Toros Roslin ( 13th century )

However, the central place in the fine arts of medieval Armenia (twelfth to thirteenth centuries and later) belongs to book illustrations. Their major features were clarity of composition, expressiveness and maturity in the selection of expressiveness and maturity in the selection of colours, and decorative sense reflected in the abundance and beauty of their ornaments.Toros Roslin and the artists of his school in Cilicia (in the second half of the thirteenth century) developed the art of the Armenian miniature to perfection. Along with brilliant decoration, lavish use of gold and wealth of colours Toros introduced true human beings with all their worldly passions into the realm of the miniature.Toros Roslin the Elder, a contemporary of Giotto and Dante, can be rightfully ranked among the great masters of the Early Renaissance.

 The new tendencies which found their reflection in the art of Toros Roslin were developed by his contemporaries, artists working in various cultural and religious centres of Cilicia, and producing miniatures distinguished from the work of the Hromkla school by a marked interest in spatial arrangement.his interest manifested itself in the prominence given to a complex architectural background against which the buildings were presented from an angle emphasizing recession into depth.Manuscripts of this group do not lend themselves to accurate attribution and are difficult to place, for only a few of them have the usual colophons.

 The immortal Toros Roslin worked at Hromkla and at Sis, mostly between 1 260 and 1270. Toros Roslin had a vigorous artistic temperament, gifted with lively imagination, of excellent taste in the harmony of colours, and a refined sense of design.


Sources
Drampyan, 1969
Armenian Miniatures of the 13th and 14th centuries
Armenia Cradle of Civilization by David Marshall Lang