Scriptorium
Cloisonné Enamel and the Armenian Art of Mina
What cloisonné enamel is, and how Armenian masters set vitreous enamel into the sacred metalwork of Cilicia and after — from the 1293 Skevra reliquary to a 1691 Gospel cover, with a note on the words ardzn and mina.
Cloisonné is an enamelling technique in which thin metal strips are bent to the outline of a design, soldered to a metal surface, and the resulting cells — cloisons, French for “partitions” — are filled with metallic-oxide-coloured glass paste and fired. In Armenian sacred metalwork the same vitreous craft survives on documented objects: the silver Skevra reliquary of 1293, and a 1691 gilded-silver Gospel cover set with coloured enamels among them.
This is a piece about a technique and the graded objects that carry it, not a continuous “school.” The medieval Armenian record that is specifically about enamel is thin; what is firm are a handful of securely documented pieces and the precise meaning of the words used to name the craft. What follows defines cloisonné, points to where Armenian enamel can actually be seen, sets the famous Skevra reliquary in its true frame, and untangles the terms ardzn and mina.1“Cloisonné … consists of soldering to a metal surface delicate metal strips bent to the outline of a design and filling the resulting cellular spaces, called cloisons (French: partitions), with vitreous enamel paste.” — Encyclopædia Britannica, “Cloisonné.”
What is cloisonné enamel?
Cloisonné is an enamelling technique. Thin metal strips are bent to the outline of a design and soldered to a metal surface; the resulting cellular spaces are then filled with a vitreous — glass — enamel paste coloured by metallic oxides, and the piece is fired so the paste fuses into hard, coloured glass. The cells themselves are called cloisons, the French word for “partitions,” and they both contain the enamel and draw the design in fine metal line.2The cells that hold the enamel are “known as cloisons (French for ‘partitions’).” — The Metropolitan Museum of Art, object record (Asian Art), corroborating the Britannica definition.
The material at the centre of it all is vitreous enamel — a glass-like substance bonded to metal by heat. In the knowledge graph the technique, the material, and the process are distinct entities: cloisonné as a decorating technique, vitreous enamel as the material, and enamelling as the process. Holding them apart matters, because what travels across cultures is the technique, while the objects below are specific, dated things.3Wikidata grounding — cloisonné (technique) Q1102226; vitreous enamel (material) Q213371; enameling (process) Q49754281; all labels resolve and match.
Did Armenian craftsmen use enamel — and where can you see it?
The clearest documented Armenian enamel object is a Gospel cover. A thirteenth-century Cilician Gospel manuscript was given, in 1691, a new cover made at Kayseri by Astuatsatur Shahamir: gilded silver worked in repoussé and set with coloured enamels, jewels, and imitation gems. It is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 16.99 — a piece anyone can examine on the museum record, and the firmest place to see Armenian enamel in its sacred-metalwork setting.4“manuscript: 13th century; cover: dated 1691 … Cover: gilded silver repoussé, with colored enamels, jewels, and imitation gems. Accession Number: 16.99.” — The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Armenian Gospel with Silver Cover” (cover by Astuatsatur Shahamir, Kayseri, 1691).
That cover sits within a wider tradition. In the Cilician Armenian kingdom (1080–1375) masters set stones and enamels into the silver and gold of Gospel bindings and into the inlays of crosses — treasure-bindings in which the metalwork was itself an act of devotion. One cultural-institution source frames this work as not inferior to the best periods of Byzantine art; that comparison is best read as a single institution's appraisal rather than a settled art-historical ranking, but the tradition of richly worked sacred bindings is real and documented.5“the engraving of silver and gold, the modelling of these metals with precious stones in Gospel bindings or cross inlays, are not inferior to the works of the best periods of Byzantine art.” — Armenian Museum of Moscow and Culture of Nations, “Armenia in Medieval Cartography and Art” (cultural-institution editorial; a single-source framing).
What is the Skevra reliquary?
