Gohar Grigoryan | University of Fribourg (original) (raw)

Articles and Book Chapters by Gohar Grigoryan

in Approaches to Sacred Space(s) in Medieval Subcaucasian Cultures, ed. by M. Bacci, N. Chitishvi... more in Approaches to Sacred Space(s) in Medieval Subcaucasian Cultures, ed. by M. Bacci, N. Chitishvili, G. Grigoryan et al. (Rome: Viella, 2023), 100-137

in Staging the Ruler's Body in Medieval Cultures: A Comparative Perspective, ed. by M. Bacci, G. ... more in Staging the Ruler's Body in Medieval Cultures: A Comparative Perspective, ed. by M. Bacci, G. Grigoryan and M. Studer-Karlen (Turnhout: Brepols / Harvey Miller, 2023), 79-116

in Armenia through the Lens of Time. Multidisciplinary Studies in Honour of Theo Maarten van Lint (Leiden: Brill, 2023), 56-79.

The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg hosts a late medieval shell object with silver gilt deco... more The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg hosts a late medieval shell object with silver gilt decorations and a coin attached inside, whose Armenian inscription mentions a certain “Šahuk, servant of God” (Շահուկ ծառայ Աստուծոյ). Discovered in the late 19th century in the Ukrainian port city of Berdyansk, the object has attracted little scholarly attention until the 2000s, when it was included in several splendid exhibitions, all dedicated to the material culture of the so-called Pax Mongolica. The present article discusses the discovery and acquisition history of Šahuk’s shell and proceeds to analyse the emblematic use of similar shell tokens within the context of medieval pilgrimage practices, concluding with a general reconstruction of the Armenian pilgrimage tradition to Santiago de Compostela. It is with this renowned Galician site that I propose to associate the functional and historical contexts of Šahuk’s shell, the silver additions of which were likely produced in Cilician Armenia.

in Meanings and Functions of the Ruler's Image in the Mediterranean World (11th-15th cc.), ed. by M. Bacci and M. Studer-Karlen (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 33-57.

Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā: Journal of Middle East Medievalists 29: 217-255, 2021

Revue des Études Arméniennes 41 (2022): 631-632

Revue des Études Arméniennes 40 (2021): 85-99

Հայկական որմնանկարչություն․ գիտական հոդվածների և նյութերի ժողովածու, խմբ․ Կարեն Մաթևոսյան, էջ 286-288, Երևան, 2019

New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

in The Church of the Holy Cross of Ałt‛amar, ed. by Zaroui Pogossian & Edda Vardanyan, Leiden: Brill, 2019

Ałt‘amar est devenu, pour la postérité, le monument le plus célèbre d’un royaume du Vaspurakan, q... more Ałt‘amar est devenu, pour la postérité, le monument le plus célèbre d’un royaume du Vaspurakan, qui a existé, au sud de l’Arménie, entre 908 et 1021. Le Vaspurakan est consacré comme une entité territoriale distincte par le traité de 591, quand les conquêtes de Maurice entraînent la division de la province du Turuberan, en Tarawn, à l’Ouest, sous contrôle byzantin, et en Vaspurakan, à l’Est, sous domination sassanide.

L’étymologie de Vaspurakan est heureusement assez transparente pour laisser entrevoir par quelle évolution un banal adjectif en -akan, a pu acquérir un sens toponymique localisé dans cette région. Il est clair en effet que le radical est composé de l’épithète vas- signifiant « précieux, de haute noblesse », et de – pur-, reposant sur un thème indo-iranien, qui désigne le « fils », comme c’est le cas par exemple dans le nom du fleuve Brahmapoutre. Le Vaspurakan est donc la terre qui appartient en propre aux « fils de haute noblesse ».

Qui sont ces mystérieux personnages ? Tout simplement, les frères cadets ou les cousins du roi. Bref, tous les princes du sang, qu’il vaut mieux tenir à l’écart de la cour pour éviter les intrigues de palais, et autres rivalités fratricides. Movsēs Xorenac‘i nous apprend qu’à l’époque arsacide ces princes étaient consignés au Nord du lac de Van, près des pêcheries royales d’Aṙberani, et qu’ils ne pouvaient quitter ce secteur sans se rendre coupables de haute trahison. C’est ainsi que leur domaine princier fut qualifié de vaspurakan et que, par une sorte de métonymie, cet adjectif fut transformé en nom propre pour désigner des territoires de plus en plus étendus : au VIe siècle, l’Est du Turuberan puis, dès le VIIe siècle, presque tout le Sud-Est arménien, si l’on en croit la Géographie d’Anania Širakac‘i.

