THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE ARMENIAN MODERN ART

The Armenian modern painting era commenced with Hakop Hovnatanyan (1806-1881) favorite son of the Hovnatanyan family masters and monopolists of the Armenian miniaturists dynasty in the nineteenth century. Called in the West and in the East “The Raphael of Tiflis”.

Miniature is one of those primordial forms of medieval way of thinking in art with universal, human and artistic values and upon which canons were extensively elaborated for numerous centuries. Referring to Hakop Hovnatanyan is simultaneously referring to the members of the Hovnatanian as a whole. An illustrious family which produced splendid frescoes that occupy a place of honor and pride in eastern Armenia churches and majestic cathedrals and painted portraits of well to do Armenians displayed in museums in Yerevan and Tiflis.

The illustrious Hovnatanyan family was under the auspices of Naghash Hovnatan (1661-1722), the venerated and well-known poet, illustrator and painter. He was the patriarch of the family by all means. While his grandson Hovnatan Hovnatanian (1730-1801) was in charge of the immense panel paintings of Etchmiadzin, Hakob Hovnatanian , his son was responsible for pioneering and perfecting the art of portraiture. A craft the family practiced for years and passed it on to its grand children. Their clientele consisted of the wealthy and the upper class Armenian families including the bourgeoisie of cosmopolitan Tiflis in the
second half of the nineteenth century. During all the nineteenth century, the majority of Armenian artists, with the exception of Hakob Hovnathanian received their training and learn the trade on the hand of Russian artists and teachers in St. Petersburg, Paris, Munich and other European art academies. Consequently, upon their return to the homeland, those artists who studied abroad brought new techniques, styles and methods to the

Armenian national art. Consequently, new ideas, new concepts and new insights were incorporated in the original and traditional national Armenian art.

The return of those artists who have been influenced by French, Russian and German artists and teachers originated the integration of these new views, approaches, methods and forms into a new national art-style which lasted until the dawn of the coming century. Thus, the returning artists became the l9th century original pioneers. Thanks to them, to their followers and to a handful of visionary writers and art teachers, the newly introduced and now The National Armenian New Art Style flourished. Among those who diligently and effectively contributed to the development of the new art were Abovian, Alishan, Nalbandian and Patkanian who by the same token renewed and developed the “Concept of the Homeland” and “Armenia Freedom”; An art-thought process that would and will dominate the Armenian art palettes and canvases for ever inside and outside Armenia.

Hakob Hovnatanian learned to paint from his father, the master artist Mktum. He was born in cosmopolitan Tiflis which in the 19th century had become a major center for Armenian art and humanities. As a portraitist, Hakob Hovnatanian was less interested in the physiognomy of the model than in the person himself. He concentrated his attention on the shape and contour of the face, the eyes and the hands, the inner feelings and sentiments of his model.

In his portraits, Hovnatanian gradually depicted figures with religious attention to the characteristic traits of the face. The detailed attributes and traits appeared in quasi-triangular form, consciously or un-consciously inspired by the old Armenian portraitures and other drawings he previously consulted and reviewed in monasteries.

Even though it was the very beginning of a modern era for Armenian painting in comparison with and in relation to the Medieval ages of Armenian manuscripts paintings, Hovnatanian who was exclusively taught by one single teacher (His father) reached a quasi-Italian Classical level with vivacity and realism through the use of various colors tones, shades and lights. This innovative approach to Armenian medieval techniques brought movement and life to his paintings. For the epoch, this technique was quite innovative and revolutionary.

There is a strange, intriguing and perhaps intentional sense of space and composition balance in his paintings. For instance, the women he painted are always seated yet, they appear to us as if they were partially standing or ready to stand up! The boys and the men (religious figures and dignitaries) he painted have one hand always rested on their hips. In many instances, it is always the right hand . Another observation: Watch carefully his paintings. Almost all of hem have one pre-dominant trait in common. It is almost a trade mark (Probably this was intentional on the part of the artist). The painted personages……………….they never look straight at you. And if they do, it is ALWAYS in an unusual angular manner as if they were looking at you from one side of their face! Look again! What a sharp contrast with previous Armenian painting styles! In previous and medieval Armenian paintings, depicted personages, religious or secular figures, never looked at anybody except at the nearest person who has been intentionally placed by the artist at a very close distance from them, in order to justify and explain the direct relation between the personages.

Hovnatanian added additional dimensions to his paintings by incorporating objects familiar to the ordinary person. Real objects free from symbolism and religious surrealism such as, belts, books, handkerchiefs, rosaries, a section of an armchair. These objects extended the landscape of the space of the painting and brought familiarity to the paintings. They participated in the movement of the strokes and established a direct rapport with the personages. This is another innovation in Armenian art. Previously, objects or tools depicted in medieval Armenian paintings represented a symbol. For instance, the stars in a medieval painting or in an illuminated manuscript represented the church, the jar symbolized a religious ceremony, an extended hand from a saint of a holy person meant a benediction or a blessing. This is not the case in Hovnatanian work. As the folks in America frequently say: “You get what you see and you see what you get.”

The more you look at his paintings, the more you understand about his innovative art. For instance, the use of new vibrant and multi-faceted shades of colors creates harmony, balanced lines and conveys a feeling of grandeur, a certain Italian Renaissance flair without being Classical. Soft lines, gently determined contours and the incorporation of easily identified domestic and familial tools and objects add warmth to the composition, pleasant familiarity, a direct rapport and romanticism. The position of his personages is traditional and conventional accentuated by a pyramidal composition which tends to stretch the personages toward the upper level of the painting. Is this a déjà vu experience from El Greco’s silhouette paintings? For this representation of figures is an intentional static equilibrium and aesthetic balance which enhance a chromatic and linear construction, thus conferring upon his portraits an additional dimension of grace and spirituality. But, despite all these new visions, sharp contrast with the colors of medieval Armenian illuminated manuscripts and despite this very dominant freedom of expression in meticulously reproducing facial expressions, despite all these characteristics of a totally brand new style of painting, Hovnatian remained a pure, traditional Armenian artist with candor and almost religious loyalty to his predecessors ethnic tradition; A national Armenian artistic tradition. By the same token, Hovnatian brought national ethnic Armenian painting to the level of classic conceptualism, thus remaining the last of the traditional and conservative authentic Armenian master painters and becoming the first modern Armenian painter of a new era, new artistic concept and most certainly a new sphere of realistic art of unexplored dimensions.

PAINTINGS BY HOVNATIAN REPRODUCED AS STAMPS BY THE ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT

St. Gregory The Illuminator Glorious Mother of God

Kings Abgar and Tiridate, 1836. St. Thadeus and St. Barthelemeus