Leo II, also Leon II, Levon II or Lewon II, was the tenth lord of Armenian Cilicia or “Lord of the Mountains” (1187–1198/1199), and the first king of Armenian Cilicia (1198/1199–1219). During his reign, Leo succeeded in establishing Cilician Armenia as a powerful and a unified Christian state with a pre-eminence in political affairs. Leo eagerly led his kingdom alongside the armies of the Third Crusade and provided the crusaders with provisions, guides, pack animals and all manner of aid. Under his rule, Armenian power in Cilicia was at its apogee: his kingdom extended from Isauria to the Amanus Mountains.
The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, also known as Cilician Armenia, Lesser Armenia, or New Armenia and formerly known as the Armenian Principality of Cilicia, was an Armenian state formed during the High Middle Ages by Armenian refugees fleeing the Seljuk invasion of Armenia. Located outside the Armenian Highlands and distinct from the Kingdom of Armenia of antiquity, it was centered in the Cilicia region northwest of the Gulf of Alexandretta.
Isabella, also Isabel was queen regnant of Armenian Cilicia from 1219 until her death.
The Matenadaran, officially the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, is a museum, repository of manuscripts, and a research institute in Yerevan, Armenia. It is the world's largest repository of Armenian manuscripts.
Keran of Lampron was a by-birth member of the House of Lampron and by marriage Queen consort of Armenia.
The Echmiadzin Gospels is a 10th-century Armenian Gospel Book produced in 989 at the Monastery of Bgheno-Noravank in Syunik.
The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander, Tetraevangelia of Ivan Alexander, or Four Gospels of Ivan Alexander is an illuminated manuscript Gospel Book, written and illustrated in 1355–1356 for Tsar Ivan Alexander of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The manuscript is regarded as one of the most important manuscripts of medieval Bulgarian culture, and has been described as "the most celebrated work of art produced in Bulgaria before it fell to the Turks in 1393".
Arshak Abrahami Fetvadjian was an Armenian artist, painter and designer. He is best known for his watercolor paintings of the architectural monuments of the medieval Armenian city of Ani, and for designing the currency and postage stamps of the first Republic of Armenia (1918–1920). As a result of over 20 years devoted to art, Fetvadjian produced no less than 2,000 works, varying from lucid pencil drawings to painstakingly accurate watercolors, that depicted historically significant churches, monasteries, chapels and palaces. A considerable number of his other works were also portraits of Armenians at the turn of the 20th century.
Armenian illuminated manuscripts form a separate tradition, related to other forms of Medieval Armenian art, but also to the Byzantine tradition. The earliest surviving examples date from the Golden Age of Armenian art and literature in the 5th century. Early Armenian Illuminated manuscripts are remarkable for their festive designs to the Armenian culture; they make one feel the power of art and the universality of its language. The greatest Armenian miniaturist, Toros Roslin, lived in the 13th century.
Levon Mkrtchyan (Armenian: Լևոն Մկրտչյան; Russian: Левон Гайкович Мкртчян; born February 25, 1953 in Leninakan is an Armenian director known for his documentaries, "Davit Anhaght," "Charentz: Known and Unknown Sides", "Jean Garzu", "Mesrop Mashtots", "My Komitas", "And There Was Light", "The Manuscript of Independence" which was dedicated to the 10th anniversary of independence of Armenia, and many more. He is a director who has received the highest award of the Soviet Union, the Lenin award. He has earned numerous awards for his documentaries that have kept the Armenian spirit alive. His last prestigious award during the Golden Eagle film festival he has received for his film "The Manuscript of Independence," in the Best Documentary category. He studied in the Directing Department of the Yerevan Fine Arts and Theater Institute. In 1978, he released his debut short film The Muses. In 1984, he graduated from the Directing Department of VGIK in Moscow. Since 1978, he has shot thirty-three documentaries. He filmed and has an archive about well known Armenians, including the only film footage on Hovhannes Shiraz, footage on Charles Aznavour visiting Armenia after the 1988 earthquake, the funeral of William Saroyan. He has also been great friends and film partners with the legendary director Sergei Parajanov and has a rare footage of him, including the last days of his life.
