Categories: CultureInteresting

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Wore Armenian Apparel

French writer, thinker and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau preferred to wear Armenian clothes. In the painting from the public library of the University of Geneva Rousseau is captured in an Armenian costume.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is buried in the commune of Ermenonville in northern France. For the first time the castle of Ermenonville was mentioned in 9th century when the monastery was founded by an Armenian priest named Irminjon.

Rousseau himself was a part of the ancient Armenian religious sect of Paulicians. It is worth noting that the symbol of the French Revolution was the Phrygian cap which was the sign of Hemshin Armenians as well.

French documentary film “Le manteau arménien de Jean-Jacques Rousseau” (“The Armenian coat of Jean-Jacques Rousseau”), released in July 2012, shows the modernity and relevance of the writer’s thought.

Source: Ara Mirzoyan

Jean-Jacques Rousseau portrayed in Armenian costume, Public and University Library, Geneva. From a copy attributed to Gérard.
Vigen Avetisyan

Recent Posts

Abandoned by an Ally: The French Armenian Legion in Cilicia and the Road to the Smyrna Catastrophe

How a promise made to genocide survivors was traded away for peace with Ankara —…

2 days ago

The Vilgort Cup: A Silver Masterpiece of Cilician Armenia (c. 1150–1159 A.D.)

A Fragment That Traveled Across Continents The gilt-silver medallion shown above — two richly dressed…

4 days ago

Hannibal and Artaxias the Great: The Carthaginian General Who Helped Build the “Armenian Carthage”

Few episodes in ancient Armenian history capture the imagination quite like the tradition that Hannibal…

1 week ago

The Priestess of the Kingdom of Van: A 9th-Century BC Bronze Figurine in the British Museum

Five angles of one small bronze figure — and what emerges is not an abstract…

3 weeks ago

The Winged Sun and the Armenian Tiara: Royal Symbolism of the Orontid (Yervanduni) Kingdom of Commagene, 163 BC – 72 AD

Introduction Among the successor states that emerged from the fragmentation of the Achaemenid-derived Orontid (Armenian:…

3 weeks ago

A Bronze Age Vessel from Gardman: Solar Symbolism, the Sun-Cross, and the Sacred Landscape of Ancient Armenia

Article based on the explanations and interpretive observations of Angela Terian, with additional archaeological and…

3 weeks ago