The Alex and Marie Manoogian Museum in Michigan holds the largest and most representative gathering of Armenian art and artifacts outside Armenia, including illuminated manuscripts, early printed books, rugs and carpets, sacred vessels and vestments, textiles and embroidery, ceramics, metalwork, paintings, coins, and objects from the ancient kingdom of Urartu. A Legacy of Armenian Treasures features more than 160 of the museum's most vital and beautiful pieces, each reproduced in full color and accompanied by a detailed entry. Essays by nine scholars of Armenian art and artifacts shed light not only on the artistic significance of these objects but on their cultural context as well."For centuries Armenia did not exist as an independent state, yet its clerics, poets, artists, and musicians maintained and cultivated a cultural heritage of extraordinary beauty. A people can survive, even thrive, under alien imperial powers, if its sense of identity is continued. Here we see how manuscript illuminators, church builders, and writers carried on the idea of Armenian civilization through a millennium. This exquisite volume brings to us a vivid portrait of a people whom no empire was able to extinguish. The Manoogian Museum and this beautiful book reveal a glorious, gorgeous past of a determined people." —Ronald Grigor Suny, University of Michigan
