inner edge being framed by a rinceau terminating
In another version of the dragon’s association
in gaping dragon heads with projecting tongues
with vegetation, rather than vegetation sprout-
(figs 63 and 53, detail) 202 The dragon’s vegetal
ing dragon heads or dragon bodies growing into
affiliation, conveyed through its repetitive projec-
or out of vegetal stems, the mythical creature
tion from the foliate bends, was presumably not
itself issues vegetation This is represented on a
merely decorative, intending rather to underline
Samanid-period bowl excavated near Tashkent,
the associated, apparently positive and beneficial,
Uzbekistan, featuring a sketchy composition of
semantic meaning of the visual expression
a stylised rider with large, round head and raised
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
hands mounted on a recumbent dragon, from
rinceaux that evolve into gaping dragon heads
whose elongated open snout and hindquarters
and protomes also figure in Armenian minia-
sprout two twigs of undulant foliage (fig 55) 204
ture painting, the earliest dated examples of the
The iconography of the dragon as producer of
motif appearing in marginal ornaments of the
vegetation is further exemplified by two analo-
famous so-called Homiliary of Mush executed on
gous depictions on the arched handles of the two
parchment leaves at the monastery of Avagvankʿ
celebrated silver- and copper-inlaid copper alloy
near Erēz/Erznga(n) (present-day Erzincan)203 in
buckets, cited above, both preserved in the State
northeastern Anatolia between 1200 to 1202 (figs
Hermitage, St Petersburg The loops of the handle
126–129, 131–133) The fusion of a winged drag-
of the so-called Bobrinski bucket (inscribed with
on’s body with the leafy branches is also shown
the date muḥarram 559/December 1163) are fash-
in a headpiece in the same manuscript, which is
ioned out of dragon protomes enlived by a spotted
further discussed below The hind parts of the
pattern From the open mouths springs (a devour-
mythical creatures are transformed here into veg-
ing interpretation may be presumed to be incon-
etal scrolls, thereby highlighting the emergence
gruous) the four-sided arched section inscribed
of two confronted dragon protomes with fore-
on two sides in naskhī with benedictory inscrip-
legs, the necks are again enlivened by ornamental
tions and on the top band of the handle in Kufic
collars (fig 61) A more detailed rinceau appears
with the date muḥarram 559/December 1163 On
in a headpiece of a later manuscript, copied in
the outside the mythical creatures are flanked by
the scriptoria of Sis, the capital of the Armenian
leaping lions (fig 56) The so-called Fould bucket
Kingdom of Cilicia, in 1274, which had a princely
(signed by its maker, Muḥammad ibn Nāṣir ibn
sponsor, Marshal Oshin, son of Kostandin of
Muḥammad al-Harawī, and recently attributed
Lambron and queen Keran’s uncle It features
to early thirteenth-century Jazīra, northern Syria,
on the first page of the Gospel of Luke and is
or possibly Anatolia) has a handle that is simi-
filled with an animated all-over foliate interlace
larly held in place by loops in the form of arched
“inhabited” by animal and human heads among
dragons topped at the outside by projecting lion-
which the dragon is prominently represented
headed knobs From the dragons’ open mouths
For the most part the stems are issuing from
emerges the six-sided arched handle, decorated
animal and dragon necks, the tips of the wide-
on all facets with scrolling foliage in place of
open dragon jaws, and the pointed tips of the
the benedictory inscriptions of the Bobrinsky
tight-fitting headdress worn by the human heads
handle On either side of the handle the foliage
The headpiece is crowned at the apex by a foliate
gives way to lion heads that frame a square link
interlace in the form of an inverted heart-shape
inlaid with a composite quadripartite interlaced
from which project two large, confronted dragon
knot at the apex (originally topped by a now lost
heads whose gaping jaws reveal the tongues that
finial) (fig 57) 205
touch the upper edge of the headpiece and whose
yet another aspect of the dragon’s relation
lower jaws extend into split-palmettes that curve
with vegetation is shown in the Eastern Christian
along the same edge (fig 54)
world in the eleventh-century Georgian church
202 Cf Bashkirov, 1931, p 95 and pl 72
the fact that the piece has not been tested, its body and
203 When Ibn Baṭṭūṭa visited the city in 731/1331, he
glazing are characteristic of this period, hence in spite of
described the inhabitants of the town as predominantly
the rather crude and perhaps unusual depiction displayed
Armenian See Tuḥfat al-nuẓẓār fī gharāʾib al-amṣār
on it, it has been deemed sufficiently interesting to be in-
wa-ʿajāʾib al-asfār, tr Gibb, vol 2, p 437
cluded as a reference, albeit one of a more folkloristic
204 This as yet unpublished bowl has been handled and
character
photographed by the author It was excavated together
205 Cf Mayer, 1959, pl X; Loukonine and Ivanov, eds ,
with other Samanid-period earthenware bowls; in spite of
2003, pp 123–4, cat no 126
dragons and the powers of the earth
71
of Çengelli, located near Kağizman in the steep
The head is capped by a pair of small, cusped ears
mountains that soar above the Aras valley, south-
and the upper lip of the elongated snout termi-
west of Kars, curiously placed within a formerly
nates in the curled-up tip characteristic of the
Armenian community Inside the church the
“Saljuq-type” dragon The other face of the capital
northern capital is carved in relief with a recum-
features the relief sculpture of a composite tree
bent looped serpent portrayed with upstretched
bearing pomegranates and bunches of grapes,
head which reaches towards a cluster of grapes
both kinds of fruit generally carrying paradisi-
suspended just above its gaping mouth (fig 58)
cal associations 206
206 Composite vine scroll friezes bearing grapes and some-
decoration on Georgian churches, see the tenth-cen-
times also pomegranates frequently appear on the façades of
tury church of the Virgin in Martʿvili; Mepisaschwili und
tenth-century Armenian and Georgian churches, the most
Zinzadze, 1987, p 160, fig 234 Of note is further the
prominent example being the Bagratid church of the Holy
description of the holy garment decorated with pome-
Cross of Aghtʿamar (915–921) at Lake Van where in addi-
granates and bells which was ordered by Moses in
tion to bands of pomegranate framing the exterior window
Exodus 39 Much earlier examples of these motifs are por-
arches, two continuous vine friezes circumscribe the exterior
trayed in the carved decoration of the church of Saint
of the church Cf Der Nersessian, 1965, pp 11, 25, pl 31
Polyeuktos ( c 524–527) in Constantinople (Istanbul) fea-
The pomegranate is one of the symbols of the Iranian fertil-
turing, for instance, the combination of pomegranates
ity goddess Ardvī Sūrā Anāhitā (Mid Pers Anāhīd, Grk
and split palmettes on a modillion or a vine growing out
Anaïtis) who was venerated by the Armenians that shared
of a vase on a column capital Cf McKenzie, 2006, pls
the religion of the Persians and the Medes See Soudavar,
559, 567 According to Genesis (9:20), the Tree of Life
2003, pp 58, 74, pl 165, fig 71 For an example of comparable
was probably the stem of a vine
dragons and animals of the natural and the mythical realms
73