Art History

What is the place of Armenian arts and culture within the Late Antique Mediterranean space? Since the eighteenth century, scholars have attempted to provide answers to this thorny question. In doing so, researchers from Western Europe and Russia have often approached Armenia from a colonial or orientalist perspective, marginalizing or neglecting elements of its material and literary cultures. Armenia was thus presented, amongst others, as a bridge between the "Persian East" and the "Byzantine West". Conversely, Armenian scholars have defended the uniqueness and originality of what became their "national" heritage. Both perspectives, ultimately, contributed to the isolation of Armenian arts and culture. Recent investigations, however, highlight the necessity of reconsidering Armenian material and literary cultures within the broader Mediterranean area and emphasize the Late Antique cultural exchanges and interactions rather than specific cultures. Furthermore, the continuous contacts with other cultures of Western Asia cannot be neglected either. The present conference aims to tackle these issues in two distinctive ways: on the one hand, by recontextualizing of the historiographical frameworks from the nineteenth to the twentieth century; on the other hand, by introducing new perspectives that examine the place of Armenia within the Late Antique world through the analysis of its material, visual, literary, and immaterial heritage. Our aim is to bring together scholars from different fields of studies, including, but not limited to, art history, history, archaeology, religious studies, as well as philology. Papers proposing a transdisciplinary approach-including collaborative contributions-are warmly welcome. At the same time, we are interested in papers exploring a larger framework. The conference is sponsored by the Center for Early Medieval Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, which will provide partial or complete funding of travel expenses as well as full accommodation.

What is the place of Armenian arts and culture within the Late Antique Mediterranean space? Since the eighteenth century, scholars have attempted to provide answers to this thorny question. In doing so, researchers from Western Europe and Russia have often approached Armenia from a colonial or orientalist perspective, marginalizing or neglecting elements of its material and literary cultures. Armenia was thus presented, amongst others, as a bridge between the "Persian East" and the "Byzantine West". Conversely, Armenian scholars have defended the uniqueness and originality of what became their "national" heritage. Both perspectives, ultimately, contributed to the isolation of Armenian arts and culture. Recent investigations, however, highlight the necessity of reconsidering Armenian material and literary cultures within the broader Mediterranean area and emphasize the Late Antique cultural exchanges and interactions rather than specific cultures. Furthermore, the continuous contacts with other cultures of Western Asia cannot be neglected either. The present conference aims to tackle these issues in two distinctive ways: on the one hand, by recontextualizing of the historiographical frameworks from the nineteenth to the twentieth century; on the other hand, by introducing new perspectives that examine the place of Armenia within the Late Antique world through the analysis of its material, visual, literary, and immaterial heritage. Our aim is to bring together scholars from different fields of studies, including, but not limited to, art history, history, archaeology, religious studies, as well as philology. Papers proposing a transdisciplinary approach-including collaborative contributions-are warmly welcome. At the same time, we are interested in papers exploring a larger framework. The conference is sponsored by the Center for Early Medieval Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, which will provide partial or complete funding of travel expenses as well as full accommodation.

L’Ottocento costituì per Ravenna un periodo di profondi cambiamenti, contrassegnato da due fondamentali eventi politici di ampia portata, il Congresso di Vienna (1814-1815) – in seguito al quale la città fu riassegnata allo Stato Pontificio – e l’Unità d’Italia (1861). Dall’inizio del secolo, infatti, Ravenna, ormai un’impoverita città di provincia, cercò di riappropriarsi di un ruolo di primo piano promuovendo il suo glorioso passato tardoantico, rappresentato dai suoi monumenti paleocristiani.
Il libro si propone di descrivere questo processo, le sue ragioni e le sue conseguenze, per capire come abbia contribuito alla creazione di una nuova identità per Ravenna, ricostruendo il dialogo tra le immagini della città emerse dalla storiografia artistica occidentale e dai racconti di viaggio, e la promozione di iniziative locali. In ultima istanza, incrociando la storia della storia dell’arte e l’uso politico dei restauri, questo volume mostra come il “mito bizantino” di Ravenna fu inventato e plasmato tra il 1814 e il 1914.

cultural interactions in the medieval subcaucasian region: historiographical and art-historical perspectives vol. i the othering gaze: imperialism, colonialism, and orientalism in studies on medieval art in the southern caucasus (1801-1991) cultural interactions in the medieval subcaucasian region: historiographical and art-historical perspectives vol. i

Clash of Titans. Venturi, Kondakov, and the Staging of Late Medieval Venetian Painting in the History of Art History -The emergence of nineteenth-and twentieth-century European nationalisms led the continents' old powers to exploit art history -only then emerging as a discrete discipline -in their broader nation-building strategies. Separate countries' multifaceted historical traditions brought the development of different artistic paths and, consequently, distinct interpretations of the same artistic phenomena. This article presents an example of this dynamic by concentrating on the divergent views of late medieval Venetian painting proposed in the early twentieth century by two giants of art history, Adolfo Venturi and Nikodim Pavlovich Kondakov. By contextualizing their opposing ideas in the wider debate on Giotto and fourteenth-century Italian art, this study ultimately reveals the close connections between the two scholars' theoretical positions and the cultural propaganda of their respective states, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Russian Empire.