Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici

Corso di Archeologia e storia dell'arte-Tutela e valorizzazione LM89-LM2 Cattedra di storia dell'arte medievale in Europa e nell'area del Mediterraneo.
Mercoledì 16 dicembre 2020, ore 15 conferenza online:
"La miniatura armena del Regno di Cilicia (1198-1375), tra Oriente e Occidente"
Dott.ssa Rachele Zanone (PhD) - Università degli Studi Roma Tre

Link per il collegamento https://unitus.zoom.us/j/98946961953-ID riunione: 989 4696 1953

The Armenian manuscripts of the Vaspurakan School represent an illuminated heritage of inestimable value, because of the originality of the iconographies and the unique style with which they are represented. In fact the peculiarity of being very often inspired by the apocryphal Gospels is a characterizing aspect of this school of miniature, which reproduces, wholly or partially, subjects derived from the rich repertoire of apocryphal stories about the life of Christ. In this paper I will analyse a series of case studies or miniatures whose iconography was greatly influenced by this type of text. In particular, the study focuses on the relationship between the images and the sources taken as a reference used by the artists to create the miniatures. At the same time, I would highlight the iconographic analysis of some specific figurative details and their correct interpretation, taking into account the influences derived from the Armenian cultural traditions of the Vaspurakan region.

This article aims to present part of the research I conducted within the ERC project, Armenia Entangled: Connectivity and Cultural Encounters in Medieval Eurasia 9th-14th Centuries at the University of Florence.
My topic of investigation for the ArmEn project is to analyse the portraits of Armenian merchants in the miniatures of medieval manuscripts and to place them in a broader Eurasian context.
A focal point of the research is devoted to the analysis of the clothes worn by these merchants, which are investigated through an iconographic study and comparison with Byzantine and Arab illuminations with the same subject. Therefore, the aim of the article will be to outline the ongoing research by showing some examples of manuscripts containing fascinating portraits of Armenian merchants.

The miniatures by artist Yovsian are often published in the main manuals of Armenian miniature, but his manuscripts has not yet been the object of a systematic study from an iconographic point of view, especially as regards the sources used for the figurative transposition of the subjects. The Yovsian’s manuscripts showing peculiar traits in terms of the originality of the iconographies represented and the stylistic quality of the miniatures. The study focuses on one of the miniatures contained in the manuscripts Mat. 4806 (foll. 9v and 10r) and Mat. 4818 (foll. 4v and 5r), depicting the Council of Jewish Priest, an unknown representation, that differs from the typology of the canonical scenes and enriching the story of the Christ’s Passion with secondary ones.
The analysis of the mentioned miniature is focused on two points: finding the sources that inspired the artist for the creation of his miniature; highlighting the iconographic peculiarities of these scenes. These new iconographies show original episodes in which the Jews are the depicted as protagonists of particular activities linked to the condemnation of Christ. The Council’s miniature is depicted in full page, has a horizontal way and it develops in two closed and linked pages, which however represents a unique episode. The scene is strictly connected with the inscriptions, which provide important information not only on the episode depicted, but also on the characters portrayed, and temporal indications that allow us to identify which council was represented by the artist. In fact, in the story of the Christ’s Passion, described by the Synoptic Gospels, there are three alternating moments during which the Jews hold the counsel in order to conspire against Christ. An interesting and original peculiarity of the scene on the iconographic level is given by the haloes around the heads of the Jews.