The silver triptych-reliquary called “Skevra” in the literature was made in 1293, commissioned by Bishop Constantine, abbot of Skevra monastery, in memory of the defenders of the Hromkla citadel, which had fallen in 1292. It is a court object of Cilician Armenia, and it is described in the scholarship as a silver triptych — a skladen — rather than as a piece of enamelwork. It is worth naming plainly: the reliquary is the great surviving Cilician court reliquary, but it is not the enamel exemplar; that role belongs to the 1691 Gospel cover above.6The silver triptych-reliquary called “Skevra” in the literature was made in 1293 on the commission of Bishop Constantine, abbot of Skevra monastery, in memory of the defenders of the Hromkla citadel, destroyed in 1292. — A. Ya. Kakovkin, “On the Question of the Skevra Triptych of 1293,” Vizantiyskiy Vremennik vol. 30 (Nauka, Moscow, 1969), pp. 195–204.
On the reliquary the Cilician Armenian king Hetum II is depicted in medallions, and the piece is now held in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. An earlier framing of the object as “filigree enamel” showing Balkan or Constantinople influence could not be corroborated in this round of checking and is not repeated here; the documented technique is silver, gilding, wood and embossing, and what is securely supported is the royal depiction and the Hermitage's holding.7The Skevra reliquary (1293, Cilician Armenia) depicts King Hetum II in medallions and is now in the State Hermitage Museum. — Helen C. Evans (ed.), Armenia: Art, Religion, and Trade in the Middle Ages (The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Yale, 2018), corroborating the Hermitage attribution.
Is it minakari, or ardzn? A note on the word
Names matter here, and they are easy to get wrong. The formal Armenian lexicographic term for vitreous enamel in metalwork is ardzn — a glass-like transparent mass used to coat and cover metal items and artistic objects — and the compound ardznapaki carries the same sense. This is the word the verified lexicographic record gives for the material itself.8“ardzn — a glass-like transparent mass used to coat/cover metal items and artistic objects.” — hy.Wiktionary, “ardzn,” citing S. Avagyan, Culinary Explanatory Dictionary (Yerevan, DALL, 2009). A single lexicographic source; to be confirmed against a print art-historical lexicon at a specialist pass.
Mina — and minakari for the enamel craft — is a Persian loanword used regionally for enamel. It is a real and recognisable term, but no scholarly source in this round centred “minakari” as the native art-historical name for medieval Armenian pieces; ardzn is the term that was verified. So the title's “Art of Mina” is honoured as the familiar regional name, while the article keeps ardzn as the term the record actually supports — a small distinction, but the kind that separates a documented craft from a marketing label.
Frequently asked questions
- What is cloisonné enamel?
- An enamelling technique in which thin metal strips are bent to the outline of a design and soldered to a metal surface, and the resulting cells — cloisons, French for “partitions” — are filled with vitreous (glass) enamel paste and fired until it fuses into hard, coloured glass.
- Where can you see Armenian enamel?
- The firmest documented example is a 1691 Kayseri Gospel cover of gilded-silver repoussé set with coloured enamels and jewels, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. 16.99). It belongs to a wider Cilician tradition of treasure-bindings in which stones and enamels were set into Gospel covers and crosses.
- Is the Skevra reliquary an enamel object?
- No — it is best understood as a silver triptych-reliquary of the Cilician court, made in 1293 and now in the State Hermitage Museum. An earlier description of it as “filigree enamel” could not be corroborated and is not asserted here. The documented enamel exemplar is the 1691 Gospel cover (Met, acc. 16.99), not the Skevra reliquary.
- Is it called minakari or ardzn?
- The verified Armenian lexicographic term for vitreous enamel is ardzn (also ardznapaki). Mina, and minakari for the craft, is a Persian loanword used regionally; no scholarly source in this run centred “minakari” as the native medieval Armenian term, so the article keeps ardzn as the supported word while acknowledging mina as the familiar regional name.