This painting reflects the enormous divergence between the two styles of early Armenian illuminated manuscripts art. According to the Byzantine tradition, the prophet Moses is always represented as a young prophet standing to the right side of Jesus Christ. The prophet Elijah is always represented as an old prophet standing at the left side of Jesus Christ.  In this painting it is quite the opposite. The positions and places of both prophets  are just the contrary, they contradict the Byzantine tradition.

 

Painting B needs more elaboration: This religious theme of the Presentation of Jesus the Child to the Temple was introduced for the first time in  early Christian art in the 5^th century. There are numerous, various and contradictory versions and adaptations of this scene through out the centuries of illuminated manuscripts painting. Some paintings’ central focus is Jesus, others  is the Presentation of Jesus the Child, others is Simeon holding Jesus the Child, while many other miniatures concentrated  on the Presentation brief ceremony itself but in a very different context and places. Some miniatures would place the Presentation outside the Temple, others would locate the event at the door of the Temple, while a third group of miniatures will place the Presentation event inside the Temple. Each miniature representation of the event has its own meaning, symbol an religious message ad infinitum. Most certainly, one would argue that all these various discrepancies are subject to a lengthy debate. In the miniature B (above), the primordial focus is based upon one subject: The first moment Simeon takes Jesus the child in his arms. This is a powerful statement. This is the main theme of the painting, not the presentation of the Child Jesus to the Temple. One of  the most predominant traits or characteristic essence of this picture is the moment when Simeon takes  Jesus the Child in his arms.  This is the very subject of this painting. In other versions, the predominant trait and center of importance  is the presentation to the temple. Years later, the symbol and meaning of all those miniatures became more critical. In later miniatures, every single trait or object depicted in a painting reflected many and different meanings and conveyed different messages, especially when Armenian artists began to focus on the background of the miniatures where the Altar began to occupy a place of predominance and religious importance in an artwork. The altar began to acquire and represent a very particular, extremely important and a special significance in the miniatures paintings.

Byzantine emperor Constantine the Great, the first Christian Emperor in the history of Christianity and his mother Helen who converted him to Christianity are intentionally presented in this painting in a solemn and serene manner. According to an early Christian legend, Helen and Byzantine legions were searching for years  for  the Holy Cross. Coincidentally, Helene found the Holy Cross on her way to Our’ Shalaym (Jerusalem.) Thus, the legend became the theme and the basis for this painting and cemented itself as an accountable iconographic historical foundation for future illuminated manuscripts . What is so peculiar about this miniature is the fact that, the emperor Constantine and his mother Helene are placed around a tree known as “Tree of Wisdom” or “Tree of Knowledge” instead of the Holy Cross as both of them used to appear in all the other miniatures. There is an avant-garde theory that explains the replacing of the Holy Cross by the “Tree of Knowledge”. Supporters of this theory claim that the artist of this painting intentionally replaced the cross with the tree, simply because Constantine and Helene were not Saints, Disciples or Apostles. Only those who were directly blessed by Jesus Christ and of course much much later, Armenian martyrs and bishops were worthy  and or deserved to be placed around the Holy Cross or surround it. The artist of this painting did not complete it. This is an unfinished painting.