The Armenian carpet creates the sacred space of the Enthroned Madonna.Domenico Ghirlandaio, Enthrone
The Armenian carpet creates the sacred space of the Enthroned Madonna. Domenico Ghirlandaio, Enthroned Madonna, Middle of 15th century. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Primary sources note the presence of a strong and vibrant Armenian community in Italy during the Middle Ages. More than thirty Armenian monasteries are documented as having been established throughout Italy from the 13th to the 15th centuries when the ties with the Kingdom of Armenia and its vital Mediterranean ports were at their peak. The number of Armenian saints, such as Saint Miniato of Florence and Saint Blaise of Sebastia, who are included in Italian hagiography and lists of saints, is another evidence of the extensive interaction between Armenia and Italy. These close cultural ties are also reflected in the genetic composition of the modern Italians. A new paper in the Science magazine by Hellenthal et al. (2014) reveals worldwide human admixture history over the past 4000 years that has been compiled in a genetic Atlas of human admixture history. Remarkably, the result reveals extremely significant Armenian genetic traces among the Italian people, standing at around 25% (or to be specific, a sum total of 24.9%), that is to say, remarkably, one out of four modern Italians has Armenian genetic admixture. Source: Nazaryan, G. (2016, March 21). ARMENO-ITALIAN CLOSE TIES REFLECTED IN HISTORY, CULTURE AND GENES [Facebook post]. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/zno924d -- source link