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  • A Culture's History Written in Thread

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/world/europe/31iht-M31-armenian.html?src=twrhp

    A Culture's History Written in Thread

    By SUSANNE FOWLER
    Published: March 30, 2011

    ISTANBUL - It began with a question 13 years ago from the owner of a
    shop in the Grand Bazaar. The answer has led two American researchers
    to conduct the first detailed study of rarely seen sacred treasures
    belonging to the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul and to the creation
    of an underground museum to house the priceless artifacts.

    Textiles Reveal Women's Unheralded Role in Armenian Church

    In their 397-page book, `Splendor & Pageantry: Textile Treasures from
    the Orthodox Churches of Istanbul,' Ronald T. Marchese, Marlene R.
    Breu and the Armenian Patriarchate expand what little was known about
    the unheralded role of women in the church and colorfully record the
    skills of women artisans who stitched their devotion onto luscious
    silks and velvets.

    The objects they studied, some more than 300 years old, include
    sumptuously embroidered liturgical vestments, silk altar curtains,
    velvet copes decorated with gold or silver threads and pearl-encrusted
    miters, gathered from churches that served the Armenian population.
    Common embroidery motifs included stars, birds, vine leaves and
    angels, their faces sometimes sewn using human hair.

    The museum itself houses such textiles as well as paintings and
    objects of precious metals from Armenian churches throughout Turkey
    which can be viewed, by appointment only, in the basement museum of
    the patriarchate in the humble Kumkapi neighborhood of Istanbul. The
    museum, created with donations from local Armenians and the European
    Capital of Culture 2010 organization, sits atop centuries-old ruins,
    discovered during renovations after the 1999 earthquake, that have
    since become a chapel.

    Mr. Marchese, a professor of ancient history and archaeology at the
    University of Minnesota at Duluth, was conducting other research in
    Turkey in 1998 `when a good Armenian friend that I have known for over
    25 years, Mr. Murat Bilir, approached me one day to ask if I would be
    interested in examining religious textiles at a church in the old
    Armenian quarter.

    `Mr. Bilir knew Payel Gulludere, the then-chairman of the board of
    directors of the church, who wanted to know what was in the storage
    depot and who made them,' he said.

    `The first piece I examined,' Mr. Marchese said during an interview by
    e-mail, `was a brilliant blue silk cloth, embroidered with an image of
    Mary and the Christ Child.' Impressed by the objects' workmanship,
    iconography and the dedication inscriptions, which helped to date the
    textiles, Mr. Marchese contacted Ms. Breu, who examined the objects
    the following year.

    Then, with the blessing of Patriarch Mesrob II, the researchers began
    to `record the brilliance of the material and put a `face' on the
    unknown artisans who created a phenomenal body of material culture,
    from the monumental to the miniature,' Mr. Marchese said.

    Ms. Breu, retired professor of textile studies at Western Michigan
    University in Kalamazoo, said during an e-mail interview that `what we
    didn't know at the outset was the great depth and breadth of the
    material - brilliant artifacts of great historical and artistic value.

    `Archbishop Aram Atesyan had already begun archiving the artifacts in
    the various Armenian Orthodox Churches in the city. He became our
    guide, teacher and good friend through the long and arduous process of
    identifying, selecting, collecting, studying, photographing and
    archiving.

    `Our adventures,' she said, `took us on ferries, buses, taxis and
    hikes, often with frustration resulting from inadequate maps for
    finding the churches on both the European and Asian sides of the city.
    We visited treasuries, often in the far reaches of church buildings,
    met church members, most of whom were excited to learn we were
    studying their precious objects. Sometimes we had to leave behind
    spectacular pieces because of our inability to gain access for a
    variety of reasons.' Some items, for example, were preserved behind
    glass and could not be disturbed without damaging them.

    The earlier pieces, Mr. Marchese said, `provide a link with an older
    tradition that doesn't survive except in examples expressed in more
    concrete forms - like wall paintings, frescos, mosaics.'

    `We were struck by the anatomical accuracy of the Crucifixion, the
    stretched muscles of Christ depicted on the cross were accurate,' he
    said. `The artisan captured such scenes in a sensitive display of
    emotion and passion - but in miniature'

    According to Ms. Breu: `The most significant piece in terms of skill
    level is a miter dated 1800.

    `The embroiderer used a wide variety of yarn types and stitches,' she
    said. `The workmanship is so fine that the face of the centurion
    watching in amazement at the resurrection of Christ is created in a
    three-by-two-centimeter area,' or six square centimeters, which is
    less than one square inch.

    `The face is executed in smooth silk floss offset against the heavier
    textural quality of the surrounding metal, with detail so exacting as
    to depict wrinkled skin and single strands of facial hair,' Ms. Breu
    added.

    In another very detailed miter, Mary is framed with pearls as she
    stands on a serpent with an apple in its mouth.

    `I have always wondered what the women of this great geography were
    doing as their men designed and built the magnificent monuments and
    fought in the many wars waged on these lands,' said Nancy Ozturk,
    coordinator of Citlembik, which published the book. `And now a bit of
    this puzzle has been solved.'

    `The congregations, mostly illiterate at the time, `read' the Gospel
    stories through the images on the cloth and were awestruck - as we are
    - by the richness of the silk cloth, the colorful embroidery and the
    generous use of precious jewels,' she said.

    Ornate textiles are still being used in church services, often the
    only place people could get glimpses of them. `But many are
    irreplaceable,' said Father Tatoul Anoushian during a recent tour of
    the five-room museum. `The church established two girls' schools in
    the 1820s just for this kind of work. But unfortunately we haven't got
    anyone now with the skills needed to produce new ones.'

    More than 70 churches served the Armenian Christian population of
    Istanbul at the beginning of the 20th century, but only about 30
    survive, the researchers say, as the cultural heart of a population
    decimated by the genocide - a term disputed by Turkey - that began in
    during World War I.

    It is rare to find such a trove of cloth-based items that merit study.
    `Textile objects, because of their ephemeral nature, do not last long,
    especially when they are used, as they were in the Celebration of the
    Divine Liturgy,' Ms. Breu said. Many other examples were destroyed by
    the many fires that plagued Istanbul and its wooden buildings over the
    centuries.

    `The importance of textile objects is often minimized because they
    come from a tradition of `women's work' usually associated with the
    home,' Ms. Breu said. `But these objects illustrate the skill and
    devotion of Armenian women to their church. It offered them a means of
    self-expression in the public sector and of participation in their
    religious rituals.'

    Some of the more fascinating items include the oldest dated miter from
    1681, another that lacks a date but is believed to be about a century
    older, and a pair of liturgical slippers intricately adorned on the
    soles with images of a scorpion and a snake, a sort of final barrier
    between the priest and evil temptations. There are also tunic collars
    for choir members, veils for covering the chalice, banners, crowns,
    canopies, cases for patriarchal staffs, altar curtains and kerchiefs
    for the handling of crosses.

    `It was truly a labor of love,' Ms. Breu said, `with the usual
    difficulties and delights, but with immeasurable rewards.'

    Not the least of these, she said, was adding to `the empowerment of
    Istanbul Armenians to celebrate their important past.'

    A version of this article appeared in print on March 31, 2011, in The
    International Herald Tribune.




    From: A. Papazian
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