In the age-old history of Armenian miniature painting, Sargis Pitsak
is one of the most productive artists. About forty illustrated manuscripts attributed to
him, have survived. Pitsak is also known to have been a scribe. His name is first
mentioned in a manuscript copied in 1301; in that manuscript, Pitsak's father, Grigor,
wishes his son a long life. Sargis worked in different towns of Cilicia, such as Sis,
Skevra, Drazark, Kopitar and elsewhere. His fame spread not only throughout Cilicia, but
also in Greater and Lesser Armenia in Sebastia, Taron, land of Ararat, Akhtamar.
Pitsak copied and illustrated manuscripts on the request of king Levon IV, queen Mariun,
the Catholicos Hakob Klayetsi, bishop Stepanos of Sebastia, friar Andreas from Kosh, a
village of Airarat, the miniaturist Avag and others. Living during the difficult period of
the downfall of the Cilician kingdom, when epidemics often followed wars, Pitsak depicted
miracles and scenes of healing in the margins and within the text itself ("Gospel
referring to Christ's healing practice"). He portrayed patients, blinds, paralytics,
demoniacs, lepers. Pitsak has also left miniatures presenting his contemporaries: the
Catholicos Hakob Klayetsi together with his self-portrait and the evangelist Matthew, the
portrait of queen Mariun in the "Entry into Jerusalem", king Levon as a judge,
etc. In the Sharaknots (hymnal) illustrated by him, Pitsak has drawn pictures of Nerses
Shnorhali and other poets, in the margins. Sargis Pitsak's paintings are characterized not
only by motifs developed in Cilician miniature art, but also by the somewhat flatness of
miniature painting in Greater and Lesser Armenia; plain, pure colours and some traits of
the iconography and art of the Cappadocian frescoes. There is also a remote resemblance of
Gothic miniature art (e.g. "Adam and Eve", "The Holy Trinity",
"Self-portrait" in the 1338 Bible, portraits of kings, shepherds and soldiers in
the Christological cycle and in the margins).According to facts available, Pitsak was
familiar with Toros Roslin's art and he, himself, completed the illustration of a famous
XIII c. Gospel (Matenadaran, Cod. 7651), in which some of the miniatures reflect Roslin's
influence. In Sargis Pitsak's art there are definite principles which persisted in the
artist's creations throughout his life and conferred an inimitable style to his miniature
painting. His human figures seem to have been taken from life, with distinct attitudes and
costumes, figures for whom the artist elaborated prototypes for each one separately: the
aged, children, shepherds, paralytics, angels, women, princes and kings. These figures
were transferred, using the same attitude, from one manuscript to another, from populous
paintings to margins and vice versa. Movements are angular, eastern-ritual, the
proportions of the human body are reduced. Objects, architecture and furniture are
transformed into geometric symbolic ornaments. A distinct colour-range characterizes
Sargis Pitsak's miniature painting: the main colours red, blue and green are
applied against a background which is either parchment or gold. Sometimes he used pink,
silver and violet tints. These colours revive the mixture of yellow and white. They seem
to form a rainbow with the gold background, which is connected with the divine light, with
its 'radiance'. The miniatures have firm geometric proportions; they are drawn up either
round the main axis or in counterbalancing forms.