ISBN: 9789004400382
Publisher: Brill

Revue des Études Arméniennes 40 (2021): 263-296

by Antoine Borrut, Luke Yarbrough, Kader Smail, Liana Saif, Gohar Grigoryan, Michael Pregill, Aurélien Montel, Alberto Bardi, Javier Albarrán, and Sarah Slingluff, PhD

Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 27/1 (2020): 117-130, 2020

Le Muséon 133 (1-2): 87-139, 2020

This article provides the detailed descriptions of two Armenian manuscripts kept in two Swiss col... more This article provides the detailed descriptions of two Armenian manuscripts kept in two Swiss collections - Martin Bodmer Foundation in Cologny (Codex Bodmer 34) and Stiftsbibliothek of Saint Gall (No. 1513). The manuscript of the Bodmer Foundation is a 17th-century Gospel manuscript, which also comprises a hitherto unpublished version of Step'anos Siwnec'i's Commentary of Canon Tables, whose text and an annotated translation are given in the present article. Given the theological and historical importance of this manuscript's colophon, its complete translation is also provided.
The second manuscript is a handwritten copy of Joachim Schröder's Thesaurus Linguae Armenicae, copied in 1775 by a local monk at the Abbey of Saint Gall, where it continues to be preserved.

Venezia Arti 27 (2018): pp. 81-102, 2018

This essay deals with the emergence of scholarship on medieval Armenian artefacts with a particul... more This essay deals with the emergence of scholarship on medieval Armenian artefacts with a particular emphasis on the study of manuscripts and miniature painting, and covers the period from the mid-nineteenth century until the beginning of the twentieth century. While the title of this article may appear to stress the heritage of the Armenians as belonging to a ‘national culture’, it also alludes to some early approaches, according to which the origins of non-Armenian arts were also sought in medieval Armenia. Amidst the growing waves of contemporary imperialist and nationalist sentiments in the nineteenth-early twentieth centuries, the interest in Armenian miniature painting commenced almost simultaneously in four different intellectual milieus – Russian, German-speaking, French, and Armenian – each approaching the subject from its own perspective and motivated by issues specific to the given cultural-political realm.

in Armenia through the Lens of Time. Multidisciplinary Studies in Honour of Theo Maarten van Lint (Leiden: Brill, 2023), 56-79.

in Meanings and Functions of the Ruler's Image in the Mediterranean World (11th-15th cc.), ed. by M. Bacci and M. Studer-Karlen (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 33-57.

Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā: Journal of Middle East Medievalists 29: 217-255, 2021

Revue des Études Arméniennes 41 (2022): 631-632

Revue des Études Arméniennes 40 (2021): 85-99

New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

in The Church of the Holy Cross of Ałt‛amar, ed. by Zaroui Pogossian & Edda Vardanyan, Leiden: Brill, 2019

ISBN: 9789004400382
Publisher: Brill

Revue des Études Arméniennes 40 (2021): 263-296

by Antoine Borrut, Luke Yarbrough, Kader Smail, Liana Saif, Gohar Grigoryan, Michael Pregill, Aurélien Montel, Alberto Bardi, Javier Albarrán, and Sarah Slingluff, PhD

Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 27/1 (2020): 117-130, 2020

Le Muséon 133 (1-2): 87-139, 2020

Venezia Arti 27 (2018): pp. 81-102, 2018

AIEA Newsletter 57 (2023), pp. 182-185.

This book is the first complete bibliography of publications printed in the Mother See of Holy Et... more This book is the first complete bibliography of publications printed in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin from the foundation of the press by Catholicos Simēon Erewanc‘i in 1771 until the sovietization of Armenia in 1920. It includes detailed descriptions of 746 publications and periodicals, excluding the 'Ararat Monthly', content of which is available through several bibliographies published in the past decades. The bibliographical project was initiated by the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin to mark the 500th Anniversary of Armenian Printing and the 250th Anniversary of Printing in Armenia and was carried out between 2012 and 2013 in the National Library of Armenia and the Matenadaran Institute of Ancient Manuscripts.

eds. Michele Bacci, Natalia Chitishvili, Gohar Grigoryan, Thomas Kaffenberger, Manuela Studer-Karlen, Vesna Scepanovic, 2023

Analyzing some of the most remarkable images, buildings, and spaces in the Southern Caucasus betw... more Analyzing some of the most remarkable images, buildings, and spaces in the Southern Caucasus between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, this volume is an invitation to see Subcaucasian sacred spaces from the vantage point of their early devotees and beholders. These essays follow a series of case studies ranging from the division of space in churches to the liminal borders of these divisions, to pilgrimage dynamics,
images, and liturgy. The authors of this volume investigate the ways in which different socio-cultural groups living in the Caucasian area interacted not only through their artistic and architectural projects, but also conceptually and intellectually through divergent
theories and practices concerning living spaces, communal shared heritages, and the human as well as the supranatural spheres.

edited by Michele Bacci, Natalia Chitishvili, Gohar Grigoryan, Thomas Kaffenberger, Manuela Stude... more edited by Michele Bacci, Natalia Chitishvili, Gohar Grigoryan, Thomas Kaffenberger, Manuela Studer-Karlen, and Vesna Scepanovic

