No-Go Perspective of Roslin
Unlike frescos that are intended for public observation,
manuscript paintings are hidden between the parchment pages and destined
for a personal, more intimate contemplation. When we open a manuscript, the
sense of possession in a way reduces the distance inherent to visual perception.
This subjective factor along with generally small format of picture makes up
the conditionality of the miniature image and its specific means of expression.
Thoros Roslin was one of the best Cilician painters. He lived in Romklay
in the thirteenth century. Working within the framework of the scholastic
tradition, he, however, was always in a wilful aesthetic and philosophical
quest. His indomitable imagination has organically melted bizarre Persian,
Byzantine, even Chinese elements in the strong streams of the canonical,
almost ritualized, traditional marginal ornaments. He came to realize the
power of the three-dimensional technique of painting half a century before
Giotto di Bondone and Paolo Uccello.
Generally, Cilician miniatures are remarkable for their
vivid colors and profound theatricality. Indeed, each school of manuscript
painting during its development has precisely declared its chromatic predilection.
That is not a mere aesthetic or idiosyncratic matter, for colors are the
fruits of technology. Be that as it may, at times a tint can be one of
the main signifiers of Roslin’s images. Thus, the mysterious depth of the
sky blue background of the Ascension (The Zeitoun Four Gospels, 1268),
as a unique, ‘pure’ color of the spring dawn, autonomously from the text,
refers to the ascent of Christianity. His succession of the blue shades
in tonal perspective of the firmament has become a symbol for the spiritual
passageway. This motif has been taken up and handed down by the descendants
of the school.
Roslin uses the elements of linear and tonal perspective
representation not so often and only for inanimate objects, interior, landscape,
etc. Crowd and apostles are depicted in correspondingly different sizes,
despite their location on the plain of picture. Formally, in this genre,
the structuring by size is one of the important means that reflects and
carries out the quintessence of social hierarchy in the medieval Kingdom
of Cilicia. However, prudently refusing to implement the method on figures
of people and saints, Roslin justifies the abstraction by the concept of
selectivity of vision. Here we can see another essence: the master has
his own stance towards the ideology. He is inside, developing the canon.
In a typically Armenian way he distorts the space of his pictures, he turns
it out, accordingly to the “inverted” perspective of the evangelical narration.
Thereby allusion to the extrinsic clarity leads us deeper through the visual
counterpoint. And before closing the manuscript, we are given the insight
into the realm of faith and responsibility, love and eschatological dread
of the thirteenth-century men. We see the sacred mise-en-scènes
at a standstill of non finito which cannot cease the whirlwind of dramatic
action.
There is a newly established site called Roslin Art Gallery, worthwhile visiting.
It aspires to promote Armenian art, and I hope with time it can collect and provide some interesting resourses.
.
: Roslin | Damjana | Lidija
| uncle Sam |
me
.
: Armenia | cyberspace | theatre
| ISH |
Slovenia
.
: Butterfly | thesis
This site is maintained by Hrachia
Kazhoyan. Last updated on December 10, 1998.
