«Ուրֆայի հավաքածուն» - Ելենա ԳԱԼՈՅԱՆ

Elena Galoyan's article is devoted to the Urfa school of Armenian traditional embroidery and the history of the formation of a unique collection now held at the National Gallery of Armenia.

Introduction and Context

The author examines Armenian embroidery art as a phenomenon reflecting the national mindset and aesthetic conceptions of the people. Alongside the well-known embroidery centers — Ayrarat, Syunik, Tiflis, Karin, Van-Vaspurakan, Constantinople, and Cilicia — a special place is occupied by the work of the needlewomen of the city of Urfa (Edessa), an ancient cultural and trading center in Mesopotamia closely connected with Greater Armenia.

Historical Background

It is noted that the Armenian population constituted the majority of Urfa's inhabitants (approximately 47,000 people in the 12th century), and that the city itself is associated with the name of Mesrop Mashtots, who created the Armenian alphabet there. After the Ottoman conquest in the early 16th century, the city fell into decline, and the tragic events of the early 20th century threatened the preservation of local cultural monuments, including examples of embroidery.

The History of the Collection's Rescue

Special attention is devoted to the history of the formation and preservation of the collection:

at the end of the 19th century, missionaries arrived in Urfa, among them Corinna Shattuck, who organized an embroidery workshop;
Karen Jeppe continued the work, and the workshop's output gained fame in the USA and England;
Bruno Eckart initiated the creation of albums of embroidery sketches for a planned exhibition in Germany;
Eckart's marriage to the embroiderer Sateník Bezikyan and the subsequent historical upheavals (World War I, the events of 1915) resulted in it being she who preserved the originals and the albums;
after repatriation to Soviet Armenia, on the recommendation of Lidia Durnovo, the materials were transferred to the museum, where 73 original and 230 drawn embroidery samples are now kept.

Artistic Features of Urfa Embroidery

The article analyzes the stylistic features of Urfa needlework from the late 19th to early 20th centuries:

the predominance of plant motifs (daisy, poppy, rose, pomegranate, and others), reflecting the connection between man and nature;
patterns of individual flowers and bouquets that echo motifs from medieval miniatures and Western European needlework;
rare examples of the geometrization of plant forms and isolated depictions of birds, butterflies, and scorpions;
the absence of repeating motifs while maintaining compositional unity and balance of lines.

The technical aspects of the embroidery are examined separately: the use of a fine fabric called "manusa," satin stitch, and colored silk and metallized threads that create an effect of a shimmering surface.

Conclusion

The author concludes that Urfa embroidery represents a distinctive artistic phenomenon, organically integrated into the overall tradition of Armenian decorative art and attaining the level of its finest examples, while the preservation of the collection became possible thanks to the personal feat of Sateník Bezikyan, whose efforts made it possible to transmit to posterity a most valuable stratum of national cultural heritage.