1PZ2a7xaD

element contributing to the re-Armenization of the church.
Thus the two parts of the cathedral, dating from different
epochs and representing various stylistic features had been
in a way unified by the intangible yet clearly present Oriental
‘spirit’.
The Mosaics of Józef Mehoffer
The Archbishop, as has been already mentioned, was personally
involved in every issue pertaining to the renovation
of his cathedral, all the more to its decoration, which had to
be of a becoming quality and style. Around 1906 he commissioned
Józef Mehoffer (1869–1946), a renowned Polish
artist and Professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow,
to prepare designs for mural decorations for the cathedral’ s
interior. Mehoffer took the commission very seriously.
He undertook detailed studies of Armenian illuminated
manuscripts (the cathedral Chapter owned a splendid
12 th -century example of such a manuscript, the so-called
Skevra Gospels, known also as the ‘Lvov Gospels’) and even
travelled to the island of San Lazzaro in Venice to consult
the rich manuscript library of the Mekhitharist monastery
there; he repeatedly studied the mosaics of Ravenna and
Venice, and also saw the mosaics of Palermo and Monreale
in Sicily. In the spring of 1907, as a result of those travels
and studies, he produced designs for mural paintings that
would entirely cover the walls of the old part of the cathedral,
maintained in a clearly Early Christian or Byzantine,
even Ravennian style, inspired by the miniatures of the said
Armenian manuscripts [Figs 60–76].
Still before he employed them in his designs, Mehoffer’
s fascination with Armenian manuscript illuminations
found expression in travel reports written by the painter
in letters to his wife. On the pages of his sketchbooks he
noted (with evident pleasure) the details present in Armenian
miniatures and ideas of compositional or iconographic
solutions, which he was later to employ in the
cathedral designs. The final design shows the longitudinal
section of the cathedral’ s interior along its east–west axis,
depicting the planned decoration to the tiniest detail. Presented
are the interior elevations of the northern wall of
the nave and northern aisle, the northern end wall of the
transept and a section through the dome and the apse at
the end of the nave. Partially visible is also the vaulting
on the northern aisle. On the whole, this colourful decoration
of ornamental character is dominated by various
hues of saturated greens, reds, as well as gold. In the dome
are shown the Twelve Apostles, whereas among the ornamental
decoration on the walls of the aisle and transept
several further figurative representations are visible. The
design was accompanied by a cost estimate and Mehoffer’ s
written commentary which explained elements not easily
distinguishable in the painted design. The decoration was
to be executed partly in mosaic and partly in fresco. The
majority of the walls were to be painted whereas the more
expensive but also the more durable mosaic was reserved
for the decoration of the northern and southern transept
walls, the drum (but not the dome) and the apse. The remaining
surfaces were to be executed in fresco. The Archbishop’
s negotiations with Mehoffer protracted, possibly
due to financial shortcomings on the side of the cathedral
chapter. Finally, in 1908 a generous donor was found,
who committed himself to cover the cost of the decoration,
however, on condition that it was executed entirely
in mosaic. This significant change would result in considerable
modifications to the initial project. But before any
of them had been introduced the donor withdrew, or the
money reserved for he mosaic had been spent on other
expenditures and the Archbishop terminated his dealings
with the artist for the reason that he lacked funds to see
the project through. In search of a less expensive artist,
the Archbishop invited four young painters to take part
in a closed competition for the cathedral’ s decoration in
the spring of 1910. The participants were: Jan Bukowski,
Karol Maszkowski, Antoni Procajłowicz [Fig. 77] and
Karol Frycz, whose designs won but were not executed.
As a result Teodorowicz returned to the original design
of Mehoffer, since it remained unmatched by any of the
competition projects. The first documented attempts at renewing
negotiations with Mehoffer, terminated a year before,
dated from November 1910. The artist was to resume
work, starting with a detailed design for the dome. Within
the scope of this new agreement between Mehoffer and the
Archbishop, the years 1912–1913 saw only a tiny part of
the original, monumental project of 1907 realised: the mosaics
in the dome (Holy Trinity), in the drum (floral and
geometrical ornaments) and pendentives (personification
of Faith repeated four times), as well as on the vaulting
over the arms of the transept (geometrical pattern with
fantastic ‘birds of Paradise’, executed only at a later date,
c. 1928; their authorship is unknown, though maybe some
of Mehoffer sketches were used). In 1914 the First World
War broke out and afterwards Mehoffer did not respond
to repeated invitations from the Archbishop to continue
work on the project – a situation which may be explained
by the artist’ s reluctance to pursue such complicated negotiations.
At the beginning of 1912 or perhaps still at the end of
the previous year the execution of Mehoffer’ s design was
entrusted with the Venetian mosaic workshop of Angelo
Gianese. In February of 1912 the cartoons prepared by Me-
456