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PRESS RELEASE
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)
395 Concord Ave.
Belmont, MA 02478
Tel.: 617-489-1610
E-mail: [email protected]
JAMES RUSSELL TO SPEAK at naasr ON `The Animal Style in Art: From
Scythia to Aghtamar to Modern Russian Literature'
Dr. James R. Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at
Harvard University, will give an illustrated lecture entitled `The
Animal Style in Art: From Scythia to Aght'amar to Modern Russian
Literature,' on Thursday, May 30, 2013, at 7:30 p.m. at the National
Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), 395 Concord
Avenue, Belmont, MA. The lecture will
be given in honor of the 90th birthday of Prof. Nina G. Garsoian.
The Church of the Holy Cross on Aght`amar island in Lake Van, Armenia,
built in AD 920, famously features a spectacular bas-relief sculptural
program on its outer walls, where we find antic animals strikingly
reminiscent of images from Scythian art, wrought in gold, of the
ancient world. The impression one takes away of Scythian art is of
the pleasure of movement, the beauty of the kinetic body. And if one
recalls that much of this art was meant to be portable, often to adorn
a rider and his mount, it is understandable that it celebrated the
galloping horse, the swooping falcon, the hare or stag in full flight.
If the Animal Style, which endured for many centuries past
the
Classical age, found its way from gold to stone, with perhaps a quick
stopover in Sasanian Iran, it is surely at home in Armenia. Tracing
the imagery of Scythia and Aght`amar's Church of the Holy Cross and
following it into Russian art and literature, Prof. James R. Russell
will pursue the meanings and repercussions of this pattern of animal
imagery, in visual art and in the written word.
James R. Russell has been the Mashtots Professor of
Armenian Studies at Harvard University since 1992. His books include
Bosphorus Nights: The Complete Lyric Poems of Bedros Tourian, Armenian
and Iranian Studies, The Book of Flowers, An Armenian Epic: The Heroes
of Kasht, Zoroastrianism in Armenia, and Hovhannes Tlkurantsi and the
Medieval Armenian Lyric Tradition.
This lecture is presented in honor of the 90th birthday of
Prof. Nina G. Garsoian. Garsoian received her BA from Bryn Mawr
College 1943 and her MA and PhD from Columbia University in 1946 and
1958 in Byzantine, Near Eastern, and Armenian History. Garsoian was
the first female dean of the Graduate School at Princeton University
and a two-term trustee of the Ford Foundation. Currently, she is
Avedissian Professor Emerita of Armenian
History and Civilization at Columbia University and is the director of
the
Revue des Etudes Armeniennes in Paris.
More information about this program may be had by calling
617-489-1610, faxing 617-484-1759, e-mailing [email protected], or writing
to NAASR,
395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.
Belmont, MA
May 13, 2013
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)
395 Concord Ave.
Belmont, MA 02478
Tel.: 617-489-1610
E-mail: [email protected]
JAMES RUSSELL TO SPEAK at naasr ON `The Animal Style in Art: From
Scythia to Aghtamar to Modern Russian Literature'
Dr. James R. Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at
Harvard University, will give an illustrated lecture entitled `The
Animal Style in Art: From Scythia to Aght'amar to Modern Russian
Literature,' on Thursday, May 30, 2013, at 7:30 p.m. at the National
Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), 395 Concord
Avenue, Belmont, MA. The lecture will
be given in honor of the 90th birthday of Prof. Nina G. Garsoian.
The Church of the Holy Cross on Aght`amar island in Lake Van, Armenia,
built in AD 920, famously features a spectacular bas-relief sculptural
program on its outer walls, where we find antic animals strikingly
reminiscent of images from Scythian art, wrought in gold, of the
ancient world. The impression one takes away of Scythian art is of
the pleasure of movement, the beauty of the kinetic body. And if one
recalls that much of this art was meant to be portable, often to adorn
a rider and his mount, it is understandable that it celebrated the
galloping horse, the swooping falcon, the hare or stag in full flight.
If the Animal Style, which endured for many centuries past
the
Classical age, found its way from gold to stone, with perhaps a quick
stopover in Sasanian Iran, it is surely at home in Armenia. Tracing
the imagery of Scythia and Aght`amar's Church of the Holy Cross and
following it into Russian art and literature, Prof. James R. Russell
will pursue the meanings and repercussions of this pattern of animal
imagery, in visual art and in the written word.
James R. Russell has been the Mashtots Professor of
Armenian Studies at Harvard University since 1992. His books include
Bosphorus Nights: The Complete Lyric Poems of Bedros Tourian, Armenian
and Iranian Studies, The Book of Flowers, An Armenian Epic: The Heroes
of Kasht, Zoroastrianism in Armenia, and Hovhannes Tlkurantsi and the
Medieval Armenian Lyric Tradition.
This lecture is presented in honor of the 90th birthday of
Prof. Nina G. Garsoian. Garsoian received her BA from Bryn Mawr
College 1943 and her MA and PhD from Columbia University in 1946 and
1958 in Byzantine, Near Eastern, and Armenian History. Garsoian was
the first female dean of the Graduate School at Princeton University
and a two-term trustee of the Ford Foundation. Currently, she is
Avedissian Professor Emerita of Armenian
History and Civilization at Columbia University and is the director of
the
Revue des Etudes Armeniennes in Paris.
More information about this program may be had by calling
617-489-1610, faxing 617-484-1759, e-mailing [email protected], or writing
to NAASR,
395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.
Belmont, MA
May 13, 2013