Fig. 140. Island of Akhtamar.
Besides the cliff and the tiny bay there is not much of Akhtamar; yet the little church looks small, even among such surroundings, the work of a jeweller rather than of an architect. In our company were two young clerics, deputed by His Holiness to escort us, the one a priest of the peasant type and with the ignorance of a peasant, the other a deacon who had been educated at Constantinople and who affected to despise his colleagues and superiors. In spite of his pale face, this second Khachatur (given to the cross) was not less stupid or less indolent than the rest. Two more priests were in residence upon the island; but neither belonged to a higher social or intellectual grade. None among them knew more about the place and its history than a few stereotyped words, learnt by heart. Press them further, and they would burst into an inane giggle, the vardapet of Akhavank giving the cue.
Fig. 141. Akhtamar: Church from South-East.
How one regretted the society of the well-read monks of Edgmiatsin, from which community and spiritual government this monastery became dissociated during the religious quarrels of the twelfth century.[8] We walked to the cloister on the south side of the church; the low mud wall joins the outer wall of the narthex on the west, and is produced so as to form a court. There is nothing interesting in the residence of the monks or in the apartments of the Katholikos. But the edifice which they face is indeed a remarkable monument and, so far as my experience extends, unique. Its dimensions are not large: a length of 48 feet 6 inches and a breadth of 38 feet (interior measurements). The characteristics which impress the eye, accustomed to the beauties of Armenian architecture, are the height of the composition with its lofty walls and central tower, and the elaborate mural decorations. As usual, the effect is marred by the additions of a later age. On the south side a belfry and portico, giving entrance to the interior, are due to the misplaced piety of a katholikos of the eighteenth century; and the same personage contributed the spacious narthex or pronaos which adjoins the church upon the west.[9] The eye is obliged to remove these later excrescences before it is enabled to seize the merits of the design. My reader will recognise the first of these features in the illustration taken from the south-east ([Fig. 141]). The companion picture from the north-west corner exhibits the low narthex coming forward beyond the side of the church ([Fig. 142]).
Fig. 142. Akhtamar: Church from North-West.
A work of the first quarter of the tenth century is disclosed in all the freshness of its original appearance.[10] Some of the figures which project from the walls have suffered partial fracture; but the rich friezes are almost intact. Beginning at the base, we have first a broad space of plain masonry, enhancing the value of the sculptures above, from which it is separated by a band of deeply chiselled stone. This band, like the friezes, is both continuous round the building and in emphasised relief. It consists of a spiral geometrical pattern, representing the vine. Life-size human figures, interspersed with the forms of animals, compose a series of pictures rather than a procession, and rest upon the moulding just described. They are also in relief, and stare out at the visitor with all the naïveté of the early Middle Ages. Subjects from Bible history succeed one another, varied by the gaunt figures of Christian saints. Here you remark the colossal figure of Goliath, armed with club and shield ([Fig. 141]); there it is Adam and Eve, standing naked beside the tree of life, and, a little further, the serpent tempting Eve (Figs. 142 and 143). The treatment of the human form is primitive and almost barbarous, recalling the Romanesque. One is impressed with the combination of naturalism, nay of realism, subdued, and at times checked by hieratic convention. These sculptures pass over into a restful region of unworked stone, and are succeeded by a row of heads, the heads of animals and birds, jutting out at irregular intervals from the face of the building. Above them, again, you admire the freedom and extraordinary intricacy of the most elaborate of the friezes. Hunters and wild animals and strange birds are represented, woven together by branches of vine with clusters of grapes. Higher still another band is drawn along the eaves of the roofs, except on the north and south sides of the apse. Rampant animals are the principal subject; but on the north side of the western arm you observe a row of human heads. A somewhat similar frieze is seen below the roofing of the central tower or dome.
Fig. 143. Church at Akhtamar: Sculptures on North Wall.