National Gallery of Armenia

The history of the collection of decorative-applied art generally does not differ from that of the Gallery’s funds of painting, drawing and sculpture. The sources of acquisitions were mostly the same: the People’s Commissariat  of Education of Armenia, the Etchmiadzin Museum, the State Hermitage, the State Museum fund of Russia, the Ministry of Culture of Armenia, as well as donations, purchases from individuals and the Antique Shop Transcaucasian State  Commerce in Tiflis.

The Egyptians Masks, ushebti figures, faience, wooden and bronze statuettes, of the second-first millennia B.C., Coptic textiles of the second-seventh centuries A.D. are acquired from State Hermitage (a part of this collection was donated by Martiros Saryan). In 1937 the State Museum of Armenia received ancient Greek metal statuettes of gods and heros together with black-figure and red-figure earthen amphorae, craters, lecythos, and other vessels of the seventh century B.C.-first centuries A.D. from the Hermitage. The earthenware is decorated with scenes from mythology and everyday life. Among the objects presented by the Hermitage  to the National Gallery of Armenia at various times are also Russian, European and Oriental china statuettes, candlesticks, and glass cups. Most noteworthy is the production of the St. Petersburg imperial Porcelain Works, as well as of the private factories of Gardner, Popov, Miklashevsky, et all. European porcelain is represented by the production of the Meissen, Berlin, Sevres and Vienna factories. In the small collection of furniture the unique French engraved church credence of the early sixteenth century, the Italian wedding chest (cassone) of the sixteenth century, and the Douche chair of the seventeenth century are noteworthy.                                               

The oriental collection of porcelain includes valuable and elegant underglaze blue (kobalt) Chinese vases, plates, dishes and tea-cups of the seventeenth-nineteenth centuries belonging to the famille verte and famille rose, decorated whit flowers, birds, fruits, insects, multi-figure scenes from everyday life and myths. Some porcelain articles transferred in 1931 to the Gallery from the Etchmiadzin Museum are parts of sets bearing Armenian inscriptions, ligatures and emblems of clergymen manufactured in China in the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries by order of the Armenian Church. They witness to centuries long-trade connections between Armenia and China, and although their artistic quality is inferior to the porcelain made for the Chinese market, the fact itself is of historical interest.                                                                                                                                                       

The eastern collection includes also interesting specimens of Iranian painted ceramic crockery, slabs, textiles, and metalwork of the sixteenth-nineteenth centuries Japanese porcelain and bone-made netskes.                                           

In 1976 the collection of Garen Soghomonyan from Yerevan, consisting of 500 units, entered the Museum, especially enlarging the funds of Russian and European Furniture, mirrors, porcelain and clocks.                                                           

Among the donors deserving a special mention are Vardan Barakyan (Romania) and Vahan Vahanyan (Tiflis) who presented their large and multifarious collections to the National Gallery of Armenia thus enriching the funds of European applied art.                                                                                                                  

Satenik Pezikian who had repatriated from Turkey in 1958 gave the Gallery 73 units of embroidery belonging to the school of Urha, the most original school among several large centuries of Armenian embroidery. Later in the Museum purchases from S. Pezikian about 200 carbon paper copies of fragments or ornaments embroidered on towels, shawls, and clothes made in Urha in 1914-15 exported to Europe and America and miraculously saved from the horrors of World War 1.                                      

In 1968, when the department of decorative applied art was established and its fund was revised it become obvious that especially the Armenian collection needed purposeful enlargement. Objects were collected in Yerevan and other regions of Armenia. Among other acquisitions in 1976 the Gallery purchased the collection of producer Gevorg Alagyozyan, a well-known collector from Yerevan. Consisting of Armenian carpets, pottery, silverwork and engraved wood of the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries, this collection is very important for the study of Armenian decorative art.                                                                                           

In order to guarantee the fullness of the modem section of the collection the Museum periodically has obtained at it’s choice works of many authors bought by the Ministry of Culture from general and personal exhibitions at various times and preserved in special funds. In this way the Museum possesses works by the eminent potters  Hripsime Simonyan (1916-1998), Ruben Shahverdyan (1900-1977), Derenik Danielyan (1912-1994), Hmayak Bdeyan (1925), Norayr Aghajanyan (1927), Van Soghomonyan (1937), Nona Gabrielyan (1944), silversmiths Zhirayr Chuloyan (1918-1992), Vahan Hatsagortsyan (1880-1967), glass-blowers, Azat Leiloyan (1926), Henrik Nikolyan (1936), Sergey Gasparyan (1937), et al.                                                   

In 1990 the museum acquired more than 50 clay figures sculpture groups and decorative trays by Ruben Shahverdyan (1900-1977), a potter of remarkable originality of style and prominent individuality. Modern interpretation of folk traditions and high artistic quality are the typical features of his works.                                                  

A big collection of about 750 articles of crystalware entered the Gallery in 2002. It consists of specimens of the Arzni Crystal Works famous in the Soviet period, as well as original works by distinguished authors. Undoubtedly, this collection is significantly contribute to the study of the history of glasswork in the second half in the twentieth century.                                                                     

Visitors of the National Gallery have the opportunity to become familiar, trough the permanent exposition and special thematic exhibitions, with various spheres of decorative-applied art, which, thanks to its close relationship with everyday life, has always been the most understandable and popular type of  art.