Analyzing some of the most remarkable images, buildings, and spaces in the Southern Caucasus between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, this volume is an invitation to see Subcaucasian sacred spaces from the vantage point of their early devotees and beholders. These essays follow a series of case studies ranging from the division of space in churches to the liminal borders of these divisions, to pilgrimage dynamics, images, and liturgy. The authors of this volume investigate the ways in which different socio-cultural groups living in the Caucasian area interacted not only through their artistic and architectural projects, but also conceptually and intellectually through divergent theories and practices concerning living spaces, communal shared heritages, and the human as well as the supranatural spheres.

edited by Michele Bacci, Gohar Grigoryan and Manuela Studer-Karlen

This book explores the viewing and sensorial contexts in which the bodies of kings and queens wer... more This book explores the viewing and sensorial contexts in which the bodies of kings and queens were involved in the premodern societies of Europe, Asia, and Africa, relying on a methodology that aims to overcoming the traditional boundaries between material studies, art history, political theory, and Repräsentationsgeschichte. More specifically, it investigates the multiple ways in which the ruler’s physical appearance was apprehended and invested with visual, metaphorical, and emotional associations, as well as the dynamics whereby such mise-en-scène devices either were inspired by or worked as sources of inspiration for textual and pictorial representations of royalty. The outcome is a multifaceted analysis of the multiple, imaginative, and terribly ambiguous ways in which, in past societies, the notion of a God-driven, eternal, and transpersonal royal power came to be associated with the material bodies of kings and queens, and of the impressive efforts made, in different cultures, to elude the conundrum of the latter’s weakness, transitoriness, and individual distinctiveness.

Brepols / Harvey Miller, 2023

Մայր Աթոռ Սուրբ Էջմիածնի հրատատակչություն 2021

lecture for East of Byzantium, Harvard University & Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art & Cultu... more lecture for East of Byzantium, Harvard University & Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art & Culture, 27.02.2024

public course, spring term 2024

ICMA-sponsored session: Medieval Ritual Representations: Model of or Model for? 112th CAA Annual... more ICMA-sponsored session: Medieval Ritual Representations: Model of or Model for?
112th CAA Annual Conference, Chicago, 14-17 February 2024

11 November 2023, Conference “Whose East? Defining, Challenging, and Exploring Eastern Christian ... more 11 November 2023, Conference “Whose East? Defining, Challenging, and Exploring Eastern Christian Art”, Index of Medieval Art, Princeton University
https://ima.princeton.edu/conferences/

International conference, 6-7 November 2023, University of Fribourg

https://www.unifr.ch/mediaevum/fr/manifestation/spaces,landscapes-and-social-lives.html

16 September 2023, Yerevan, Workshop on Armenian medieval sculpture (12th-14th centuries)

22-23 March 2013, Մատենադարանի երիտասարդ գիտաշխատողների առաջին գիտաժողով / The First Conference o... more 22-23 March 2013, Մատենադարանի երիտասարդ գիտաշխատողների առաջին գիտաժողով / The First Conference of Young Researchers in Armenian Studies, Matenadaran Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, Yerevan

XV General Conference AIEA, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 2-4 September 2021

Yovhannēs Pluz Erznkac‛i is one of the key authors whose works offer us precious glimpses into th... more Yovhannēs Pluz Erznkac‛i is one of the key authors whose works offer us precious glimpses into the spiritual culture and aesthetic thinking of 13th-century Armenia. This paper will present a translation of select chapters from Erznkac‛i’s sermons and homilies, in which he uses artistic images for comparative and exegetical purposes. Although the author does not specify his sources – and, in fact, draws comparisons to painted images in figurative language aimed at enhancing and better explaining the principal themes of his speeches – one can detect in these 13th-century writings many elements of aesthetic thinking with an origin in the Greek milieu. The selected excerpts will show that Erznkac‛i’s interpretations come close to both the Platonic and Aristotelian concepts of mimesis – although in a derivative way, drawing upon these concepts as they were known to and adapted by the Church Fathers. Closely following earlier Christian authors, Erznkac‛i often uses examples involving artistic portraiture as a means of explaining one of the principal tenets of medieval Christian piety – the imitation of God – whereby the believer, being created in God’s image and likeness (Gen. 1:26), could achieve the fulfilment of the divine image by conducting himself in imitation of God. This principle was of particular relevance to kings, since they were supposed to imitate not only the divine image but also the 'divine royal image' – that is, the image of the Heavenly King – for they were considered to be the earthly counterparts of Christ. This analogy – omnipresent in many medieval Christian societies – shaped also Cilician Armenian political theology, to which Erznkac‛i himself greatly contributed. The politics of Cilician royal portraiture reflected this theology in many ways. Therefore, the translated excerpts from Erznkac‛i’s sermons, emphasizing the aesthetics and reception of rulers’ images, might be evocative in helping to disclose the philosophical and theological grounds of artistic practices in medieval Armenia.