THE HISTORY OF ART AND CULTURE The Arts, especially architecture had their due place in the culture of the ancient Armenians. What has remained from the famous old-Armenian architecture bears witness to the high degree of perfection it had attained. It is in this field that the deeply Indo-European character of the Armenian genius manifests itself. Joseph Strzygowski of Vienna, the famous historian of art and the best authority on Armenian architecture calls the Armenians "carriers of Indo-European architectural thought" and their country "a focus of Indo-European architecture- an excessively rich open air museum of Indo-European building art". The art of statuary and carving in Armenia was closely connected with architecture. But artistic creation in ancient Armenia has expressed itself in many other ways, particularly in the field of miniature painting. Its countless works are scattered in old Armenian manuscripts. The change in political conditions in 1801 brought to Armenians certain opportunities for intellectual and cultural activity. Moscow, then Tiflis and Erevan in the Ararat plain, became centers of cultural life. Etchmiadzin, the old seat of the Armenian Church, also took part in giving it form and substance. Thus, the political division of Armenia between Russia and Turkey had as a result that separated cultural development of the two halves of the Armenian people. In the first part of the 19th century, the west-Armenians started a movement, taken up by the East-Armenians in the middle of the same century, to replace the old Armenian (Grabar) with Ashkarhabar (the spoken language) as the language of literature. The movement fought its way to victory, and laid the foundations of Modern Armenian literature. Almost simultaneously, however, the New Armenian split itself into two literary dialects, the West-Armenian, and the East-Armenian. East-Armenian has for its foundation the dialect of Ararat. Modern Armenian, literature and the whole cultural life of Armenians have correspondingly grown in the twin manner described above. The East-Armenian literature and culture were more or less influenced also by the Russian and German culture and literature, while the West-Armenian was influenced by the French. The other fields of culture: Education and Scholarship, Press and Publishing, Theater and Music as well as Architecture were also cultivated both in East and West-Armenia during this period. After the First World War and with the creation of the Republic of Armenia (May 28, 1918) began a new period in the history of Armenian culture. The University of Armenia was founded in 1920. In the same year, or in 1919, were founded a number of other scientific and cultural institutions in Erevan, capital of the new country. These were the State Museum, the State library with rich collections of manuscripts in Etchmiadzin. The theater, architecture, music, and literature, and all cultural pursuits were also promoted and encouraged. Finally, numerous new schools were opened, or the existing Russian ones nationalized. Armenian was promoted to the status as the official language of the state.
Article taken from "Atlas of Historical Armenia"—By H. K. Babessian Have a comment, contribution or suggestion? Click here and send it to us
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