (drum).

Such traditional instruments as the saz, kaman, kamanch'a, t'ar, sant'ur or canon, and percussions still form an integral part of folk ensembles.

Architecture
Of all the arts, architecture is supreme. So, too, in the realm of Armenian art, architecture takes pride of place. It was the first of the arts of Armenia to be seriously studied, and to this day Armenian architecture receives more scholarly attention than all of the other arts combined.

Inevitably in a country with an architectural tradition in stone dating back to Urartian times, the craftsmen who so carefully carved blocks of stones for walls, fortresses, and sanctuaries had acquired the skill to sculpt stone as relief decorations for buildings or as independent works of art. Urartian people had various myths and legends, unfortunately those were lost within the time.

Also Armenians built a lot of temples dedicated to gods, which were very much like the Hellenistic temples or pantheons.
Unfortunately most of these pagan temples were destroyed when Christianity became the state religion of the country. The only pagan temple that withstood the historical changes is the Garni temple (1st century B.C.)

One of the most important periods of Armenian art was that from the ninth to the sixth centuries BC.

In Christian times relief sculpture on the façades of churches is very abundant. In the 4th and 5th centuries AD very important events in Armenian history greatly affected the arts. As Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301-303 AD, Christian iconography came to play a very important role in Armenian art and architecture.

Churches soon became the main mode of Armenian architectural expression. The seventh century is often referred to as the "golden age of Armenian ecclesiastical architecture." A great many cathedrals and monuments with interior frescoes and stone carvings pertaining to the Biblical stories were constructed.

Almost all sixth and seventh century churches have carved decorative bands, but some like Ptghni  Mren, Zvart'nots',  and Odzun have figural reliefs around windows and in the tympana of doorways.

In the 10th century, for instance, Monasteries, founded in the 10th century, grew as important artistic centers. Illuminated manuscripts, a major component of Armenian art history, were created and assembled into books here

The most characteristically Armenian medium for sculpture was the khach'k'ar, from the word for cross (khach') and stone (k'ar). These free standing, rectangular shaped cross-stones are found everywhere in Armenia; there are thousands of them in all sizes from forty centimeters to two meters high and more. Without exception the central motif is a cross symbolically the living cross., elaborately and elegantly carved. The carving of khach'k'ars has continued into our times, even though they have been gradually transformed into the modern forms of gravestones.

 Finally, Armenian art and artists seemed always open to influences from neighboring traditions: They absorbed and transformed new ideas as quickly as they discovered them.