Passage of the Red Sea

The miniature of the Passage of the Red Sea in the Ritual of 1266(1) is also the first representation of the theme in Armenian art(2) . According to the medieval canon, the narration evolves from left to right in the illustration. Several obligatory details from the iconography of the 9th-12th-century Byzantine miniatures passed into Roslin's composition: a) allocation of the refugee group at the top, and the army of the Egyptians at the bottom; b) placing Pharaoh's figure at the head of the army and his death in the whirlpool; c) Moses appearing in the rearguard of the refugees; d) representation of Moses as a beardless young man.
The affinity with the 12th-13th-century Byzantine psalters is even greater. Such commonness should be referred to the representation of the Hebrews. But the Egyptian cavalry in the Armenian miniature attack in a dense military formation as in the same illustrations of the Exultet Rolls, made in Italy in the 11th-13th centuries. Definite qualitative innovations find place in Roslin's creation along with this. Images of Mariam and her companions noticeably differ from their representations in Byzantine monuments. Roslin depicted them playing and singing only. No doubt, reduction in their number to two is Roslin's innovation, a sort of 'generalization' of the group of companions.
The angel, rushing down the skies with an unsheathed sword in the hand as if summons to struggle, imparting the piece a greater intensity. The sword in the angel's hand and its treatment are likewise the idea of the Cilician master, who might be inspired by some piece on a completely different theme. It is appropriate to recall here the folio, adorned with the scenes of the Last Judgement from the Psalter of ca. 1230-1240, decorated by Roslin's contemporary, miniaturist William de Brailes(3) . It is not excluded that among the books brought by the Crusaders to the East and in particular to Cilicia, Roslin had seen some English manuscript with the mentioned detail.
The Cilician Armenians called Egypt 'the Pharaoh's house'. In the year when the Egyptians invaded Cilicia (the tragic 1266), turning to the biblical story, Roslin sought to raise the spirit of his compatriots and inspire hope in them that with the help of God, the Mameluks will be ruined, as it happened to the army of Pharaoh in the waters of the Red Sea. Without any doubt, the given biblical subject-matter had an allegoric meaning for Cilician miniature-painters.