CULTURE PEARLS : Digging Into Lost Treasure of Armenia

Recent massacres, earthquakes, demonstrations and bombings in Armenia throw an upcoming slide talk, “Lost Treasure: The Story of Armenian Art,” into striking relief--a relief you might say is worthy of the raised carvings on the country’s church walls.

“Armenians carved images of kings and saints on the outside of churches as early as the 5th Century,” said Lucy Der Manuelian, who will deliver the one-hour talk Sunday at the Orange County Department of Education in Costa Mesa. “Sculpture on the outside of churches suddenly shows up in Western Europe six centuries later.

“It hasn’t been easy to study Armenian monuments. Access, and permission to photograph, has been difficult. That’s why I call Armenian art a lost treasure. It’s an unfinished detective story, but it deserves a place in the history of art.”

Der Manuelian is a Tufts University professor of Armenian art and architectural history, a $1-million endowed chair that is the first such post at any U.S. university. The upcoming program is sponsored by the Armenian Professional Society of Orange County, and also includes a short talk by Roger Smith, who is developing a documentary with Der Manuelian, and a dessert reception.

Though Armenia is again its own nation after more than 70 years of Soviet rule, it is embroiled in an undeclared war between neighboring Azerbaijan and a nearly adjacent Armenian region called Nagorno Karabagh. United Nations observers were dispatched when the struggle recently escalated.

“At best, the situation has been terrible,” Der Manuelian commented by phone from Boston. “Now that it’s worse, it’s impossible. But these people have a long tradition of bravery.”

Long, indeed: The history of Armenia goes back 3,000 years. Among highlights of that history, Der Manuelian mentioned that 30 Byzantine emperors and several queens of Jerusalem were Armenian, and that the genealogical reference Debrett’s Peerage indicates that the British Royal Family is descended from Armenian kings.

In the fourth century, Armenia became the first country to declare Christianity its official religion.

“That conversion created monuments in stone that are among the most impressive in the history of architecture,” Der Manuelian said. “When 19th-Century Western travelers came upon the Cathedral at Ani, they thought they’d discovered the origins of Gothic architecture.

“We don’t know if there is a direct link between Armenia and the West in terms of church architecture. But the castles, whose constructional features the Crusaders adopted upon their return to Western Europe, are a definite connection.’

Der Manuelian, who has been known to hang from helicopters Indiana Jones-style to get her photographs, describes Armenia as “a land of castles and churches perched at the top of mountains”; she also considers its illuminated manuscripts among the most beautiful from the Middle Ages. She has visited Armenia 11 times since 1972, living there for seven months at one point, and is returning there shortly.

“Inscriptions on the churches are lovingly carved, as if the Armenians have a love affair with the alphabet,” she said. “Monastery chambers are carved from surrounding steep cliffs, and birds fly in through the domes. When I first viewed manuscripts from the Crusades--New Testament scenes and images of the kings in glittering golds and very intense blues--I felt I should be hearing trumpets. It’s a land of astounding, haunting sights.’