One of the prominent figures of Armenian miniature painting was Zak̔aria Avanc̔i (active in the years 1595–1617)1. He lived and worked in the province of Vaspurakan, then under Ottoman rule, as well as in Isfahan, the capital of Safavid Iran. In Isfahan a rich heritage of Armenian culture was created including the manuscript production and illumination. Recently, the Matenadaran, home to the world’s largest collection of Armenian manuscripts, acquired twelve miniatures from a Gospel illustrated by Avanc̔i in 1614 in the village of K̔adak̔ in Isfahan. This acquisition served as the occasion for writing this article. These miniatures were originally part of the main manuscript, which was held in a private collection, as noted in catalog descriptions from 1949 and 1976. By 2018, however, they had been separated from the manuscript and were considered lost. Fortunately, they resurfaced a few years later and were eventually secured by the Matenadaran.
The purpose of this article is to examine the manuscript from both codicological and art historical perspectives, with a particular focus on the twelve miniatures currently housed in the Matenadaran. For the first time, these miniatures are analyzed within an art historical framework, emphasizing the development of the illumination program, the iconographic characteristics of the miniatures, and their theological interpretation.