«Երուսաղեմի հայկական խեցեգործությունը» - Նուրիտ ԿԵՆԱԱՆ-ԿԵԴԱՐ

Nurit Kenaan-Kedar's article is devoted to the history and artistic distinctiveness of the Armenian ceramic school of Jerusalem, which emerged after craftsmen relocated from Turkish Kütahya in the early twentieth century.

Introduction and Methodology

The author points to a significant gap in the scholarly literature: researchers of Iznik, Kütahya, and other Turkish ceramic centers have traditionally limited themselves to description, cataloguing, and dating of sixteenth- to nineteenth-century wares, leaving the social and conceptual aspects of production unexamined. Twentieth-century output has been regarded as of little value as "mass-produced," and the role of Armenian craftsmen has often been passed over for political reasons. The study draws on two earlier museum catalogues (from exhibitions held in 1986 and 2000), but for the first time sets out to present the Jerusalem ceramic school as an independent artistic phenomenon with its own chronology, stages of development, and the craftsmen's own artistic self-awareness.

Key Argument

The article's central thesis is the necessity of distinguishing between a craftsman who mechanically reproduces inherited patterns and an artist who develops his own visual language on the basis of tradition. The author argues that Jerusalem ceramics possess an independent artistic expressiveness and occupy a unique place in the history of glazed pottery of the East, contrary to the Western practice of perceiving such wares merely as the product of anonymous collective craft.

Historical Context: The Move to Jerusalem

The circumstances are examined of the 1919 arrival in Jerusalem of three Armenian families of craftsmen — David Ohanessian, Nshan Balian, and Mkrtich Karakashian — invited by the Pro-Jerusalem Society to restore the tiles of the Dome of the Rock. The author highlights the role of the British architect Charles Ashbee and his romantic conception of Jerusalem as a "city of the East," as well as the dramatic biography of David Ohanessian, who survived the deportation of Armenians during the First World War and found patrons among British diplomats.

The Work of David Ohanessian

A separate section is devoted to an analysis of Ohanessian's workshop on the Via Dolorosa, which operated until 1948:

the preservation of ties to the traditions of Iznik, Kütahya, and the Topkapı Palace (motifs of cypresses, flowers, star ornaments);
the transformation of Islamic and Persian iconography into Christian symbolism as applied to Jerusalem buildings (the Rockefeller Museum, St. John's Hospital, St. Andrew's Church, the Armenian Cemetery on Mount Zion);
the use of motifs from ancient sixth-century Armenian mosaics;
the artist's complete control over every stage of production, including the training of orphan apprentices and the development of his own recipes for paints and glazes.

Conclusion

The author concludes that the Jerusalem school of Armenian ceramics represents an independent artistic tradition, shaped by the oral transmission of craft skill within a narrow circle of families and by an authorial reinterpretation of the Kütahya heritage. David Ohanessian's activity is regarded as the foundational stage of this tradition, one that established an artistic language subsequently carried forward by his students after his departure from Jerusalem in 1948. The further development of the school, including the work of subsequent generations of craftsmen, is analyzed in the second part of the study, to be published in the next issue of the journal.