Mesrop Mashtots, Creator of the Armenian Alphabet

The painting “Mesrop Mashtots, Creator of the Armenian Alphabet” by the artist Francesco Maggiotto (1750–1805).

Mesrop Mashtots was an Armenian scholar and linguist, the creator of the Armenian alphabet, the founder of Armenian literature and writing, of the national school and of educational thought, an enlightener, missionary, translator of the Bible, theologian, and a saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church. He was born in 362 in Taron, died on 17 February 440 in Vagharshapat and is buried in Oshakan.

The painting shows a bearded old man with a halo, in a dark monastic robe. Beside him a winged child holds a tablet with letters, and letters also appear in the light on the old man’s chest. Below are books and an inkwell with a quill; above, two angels in the clouds.