ARMENIA Illumination from a Bible (Pozzi Gospels) Descent... Lot 5

[ARMENIA] Illumination from a Bible (Pozzi Gospels) Descent into Hell Tempera and ink on oriental paper, white verso (some marginal soiling without seriousness; irregularities of the parchment of the left border; number "34" in the left margin in purple ink; lack of burnished gold to a star (remained white, voluntary?); feet of Christ in white unfinished?) Armenia, Keghi, [1586] Miniature attributable to Hakob of Julfa [Hakob Jughayets'i] (c. 1550-1613) Size: 138 x 190 mm. Rediscovery of a miniature of the famous Pozzi Gospels illuminated by Hakob Jughayets "i. This miniature is extracted from a manuscript described in the catalog of the masterly exhibition organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2018-2019 (see Evans (ed.), below). This manuscript has been extensively studied and documented by Greenwood and Vardanyan (Hakob "s Gospels, Sam Fogg, 2006). Dated on the colophon 1586 and with 49 large full-page miniatures, the manuscript (Pozzi Gospels or Hakob "s Gospels) from which this folio comes does indeed have a few gaps, including a missing folio between ff. 391 and 392, which featured a Descent from the Cross and a Descent into Hell. The Descent from the Cross, depicting Joseph of Arimathea supporting the lifeless body of Christ (see reproduction by Greenwood and Vardanyan, 2006, fig. 23, p. 49; sold in Paris, Hôtel Drouot, May 5, 1981, lot 148), formed a diptych with this Descent into Hell. In the present illumination, armed with his Resurrection cross, Christ descends into Hell after the Crucifixion to save certain souls. Symbolically, Adam and Eve are the first to be saved. On the right of the miniature, snakes are heading towards the condemned souls to poison them and a snake is depicted attacking the mouth of a condemned man. The characteristic treatment of God the Creator in the miniatures of this codex, represented in the form of a human head with large exorbitant eyes, present here in the upper part of the miniature, should be recalled. A related diptych, combining the Descent from the Cross and the Descent into Hell, is found in another manuscript painted and copied in Julfa by Hakob Jughayets "i: Gospel Book (1587), Manchester, John Rylands Univeristy Library, inv. Arm. 20, fol. 30. Hakob Jughayets "i or Hakob of Julfa was an important and well-documented illuminator active in the last quarter of the sixteenth century and the first decade of the seventeenth. Trained by Zak "aria of Gnunik", Hakob of Julfa settled first in Julfa (Djulfa; modern Azerbaijan) and then from 1605 in "New Julfa", a new Armenian district of Isfahan (Iran). He belongs to the "Julfa school" which is characterized by a certain conservatism and the syncretism of different traditions of Armenian illumination. On this school of illumination, see the chapter "Julfa Style" by Anna Leyloyan-Yekmalyan, in Armenia. Art, Religion, and Trade in the Middle Ages (p. 211). For manuscripts attributed with certainty to Hakob of Julfa and his workshop, see Greenwood and Vardanyan, 2006, pp. 90-92: Catalogue of Manuscripts Illustrated by Hakob Jughayets "i. Provenance 1 The colophon of the original manuscript provides information about the copyist and illuminator of this Bible: "Through its invaluable colophon, we can be certain that Hakob Jughayets "i completed the Pozzi Gospels in the winter of 1586 in the city of Keghi in the house of the priest mahdasi Lord Maghak "ia" (Greenwood and Vardanyan, 2006: 70). 2 This manuscript belonged to the tailor Karapet of Trebizond, son of Petros, who gave it to the Monastery of the Holy Savior (Surb P "rkich") in 1827 (see Evans (ed.), p. 315). 3 In 1919, the manuscript was given to Yarut "iwn Aydinean of Batumi (see Evans (ed.), p. 315). 4 In 1936, M. Alianakian sold the manuscript to Jean Pozzi (1884-1967), a great diplomat, minister plenipotentiary of France in Iran and Egypt, who bequeathed a large part of his collection to the Museum of Art and History of Geneva (Library), "in memory of the Swiss origins of the Pozzi family and of my long stays at the lakeside in international conferences. When the manuscript was in the Pozzi collection in Paris, it was examined by Archbishop Sirwmeean in 1949. 5 Pierre Berès, a famous bookseller and collector, bought the manuscript at a sale in Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Objets d "art d "Orient et d "Extrême-Orient, Maurice Rheims et René Laurin, 30 April 1971, lot 101. Pierre Berès commissioned a study of the manuscript from Sirarpie Der Nersessian (see S. Agémian, Archives de Sirarpie Der Nersessian Catalogues, vol. 1, 2003, pp. 262 and 275). The file of this collaboration between a bookseller and a scholar is now in Yerevan, Matenadaran, Sirarpie Der Nersessian Archives (file "Paris, formerly Pozzi, no. 7993"). 6 France, private collection. Bibliography Greenwood, T. and E. Vardanyan, Hakob "s Gospels. The Life and Work of an Armenian Artist of the Sixt