Thursday, May 21, 2020 at 7:30pm
Live on Zoom.  Livestreamed on NAASR's YouTube Channel - Armenian Studies

Hidden for centuries under whitewash, the paintings of the apse of Ani Cathedral, one of the most famous of Armenian churches, were barely known by scholars. Image software technology has now brought many more details of the composition to light, enough to identify the scene as a beautiful Vision of Ezekiel. It has also revealed an apse inscription on the south wall.

The images recovered from Ani Cathedral reveal some of the most elegant wall paintings known from medieval Armenia. The technology used to discover them is, moreover, broadly applicable and accessible; preliminary work with other whitewashed Armenian churches at Ani and in the vicinity promises to enlarge significantly the corpus of medieval Armenian art, bringing long-hidden masterpieces to light.

Christina Maranci is Arthur H. Dadian and Ara T. Oztemel Professor of Armenian Art and serves as Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Tufts University. She has published and lectured widely, having authored three previous monographs and over seventy essays, articles, and reviews, including the books Medieval Armenian Architecture: Constructions of Race and Nation (2001), Vigilant Powers: Three Churches of Early Medieval Armenia (2015), and The Art of Armenia: An Introduction (2019)

CO-SPONSORS
Dadian-Oztemel Chair in Armenian Art and Architecture, Tufts University
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)