Armenian studies or Armenology is a field of Humanities covering Armenian history, language and culture. The emergence of modern Armenian studies is associated with the foundation of the Catholic Mechitarist order in the early 18th century. Until the early 20th century, Armenian studies were largely conducted by individual scholars in the Armenian communities of the Russian Empire, Europe, Constantinople and Vagharshapat in Armenia. After the establishment of Soviet rule, Armenian studies, and sciences in general, were institutionalized in Armenia and put under direct control of the Academy of Sciences. Today, numerous research centers in many parts of the world specialize in Armenian studies.
Vagharshapat, is the 4th-largest city in Armenia and the most populous municipal community of Armavir Province, located about 18 km (11 mi) west of the capital Yerevan, and 10 km (6 mi) north of the closed Turkish-Armenian border. It is commonly known as Ejmiatsin, which was its official name between 1945 and 1995. It is still commonly used colloquially and in official bureaucracy.
Sirarpie Der Nersessian was an Armenian art historian, who specialized in Armenian and Byzantine studies. Der Nersessian was a renowned academic and a pioneer in Armenian art history. She taught at several institutions in the United States, including Wellesley College in Massachusetts and as Henri Focillon Professor of Art and Archaeology at Harvard University. She was a senior fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, its deputy director from 1954–55 and 1961–62 and a member of its Board of Scholars. Der Nersessian was also a member of several international institutions such as the British Academy (1975), the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1978) and the Armenian Academy of Sciences (1966).
Armenian art is the unique form of art developed over the last five millennia in which the Armenian people lived on the Armenian Highland. Armenian architecture and miniature painting have dominated Armenian art and have shown consistent development over the centuries. Other forms of Armenian art include sculpture, fresco, mosaic, ceramic, metalwork, engraving, and textiles, especially Armenian carpets.
Levon Chookaszian is an Armenian art historian and the UNESCO Chair of Armenian Art History. He is also currently the Head of Chair of History and Theory of Armenian Art at Yerevan State University. Professor Chookaszian has delivered numerous lectures, particularly on medieval Armenian art, at universities in the former Soviet Union, Europe, and the United States and taught courses on Armenian art at UCLA.
Revue des Études Arméniennes is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes articles relating to Classical and medieval Armenian history, art history, philology, linguistics, and literature. The Revue was established in 1920 at the initiative of French scholars Frédéric Macler and Antoine Meillet. Meillet himself wrote many of the articles during the formative years of the journal (1920-1933), which typically covered Armenian history, grammar, and folk tales. The Revue was not published from 1934 to 1963.
Sargis Pitsak was an early 14th-century Armenian artist. Nearly 50 illustrated manuscripts are attributed to him. His father was called Grigor.
Drazark monastery, a destroyed monastic complex of Armenian Apostolic Church in Adana province of modern Turkey, which lies about 40 km. northwest of the city of Sis - historical capital of Cilician Armenia, at one of inaccessible slopes of Cilician Taurus range.
Mesrop of Khizan was a prominent Armenian manuscript illuminator in Persia. Mesrop was born in the Ottoman Empire but eventually lived in Isfahan, Persia, where he contributed in the making of manuscripts for bibles and gospels for four decades. He was also a scribe, clerk, teacher, doctor of theology, restorer and binder. His manuscripts have been displayed in museums throughout the world and are found in many prestigious libraries.
The Zeytun Gospels of 1256 AD is an Armenian illuminated manuscript in the Armenian language by artist and ordained priest T'oros Roslin. The Zeytun Gospels consists of four tabernacles, four evangelists, four namesakes, ornaments and decorations. The manuscript's patron was Catholicos Constantine I of Bardzrberd (1221-1267) and was commissioned for his godson Levon. It was transcribed in a scriptorium at the fortress Hromklay, "the God protected castle", in Cilician Armenia. Hromklay was also known as The School of Miniature Painting at the Catholicosate. The Hromklan scriptorium was at its peak while Roslin worked there on the Zeytun Gospels. The manuscript was later reintroduced as the Zeytun Gospels named after the mountain village of Zeytun during the late Ottoman Empire.
